Many people take for granted their annual two weeks in the sun or weekend away in a buzzing city, but how did it all happen? How did we fall in love with package holidays and are we still in love with them now? The story of how we got into the package holiday habit is a fascinating one. It’s not just about planes and resorts but also about us, as the holidays we take reflect the people we are, or aspire to be. Despite the continuous growth of the package holiday from its beginnings in the 1950s, could the golden age be over? Escalating fuel costs mean that the era of really cheap foreign holidays is over.

In this unique, illustrated book featuring anecdotes, word-of-mouth accounts from the people who made package holidays happen and archive images, author Dave Richardson poses some questions about the impact of tourism on the environment and whether we could be estroying the very things we set out to experience.