Family summer holidays: 8 questions to ask before you choose your location

This is a sponsored post in collaboration with icelolly.com.

We are looking into planning our family summer holidays, and its so not easy when you have kids to get that balance between them and you right…

I recall when I was a lass that summer holidays were much simpler to organise. It was just a question of deciding which particular type of beer you liked the best, and then visit the country where that was most prevalent…Belgium in my case.

Nowadays one has to think about a hell of a lot more before embarking on that all important summer break with the kids…

Cost

bringing up sprogs is not cheap. So the cost of your holiday needs to be excellent value. Camping or lower boost villas are an excellent way of reducing your expenses. Though of course your kids and you need to actually like camping. Parentdish gives some excellent tips here to make your camping trip work for you and your family though, so at least there is plenty out there on the internet to help you get things right.

Shopping Around

I have to admit when I lived in London I didn’t do the comparison thang on holidays. I found something that worked and went for it. Nowadays, price comparison sites like icelolly.com can help with choosing your holidays. You decide what you are after and they can recommend the relevant offers from agencies.

Location Location Location

Before kids, my main concern was whether we were near a pub, and there was great walking nearby. Now, there are so many other questions:

1. Is the villa safe, depending on the age of your kids of course, e.g. Enclosed pool or pond
2. Are there facilities to have fun if, god forbid, it rains, e.g. Board games, indoor games room, or even a soft play on site which the excellent The Old Orchard Cottages has in Suffolk in the UK
3. Where are the nearest swings for those summer evenings? Is there one on site?
4. Is there a pool nearby or on site? If its onsite, don’t forget to check if its heated or not…
5. Where are the shops so if you run our of nappies its not a long trek to stock up?
6. How far from the airport is your holiday if you are flying? Keeping car travel time down can be a godsend
7. What is there for grown-ups to do during the day and in the evening? Is there childcare if that’s what you want? Is the childcare qualified? Are the English qualifications? It is worth checking all of this out. Yo have to be comfortable leaving your child with them
8. How is the villa laid out? This is something we have fallen fowl of. It is not unusual for on room to be downstairs on its own, and another only accessible through outside stairs. This means that you are NOT in the same building and easy to reach if your children after not sharing your room. Do check layouts before you book….

The list goes on…

There is, in fact, so much to think about that using a price comparison site like Ice Lolly Holidays to pick your resort can take at least some of the headache out of keeping those costs down, so you have more headspace to think about everything else!

Helen

Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine! Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time. KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10. It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania. Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on. Get in touch TODAY!

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