How to pick the right holiday destination for a trip with the little ones

When you're planning a family holiday, there can be bigger fish to fry before you can even get round to wondering how many buckets and spades to bring or how many pairs of pants will be enough. First things firsts, you have to get the destination right.
Picking the location for a holiday with the kids may seem like an easy task, but there are multiple things you need to consider to ensure that the trip goes smoothly. Here are a few tips surrounding how to pick the right destination for your family holiday:

1.       Weather Check  - Whilst you and your partner may have always dreamt of holidaying in the Caribbean or Dubai, they might not be the most child-friendly destinations just in terms of the weather at certain times of year. Be sure to check average temperatures of the destinations on your shortlist, so you can see what the weather might be like at the time of year that you'd be visiting. If the mercury is going to be topping 30 degrees, you may want to reconsider. Heat of that kind is no fun for kids and you'll have to be ultra careful with sun protection which could mean you'll never be able to properly relax.

2.       Travel Time - Consider how long it's going to take you to get to your destination. If it's a long-haul flight then you may want to change you plans and go somewhere closer to home. Look at resorts in the canary islands, which offer good weather all year round but are only about 4 hours away by flight. Also, ensure that the transfer time is fairly short once you've landed, as there's nothing worse than one long journey after another with the kids in tow. Consider spending the extra on a private transfer, as it saves a lot of hassle at the airport, shortens the travel time and you'll be sipping cocktails at the pool by the time your fellow holidaymakers arrive in a shuttle bus.

3.       Things To Do -  Although mum and dad's idea of a holiday might involve doing as little as possible to get the most from the relaxation, family holidays aren't like that. You need to ensure that wherever you are going has plenty for the youngsters to do, whether it's a kid's club (which will give you a certain amount of time off), or some fun beach activities and excursions. Bored children can lead to tantrums and a ruined holiday.

4.        Budget - Every family wants to hop on the next plane to Disney World with their kids, but you need to be realistic about what you have to spend when booking a holiday. Don't get carried away and go over the top. Create a budget and stick to it.

5.       Suitability - It's no good looking at a resort that's going to be full of hens, stags and revellers for your family holiday. That won't be the kind of environment you want your children to be around, as a 24/7 drinking culture and constant loud music can make for an ugly family holiday setting. Avoid party resorts in the likes of Ibiza, Majorca and Cyprus and look further down the road at more family-friendly hotels if you do want to visit these islands, as they have plenty!

Just remember that careful planning is the key to ensuring that your family holiday goes without a glitch. You can never do too much research, but make sure that enough is carried out before you actually book rather than afterwards when you've already committed. It can be tricky to amend a booking if you've had a change of heart or realised that the destination you've picked isn't suitable for a family break after all.

Chris Clarkson, Managing Director of online holiday firm www.sunshine.co.uk

*this is a guest post

Things to do in the holidays without spending a lot of money (and keep the kids entertained)

The summer holidays can be a horrible time, yes its lovely that you haven't got to do the school run or get up so early in the morning, but after the first weeks holiday the novelty of lie ins will of worn off the children are starting to get fed up, bored so what do they do? -fight, argue, usually just be naughty leaving the house and garden a mess, and leaving you as a parent pulling your hair out, it is especially difficult if money is tight, and money just doesn't stretch to a holiday or extravagant days out, but the break isn't about seeing how much money you can spend, its about spending quality time together as a family and about making memories that the children will remember when they get older.  I have put some ideas together that you can enjoy as a family without spending any money or very little at all.

