MY FIRST THOMSON HOLIDAY

[so,ton saint]

Way back in 1976 my first holiday with the girls 10 nights in Majorca on half board in Alcudia , after that the next year Cala millor how excited we would be, drove to Luton Airport label,s on the case,s  , two hour flight on a Britannia airways B737  200  arrive Palma two hour coach trip  across the island, those were the days.  any one else. and have stayed with thomson ever since.

[Pensioncruiser]

Think ours was the Levante in Cala Bona 19 60s memory not so good and no idea the plane we flew on but Thomson was always our go to. Cruises started 2004 with a cruise and stay at the Lavant that was the last land based holiday😎 till now🙄. 

[WeeCountyMan]

I first went to Spain in 1958 with parents and relatives when still in mid Primary.

 

Flew Edinburgh to Perpignan in France, coach to sleepy fishing village (Rosas) on Costa Brava - no  Girona airport at that time, and there was only one smallish pension type hotel.

 

Went back there several times until mid 1960s and experienced Rosas grow greatly in size as Spain developed its tourist industry.

[dronnygirl]

Our first Thomson was our honeymoon to Magaluf in 1976.  Definitely not the same Magaluf it is today!  We wore smart going away outfits to travel (not the jeans and t.shirts worn today) and I always remember dressing up for dinner although the food wasn't  so good in those days!

 

 

[so,ton saint]

2 hours ago, dronnygirl said:

Our first Thomson was our honeymoon to Magaluf in 1976.  Definitely not the same Magaluf it is today!  We wore smart going away outfits to travel (not the jeans and t.shirts worn today) and I always remember dressing up for dinner although the food wasn't  so good in those days!

 

 

 

Yep those were the days, my two girls wore RA RA skirts and i wore bell bottom,s , car wise i had a MK 3 cortina with go fasters alloys we were the bee,s knee,s, but just loved Majorca and have been there 10 times over the years and found the island very safe for familys and kids, and with no hesitation would go back again.

[WeeCountyMan]

There are certain parts of Mallorca that I would want to avoid, although in general it is a decent place to spend a holiday.

 

Local government in the Balearics has plans in place to address these problems, it'll be interesting to see how these pan out.

[rkingphoto]

If this cruise had happened it would have been our first time ever with Thomson/Tui.   Might never use them now.   Our first holiday abroad was in 1986 with Yugotours.  I'll let you guess where we went 😏.

 

Since then we've been to The Algarve, Malta, Majorca, Rhodes, Benidorm, Disneyland Paris, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura.

 

Lanzarote has always been our favourite and we keep going back, we had a week there in January and it was fantastic as always.

[dronnygirl]

Yugotours were great, had our first holiday in Dubrovnik and loved it (1982).  Went into a department store and all the shelves were empty, someone asked to buy our camera and a person on our trip sold their pushchair to a local as the people could not get anything they needed. Unfortunately the very long war stopped visits for some years.

[Brummijam]

Our first Thomson/ holiday abroad was in 1979 to Lloret de mar staying in the hotel Helios. What a difference in cultures, We had a waiter service dinner with a  menu in Spanish and not a clue what we were ordering it was a proper lucky dip.😊 Also when ordering drinks particularly spirits and they gave you a massive measure with your mixer. Happy days.

We went back a couple of years ago for old times sake and unfortunately it has changed for the worse, It’s like a poor mans Benidorm now. We still have our memories from 79.🙂

[WeeCountyMan]

I picked this up on Kindle a few weeks ago, written by Dave Richardson

 

Let's Go: A History of Package holidays and Escorted Tours Kindle Edition

Goes right back to the early days of package holidays etc. - easy to read and very interesting.

[nancyneptune]

First holidays abroad with our children were usually by car across on the ferry to Belgium, Holland, Germany and Denmark in self catering family resorts.  Then as they got older hotels in the Greek islands, the Algarve, the Amalfi Coast and the Balearic Islands.

 

First cruise was a Nile cruise in 2000.  Then Thomson cruises to the Red Sea with hotel stays in Sharm El Sheikh.  Cruise & Stay to the Canaries.  Cruising the Med, Caribbean and a few Transatlantic crossings.  A few P & O and F O to the Canaries and the Med.  Marella to the Canaries,  Middle East , the Baltics,  Scandinavia and the Med. 

 

Most cruises have been enjoyable with a few really memorable ones with Thomson.  Unfortunately since the changes that have taken place with Marella a couple have been very disappointing. 

 

Favourites were the Baltics, the Black Sea and Egypt and the Holy Land.

 

Met some lovely people and still keep in touch with passengers, crew and entertainers we have met on board.

Just wish Marella could go back to the way Thomson used to be.

[lovetoholiday]

First Thomson holiday was 1973 to Tunisia.  So difference from Scotland where I lived then.  Remember taking a huge bag of bath crystals (obviously no luggage restrictions then) as we had been told to do and leaving them for the maid at the end of the stay.  September in Tunisia and I wore tights at night when I got dressed up to go out. 

It certainly gave me the travel bug though.