From underneath half a dozen blankets, I am dreaming of the summertime when all this British snow has melted away and we can finally enjoy the sunshine again. That's right, I'm thinking about going on holiday!

Some people love to go some place that is simply HOT so they can laze around on a beach or even hit up some water sports. Other people love to explore cities in countries they've never been to before. And then let's not forget those who simply enjoy the company of friends and family on a low key camping trip.

I personally have not been on holiday for 7 or 8 years, though I have enjoyed plenty of weekend breaks visiting various friends in different cities in the UK. It's more about the people than the place for me. However, a few years back, my dream holiday was to save up as much as possible and then take a working holiday in Tokyo for a year. I was deadly serious about it and my savings account is proof of that. However, real life has stepped in and my savings are now going towards something even better. I will still make that trip to Japan someday, but perhaps only as a tourist.

So tell me, where do you usually go on holiday and what kind of trip is it? If you had infinite amount of money and time where would your DREAM holiday be? If you haven't been on holiday for a long time, tell us about what your childhood holidays were like if you ever went on any.

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Haha, nice topic... I bet we all knew I'm gonna post here xD

I'll start with my childhood family holidays. The very first holiday I remember is when I was five, my mam & dad took me to France, where we stayed in a static caravan somewhere near a beach.I don't remember a great deal, but from the photos I believed it was a great holiday, we did loads of things, even heading to Spain and Monte Carlo. This was my only abroad experience until I was 18 xD
From the back of my memory I remember one or two holidays with my close family on my mothers side. I remember a static caravan holiday with my Aunty & cousin and my grandma, grandpa and my other uncles. I remember as a child I always wanted us all to go away together all the time (We're a close family) but it never happened again after I was around 7 T.T
My mother & stepfather always loved going away in the caravan, so every summer holiday (and maybe even Easter/Oct) we'd pack up the van and head off somewhere. We went to numerous places, from Brecon, St. Clares & Tenby in Wales to Somerset and the Lake District in England and anywhere in between. My parents were also a fan of going to the same place, so many times we'd re-visit a camp-site we had previously.
My dad and stepmam took me away every now and then, not every year, but there were a few summer holiday trips to Scotland (My dad is Scottish and has family there) and one or two in Wales. These holidays were more Butlins/Pontins where we stayed in chalets or apartment like rooms, and when we were in Scotland we'd stay at a family member's home (trust me, there's plenty of family, 10 Aunts/uncles & over 50 cousins)

So that was pretty much all my holidays as a child/teenager. My mam still goes away in the caravan, but I don't join them, mainly due to work and other plans. I still love caravanning, but as an adult now I find I'd rather caravanning wit friends than family (Sleeping & living in the same room as your parents & Brothers gets old fast xD)
As a young adult, I went away with some friends to an Adult's Butlins weekend (Brit's will know what I mean) which was brilliant fun, and I'd love to do it again in the future. Me and my friend also went to Scotland (first time flying), and then to Prauge when I was 18.

In 2009 I decided I wanted to go to America, and since my friends weren't fussed on joining me, I decided to go alone and join two 'Trek America' Tours. So off I went in 2010 starting in Los Angeles and meeting tour group number 1, and visited a few cities on America's west coast. I then went to Washington DC before meeting Tour group 2 in New York where we toured around North East America and Canada. This was a great experience, and I find doing it alone allowed me to make more friends :) I met some amazing people there, some I'm still friends with now =)

And that brings me to where I am now. I'm currently 6 weeks into my 10 week trip to Australia & New Zealand. I started my trip in Sydney with two friends I met in America (and met up with another) and then stayed with family in Adelaide and Canberra. I'm currently in Melbourne, being shown around by the only and only Bey xD On Wed I head back to Sydney for a week, before heading over to New Zealand, meeting one of my best friends and totally geeking out on Lord of the Rings locations xD

In the future I'd like to re-visit America and see Vancouver, and like Clo take a holiday to Japan. I actually plan on taking my mother to New York either this year or next, as it's always been her dream to go Christmas time, and her partner won't go to America xD Something else I'm definitely doing is returning to Australia on a Working Holiday Visa to see more of this amazing place ^,^

My dream holiday. Well, if money was no object, I would pull my friends away for a few weeks (months maybe?) and go to New York, Las Vegas and a few kick-ass conventions (i.e Minecon, Comic Con, E3) staying in a really swanky apartment thingy and having a blast of a time ^,^

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Australia, where it is sunny and half of New Zealand live there haha!

