magnumpi

My son has a car we just put gas in and he take us all places. The idea of our holiday was to get away from -25 temps and just spend time with new grandson and it all worked out fine for us all.

BristolUK

So you could be a suspect then.
Were you anywhere near a BMW that day?

Pizzawheel

Bloody villagers!

Oakvillian

It depends. Largely on who is staying where and with whom, while on a visit.

Last time we went en famille, there are too many of us for any of my relatives to put up in their homes, so we rented a vacation property. Rellies knew when we were coming and roughly what our itinerary would be, so we arranged a couple of visits in advance, in both directions... we visited one of my sisters who has space to host the whole family for an evening; we then had everybody over to our holiday rental for a barbecue and my other sister and her kids up for the night.

I'll do that for family; friends are different. It's easier when travelling sans kids - then what I've tended to do is put a post up on FB or somewhere saying "I'll be in this pub on this evening - come over and say hi if you're in the area" rather than trying to organize individual trips to visit people. There are one or two old friends I'd make the effort to travel to say hi to; anybody else can go stuff themselves if they can't make it a few miles out of their way when I'm already several thousand out of mine.

Atlantic Xpat

This. I do the same (on a larger trip with family as opposed to one of my regular solo business trips). Done the running around like blue arsed flies thing and learned my lesson! Aside from visiting a specific friend - last time we rented a holiday cottage with one set of friends and stayed a night with another on the way back to my folks - we'll do a pub lunch stopover where most of our friends live & those that can and want to meet will & those that have life getting in the way or can't be bothered wont.

sharkus

Last time we went back, most of the relatives popped in to visit at my parent's place (mum tends to send out the word of our impending arrival to the rellies) , so traveling around wasn't required. We did specifically pop down to see my brother and his family, as we wanted to, a) see my nephew, b) see their dog, c) see the sea , d) pub nearby for booze n food, and e) well, he's my brother and I'm happy to go and see him.

Paul_Shepherd

I hear you. When I visit, I make all the arrangements and schedule when to "fit everyone in" no one ever understands the gruelling schedule I set myself to catch up with everyone, I like to see people but its exhausting, and some even think I snub them in some situations!

I have never had any family visit and only 2 friends in almost 9 years, so now I just do what I can, after all...I was the one that left them, however if they don't approve of my schedule or place to meet, I don't worry about it anymore, as I know I have I have personally done all I can to stay in contact.

Paul_Shepherd

I did a similar thing to this last time, (saying I would be in such and such pub at such and such time) I did mention to my sister that it would be nice to have a few family members around to her place for a gathering, but she didn't want the kids to be up late, even though it was a half term holiday and they were off school. As a person who has never had kids and not knowing the implications of tired kids, I just said ok and left it at that.

However you would think that as they only see me every 2-3 years, and im making the effort to stay connected they may take exception and accept a little bit of inconvenience, but it appears not, so that was that. I tried.

Jingsamichty

"Happiness is a close-knit family, 500 miles away."