Our ultimate wish list for an awesome family holiday
There’s nothing more exciting than planning your next holiday, especially in that lull after the buzz of Christmas and New Year. January is the peak time for families to start thinking about their travel plans for the year ahead. But what to do and where to go? For us, thinking about our must-visit destinations, what we want to do there and the type of places we’d love to stay makes up our ultimate wish list for an awesome family holiday.
With this in hand, we can start scouring the web for travel inspiration. So, what do we look for when planning our perfect family getaway? The holiday experts at asked us to share all!
An awesome family holiday
Before becoming parents, foreign holidays were a delightful mix of relaxing by the pool with a cocktail or two, enjoying hikes along dramatic coastlines and exploring iconic and historical sights. We’d dine out at local restaurants and enjoy the freedom of catering for ourselves while on camping, cottage or villa holidays. Barbecues and alfresco eating have always been a must during our holidays!
Now, with two pre-schoolers in tow, the pace and execution of our holidays has changed a bit (read: there are less cocktails by the pool), but we still enjoy a mix of relaxation and exploring in our holidays.
Our girls have also added to our wish list with their own requirements for an awesome family holiday. They love building sandcastles on picturesque beaches, splashing around in the pool and finding new and exciting places to play. Their lust for sightseeing is in its infancy, but we continue to crave new experiences, so we plan our adventures in bite-sized chunks rather than lengthy expeditions. We also often holiday with their grandparents to give us a bit of a break and share some quality family time.
Our ultimate holiday wish list
All in all, our ultimate wish list for the perfect family holiday looks something like this:
Finding a family holiday we’ll love
We’ve tried a lot of different holiday styles and self-catering breaks always tick a lot of boxes on our wish list. Staying in a cottage or villa also allows us to do things at our own pace. This is particularly important when kiddie naps and early dinner times still feature in our daily routine.
You have a lot more choice over your destination when staying in in a villa over a hotel or resort. You can find a place that meets your personal wish list; whether you want to stay close to bustling town centres, in the heart of the peaceful countryside or within walking distance of a beach. It’s also not hard to find a place with a lot of activities and family friendly features like gated pools, especially when you book with a company like Villa Plus.
It will come as no surprise that self-catering breaks are going to feature high on our list of adventures in 2017. How about you? What’s your idea of an awesome family holiday?
Disclosure: this is a sponsored post written with . All opinions are my own and those of my family.
This is a great wishlist, Claire! 🙂
Oh completely agree Claire! We love self catering holidays. They provide us with the space and flexibility we need as a family and also allow us to keep our holiday spending down a little by dining in, usually fir two out of three meals a day. Not heard of Villa Plus before, I’ll check them out;)
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I love eating out but it can be so expensive. Self-catering really does help with the family budget!
These would be on our list too. We’ve stayed at my aunties private villa and it’s lovely being able to do things at your own pace and have your own pool. Eilidh x
It’s doing things at your own pace that really sells it to me, especially with little ones. They have a completely different time table to everyone else 🙂
I keep dreaming of a foreign holiday, I’m hoping I win the lottery at some point to help with that dream 😉 A villa break sounds amazing and your wish lists sounds perfect to me!
Stevie x
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Step aside, that lottery win is mine 😉 We were really lucky last year and won our foreign holiday. The problem is that it’s reminded me how much fun they can be. Now we just need to find the pennies!
When I was little we always stayed in villas, and I never really appreciated how much nicer they were for privacy and flexibility. I haven’t been able to take my children yet, but one day I hope to.
We’re yet to have our first villa escape with our girls too. Having experienced a few cottage holidays with them in the UK we can’t wait to try a self-catering break aboard too.
We’re desperate for a family holiday this year and have pretty much the same requirements as you! We did look at kids club type places but I think we’d just hate them. Thanks for sharing this website, it looks fab and hopefully we’ll find our holiday through it!
Kids clubs aren’t for everyone. We’ve had a good experience but it’s not something we’d look for every holiday. I think self-catering gives you many more possibilities for quality family time. Good luck with your holiday plans!
Totally agree on your check list and on taking shorter breaks. Self catering is definitely the way we go, as it’s so much cheaper & easier with young kids. Villas with a pool are a great option for a relaxing break. We’re just doing the same – thinking ahead to what holidays we want to book this year. Exciting! I love the planning stage!
Me too – absolutely love it! There’s something so exciting about getting plans in place and then knowing you’ve got a few more months to stay dream about them before the big day when you travel!
I never saw the appeal of a villa holiday until our first one a few years back. Now it is my first choice for going away as a family. Having your own space to relax and take over without feeling guilty that room service keep picking up after the kids or stressing over meal times at a resort means the holiday is a lot more relaxed. Villa holidays when you have young kids are a must.
That’s exactly how I feel. It’s so much less stressful when you can decide your own meal times and don’t have to make awkward apologies to the hotel staff when the kids have pulled all the bedding onto the floor…again! 🙂
I think this would all be on our list of requirements for a family holiday too yet we’ve never thought of a Villa holiday before. It might just the thing for us for next summer x
You should definitely give it a go Donna. It’s so convenient with little people.
We love to travel with our caravan. Although I sometimes miss the luxury of a villa or appartment, being on a campsite has its advantages too. And of course, great weather, and a beach or pool nearby are also on our wish list 🙂
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A lot of our breaks are in our caravan too and that is quite luxurious compared to a tent, but there’s something extra luxurious about a real bed and the possibility of a dish washer 🙂
We love the flexibility of a villa has to offer too. Although it has been a few years since we have been on one. We also love self catering as we can have meals when we want and not when the hotel tells us. Oh and somewhere with nice weather is always a plus, we always seem to have wet weather in Scotland! haha (Happy New Year to you and your family) x
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Happy New Year to you too Sam! I think being able to decide when you eat is one of the biggest things for us, especially with little kids whose tummy’s rumble most of the day!
Totally agree – I love the flexibility of having your own space in a villa, especially a pool too, and there are some great locations and ones with great facilities too.
Cathy (Mummytravels) recently posted…The December round-up: my travel essentials
Oh, the locations! On a wet January day like today I could really do with a little bit of Villa Plus sunshine!