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Family Vacation Association founded -

In 1903, the Association Familiale de Vacances (Family Vacation Association) was founded at Chatelaillon in France. Its first holiday premises, Rayon de Soleil, opened not as a hotel but as a mansion where family and friends could meet and relax. In many ways the association represented the forerunner of the holiday camp concept.

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Caister Holiday Camp -

Caister Holiday Camp in Norfolk opened for business in 1906. It was one of the first permanent camps under canvas tents established in England. By the early 1920s, Caister Camp and others around Great Britain were beginning to include hut-based accommodation.

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Holidays in the German Empire -

In the German Empire, meanwhile, Berlin children could take advantage of the holiday camps established throughout the country in the early years of the 20th century. Pictured are new arrivals headed by their marching band.

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Workhouse camps -

In England around the same time, holiday camps were organized for girls and boys whose parents were ensconced in workhouses. In Britain, a workhouse was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. Pictured are youngsters at the Islington workhouse camp on Canvey Island on the River Thames, London.

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Berlin holiday camp -

Four boys carry between them three milk churns at a Berlin holiday camp in the early summer of 1914, just before the start of the First World War.

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Summer camp for holidaymakers -

In the 1920s, Ladispoli, a seaside town located near Rome, operated a modest but popular summer camp for holidaymakers. The camp, set on the Mediterranean coast, was frequented mainly by Romans seeking respite from the city heat.

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Potters Camp -

In 1920, Herbert Potter, inspired by Caister Holiday Camp, opened Potters Camp at a site in Hemsby, Norfolk. Still in operation, it is today known as Potters Resort. Pictured are a group of 1920's bathing beauties.

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Warners Holiday Camp -

Potters Camp effectively kick-started the idea of the traditional British holiday camp. In 1931, Harry Warner opened the first Warners Holiday Camp on Hayling Island in Hampshire.

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Butlin's Holiday Camp -

The first Butlin's holiday camp to open was in Skegness, Lincolnshire, in 1936. Butlin's is perhaps the name most synonymous with the UK's holiday camp industry.

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Fun for the under privileged -

High Beech Holiday Camp in Essex offered holidays and recreation options to less-privileged members of the public living in East London.

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Popular vacation option -

By the mid-1930s, the previously mentioned Caister Holiday Camp was one of the most popular vacation destinations in Great Britain, welcoming thousands every summer from around the UK.

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On the right track -

England in the 1930s saw a new tourism product come on line—quite literally! Redundant railway coaches were being converted by railroad companies to provide holiday accommodation for those seeking a little something different from the ubiquitous holiday camp. Here, vacationing women have set up a wind-up gramophone on the roof of their carriage.

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One-track minds -

Introduced in 1933, the camping railway coach idea proved popular with families who appreciated the novel accommodation option for its spacious interior and the privacy it afforded.

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Social Services School Camp -

For kids from less well-off families in the 1930s, a vacation often meant staying in what was known as a Social Services School Camp. These happy schoolgirls are guests of such a camp at Rhoose in Glamorgan, Wales. They are waiting patiently for the candy shop to open. 

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Prestatyn Holiday Camp -

By 1939, there were around 200 holiday camps in the United Kingdom, at different seaside locations. Pictured is Thomas Cook's huge 1,700-person Prestatyn Holiday Camp in North Wales.

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Continental holiday scene -

Back on the continent, European holiday camps could be found in numerous locations in France, Germany, Italy and elsewhere. Pictured in 1935 are teenagers at an outdoors facility in Le Parc de Villeneuve l'Étang in Hauts-de-Seine, near Paris.

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Italy -

Rimini in Italy hosted a large holiday camp for families in the 1930s. The northern Italian city, which lies along the Adriatic Sea, is still a hugely popular vacation destination.

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France -

French holiday company Colonies de Vacances, which today operates as Vacances pour Tous, specialized in placing families in summer camps, the emphasis being on activities for youngsters. This photograph was taken in 1938.

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Holiday camp or military establishment? -

By the late 1930s, the dark shadow of conflict was shrouding much of Europe. Holiday camps took on a decidedly military complexion. In Italy, for example, boys attending the Lodolo all'abetone summer camp were expected to undergo physical training.

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A vacation with a purpose -

Meanwhile in Germany, Hitler Youth members also took part in activities closely resembling military training, with weapons familiarization, assault course circuits, and basic fighting tactics included in the 'holiday' program. Likewise, the League of German Girls—the female section of the Hitler Youth—were sent on vacation to become indoctrinated into the beliefs and ideals of the Nazi regime.

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The holiday camp becomes a refugee camp -

With war looming, Great Britain welcomed refugees from fascist Europe, with dozens of holiday camps providing accommodation for displaced youngsters, many of them German Jewish children. Here a young boy staying at Dovercourt Bay Holiday Camp, near Harwich in Essex, queues up for lunch.

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Requisitioned for the war -

With the outbreak of war, the British government realized they could save time and money by requisitioning the many holiday camps around the country rather than building purpose-built camps for training, stationing troops, internment, and for housing refugees and workers. Pictured in 1940 are Royal Navy recruits arriving at HMS Arthur, formerly the Butlin's holiday camp at Skegness.

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Swinging out in Switzerland -

One country that still operated holiday camps as such during the Second World War was neutral Switzerland. Here, children of emigrants have fun at a summer camp in Ascona, with many no doubt hoping to rejoin their parents at some point.

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Post-war summer camps -

At the end of the war in Europe, members of the French Army in Sulz am Neckar, Germany, were among the first to organize a post-war summer camp for children, these being the offspring of French nationals.

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Holidays for all -

Peace in Europe saw a resurgence of the holiday camp model. People everywhere were seeking a place to relax and have fun. The local authorities in Brighton in England organized a holiday camp for children in 1946. Guest included local kids as well as youngsters chosen from 10 European nations.

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Pontin's Holiday Camp -

In 1946, Fred Pontin founded Pontin's. He opened his first holiday camp on the site of a former US army base at Brean Sands near Weston-super-Mare in Somerset. It marked the heyday of the British holiday camp phenomenon.

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European holidays -

In Europe, too, holiday camps began to reopen, or new ones built. Here in 1947, a group of children wave as they wait for the departure of their train in a railway station in Paris en route to a summer camp in Belgium.

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New vacation opportunities -

From the end of the war through the 1950s and into the mid-1960s, the holiday camp industry thrived, both in Great Britain and across Europe. Germany, slowly rebuilding itself, made a special effort to attract families and children to its new vacation facilities.

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The employee vacation model -

With industry back on its feet, some Italian companies purpose built holiday camps for their employees. The large white tower seen here in 1955 marks the centerpiece of a holiday camp built for the children of Fiat workers in Marina De Massa on the Tuscan coast. The landmark building still stands today.

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"Holiday camp kings" -

Through the 1970s and 1980s, the lure of the holiday camp diminished, at least in the UK, as people began to holiday overseas. Many of the original camps have since closed, with just a few catering to nostalgic Brits seeking a traditional staycation. Pictured in 1965 are the so-called "holiday camp kings"—Billy Butlin, Bill Warner, Fred Pontin, and Alan Warner. 

Sources: (British Newspaper Archive) (Great Yarmouth Mercury) (North Wales Live) (The National Holocaust Centre and Museum)

see also: How to get the most out of your next vacation

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