How to plan your family summer holiday

How to plan your family summer holiday

It is only a matter of days before we jet off to sunny Majorca on our first family holiday, yay! I am so excited but also very stressed, I can’t stop worrying about taking Leo on a plane. As far as the whole holiday planning goes though, I have found it all pretty easy and much less stressful than I was expecting.

If you are thinking of planning your first family holiday too, here are my tips for making holiday planning stress free and fun without using a travel agent.

How to plan your family summer holiday 

 * Decide what kind of holiday you want *

Are you picturing your family lounging on a gorgeous Mediterranean beach or eating pastries in a beautiful French Chateau? Perhaps you’re looking for a more adventure filled holiday or want to travel off the continent. To help you plan your holiday, it’s important to decide what you want from your trip and this will help you choose your destination and accommodation. Leo is only 22months old so we decided that a self catering holiday in Majorca, staying in an apartment was going to be best for us. This way Leo will have his own bedroom so Oli and I are able to enjoy some alone time in the evenings. We used owners direct to find our appartment, this website is great for searching through holiday rentals and reading reviews. If you’re travelling with small children you also need to consider the flight duration. Majorca is only a 2.5hour flight away, that’s  approximately 5 episodes of Night Garden, that’s totally doable (I hope!). Any longer on a flight with an almost 2 year old sounds like my idea of hell.

* Shop around for flights and be flexible *
When looking for flights you can save a fair bit of cash just by being flexible with the airport and day you want to fly. We saved over £100 just by changing the airport from Cardiff to Bristol and flying on a Monday instead of a Saturday. That £100 can be changed into euros or put towards savings for your next holiday.

* Don’t forget the little things *
If you are used to arranging your hollybobs through a travel agent then it can be easy to forget about the small boring things. Make sure you get yourself and your family travel insurance, we found a great deal for the 3 of us using Money Supermarket. For a stress free arrival to your accomodation, book your airport transfers in advance. In all the excitement of searching through golden beaches and amazing hotels, don’t forget to book your car in for it’s holiday too. We have paid just over £30  to park at Bristol airport for the week, we were very happy with that.

* Plan ahead *
The earlier you get everything booked and paid for, the more time you have to hit the shops and buy your holiday wardrobe. Our holiday has been paid off since April and over the last couple months we have been buying everything from suncream to swimsuits, to bikinis and even a pop up beach tent. It feels so good knowing everything is payed off and we have been able to just spend the last 8 weeks getting more and more excited.

* Do your research *
Before you make your final decision do some research to see if where you are staying has everything you need. As we are going self catering we wanted to make sure there was going to be lots of shops and restaurants close by. We are not renting a car so it was important for us that the beach, shops etc are all in walking distance.  Google Earth is great for checking out the area where you are staying. Get on TripAdvisor and read some reviews, people are very honest on there and it will give you a good idea of what to expect while you are away.

I can’t wait to be running around on the beach with my family, soaking up the sun and making lots of memories.

Are you thinking of planning a family holiday or are you jetting off somewhere soon too? I hope you have a great time. If you hve anymore holiday planning tips I’d love for you to share them.

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how to plan your family summer holiday

 

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6 Comments

  1. Baby Isabella
    June 12, 2015 / 12:12 pm

    Great tips! We're usually not that flexible with travel times because of naps….Leo sounds excited! #TheList Have a good holiday! We're at festivals this summer instead 🙂

  2. June 12, 2015 / 4:16 pm

    Well our flight is at 6 in the morning so his routine is going to be all over the place!thanks lovely, we are all excited!Ohh wow, what festivals you going to?sounds fun xx

  3. Cuddle Fairy
    June 12, 2015 / 9:15 pm

    What a fantastic set of tips. Have a wonderful beach holiday! I'm looking forward to hearing all about it 🙂 #TheList

  4. June 13, 2015 / 9:05 am

    Thanks hun, just checked the weather though and it's gong to rain the first 3 days!xx

  5. June 17, 2015 / 9:05 pm

    Plan? research? Shop around? this is a whole new world to me!! Thankfully my husband is much better at all that – I get into it once I'm there and then absorb all the guidebooks and wonder why I didn't do this in advance! Great post, thanks for linking up to #TheList xx

  6. July 2, 2015 / 2:29 pm

    If I didn't do any of if we would never have gone on holiday! Thanks for hosting xx