Thanks for the memories – past and those still to come

The Holiday Property Bond proved ideal…

The principle of unitised investment was not new to me so perhaps I wasn’t as initially dubious about HPB as some. I could appreciate the essential difference between HPB and the dreaded timeshare.

There was a bonus for us with the size of investment we made, in that we could also have Holiday Points-free breaks at short notice as long as we could organise ourselves well enough.

In the years which have passed, we have been to seven resorts in the UK and 10 in Europe. We haven’t been able to keep pace with the expansion in the UK where there are now nine sites we still have to try.

When we flick through ‘our’ portfolio in preparation for our next booking, it’s like looking at a family photograph album.

Ah, Biniorella! We must go back there again soon. It is our favourite isn’t it? There’s the pool where Charlie learned to swim.

Look, Stigliano! Sitting at our table having a ‘sundowner’; listening to the city of Siena, across the valley.

Good old Le Manoir! Was it really February when we had that heatwave and it was too hot to play tennis? But we did, every day.

Constant! What was the name of that restaurant? The one in the village – by the church and the stream. Best steak I’ve had – ever.

What about St Brides? Those walks along the coastal path. Charlie on your back in that carrying sack. The first time she ever went in a swimming pool was in a castle – how cool is that?

Remember Tigh Mor? The sense of achievement when we all climbed to the top of Ben A’an.

Oh look, dear old Rocha Brava. Our first HPB holiday.

In our two decades-plus as Bondholders, HPB has fulfilled its promises. Through automatic inflation-proofing, our annual Points entitlement would still be enough to stay at Rocha Brava for two weeks in high season but we have “topped up” so that we can go to a wider range of locations.

The standard of properties and their facilities has remained exceptionally high.

Now that we are empty-nesters and only need one-bedroom properties, our Points go further. More holidays! We expect to catch up with those as-yet-unvisited British sites. We want to stay in one of the Trulli too. There’s the new site in Almeria. New memories are waiting for us to take them up as retirement beckons. We can’t wait!