Love at first flight! Romance struck for lucky Lisa and Jamie Hobbs when they met by chance on an £800 package holiday with TUI to Tenerife in 2019
“Who doesn’t love a package holiday? But I’m prepared to bet that my husband Jamie and I are bigger fans than most – we met and fell in love on one! Sun, sea, sand… and the prospect of lots and lots of sex – a package holiday has all the elements needed for romance,” says Lisa Hobbs, 58, a PA from Ferndown, Dorset.
“We both booked a five day weekend break to Tenerife with TUI in 2019, Jamie to a four star hotel in Adeje and me in the nearby Marylanza Hotel in Playa de las Americas. We paid around £800 each for flights and accommodation. Waiting to board the plane I kept seeing a good looking man. He was glancing at me too.
“So you can imagine my delight when, mid-flight, Jamie handed me his number – on a TUI sick bag. We started messaging straightaway and arranged to meet the next night at a bar. ‘If I can do a magic trick and move my glasses without touching, you have to give me a kiss,’ Jamie said.
“‘Even if he doesn’t, I’m still going to kiss him,’ I thought to myself. It was love at first sight. I’ll never forget that first smooch – there were fireworks. We met the next day, and the day after that.”
Once home, Jamie, 59, who owns a maintenance company, and Lisa only lived 90 minutes apart, so became inseparable. She says: “We were intimate for the first time around Christmas time, and it was better than any present. In September 2021, on the way to Lanzarote, Jamie proposed to me in the same spot in Bournemouth airport where we met. And in September 2023 we married on a boat in Cyprus – on a package holiday, no less!
“I wrote my wedding speech on a TUI sick bag – it seemed only right. Jamie is everything I ever wanted in a man. He has me howling with laughter and is kind and caring. He’s a great kisser too.
“After we got together, it became clear how meant to be we truly were. Both married before – we have three grown up daughters between us – our divorce papers came through within two weeks of each other. Before we met, Jamie went to an Absolute 80s weekend at Butlins. I was supposed to be there too, but dropped out at the last minute.
“And six months before we met in Tenerife, we’d both been at the same hotel in Majorca. In fact, when a friend of mine was clearing old videos off her phone about five years after Jamie and I met, she came across a video of him at that very hotel. There he was, my future husband, the love of my life, just waiting for me to meet him six months later on the package holiday that would change both our lives. We kept missing each other by inches.
“Our paths crossed so many times. If there was ever a couple that was meant to be… it’s us. And the romance bug is catching. Recently, we flew with TUI to Austria with my daughter Lauren and her partner, and they got engaged on top of a mountain – another package holiday proposal! They really are the perfect place for love. We’ve been the image of happiness ever since. I’m still blissfully in love with my package holiday romance.”
Jamie says: “‘You’re going marry that lady’, my friend whispered to me as we locked eyes in the departure lounge. He was right – it was a real sliding doors moment. Although, he was a bit annoyed when I was glued to my phone all holiday, texting Lisa. Ping, ping, ping it went – all day and all night he long.
We had a holiday cuddle and kiss in Tenerife. But it wasn’t til our festive romp back home that I realised I’d pulled a cracker. We’ve never really had a proper argument, and I pinch myself every day waking up with Lisa. Thanks to our serendipitous package holiday, we have everything we ever wanted.”
