The Globetrotting Grandma

Thank you for visiting my website! I'm Chrissy,  a 50  year old Mother & Grandmother, living in the UK, who has only really started doing some serious travelling in the last 10 years.

If you are in your 50's like me, then growing up in the in the UK back in the 1970's probably meant that your very first experience of going on holiday with your family was either camping in the British countryside, staying at a B&B in a seaside resort or going to a Holiday Park that closley resembled the one in the BBC Comedy Show, Hi-Di-Hi. Only wealthy people went "Abroad". Ordinary people like us stay-cationed at home during the beautifully unpredicable British Summertime.

 

School Trips to Europe were the first opportunity I had to really venture further afield. Iremember eating my packed lunch on the cross channel ferry to France, shopping in the market with my classmates and teachers, and practising my schoolgirl French very badly! Everything was organized with military precision by the staff and although we had plenty of "Education" on the trips, the "Fun" element of travelling was sadly missing! The same can be said for going on a package holiday to Italy with my best friend and her parents, which I did when I was 15 - they made sure we didn't get up to anything naughty and they checked that we were tucked up in in bed by 11pm everynight!

 

In the 1980's, it was compulsory to do at least one hedonistic 18-30 style package trip abroad. This usually ended up with someone getting badly sunburned, someone having a holiday romance, someone getting very drunk, and someone getting into a fight. All activities involved quaffing Sangria and beer by the bucket load, with a group of like-minded crazy young friends. Sightseeing  and sleeping were never in the cards - what's that all about? Now I am older I cannot ever imagine going on Holiday and NOT seeing the local sights or getting a good night's rest! I still like a glass of wine and the odd late night - but all in moderation!

 

When children arrive on the scene your holiday plans are usually dominated by visits to Disneyland, or stays in all- inclusive resorts with plenty of activities and entertainment laid on for the kids.  As a parent, a holiday is a rare chance to grab a bit of much needed rest and relaxation during your time off from work and do "family stuff". Your children come first and trekking in the Himalaya's just has to wait for a few years.

 

Before you know it, the kids have grow up and go off on their "Gap Years" before they finish education or enter the world of work. You worry as they head off for adventurous back-packing tours in far flung places. A part of you is jealous and wants to go with them.  A few years later they move out and forge lives of their own....leaving you to reclaim yours!

You discover for yourself that there is a bigger world out there just waiting to be explored. There is more to life than just working hard, and paying the bills. You need rewards too. Major events in my later years woke me up to the fact that life needs to be lived - and you only get one chance. There was stuff I wanted to do before it was too late. i wanted to get to know more about the places that had fascinated me for so many years. My mother, who is now 75, succesfully battled against cancer. Before her illness, she had only ever visited Spain on her honeymoon in 1960. All her other holidays had been taken in the UK as my stepfather didn't enjoy flying. After recovering from her illness my mother wanted to visit to Marrakesh in Morocco, see Paris for herself, and go cruising in the Med.....

 

As a mature traveller, you may be going away with a partner or a  friend, or you may be going it alone and travelling solo. You probaly have more cash to spend on your travels than you ever did in your youth and you will certainly have more time in which to plan your vacations - especially if you have retired.

 

Like me, you probably expect a high standard of service as well as getting good value for your money. Your taste in food is probably much more refined than it ever was in your twenties, and now you are older and wiser, you can appreciate the finer things in life as well as the most simple. Like me, you probably love visiting places of historic interest, museums and art galleries. You go travelling to learn new things. I also love eating out at great restaurants, and I want to stay in good hotels that have excellent facilities or that special "wow" factor . If you don't like all the regimented restrictions that come with an organsed package tour, and you prefer to arrange your own itinary, hotels and flights, rather than go through a travel agent, then hopefully you'll find this blog very useful and helpful.

 

I often find that if someone - either a friend, a local resident or a fellow traveller I've met - gives me a personal recommendation on where to stay, visit or eat, it's much better than trawling through loads of guide books or Internet sites trying to find the right place and getting bogged down with loads of info.

 

I have 10 years worth of archive travel journals, photographs and videos to upload to my blog. I do all this in spare time because I love to have a permanent online reminder of my most amazing travel memories. I also want to inform, inspire, educate and entertain my visitors with helpful advice, and personal recommendations on all the very best restaurants to eat in, the best hotels to stay in and the most interesting places to visit. You'll get the benefit of my first-hand knowledge and have a tried and tested guide to any of all the cities and destinations I've visited so far.

 

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ENJOY YOUR TRAVELS!

 

 

 

 

 

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