Dream Holiday is to goto Japan again..amazing!

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When I was still a kid, before I moved here in the US (I'm from the Philippines), I used to travel the countries in Asia every summer and/or christmas break with my cousins, aunts and uncles. The first time I spent holidays with them abroad was when I was like nine. We spent three days in Hongkong and then another three days in Taiwan and then another few days in Thailand. The next few years, we would go back to Hongkong (hey, it's very cheap there), Singapore and then to other nearby Asian countries and also Australia.

I moved here in the US five years ago and my usual holiday ever since is to go to Universal Studios or Disney World every summer or Christmas. I live in South Florida so it's very easy to go there. My favorite time when I went there was when the Harry Potter park finally opened. Then, two years ago, along with my cousins, we went to Japan and South Korea. Japan was really unforgettable because of the high school students' uniforms. I thought it was only in the animes or mangas that the ladies' skirts are very short lol And then last year, we went to Shanghai and Beijing. We went to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and the Olympic Village. We traveled by ourselves and chose not to travel with a group in a tour. We just used the subway to go to places. Right now, I'm just saving money to go to Los Angeles (to watch the Lakers play live), Seattle (to watch Sue Bird and the rest of the Seattle Storm play live) and Boston/New England (to watch the Red Sox and Patriots play live). Yep, my dream is to watch all my sports teams play live.

My dream holiday: I would go to Liverpool, England and watch my beloved Reds play at Anfield and sing YNWA at the Kop. I can then die a happy man.

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My parents would take us to France almost every year in August until I left for uni, we'd always go to the same places. Met some wonderful folk there. This coincided with trips to Ireland to visit family about once every 18 months or so, one trip to the Spanish island of Majorca, and one trip to Rhode Island, USA to visit more family.

Then followed a bit of a barren spell where my only trips abroad were again, the odd trip to Ireland with the family (and a further trip to Dublin with some friends two years ago). Last year I took my girlfriend, who had only left her home country of Ireland for the first time a few years ago to go to uni over here, to south Portugal for a week. Which was lovely, even in April - lots of sun but also very windy! That was more about getting out of the country to somewhere nice for a few days. But this summer we're doing it properly, and have an all-inclusive trip to Tenerife booked. ^_^ I'm also visiting Eindhoven with a few friends next month for a weekend.

I wouldn't say I have a dream holiday planned, but I really want to do a proper visit to America at some point, more than likely to New York for a week or so. Just to witness it first hand. Australia and Japan are places I've always wanted to visit, but the further I get on in life the harder it'll be to visit them.

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I love traveling! It's some thing I've inherited from my family. I remember, probably my biggest trip, was in 2000 my family and I went to Europe. We stayed with my Aunt and Uncle in Luxembourg, where they were living at the time. Then visited various family and friends in Germany and Austria, met my Grossoma and Grossopa (great-grandparents). Then we drove to France and stayed in Paris. I wish I remembered that trip better, I was seven at the time and I've had trouble keeping my memories. That my only international experience, but I've traveled a lot with in the states. For small little weekend or day trips we head into the city (San Francisco) I live about 30 miles away and take BART in (our local subway thing). Or, for longer trips we either head up to Calistoga sometimes Lake Tahoe, or down to Monteray/Carmel. Or, even to Napa and Sonoma and they aren't too far away. For longer trips, we go camping a lot. We used to tent camp, but recently bought a big trailer (caravan for you Europeans ) and we camp at least once a year for about 2 weeks. Another thing we've been doing recently is I would go with my aunt on a road trip to L.A. and visit Disneyland for a couple days. I've been to Hawaii, and traversed New York (city and upstate.) On that particular New York trip, we stated there and ended with a week in Disney World. In between we visited a lot of southern states, Charleston, South Carolina being my favorite. I've been to Tennessee to visit family as well. Our latest excursion we drove to Arizona (14+ hour drive D: ) and went to The Grand Canyon (where it was snowing!). We also stayed in Utah and looked at Bryce Canyon. So beautiful!

