Driving holidays suffer in the UK because we associate cars with commuting to work. John Hillman on why we should all remember to value the old motor-holiday and embrace the freedoms they provide.

“Some sunny Sunday very soon, just drive an Overland up to your door – tell the family to hurry the packing and get aboard – and be off with smiles down the nearest road – free, loose, happy – bound for green wonderlands.” Saturday Evening Post, 1929

The world never stands still and neither do we. Unfortunately, in today’s world, we tend to labour under the belief moving forward is a bad thing.

Ask a person what they think of cars today and you can bet good money that the words “traffic” “pollution” and “cost” come up in the first few sentences. The commuter belts across Britain have ensured that cars have become a problem, a chore, a guilt-trip.

We’ve spent so much time sitting in jams on our way to work that the old idea of the car as a symbol of freedom has been crushed. The environmental problems associated with petrol engines are so ingrained, in our guilty consciences, that younger generations associate the whole idea of propulsion with everything that’s bad in the world.

But we shouldn’t forget that there was a time when cars ushered in a new age of adventure, when they rescued thousands of people from the parochialism of their daily lives and let them spread their wings and explore the world around them for the very first time.

Suddenly those horizons were just a few minutes away, simply apply a bit of pressure to the accelerator and you are master of your own universe, sitting back in the comfort of your own armchair, taking in the landscape as you speed through, locked, in your own small world, whilst out exploring the big one. Like the cinema, which came along at almost the same time, this new technology democratised time and space; all of a sudden you didn’t have to be rich to see a mountainous sunset or a cascading waterfall, to know your own land.

P&O Ferries began life in the 1960s at the height of this golden age of motoring, in Britain, and in many ways still represents these romantic values. By giving average British families access to the miles and miles of tarmac on the other side of the English Channel, P&O effectively opened up the whole of Western Europe to two weeks of high octane improvised fun and discovery.

There still is no better way to get know your continent than in the comfort of your own car, your ‘home from home’. Small villages, national parks and the best cities are all just a wish away when you have the freedom of the road, a sentiment captured succinctly in a motorist’s guide book from the 1950s:

“Be your own gypsy; abandon all rules and directions.”

There was even a time, around the 1930s, when people actually believed that the advent of the caravan would lead many of us to return to our ancestor’s wandering nomadic ways for good.

The road today may be well travelled, the problems associated with motoring very real, but never give up on the values that the car once symbolised: the freedom to roam, to explore new lands, make new friends and, above all, to know the world you live in.

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Image Credit: zsoul

Tags: Belgium, Britain, France, Lifestyle, Netherlands, P&O Ferries, Spain // 2 Comments »