They are snapshots of a bygone age when foreign holidays were adventurous, exotic and simply had to be recorded with a postcard to home.

Millions of beach, street, hotel, matador and flamenco dancer postcards washed through the British postal system every summer as tourists discovered the Spanish Costas and revelled in sun, sangria and souvenirs in the 1970s.

A treasure trove of postcards sent from Spain has just emerged and with it a fascinating glimpse of a culture in which observations of distant lands would only navigate the chicanes of European postal systems long after you got home.

The worn and faded postcards are coming to light in house clearances as a generation, who kept them in albums, folders and shoe boxes for decades, de-clutter to discover what are now regarded as important societal insights.

Measuring less than six by four inches, they lay bare the need travellers had to share their experiences as they took their first steps into unchartered territories.

They existed in a different age when ‘abroad’ was largely unknown and the dense beachside developments of modern resorts a distant dream. 

There was no internet, no Facebook, no Instagram, no mobile phones and no phone calls unless you had deep pockets and were prepared to endure the time delay, echoes and crackles that frustrated early international telephone exchanges.

Postcard messages, with breathless detail often crammed onto every available square inch of space, were the only way to relay the exciting, amazing – sometimes ‘awful’ – experience of ‘going abroad’ in the pioneering days of package holidays.

Pat tells her friend in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, that there is ‘so much to do’ in Majorca: ‘Dancing every evening somewhere. Went shopping on bicycles. Today bought shoes.’ 

She also marked her hotel with an X in pen on the cover image of Mallorca resort scene.

Many British tourists lapped up the entertainment that was staged by the fast growing hotel sector in Spain and Jean and Bill wrote home in praise of the hotel buffet and revealed: ‘Last night there was a leather fashion show and tonight there is folk dancing.’

Many of the cards date to the early 1970s and feature views of emerging resorts such as Benidorm, Fuengirola and Magaluf before their hotels, bars, restaurants and apartments colonised the coastal strips.

Postcards were also a way to get creative and spread the fun with Steve, writing back to Chislehurst, Kent, channelling the Shipping Forecast for his resume: ‘Spaniards very good, friendly, tolerable. 

‘Women very very good, plentiful, abundant. Drinking very good, very varied, usually successful.’

Rod treated Mary and John back in Yeovil to sketches of a wine bottle, cocktails, a filled champagne bucket and a filleted fish on a plate to illustrate his fun-fuelled holiday and added a cheery ‘Someone said something about a drink so must be off’ to his artistic effort.

The freedom to drink round the clock – British pubs were still subject to restrictive licensing hours – and on a budget was a popular theme running through the postcards that are being sold on the internet. 

Kev tells his parents in Northampton that the weather is not good but ‘you can drink all night’. 

He finishes ‘I’m off down the pub’.

Rose and Bob marvel to their friends in Gillingham: ‘I am drinking your health with a double rum and Coca Cola 2s 6d (12p)’ while Mike and John can scarcely contain their thrill at a night around the clubs where ‘wine, brandy, cognac etc is about 5s 6d (26p) a bottle.’

Leah and Bert tell friends in Northampton that the hotel is A1 and there is ‘plenty of cheap wallop so we can’t grumble’ while Greg informs the typing pool slaving away at Halton Borough Council in Cheshire that he is ‘keeping the bars busy’ in Salou.

The cards poured through letter boxes radiating sunshine across Britain with many spreading their joy, and jealousy, to work family, friends, colleagues and even schoolteachers.

Exposure to the scorching sun is a recurring topic with Pauline and Alan telling their aunty and uncle stuck in Bristol that they were being careful as they were ‘a little burnt already’ and Annie and Billy tell friends in Newcastle: ‘we are as brown as berries’.

A reminder of home is always welcome with Vicky, revelling in the decadence of ‘writing this on the balcony while my hair dries’, telling family in Wimborne Minster, Dorset: ‘Thanks to our courier we’ve found a very good disco that plays 90% English records.’

Ann writes back from Mallorca to her mum in Harrow: ‘The food is really awful though, they need to get an M&S up here.’ 

