Visiting overseas family

[JLH]

For those who have family overseas do you feel like you “have” to go visit 😀 it sounds awful and it’s not that I don’t want to visit my sister it’s just not somewhere I would pick to holiday or spend my money that goes towards a holiday on (Boston). I went a couple of years ago with my eldest , we didn’t love Boston , the weather was very unpredictable (June ) but I feel as a family we should go again to visit my sister . I have to go in school holidays so flights aren’t cheap and that would be our holiday for the year . I suppose we could go there and then go elsewhere in USA but then that’s more expense. How do others with family overseas visit - do you visit regularly or hardly at all and should I just get over the fact it’s not somewhere I like and go 😀

[Sandraoh40]

My brother and his family , wife, 2 boys and a girl, live in Abu Dhabi. They have been there for 5 years now and I have gone 5 times. 4 times there and once to surprise him in Dubai for his 40th.
I understand the feeling of ‘having’ to go, but I have gone as I missed them and wanted to go. They get over here once a year as well which costs them a fortune. I had said at the start of this year to him that we wouldn’t make it this year as we had so much on , but now with the circumstances our plans for May are gone so maybe we could get over later this year.
We don’t see this as a holiday and under normal circumstances it’s not somewhere we would go. I alsways said when they moved that I would try to get once a year, and also that if I felt an overwhelming need to see them I would go, which was what happened at his 40th as I hadn’t planned on going and booked it 2 days before.
Funnily enough they are looking into moving and Boston is close to one of the places they are considering and we would quite like that as we could do their then head elsewhere.
I’m quite lucky in that they don’t make me feel guilty if we can’t go. They totally understand that it costs time and money to visit. They actually figured that when they moved they would get lots of visits for the first couple of years then it would gradually get less, which is what has happened.
Also, what we did instead 2 years ago, and had planned for next year, but maybe 2022 now, was instead of going over there we met them in Florida for 2 weeks and had a Disney holiday. Now that was great and if we could do that more often we would.

[munmun]

Originally Posted by JLH

For those who have family overseas do you feel like you “have” to go visit 😀 it sounds awful and it’s not that I don’t want to visit my sister it’s just not somewhere I would pick to holiday or spend my money that goes towards a holiday on (Boston). I went a couple of years ago with my eldest , we didn’t love Boston , the weather was very unpredictable (June ) but I feel as a family we should go again to visit my sister . I have to go in school holidays so flights aren’t cheap and that would be our holiday for the year . I suppose we could go there and then go elsewhere in USA but then that’s more expense. How do others with family overseas visit - do you visit regularly or hardly at all and should I just get over the fact it’s not somewhere I like and go 😀

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I used to live in Boston, which I loved so was the family abroad. I used to encourage my family if they wanted to stay to come for a few days and then go on an adventure elsewhere, with us or by themselves which ever they preferred.

From Boston you can get to lots of good wonderful places either by car or flying depending on the things you like.

[JLH]

Before she lived there she was in Indianapolis and we did go there and then onto Florida and twice we went to Florida and she came down to us so I supposed I could do that . There’s just so many places we want to visit and so little funds 😀 maybe I can give up my week in Greece next year for a few days in Boston followed by Florida coast .

[Sue]

I would love it if we had family in Boston because of the access to the New England states which we love. I would live in Bar Harbor, Maine were it not for the atrocious winters!
We have DH’s daughter and son in law in Melbourne and they had our first grandchild in January who we are yet to meet. We both love to travel and have been 3 times already, we visit them and then head off to explore Australia, we should have been there in March and were going to go to Perth and up to the Ningaloo reef. We have plans to add on New Zealand and Malaysia, we have also done stopovers in Singapore and Hong Kong. I’m retired and DH is halfway there but can work anywhere, so travelling is what we will do when allowed.

