Everyone loves a good holiday, whether it’s jetting off abroad, or just staying here in good old Blighty, we all need the chance to recuperate and recover after a hard slog at work.
But holidays now are very different to holidays in the 80s, join me as we take a look back at some of the things holiday in the 80s would include that you just won’t see today!
1. Necklace Coin Holders
Did you have one of these beauties? A perfect place to keep all your change in a safe place you couldn’t lose. It made a lot of noise as you walked, so was perfect for drawing attention to yourself just when you didn’t want to! And God help you if you put one of those old 50p’s in there – they were too big and got stuck meaning it could take several embarrassing minutes at the checkout to get the coins you needed to pay!
2. Bum Bags
It wasn’t just coin holders we used to love for extra on-body storage! Bum Bags were all the rage back in the 80s and anybody who was anybody had one of these. What did you keep in yours? Cash? Important info? Or was it just for show?
3. Camping meant camping
None of this “Glamping” nonsense in the 1980s! If you went on a camping holiday then you did it properly, pitching the tent from scratch (none of these pop-up jobbies!) and you slept on the ground getting cold and damp, not in a 4-star luxury apartment disguised as a tent!
4. Smoking on planes was fine
Yep, you’re in a confined area with 200 other people and could get out your Marlborough, Mayfair, or even a hand-rolled Cuban Stoogie and smoke it to be as anti-social as you possibly could!
5. There was no such thing as online check-in
Check-in in the 1980s involved hand-written tickets, checking in manually and could take hours if there was a big queue meaning you were advised to arrive approximately 3 working days before your flight was due to take off if you wanted to be on time!
6. You wouldn’t get food like this on a plane anymore!
Yep, that’s right, some Airlines in the 70s and 80s used to offer a carvery roast as part of their in-flight meals! You wouldn’t get this now, and most airlines seem to serve food where the packet it comes in tastes more edible than the food itself!
7. Socks and Sandals reigned supreme!
It’s always been a bit of a fashion faux-pa but in the 80s wearing socks and sandals was just a thing some people did, it certainly wasn’t the bone of contention that it seems to have become today!
8. Sending Postcards
There were no mobiles in the 80s so if you wanted to let your friends and family know how things were going they had to wait a few days for your postcard to arrive – who else remembers times when the postcard would arrive after you were already home?
9. You had to wait for your photos
None of this getting back, taking out your mobile and saying “Look at these pictures” nonsense, your photos were locked on film and had to be developed so you had to wait for them to come back – every day you’d be standing by the front door when the postman arrived hoping there would be a big fat envelope in them with your photos so you could start to bore your loved ones!
10. If you wanted a holiday video, you needed one of these bad boys!
Again, no mobile so you couldn’t just start filming at the drop of a hat. You needed to take a cam-corder with you and hope you had it with you, that it was charged and that it had enough tape left in it when that moment came!
11. Teletext Holidays
Kids today have never even heard of Teletext! Yet back in the day, if you wanted to start looking at holidays without leaving the house to go to the travel agents, then Teletext Holidays was the place to turn to. You would find something that looked amazing, then realise you hadn’t pressed the “Hold” button and have to wait for 35 pages to flick around before finding it again!
12. There Was No Sat-Nav
Going on holiday in the Scottish Highlands? Good luck finding the place in the 80s, there was no Sat-Nav so it meant trying to drive with an atlas on your knee, which was not only a bit awkward but a bit on the dangerous side too! People these days honestly don’t realise how easy Sat-Nav has made things for them!
Has this all brought back memories from your childhood holidays? What have we missed off? Let us know your thoughts and memories in the comments as always!