‘Oldies’ spurn the safe havens

In response to Iain Murray (MW April 30), don’t imagine all Saga holidaymakers look for handrails, level promenades, evening bingo and tea and coffee-making facilities when choosing their holidays. The “old fossils” set – to which I am sure Mr Murray is now admitted – have had the chance to visit “places where the air hangs heavy with menace” with Saga for some years.

For example, they can stay in Havana where they are warned they should not to stray far from their hotel; Bhutan where Joanna Lumley proved the old folks can cope with thinning air; Los Angeles where a group of 30 people constitutes a “gang”, in or out of an air-conditioned coach; and I have, myself, accompanied them through a souk in Morocco where shouting, harrassing tradesmen breathe the oppressive stench of poverty into your fear-filled face.

I was a sprightly copywriter for Saga Holidays just a few years ago, and frankly (now aged 27) would prefer a Saga scrabble holiday in Torquay and a nice cup of tea to visiting an opium-growing hill tribe in Thailand – which many of the over-50s opt for.

In holiday parlance, I rest my case.

Steve Lodge

Copywriter

Totternhoe

Beds