Missing luggage was a constant concern of the early package tours and Jean laments that a suitcase turned up in Lisbon while she and husband Eric were in Ibiza. ‘Poor Eric,’ she wrote to the Walkers in Blackpool. ‘Imagine having nothing to wear?’. 

But the lack of clothing didn’t dim their enjoyment as she continued about the fantastic weather revealing: ‘Eric is like a bronzed God – me like a boiled lobster, covered with blisters, insect bites and freckles.

‘Food is very good. I will be in the Roly Poly league by the time we come back.’ She too had little faith in the postal system, signing off: ‘I expect we will see you before this card arrives.’

Holidaymakers ‘B & S’ wrote back to Blackpool about the entertainment on offer informing the Robertsons: ‘We had a game of bingo in the hotel last night. Mum won a large giraffe.’

The sense of adventure is peppered through many of the cards with a group from a Somerset building firm taunting stay-at-home colleagues about their time in the ‘playgrounds of Europe’. 

They add: ‘Weather is glorious and England seems 10,000 miles away.’

They were indeed trailblazers as around only four million Brits a year ventured to Spain in the early 1970s compared to the budget airlines boom of the 1990s when numbers soared and reached the record of 17 million in 2019.

‘In the 1970s, Spain was for many of us the first experience of an overseas holiday and the Spanish offered up a version of the country based around Flamenco dancers, paella and sangria but also some traditional home comforts from the UK, like English breakfasts and Sunday roasts,’ says Sean Tipton, of the Association of British Travel Agents. 

‘Most tourists were thrilled to let people know how good it was via a postcard.’

Cultural historian and author Dr Alwyn Turner reveals that foreign travel was still a novelty with around 7 million holidaying abroad in 1975 – around 12% of the population – compared to the 40% that headed abroad this year.

‘It was a minority in the 1970s so it was an adventure,’ says Dr Turner, a senior lecturer in history at the University of Chichester. 

‘The real shift doesn’t come until the cheap air travel of the 1990s and by 2000 we took more than 36 million foreign holidays a year.

‘Those early tourists were keen to tell family and friends about the weird and wonderful things they encountered and what they were doing and, of course, there was an element of the brag about some of the postcards.

‘They have sociological relevance because it is people communicating about how they experience foreign culture and this was at a time when the UK was looking to join the European Union. There is a cultural importance because these were the first stirrings of a European interaction.’

The physical signs of exposure to different cultures came in the giant sombreros, stuffed toy donkeys, maracas and wine bottles that were crammed into luggage for the return trip but a deeper impact is revealed in the lexicon of the cards.

The postcards are being viewed as an important window on British culture and Steve Kentfield, Honorary Secretary of the Postcard Traders’ Association, comments: ‘Some of the cards will have a value because of the rare photographs but they are mainly important because of their social history.

‘Millions were sent every year but, although many people kept them for a while, most were thrown away so they are not as common as you’d imagine. 

Travelling abroad by plane was still very new in those days and there was no other way of telling people about it other than a postcard.’

The age of wide-eyed wonder has gone but it remains time-locked in batches of dog-eared postcards that once delivered joy.

A couple from Hull have been left angry and upset by the ‘depressing’ state of their four-star hotel during a trip to Bulgaria.

They described the hotel as being like ‘an abandoned building from the 1970s’, claiming to have spotted live cables at a child’s height and dangerous paving.

Chris Sunman and his partner Nicky booked a holiday to the eastern European country in May and were looking forward to their stay in the upmarket Fenix Hotel at the Sunny Beach resort on the Black Sea coast. They booked through TUI, but the break was offered by Balkan Holidays.

However, upon arrival, they were ‘mortified’ by the state of the hotel, which they claim looked nothing like the images in the brochures.

Chris said: ‘The room was totally rundown with shabby furniture, skirting boards coming away from the wall, chips and stains on the coffee table and furniture. The shower enclosure was rusty and old with cracked and broken tiles.

‘Outside and in the communal areas, which were equally rundown, we identified safety issues with light fittings taped up, with plastic cups covering the poolside light fittings. There was a disgusting pool shower area, broken and uneven paving around the pool area, exposed live wires on light fittings hanging from walls at a child’s height and unkempt garden areas.’

