The way we were: From frolicking on the beach to surfing, a look back at how package holidays began as a break for the rich

By Michael Gadd

Published: 05:25 EDT, 29 June 2014 | Updated: 09:19 EDT, 1 July 2014

Package holidays have come a long way since their emergence in the Fifties and Sixties as exclusive getaways for a select few British holidaymakers to the present day.

The way Brits travel has been influenced in a major way by lure of sun and sand and how they've been best able to access it. British European Airways' introduction of a route to Valencia in 1957, with the term Costa Blanca coined for the area as a marketing ploy, saw southern Spanish jaunts boom.

Budget wasn't a word you'd associate with a package break in 1964, when a seven-night holiday in Malta cost £215, a bank account battering £3,787 in today’s money - though that would also include a Morris Minor hire car. Fly-cruise breaks in the late Sixties to popular Caribbean destinations were also only for the well-heeled.

The arrival of low-cost holiday packages in the 1970s changed all that though, when average Brits were able to swap the Canvey Islands for the Costas where a fortnight all-inclusive in Benidorm could cost £78 (£708 today) during peak school holiday period.

In the 1980s Gibraltar and Malta were the places to be while in the 1990s Florida emerged in popularity, while by the Noughties holidaymakers were increasingly heading to Turkey, Egypt and Cyprus. Now Dubai, Abu Dhabi and northern African destinations such as Gambia and Morocco are attracting greater numbers.

'Package holidays became incredibly popular in the 1980s when most "bucket and spade" breaks were taken in sunny European destinations,' said Claire Bentley, British Airways Holidays’ managing director.

'Today we’ve seen a rapid increase in the number of people travelling further a field, and looking for educational, cultural and holistic holidays.'

Exclusive: British and European Airways brochures from the mid-Fifties show animated versions of Malta and the Caribbean, where only the well-heeled could get to - but that all changed when BEA introduced a route to Valencia, near Alicante in eastern Spain, and the term Costa Blanca became synonymous with the Brit break

Luxury: A brochure for an exclusively-priced all-inclusive holiday from 1964 (left) and Spain opening up to the masses in this posted from 1969

Fly and float: The fly-cruise holiday for the wealthy was born in the late-Sixties - flights from London Heathrow to Antiga and a 15-day Caribbean cruise cost more than upwards of £194pp (£2,236 in today¿s money)

Accessible: Low-cost package holidays to Europe were developed in the early-Seventies - seven nights in Majorca would have set you back £45

Long-haul: ‘Poundstretcher’ was British Airways’ first long-haul low-cost holiday offering. Mid-haul destinations like Greece also became popular

Down Under: In 1984, BA launched the first package holidays to Australia

Adventurous: In the 1980s, mid-market family holidays to Gibraltar and Malta were particularly popular with sun-seeking Britons