Beware your local travel agent’s

When you’re sitting at home flicking through the bunch of holiday brochures you picked up from your local high street travel agent, you never really think to yourself: ‘This will be the holiday that will change my life’, do you? Granted you might think: ‘This will be the holiday that will leave me broke for the rest of the year.’ Or: ‘This will be the holiday that I finally learn to speak the local lingo.’ Or even: ‘This will be the holiday where I won’t snog random strangers.’ But I doubt very strongly that you’ll be thinking: ‘This will be the holiday that will change my life.’

But last year this was exactly what happened to me: a cheap last-minute seven-night package holiday changed my life in a way I never could have imagined. And I don’t mean change like making the decision to re-decorate the hallway when you get back, or to give up smoking (again), or even changing careers. I’m talking about a big change. A life change. A change that might not seem huge if you’re prime minister of England but if you’re say, a thirty-five-year-old man working for Brighton and Hove city council, and you’ve just split up with your girlfriend after ten years together, it will seem huge.

I’m talking about a change that spins you round one-hundred-and-eighty degrees. I’m talking about a change that hits you like a bolt of lightning. I’m talking about the kind of change that lasts a lifetime. I can still barely believe it. But it’s the truth: a cheap package holiday changed my life completely. So take it from me, if change isn’t exactly what you’re looking for in life just beware your local travel agent’s.