30 things you'll definitely remember if you went on holiday as a kid in the 80s and 90s

Scottish Sun

08-07-2025

Buying your holiday on Teletext certainly seems a thing of the past
TAKE ME BACK 30 things you'll definitely remember if you went on holiday as a kid in the 80s and 90s
CHEAP Ryanair flights, AirBnb, iPads - holidays of today are practically unrecognisable from the 1980s and 90s.
Back in the day, you were more likely to spend 10 hours sweltering in the air con-free car as your dad drove across the whole of France, with two cassette tapes for company the whole way.
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We've rounded up 30 things you will remember from your holiday as a kid
Credit: Getty
If that's making you feel nostalgic, we've asked all the Millenials and Gen X-ers we know about their best (or worst) memories of holidaying abroad in the Eighties and Nineties.
1. Ridiculously long flight delays that were like two days of waiting.
2. Not being to wear any of your clothes for at least six weeks before going away as they were 'for holiday'.
3. Smoking on the plane - and being just five years old and sitting in the smoking section.
4. Shell suits to travel in, along with dayglow 80s leisurewear as well as jelly shoes, tasseled t-shirts and bermuda shorts.
5. Only having five cassettes tapes to play on rotation and then fighting over the cassette player in the car. Or having to just listen to local French/Spanish radio stations (and hearing bands like Vengaboys a year before the UK.
6. Buying your holiday off Teletext or from the classified ads at the back of the newspaper and having no idea where you are staying.
7. Severe sunburn in a desperate attempt to tan - and only parents only using Factor 2 suncream or even tanning oil. And then peeling sunburnt skin off your body including your face.
8. Always getting an ear infections from the pool.
9. Being terrified of drinking the tap water.
Look around historic 200-year-old lido with stunning seaside views abandoned for decades
10. Being mystified by how to use you the French squat loos.
11. The smell of diesel and vomit when using the cross Chanel ferries.
12. Buying 200 fags in duty free, as well as knives, straw donkeys and dolls in local custom dress as souvenirs.
13. Naked Germans playing volleyball on a none nudist beach in France
14. Discovering calamari for the first time on holidays.
15. French milk which was always disgusting but there was no other option for your cereal.
16. Sleeping in the boot of the car on long journeys.
17. Foreign currency such as Francs and Pesetas - or even travellers cheques.
18. Having to make the most of the most basic games such as Travel Battleship, Connect Four and Space Invaders, or those early Nintendo games like Snoopy Tennis.
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Hair wraps were a must
Credit: Pinterest
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The battle over the best Pez dispenser toy was common
Credit: Etsy
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Who needs to see pictures of the hotel before booking?
Credit: Alamy
19. Parents having to change the colour of headlights and stick the GB stickers on car.
20. Spending all your holiday money on a hair wrap .
21. Your dad squeezing into a pair of budgie-smuggler speedos.
22. Being jealous of people with air con cars after having to get out yourself to cool down because of the sweltering journeys.
23. Getting left on the beach because there were so many kids.
24. Having no seat allocation on the plane but being able to take as may suitcases as you want.
25. Pez dispensers in France, long strips of individual sweets you can buy, giant red baby dummies made of rock.
26. Putting Sun In or lemon juice in your hair so it would go blonde.
27. Having pen pals that you would write to all summer then never again.
28. Getting the massive map out in the car which took up the whole space to find out where on earth you were going.
29. Having to buy phone cards or find the nearest internet cafe.
30. Buying a copy of the Sun from two days ago to find out the football scores.