do they? well you learn something new every day. what does proper chocolate taste like? i hear only european countries can do chocolate properly. lol. well according to everyone i know that's ever gone anywhere in europe and eaten chocolate there.

how can you hate it?! it's gorgeous! lol. i practically squeal when i get a scot at my register at work haha.

I love this thread!

I love England Britain, but I must say that it took 2 months travelling around the U.S to make me proud of the place I was raised in. Prior to that, I hated it. Lol. My pride lies more in what as a nation we once were, rather than what we are now. I.e. an empire that spanned the globe and introduced the world to cricket, golf, beer, tea cups, etc.,. Nowadays we have football hooligans, chavs and stupid politics. BRING BACK IMPERIALISM I SAY! (And national service, while I'm at it!)

Since I am half-French, I have never identified myself as "English", but would say that I am British. I'm gonna give the European viewpoint here too (as Estella has already started to do) and point out that generally speaking, we are the bad neighbours of Western Europe. I think as a nation we like to think we are identified by our manners and traditions (I think this is probably true in the U.S - especially where actors such as Hugh Grant, Colin Firth and Hugh Laurie have a lot of success, thus leading the westernised worlds to perhaps think we are all like that!), but by the rest of Europe we are identified by our rudeness and loudness. For example, in France it is generally believed that if a tourist is talking loudly on a train, they are probably British (if they are being polite and holding the door open for people they are probably German). It's an interesting juxtaposition of contrasting opinions.

I shall now add a note saying can the Brits not start a Let's mock the French rant.... Yes, we are all aware that France and Britain like to argue with each other. Yes, it does get a bit irritating after a while. I am just presenting a different view point.

Oh yeah, I should totally mention Sweets like Blue Bella did above!

Err, we are totally better than the U.S at making chocolate! (But I must concede that compared to the rest of Europe as still tastes like sawdust in comparison. Gosh, I know what would be a fun gross experiment - comparing U.S chocolate with Belgian chocolate! Is it even fair to mock U.S choccy so? It would be like comparing Van Gogh to a 4 year old's stick drawing!

I am so with you on being proud of the country's history as opposed to nowadays.

I am part French and I get a lot of stick for it too but meh I think being French is better than being English! ;)

i love the accent! and i have family in essex or sussex or somewhere. i wanna go there!!

Which accent?

english, irish, scottish.. my accents just so boring :-(

I love the Australian accent!

Has anyone else noticed how, except for Brother Jim, the only people replying to these threads (except for the American one) are the non-Americans? Is it a sign that the Americans have no particular thoughts on the UK, Australia or Canada, because they're too busy thinking only about America?

You have to consider that we are very far away from all those countries, plus having currencies that aren't as strong as the £ makes a trip to the UK very very expensive. Whats the main reason Brits go to America? Disney land, but that doesn't mean we are all sat here thinking of amerca.

I'm not sure what your point is. We're as far from Australia as the Americans are. Yet the Australia forum thread is full of comments from Brits (and Australians of course). And most of the Australians commenting in this thread have never actually been here. Anyway, I think it's possible to have thoughts on a country (and the people from that country) without ever having visited it.

And plenty of Brits go to America to visit places other than Disney land. I've been to the US at least four times, and I've never been to Disney land, or Disney World for that matter (even although I've been to LA).

Its cheaper for us to go to Aus than Spain thats why brits are commenting!

No it's not. I assume you're joking. (It's certainly not cheap to go to Australia)

True, our family found out the year we chose to go back to Spain as we believed it would be cheaper than US or AUS, we were way wrong.

But you can get return flights to Spain for under £150. In fact last year we went to Portugal for a week and our flights AND apartment together cost £160 each. Flights to Australia are about £699 return at the moment, and flights to New York roughly £300 return if you use a low cost airline like Globespan.

Was this recently that you had this experience?

Four years ago, our entire two week holiday to Florida, 4 star hotel cost a lot less than a holiday to Spain, we reckoned the same amount if we were to Aus it as well. My dad still looks into going places further away and it isn't more expensive.

I agree that accommodation and eating out in Europe tends to be more expensive, but I really don't know how, if flights to Australia are £500 more expensive, you can possibly spend more on a holiday to Spain. I've been on several European holidays (south of France, Madrid, Algarve) in the past few years and it's never cost me more than £500 - 600 for a week including flights, accommodation and expenses. Which is still less than the flight alone to Australia (and I've been there three times and almost ensured I got the cheapest flights going!).

So all I can think, is you're not looking for your european holidays in the right places!

For us £500-£600 per person is extremely cheap, ours were more than that when me and my sister were children, so cheaper stay, we always get our travel agents to agree to the internet price, we just never wanted rubbish accommodation. A work colleague recently went to an all inclusive (rank) for £500, something I would never ever do.

I can honestly say I've never stayed in rubbish accommodation (nor have I ever done the all inclusive thing). In Portugal (cheapest European holiday I've been on) we stayed in a perfectly lovely apartment complex. We stayed in hotels in France and Madrid, and they weren't anything fancy but they were fine.

Yes, if you're looking for upper end accommodation (4 star hotel or whatever) then you'll probably pay more for that in Europe than you would in Australia or the US, although I still fail to see how it would cancel out the £500 flight difference.

From expedia (based on price per person for 2 adults sharing, flights from London in July, 4 star hotel for 2 weeks):

Barcelona (city centre hotel) - £586
Orlando - £974 (could get it down to £807 for 3.5 star hotel)
Sydney - £1297

Ours for Orlando was a lot cheaper than that, but was 4 sharing(in america you buy a room it isn't done per person) and was in October for Halloween fun :)

Cheaper than £587 per person? And was that in July?? (And definitely 4 star?) Remember it'll be cheaper at other times of the year.

And you've still not told me of these holidays you've found in Australia that are cheaper than Spain. :P

And in lots of places you pay per room. I'm just giving the price as it works out per person.

OK, here are the prices for a family of 4 sharing (same as above, cheapest available based on 4 star hotel, 2 adults plus a 5 year old and a 12 year old).

Barcelona - £592
Orlando - £769
Sydney - £1169

Maybe your family managed to get really lucky with some amazing deal. But GENERALLY speaking, it is more expensive to go to Florida than to Spain, and more expensive still to go to Australia. And good deals can be found from time to time for anywhere. It's not exclusive to Florida.

I've already told you it was in October. My dad would have loads of prices, he sits on the computer for hours on end organising a holiday to see how much it would cost and then moaning to us that we wasted years going to Spain when it was more expensive.

I'm googling now

Salou, which is where we used to go, same hotel even. Four star hotel £679 per adult for 14 nights, first child at £294, second at £414, all charges/costs (apart from travel insurance) included £2359.

Orlando, where we went, four star hotel, room at £640, flights at £978, then fuel charges of £294, then other charges gives a total (apart from travel insurance) £1552.

Both holidays are late september going into early october, with co-operative travel, the only difference is that the spain hotel is half board and the us self-catered. Not done my aus one yet.

Last minute deals ftw!

My dads friend always books teletext holidays!!!