Welcome to another blog hop. Today’s topic is:
What are your favorite vacation spots and do they ever show up in your books?
By 2006 both our sons had left home and we had a little more disposable income. From 2006 to 2017 October/November was the time that Sam and I would book a foreign holiday for the following summer. For the majority of those years we would go abroad. We sailed on cruises to the Caribbean, to Rio and to New Orleans. We also visited Jersey, Menorca, Alcudia, Ibiza, Zante and Chania. I was happy to travel to these places, but was also glad to come home as I found them all too hot for my liking.
However, after the last and final cruise to New Orleans in 2017 we both decided that home was indeed the best place to be. We bought a caravan on the Isle of Wight and never looked back. The climate there is just right for us, there’s lots of places to visit and things to do, and we found that both of us prefer going to somewhere that is familiar, having visited there many times in the past.
When it came to writing my novels, not surprisingly the Isle of Wight features a few times in my stories, especially in ‘Revenge‘, when teachers Alaistair and Carly take a group of schoolchildren on a trip there. I dredged up some memories of our cruises in order to write ‘Cruising Danger‘, and a holiday in Menorca features in ‘Repent at Leisure‘. The lovely island of Jersey features in my thriller ‘Examining Kitchen Cupboards‘, where we had a holiday with our youngest son after the eldest had left home.
I’m glad I had the chance to travel abroad and gain some experience of foreign places. However, my favourite place to visit is up on the Tennyson Trail, Freshwater, Isle of Wight. It’s my happy place. Sam travels all over the world on business and he endures it because it’s his job, but I don’t think either of us will ever have any notion to travel abroad for a holiday again.
Let’s see whether other blog-hoppers write about places they have visited. Please click on the blue button below to either check others’ blogs, add your own blog, or just leave a comment.
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Stevie Turner 
All the time I use places we have lived, visited and for holidays. I like to have a good idea of how my characters would be traveling and the location often influences the plot. There is no need to make up places like London, but small places might need to be given a fictitious name, especially if your relatives live there!
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I do tend to give my places fictitious names. I can then say what I like about it and nobody is offended!
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I know lots of people enjoy them, but I’ve never been on a cruise and have no desire to go on one.
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We wanted to see what it was like. We enjoyed 3 cruises, but 3 is enough!
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So far, I have only used my trips to the Soviet Union and East Germany as a background to my stories. But many of my serials feature London, a city I lived in for 60 years, and know well.
Best wishes, Pete.
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We moved out of London 32 years ago. We go back for West End shows sometimes, but on the whole do not regret our move to Suffolk.
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I have no regrets about moving away at all, but it is useful to use my knowledge of London in fiction serials.
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I grew up in what must have been the worst London borough of all of them – Tower Hamlets. Fortunately for me I didn’t know it at the time!
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I’ve never been to the Isle of Wight. I lived near Southampton for a while, we could see it from our window. My daughter holidays there, she loves it.
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It’s a beautiful island. We’d love to retire there.
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Caravaning on the Isle of Wright sounds like the perfect thing to do.
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It is, well… for me and hubby it is anyway!
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I had the good fortune to visit England several times (my husbands family lived there), but the bad fortune to overlook seeing Ireland. Always a huge regret of mine, since I no longer have a yen for overseas travel.
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I’ve visited Newtonards and Dublin, but like you now prefer to stay closer to home. Thanks for your comment.
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I like a mixture of adventure in new places and familiar comfort of places I already love. @samanthabwriter from
Balancing Act
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I used to like travelling when younger, but it holds no interest for me now. I prefer the comfort of staying in places I’m familiar with.
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My favorite places rarely show up, if at all. Many places I’ve never been or spent very little time are in constant use. I think unless you’re deep into describing places and things it doesn’t matter as stories are generally about people. What color the front doors are painted on a certain street in Jamaica isn’t all that important. A good Google photo of a location is enough to set a scene.
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Yes, very true. I’m of the opinion that readers probably are not interested in detailed descriptions of places. I tend to set the scene and leave it at that.
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I still like to travel to new places and plan to visit Ireland for the first time this year. As to the question, I guess it is no surprise that my answer is yes, I include my vacation spots in all my books since they are about a young girl who travels! I am sure she will travel to Ireland one day as well.
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I’ve been to Dublin, but that’s all as regards travelling to Ireland. My cousin used to live there.
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