My Oma and Opa (grandparents) are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and they are planning a huge party in Germany (since most of our family live there). My parents planned a huge trip for it (because plane tickets are expensive so why not stay a while, yea?) they are planning on touring Provence, France, And all over Italy. I want to go, but my brother and I have school and there's no way I can take 3 weeks of college...in September. So I get to babysit my brother instead. Yay.

When I'm a little older I want to go with a couple friends and take a trip to Canada. I was seriously thinking about moving up there for a while. Plus it's beautiful and the people are really nice . But if money wasn't a problem I would love to take a year or two off from life and tour the world, visit places I've always wanted to go to. But not as a tourist, I want to spend enough time to learn about the language and the people, almost as if I was living there. It would be so much fun. But alas I have no money. haha

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Only true holiday/vacation I've ever done was about 20 year ago (wow I feel old saying that). During summer break, the family and I packed up the jeepster and drove from California-USA to SouthDakota-USA to see Mount Rushmore. We spotted some other stuff here and there also like Old Faithful. Was a couple week ordeal and it was a treasured memory.

Since then I havn't really done a solid vacation. I've traveled to visit relatives for short periods of time and moving. Which I would like to do again, maybe a week to visit friends and family back in my homestate.

My dream vacation is simple. I want to live in Japan for a while. Not just pop in and see a few sites for a week. Really sink in and explore their culture. The Japanese culture especially their more old culture really fascinates me. I'd love to get quite a bit of money saved up, plan a whole travel plan out to visit all the sites, and stay at a few of my favorite areas for a few months. I'd be a good year or so thing. Would be amazing.

But... that all depends on how my work things pan out. Probably will never happen. But I can always hope.

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Dream vacation, eh? Well, I guess I'll give you my dream vacation as opposed to a realistic dream vacation.

My dream vacation would probably be a 2 to 4 week run through the following countries; Ireland, Britain, France, Italy then Germany, in that order. Naturally, I'd want to bring/meet up with two or three other people to have some company. No more than three other people, though. Having more people slows you down and makes it more likely to have someone get themselves lost. (usually me)

Why those countries? Well, I never really cared for foreign cultures. I do, however, have interest in foreign history, primarily history that affects the rest of the world. (World War II, for example) History that is unique to one nation puts me to sleep. These countries have all done at least one thing that I have deemed highly influential on the rest of the world, or have some awesome amusement parks and/or restaurants.

Whom would I bring? Well, I'd want to bring someone I know very well from home so I have someone to rely on for various things. The third person would probably be someone from GU who knows his/her way around Europe, but hasn't necessarily seen everything there is to see. This has to be a new experience for all of us if we want maximum enjoyment.

Why 2 to 4 weeks? Any less than that, you don't have nearly enough time to see what you want to see. From what I gather, most of this 'dream vacation' would be spent on the road or in trains. Why 4 weeks when this is a dream vacation? I'm sure I'd get vary sick of spending every second of the day with the same two or three people, the overwhelming and tiring change in culture after driving only a few hours between countries, and being away from my comfort zone of home for too long.

What would I do while there? I'd definitely hit up some of Europe's vary famous amusement parks and signature tourist attractions. Though, I'd probably spend a bit of time in museums to check out some exhibits. Other than that, I'd like this entire trip to be improvised. I'd like my two or three companions to help decide where we go and what we do.

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(March 10, 2011 08:09:41 PM)Darryl Wrote:  Grammar Nazi: Aaron (15 Votes)

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I've never actually been on a vacation in my life, and part of it has to do with my un natural fear of planes and the ocean.

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