He added: ‘This was absolutely not the four-star experience we had expected. To say we were upset is an understatement.

‘This experience ruined the whole holiday, it was a depressing place to be and we couldn’t wait to get home. We had booked half board, but based on the condition of the hotel there was no way on earth we were going to eat the food there, so we spent as much time as we could away from the hotel.’

The couple, from Wawne, near Hull, made a complaint on the second day of their holiday, not only because they felt that the hotel looked shabby, but also because they feared that some of the issues might be potentially dangerous.

Chris said: ‘When booking we asked for a four-star hotel and was offered the Fenix Hotel, Sunny Beach, Bulgaria. We were shown images on screen in the store where we booked and paid for the holiday there and then. On arrival at the hotel we were horrified by the exterior appearance. It looked nothing like the images we were shown on screen, it looked more like an abandoned building from the 1970’s.’

Chris listed a number of issues that he claims to have noticed at the hotel, which included: external light fittings hanging off walls with exposed wires, poolside lamp posts with taped up fittings, and ‘dangerous’ uneven paving on two separate sets of steps.

He also listed: bodged cementing around the poolside, much of which was already breaking away, unkempt footpaths and grass areas, rusty railings on the balconies, and sheets of glass not secured to the balcony correctly, as well as stained carpets in most of communal areas and a large sheet of steel with exposed edges on the poolside.

The couple have since been left frustrated by their attempts to complain about the state of the hotel.

Chris said: ‘I was astonished by the response from Balkan Holidays, saying none of the issues we raised were safety concerns and that their own findings confirmed that the hotel was to four-star standards.

‘We booked with TUI, face to face at a TUI store and paid TUI for a package holiday. We did this on the assumption that using a reputable company we could rest assured we would get what we asked for. 

‘We complained to TUI customer service on the first morning of our holiday, sending photographic evidence of the condition of the hotel. They responded saying they would “look into our complaint” and to please bear with them. The following day they offered to move us to another hotel, but explained there would be extra costs, at our expense.

‘When we asked for confirmation of the costs and an explanation why it would be at our expense they didn’t respond. Instead they said the hotel was not a TUI hotel, therefore any problems had to be taken up directly with the hotel owners, Balkan Holidays.’

He added: ‘We were left exhausted, angry, frustrated and upset by the whole experience. We have drawn a black with both TUI and Balkan Holidays, neither of which are accepting any responsibility or wrongdoing and left us with no option but to report the case to ABTA.

‘I would understand to some extent if we had booked a two-star budget hotel, but we booked a four-star hotel with TUI and paid TUI for a four-star package holiday. TUI have completely exonerated themselves from any responsibility at the first sign of a problem.’

A spokeswoman for TUI said the company had no say in the hotel’s rating and acted only as a booking agent. 

She said: ‘This hotel isn’t a TUI hotel and is a Balkans Holiday property. The holiday wasn’t booked as part of a TUI package holiday, or a TUI third-party package holiday – we were just the booking agent for the trip and not the holiday operator.

‘The four-star rating in question is Balkan Holiday’s rating, not ours, and we do not sell the hotel on our website.’

ABTA confirmed it had received a referral from Chris, but said it could not go into detail.

A spokesperson said: ‘It is not appropriate for us to comment on individual cases, Mr Sunman has lodged a dispute with us and we responded accordingly on the August 30, via our portal. Mr Sunman can log in to his case and view our response in detail and we hope that the matter will be resolved amicably with our member.’

Balkan Holidays said it was aware of the complaint, but said it would deal directly with Chris to address the issues. 

A spokeswoman said: ‘We take all customer complaints seriously and are committed to ensuring the highest standards of safety and service for our guests. We are already in direct contact with Chris Sunman regarding his concerns and are actively working to resolve the issue.

‘While we cannot discuss the specifics of an individual customer’s experience publicly, please rest assured that we are taking all necessary steps to investigate the matter thoroughly. We believe that the most constructive way forward is to resolve this issue directly with our valued customer.’