[munmun]

Originally Posted by Sue

I would love it if we had family in Boston because of the access to the New England states which we love. I would live in Bar Harbor, Maine were it not for the atrocious winters!
We have DH’s daughter and son in law in Melbourne and they had our first grandchild in January who we are yet to meet. We both love to travel and have been 3 times already, we visit them and then head off to explore Australia, we should have been there in March and were going to go to Perth and up to the Ningaloo reef. We have plans to add on New Zealand and Malaysia, we have also done stopovers in Singapore and Hong Kong. I’m retired and DH is halfway there but can work anywhere, so travelling is what we will do when allowed.

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I agree I love Bar Harbour, have you been to the fab little cinema there that serves pizza and a great beer. We love Acadia and also always stop in Portland and Boothbay Harbor. We have friends with a home in Castine so good to see too.

The rail trip into New York is a great trip in the other direction too and a trip to cape cod it fun.

I am with you on the trips to Australia we have recently been talking about another trip, would also like to go back to Langkawi, a gentle laid back Malaysian trip. I feel like I have seen enough of Singapore having been a few times so our next Australia trip will be non stop to Perth, just 17 hours. I could get to the space station in that time.

[Rac20]

I have a brother in Finland and a brother in Brisbane. We have been to Brisbane a couple of times, the last being when I had to pay only flight tax for my youngest who was only a baby. This was 2009. The last time they came here was 2010 that was a combined trip to Finland for my other brothers wedding. Since then we’ve had a joint holiday in Florida and one in Japan with them. We haven’t been back to Australia as we have to go in the summer holidays and it’s soooo expensive just for flights. We’ve been to Finland quite a few times since my other brother moved there. It’s obviously a lot cheaper to fly there plus I like to go for the guaranteed snow in winter.😉

I wouldn’t expect my brothers to come visit us and they don’t expect us to go visit them. We do WhatsApp video call quite a bit. If you don’t want to go to Boston, don’t go - would be my advice.😬

[Sue]

Originally Posted by munmun

I agree I love Bar Harbour, have you been to the fab little cinema there that serves pizza and a great beer. We love Acadia and also always stop in Portland and Boothbay Harbor. We have friends with a home in Castine so good to see too.

The rail trip into New York is a great trip in the other direction too and a trip to cape cod it fun.

I am with you on the trips to Australia we have recently been talking about another trip, would also like to go back to Langkawi, a gentle laid back Malaysian trip. I feel like I have seen enough of Singapore having been a few times so our next Australia trip will be non stop to Perth, just 17 hours. I could get to the space station in that time.

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Not been to the cinema but sounds fun, we’ve been all around NE, I love Cape Cod and prefer Nantucket to the more touristy (in our opinion) Martha’s Vineyard. We also both love seafood and it’s for peanuts there and fresh as it can be.
We are not City lovers but actually quite liked Boston itself, compact and easily navigated.

Last trip we were going to go to Malaysia and see Orang Utans maybe one day ...

[evergreen]

I am another who would love a family base in Boston, we drove to Plymouth for a night which was lovely Plymouth Plantation is fab, then in to Cape Cod great beaches whale watching Nantucket Martha’s Vineyard amazing then back to Boston couple of Red Socks Games one of our best holidays

[Grumps Mrs]

1st overseas posting,we were based in CT.Halfway between Boston and New York, absolutely loved it, only my best friend and her DH came out to visit though.DS and DD were school age so they came with us.
Next long term posting was to the west coast, about 45 mins from SFO. Kids were adults by then so it was just the two of us. DD visited as part of her 30th birthday celebrations, which took in Vegas, LA and Yosemite as well as SFO and Monterey.
DS and his wife met us in Orlando several times - the extra 3 hours travel time was just too much for DDiL who has a medical condition.
My parents often visited my sister in New Zealand but somehow never managed the shorter trip to visit us!
Baby sister was going to Australia for her honeymoon but was guilted into visiting NZ for part of the trip which meant they couldn't do all that they had planned in Oz.
I've not been to NZ as I preferred to visit DD DS and DGS - doesnt stop my mother trying to push me into visiting NZ though as it's too far for them now at 76 and 82