I stumbled across this older, short thread on the Independent Traveler forums in which travelers were asked to recount their favorite holiday trips they took as kids. And it’s one of those discussions that baffles me as to why it didn’t generate more interest than it did.

And so I’m going to attempt to resurrect the topic here.

A couple of vacation stories from posters in the thread that might help jog your own memories:

It was difficult holidaying when I was young- it was in the middle of WW2, so beaches were out of bounds (invasion!), and you might be bombed if you went by train … My first- and finest- holiday was in a cramped caravan at Filey….no mod cons, and a toilet block at the bottom of the park. The beaches were open by then, but there were rolls of barbed wire waiting collection, and concrete pillboxes along the cliffs and shingle. I can still remember most of that holiday, all these years later ~jocap

What I remember most from childhood was our yearly trips to Ocean City, New Jersey, which we still do! Such a beloved place, and a great one for kids with the boardwalk, mini golf, beach, ocean…still one of my favorite places in the world. ~soliteyah

For my part, I will never forget visiting my grandparents for the first time when they moved to Tampa, FL. They had a little condo on the water and my grandfather taught me how to catch and peel crab. He paid me a quarter for every crab I caught and at the end of the vacation he cooked up a big crab feast with all of the meat I had harvested (and quite a bit purchased from the store I’m sure, because I was also very busy during the vacation swimming in the bay, chasing lizards, and generally making a nuisance of myself).

Great times.

Do you have a favorite childhood vacation memory? Was it a childhood trip that started the traveling juices flowing in the first place?

Read the thread in its (short) entirety: What was your best holiday as a child?