Urlaubsflug Simulator – Holiday Flight Simulator

My spreadsheet instinct kicked in immediately when I saw the aircraft roster: an Airbus A320 and a Beechcraft Baron, covering the full range from short training hops to European airline routes. That is not a complaint in itself. Focused scope can work beautifully when the systems underneath are well-built. The problem Holiday Flight Simulator runs into is that its systems are deliberately, aggressively shallow, and the game never quite decides how honest it wants to be about that. The core loop lets you choose between a free-flight mode between any two of the nine included airports and a career mode that adds some structure to the proceedings. The airport list covers recognizable European holiday destinations: Dusseldorf, Palma de Mallorca, London Heathrow, Nice, among others. The apron scenery includes animated luggage carts, pushback trucks, and jet bridges, and a day-night cycle gives the airports a decent sense of atmosphere. Real air traffic control voice recordings layer on a thin coating of authenticity that is genuinely appreciated. None of that is nothing. For five minutes at gate, before you actually start flying, this feels like it could deliver. Then the flight dynamics hit. The hands-off, beginner-first philosophy means the A320 handles more like a menu option than an aircraft. Player reviews consistently flag the same two frustrations: the step-by-step hand-holding gets repetitive fast, and the limited aircraft count leaves nothing to graduate into once you have done the route a few times. Veterans comparing this to FSX or X-Plane are going to feel the absence of proper flight model depth immediately. Even the career mode, which should provide structure and progression, feels thin because the underlying simulation cannot support the weight of long-term engagement. Where I think the game does earn partial credit is as a genuine first-contact experience for someone who has never touched a flight sim and wants to understand what gate-to-gate flow looks like without spending forty hours on tutorials. The procedural checklist guidance, the ATC voice work, and the forgiving physics mean a complete novice can finish a flight from Dusseldorf to Palma and feel something resembling what a pilot feels. That is not nothing. As a proof-of-concept for whether the genre is for you before investing in a serious sim setup, it does the job. But the ceiling is low, and you will find it quickly. There is no mod ecosystem to speak of, no third-party add-on market, and no post-launch content expansion that meaningfully changes the picture. The graphics were serviceable at launch in 2017 and have not aged particularly well. If you have already played any major sim platform, this will feel like a step backward rather than a relaxing diversion. The honest audience here is narrow: someone who wants the visual loop of airport-to-airport European flying with zero learning overhead and no intention of going deeper.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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