• Walk - It doesn't matter where too, walking is healthy it gets the children out for a few ours even if it just around where you live, you may discover hidden gems, get the children to point out what they can see its surprising what catches the eye when you start to look around.
• Spot the object - write a list of objects, such as a red flower, a tree, anything that you might see when you are out and about get the children to carry the list and a pencil and tick them off when they have spotted them, it will keep them entertained for quite a while and they love it!
• Build a den - children love this, just use some chairs, throw some sheets over the top of them and throw in some cushions its great fun!
• Go on a bike ride - what a better way to get out out as a family than to go on a bike ride its a great way of family bonding.
• Have a picnic - Just use an old sheet and serve picky bits or even a dinner children love doing things different to normal, don't worry if its raining inside just have it on the floor in the living room.
• Make a boat - why not get the children to make a boat out of old rubbish and take it down the local river, and see if it floats or sinks.
• Play in the rain, kids love water, throughout the summer its not usually too cold why not let them out play out and jump in the puddles - join them its great fun!
• Feed the ducks, take the kids to the local lake/river even if there are not any ducks you could always feed the birds kids love to be involved with nature and animals.
• Search out local wildlife, you don't have to go far to find wild life you could just go into the back or front garden, see what creepy crawlers you can find hidden or spot flying around.
• Go Camping, I don't mean travelling for hours, why not just just set up a tent in the back garden the kids love an adventure!
• Have a game afternoon, if the weather turns sour have a family game afternoon ts great for bonding!
• Crafting, get creative, materials don't have to be expensive you can use anything that's lying around the house, remember google is your friend, you will find hundreds of ideas and tips online. 
• Check with your local council website or office, during the holidays usually the council will put on a list of activity's that are on in your area, often the local library will have play groups for all ages and different things some will even have a breakfast club, also a lot of the museums will have theme days and activity days usually costing very little or nothing.

If you look around their are plenty of things you can do and enjoy as a family and that will also keep the children entertained without breaking the bank remember the holidays are about having fun.

summary of our week, Presthaven holidays review

Were home, the week has been to short I feel like I have blinked and missed the week it has gone by so fast!
But the boys have loved there week away and it has been one big adventure for them. Its a shame the weather was not better for us but typical of English weather you just can not predict it, I guess we were just unlucky to have had so much rain.

Haven Holidays

We stayed at the resort of Presthaven sands, which is in North Wales. On Arrival to the site you have to travel about a mile over quite substantial speed humps before you get to the complex area.
There is no actual desk to check in at, you have to travel through the arcade and food area to get to the live lounge where the staff are waiting they were quite helpful and gave us all the information for the week including a map of the park and where our caravan would be situated, The weather was awful heavy rain, but you cant change that, so we made our way to the caravan, after getting to the caravan, turning the key in the lock, making sure we had the right van (which we did) the key would not open the caravan door we contacted the staff and then had to wait a further twenty minutes before we were let into the caravan not a very good start to a holiday having traveled a long way, two tired young children being hungry and it heavily raining.

Once inside the caravan it was lovely quite clean and tidy two toilets one of which was a toilet bathroom and connected to the main bedroom it almost felt like it had an en-suite, the kitchen was equipped adequately, although had no baking trays to cook anything in the oven. We were very lucky that our caravan was only a stones throw away from the complex as the complex is a huge site (take a look at Google maps), I could imagine that if you were placed further away it could make things a bit more difficult so if you don't want to be situated miles away from to complex I would suggest ringing and booking rather than booking online.

The pool; - I have never seen such a dirty small changing area. The walls around the swimming pool were slowly falling to pieces. You had to grab a locker when you could otherwise you did not get one. The shallow end of the pool is not that shallow which meant that Adam could not stand at all in the pool he was out of his depth, being quite a nervous child it ruined his experience and mine as he was clinging to my side the whole time we were in the pool.

The mash and barrel;- We had a lovely meal the service was quite fast and the staff were polite, maybe the food was a bit over priced but I think at all resorts you always seem to pay extra.

The children's Play areas;-  Well what can I say! the outdoor area for the older children looked fantastic but the part for the younger children was awful the slide you had to climb up what looked like metal bars to get onto it and even Liam could not manage it without my assistance there was only one swing the other was two hanging bits of metal that should have had a seat at the end of it but there was no seat and a little house type thing that was neither here nor there I think for the size of the site it was far to small and inadequate.
The boys loved the indoor soft play area, we spent quite a bit of time here although it could get quite busy at times and I should imagine within peak times of the season would be far to small.

The live lounge;-We thought the drinks were fairly priced, getting a drink or a seat was never an issue, the children's gift shop was quite expensive and beware of the lady selling balloons £5.00 a balloon is ridiculous for a price of an average looking helium balloon. The entertainment seemed quite good although we usually went back to the caravan by 20.30 so missed most the night.

Entertainment and activities;- We did go to a couple of the sessions in the day and stayed out till around 20.30 but as a mum I felt like most of the activities are aimed toward children over five, there isn't much to keep little ones interested and entertained.
On the site there are some fantastic facilities like the high wire and the go-karts all at extra costs but aimed more for older children.

