Surviving Our First Holiday Abroad

We survived our first holiday abroad! Yay, it seems a long time ago now, but this is the first chance I’ve had to write about it.

Kids playing on the beach
A family holiday abroad was a little scary for us. I don’t know why, hubby and I used to travel a lot, but for some reason, we were nervous of taking the children abroad. This year, we braved it and the children loved their First Time Flying with Children in an aeroplane.

We chose an all-inclusive resort in Spain. This is something very new to us, when hubby and I traveled we would always go independently and want to see the country.

However, with young children, our priority was to let the kids just play, have fun, relax and be free. We wanted to not have to think about dinner or where we were going, it gave us a real opportunity to just be together without the extra stresses of ‘normal’ life.

The accommodation was good. We did have to play around with the beds to suit our needs, being five of us, but it all worked OK in the end.

Swimming pool

We spent every day by the swimming pool. There were lots of pools to choose from and after inspecting them all and having a try of a few, we ended up by the toddler splash pool throughout the week. It was the most fun for us.

The water was very cold and there were a few blue lips on occasions through the week, but being a toddler pool, the water only went up to our knees. It enabled the children to splash about, play games and have loads of fun rather than just swimming up and down like they did in the other deeper pools.

We bought snorkels and everyone had endless amounts of fun snorkelling around, searching for things, playing hide and seek in the water. We played piggy in the middle and other ball games, as well as splash daddy!

We also invested in a couple of inflatables (one of which only lasted a day and a half due to a puncture), which also produced a lot of fun and laughter. I loved watching how they played together, there were some truly magical moments.

Another great thing was the water shooters, they were a fab way to play in a splash pool. We got soaked and had loads of fun playing.

Both Pinky and Boo made a friend, unfortunately on separate days, which made each other jealous (definitely a twin thing), but it was lovely seeing them learn to socialise independently.

Apart from playing in the pool, we lounged beside it, read books…I read Secret seven to the children and they played in a tree house too.

Kids club

The children tried the kids club three times, not so us parents could have a break, they just wanted to do the activities on offer. Mummy and daddy didn’t even get a break anyway, as we were desperate to watch their activities.

They went on some high ropes, an obstacle course up high. It was a challenge, which they all accomplished and were very proud of.

Food

I think the most challenging part of the holiday, was the food. The restaurant was a canteen style buffet with almost everything you could think of being served every night.

The children found this overwhelming and struggled to work out what to have. They are simply not used to having to create their own dinner choices. We did offer to choose for them, but of course this wasn’t acceptable.

It was definitely nice to allow the children the freedom to get drinks whenever they wanted and even ice cream too.

Crazy golf

We had a lovely game of crazy golf together one evening and even managed to get a family photo.

It was a wonderful holiday abroad and really nice to get away from everything, including routine and having to think and plan. We got to spend loads of quality time together, playing, splashing reading and relaxing.

Can’t wait to think about booking next years holiday now.

6 thoughts on “Surviving Our First Holiday Abroad”

  1. I loved this as everyone around me seems to have been taking their tiny babies abroad and I have resisted as I haven’t seen the point. Looks like you had a great time though and I look forward to taking mine abroad in a few years when they will appreciate it far more.

  2. All inclusive is a great idea for a first holiday abroad. I agree with you though – I’ve always done DIY holidays so we could travel. It’s certainly a different way of thinking.

  3. I think you made a really sensible choice. We refused to take our abroad until they were over 6 and could swim well enough not to worry about them in the pools.

    Then we only took 3 at a time and did the all inclusive thing.

    It does make it stress free and enjoyable for everyone and lovely to see some summer sun which is lacking here this week! the kids club activities look exceptional, I’d want a go!

  4. Looks like you had a fab time. We’ll be heading off to Lanzarote soon – the only slight problem for us is that Pierre is scared of going on the plane because of all the crashes that he’s seen in the news ! He’ll soon forget about it once he’s seen the pool though ! 🙂

  5. Looks like you had a whale of a time! Our abroad holidays tend to be camping (cheap) – one day I will stay in a hotel again 🙂

  6. It looks like a great holiday Karen. We took the girls 8 years ago to Majorca. They were 2 and 6 months old. It was really enjoyable and they coped so well.

    I’d love to take my 3 abroad, we are desperately hoping next summer that we might be able to, as you know, it is so expensive with 3 children.

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