Did you ever play the holiday lottery?

I’ve been looking at holidays this week and honestly, the amount of choice these days is overwhelming 😂 There are so many companies, an overwhelming number of hotels and different board options, and that’s before you’ve even looked at flights.

You can choose to add on pretty much anything nowadays too. Pool view, sea view, swim-up room, private terrace, adults only, family friendly, breakfast included, extra leg room on the plane… it’s endless.

And it got me thinking about holidays years ago when booking a holiday was like playing the holiday lottery. 😁

You’d walk past the travel agent’s window and see such an amazing deal that you just couldn’t not go in and ask about but when you did, you’d find out it was “allocated on arrival” which basically meant you booked something like:

“Kos. 3*. Self catering.”

And that was genuinely all the information you got. No hotel name. No photos. No reviews. No map. You just handed your money over and hoped for the best.

And honestly? For the price, it was absolutely worth the risk.

I did this a few times and always convinced myself we might somehow end up in a gorgeous 4* hotel right on the beach even though deep down I knew we’d probably be staying somewhere out of town with building work going on next door and wonky floor tiles. 😂

The adventure really started when you got off the plane and walked through the airport with your luggage — which was actually included in the price of your holiday back then — to find your holiday reps standing there with their official looking clipboards ready to tell you which coach you needed for your transfer to the hotel. Which was also included automatically without anyone trying to charge you an extra £47 for a suitcase and a seat near the window. 😁

They’d tell you the name of your hotel and you’d desperately try to remember whether you’d spotted it in the brochure before you travelled so you could work out if you’d won the holiday lottery. Most of the time though, you had absolutely no idea and just had to wait until the coach pulled up outside.

Every time the coach stopped you’d silently judge the hotel from the coach window and decide whether you were relieved or gutted that it wasn’t yours. 

“Ooooh glad that’s not us.”
“They’re near the beach.”
“Look at the size of that pool!”

You’d also breathe a sigh of relief if that loud rowdy bunch from the back of the coach got off at a hotel before yours – that was a win right there!

Your coach would keep going and you’d find yourself passing the nice hotels that you’d been hoping would be your home for the week, the restaurants, the beach and eventually what felt like the entire resort would be behind you. 😂

Then eventually you’d pull up outside somewhere called “Sunshine Apartments” where the air conditioning made dodgy noises and didn’t provide any help at all in the heat, the shower flooded the bathroom every morning and the wardrobe door never quite shut properly. (True story)

But that was part of the fun really because sometimes the gamble paid off in the best possible way.

We once ended up in Kos in a little family-run apartment block that was waaaaaaaaaay outside of town and it turned out to be amazing. It wasn’t fancy in any way but the family who ran it were so friendly and welcoming that it ended up being one of the best holidays we ever had with the kids.

And I don’t think I ever came back from one of those trips feeling like I hadn’t had the best time. No matter where we ended up, I always wanted to go straight back again. 😂

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