Even though my bulbs have had more ice than sunshine this year so far to raise their heads, and that we seen more snow this year so far than normal I have found myself walking around the clothes stores taking in the holiday clothes and looking at the kids cute swimming shorts rather than the wellies and mittens.
Now if you are like us and have to schedule holidays with military precision due to work commitments, school holidays etc booking a holiday can be a complete nightmare. Oh, yes and we are moving house right in the middle of the school holidays. I knew there was something I forgot!
Back when it was just me and my eldest lad, we did camping. It was brilliant fun as we roughed it out until we knew what we were doing and then bought a few new bits of kit each year until we were seasoned pros! Then came surfboards, roof boxes and all sorts of stuff!
When I met Pete he loved this too as did his two boys but as we became five the camping became tougher as we needed more kit. Two cars with roof boxes just didn’t really cut it so we ended up opting for the caravan holiday park option.
We have done this the last three years and it has been great fun, meeting up with other family with kids now too, it was a really nice way to spend the summer weekends.
Last year we collected tokens from the Sun newspaper and booked some weekends away in Great Yarmouth and Devon, then also did a weekend camping at Drayton Manor. These can be great if you get in early and get great deals on the school holiday dates.
But, this year I am feeling my 45 years, the appeal of camping is losing its shine. The thoughts of packing up the car, maybe in the rain (as in Devon last year it rained for 4 days) was leaving me a little cold.
So we bought a timeshare. In Gran Canaria.
We had been able to sneak a winter sun holiday the last two years, little one hasn’t started school yet, the middle two were with their mum and eldest had no time off work left, and we fell in love with the Canaries. So we decided to bite the bullet: the appeal of a school holiday dates with flights coming in at half the price we would pay for a package deal kind of won us over. This year however the middle two are lucky ducks and off to Florida with their mum and we are moving house so we decided to do a week in May and a week in November.
The booking process was simple and easy, flights were good prices so it’s a job done. Our timeshare experience has been good so far and much easier to navigate than the Sun holiday token lark! Mind you I have succumbed to an Easter Bank Holiday weekend outside Blackpool. Who doesn’t still love a bag of chips by the sea! Best go back to Matalan and pick up some of those cute swim shorts and maybe just get new wellies too…just in case!
Mum-atron At Work 