Overall Impressions;-
Good Points, The accommodation is great, the beach is lovely and not to far away, quite an adventure through the sand dunes. Food outlets are clean tidy and are what you expect to pay on a resort as are the drinks in the clubs, The spa shop is very reasonably priced and has a budget range which is great if you don't want to spend a lot on branded items.

Bad points;- The play areas, swimming pool and changing rooms need seriously updating they are very tired, not great for young children under five this is the same for the entertainment.
Around the site every bin that you came to was full of wasps. On the one nice day we did have that week, we only had the caravan windows open for half and hour and had four wasps came into the van forcing us to close all the windows again.

My thoughts; Wales is lovely and there is a lot to do and see off site, I personally wouldn't recommend this site if you have children under five, We made the most of our holiday the weather didn't help with it not being so good. As a consequence to the lack of facilities for younger children we wont be visiting Presthaven sands again.  

Our final full day

Well I cant actually believe a week has gone that quickly! were going home tomorrow back to reality I do not think the boys are going to be impressed but we have made the most of our final day! It was a bit drizzly this morning so we started off our day in the indoor soft play area the boys had fun jumping and running around like they had never been out before.                                   

 

    Liam enjoying the indoor play area

Adam enjoying the play area

 Playing with the big blocks

By the time we had finished in the play area the sun had made an appearance hurray! So we had a walk down to the beach with the spade they both could not wait to get onto it, they ran all the way along the wooden slats between the sand dunes to get there poor mummy jogging behind with the pushchair!

The Beach

As you can see the beach was completely water logged but the boys loved it needless to say they both needed a full set of clothes after playing, but at least we managed to get on the beach! as for the spade Liam found a stick which seemed far more entertaining to play with.

We ended today in the club the boys bought some more bubbles with the last of there holiday money, before we were about to leave a lady came into the club with balloons so of course they both were asking for one, being as it was the last night of the holiday I said yes, the cost of the balloons £5 each I can not justify how they charge that much for a simple balloon, but its not like we go on holiday every week. So for now I have two shattered little boys fast asleep in bed.

expensive simple balloons

Llandudno

So today we have been out to Llandudno its a beautiful seaside resort, in fact its Wales largest seaside resort on approaching the resort it looks like a miniature village, a huge mountain type hill in the background with houses all set into a cliff its breathtakingly beautiful.

This is Llandudno on a fine day unfortunately today the weather was again wet and cold so we had a wonder around the shops the boys invested there holiday money in two books and yet some more cars to add to there. We had our lunch and because of the rain which wasn't just spotting now were forced to leave this behind to retreat back to the caravan site.

Llandudno as a seaside resort has a lot to offer they have Britain's only cable hauled tramway and the longest pier in wales, we all would have loved to have done these things but with the weather being horrible it just made it impossible, cold and wet is just miserable!
Poor Liam has been slightly disappointed that he has brought his biggest spade with him yet it has been to cold and wet for us to get onto any beach to dig a hole or build a sandcastle maybe tomorrow will be a better day for us, we might get an hour on the beach I can only keep my fingers crossed, Or maybe we wil just brave it with wellies and rain macs anyway!

Rain Rain Rain!

So were having a fantastic time so far on holiday the beach is right on the doorstep although quite a climb over the sand dunes if you like that sort of thing! but we took the easy route of the man made path in between them the boys thought it was a great adventure up and down the twisty winding path

I managed to take these pictures of the beach this morning before it proceeded to rain again! typical English weather a week earlier it was warm but now rain rain and more rain but it hasn't stopped us from getting out and about in wales!

 

                                          

                                                                                              

The boys have been out to the Tiger club nearly every night, I have been conned into buying flashing lights and bubble machines, they think its great! Adam has been dancing his little heart out on the dance floor.  Liam has said he is staying in his "caraban" forever bless him so I don't know how he is going to be come Friday when its time to say goodbye and go home but for now the fun continues hopefully with some dryer weather so we can get to the Zoo!

                                                                                   

Liam and Adam ready for there night out at the club

   

Were off on holiday!

Another crazy week everyone is talking about the kids going back to school and my Liam has not actually started School yet his start date isn't until the the 16th September so where have I been all week we have been getting ready for our family holiday!

This morning we have packed our bags and are headed off to Presthaven sands in Wales even my little man has packed his bag

Liam is absolutely bouncing off the walls because he is so excited he can't wait to go swimming and to the beach not sure we will be spending much time on the beach as there are flood warnings in place fingers crossed the weather brightens up for us I will be keeping you up to date with all our family adventures!