Why romantic honeymoon destinations? A lot of things I read about weddings tell me to remember that your wedding is just one day, to not spend too much money, that it’s the marriage that matters, blah blah blah…

Sure.*

How about the honeymoon then? That’s at least seven whole days, so it figures that I can spend seven times as many hours daydreaming about it, right?

Absolutely.

After much selfless browsing then, all in the name of research, I’ve picked out six of my favourite romantic honeymoon destinations. Take a look, if you dare, but don’t blame me if you get sucked in and spend the next hour dreaming about having a pina colada in your hand.

Beach-front villa in Paje, Tanzania

When you think honeymoon, this is what you think, isn’t it? It’s sun, sea, sand, panoramic roof top terrace – what more could you want? This villa is one of 11 as part of an exclusive complex, so when you’ve had your fill of secluded lounging you can make use of the restaurant, spa or kitesurfing centre.

romantic honeymoon destinations View Post

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stress free family holidays

What makes family holidays stressful for you?

I remember one holiday I had about ten years ago that was pretty stressful in the grand scheme of things. It was with an ex-partner, with whom I had a rather difficult relationship. I told him I didn’t love him anymore and wanted us to break up. He told me the only friends I had were on Facebook because I was such a shallow human being.

Fun times!

For most (normal) families, I think holiday stress normally comes from things like booking the holiday in the first place. Or that’s what Villa Plus found when then did some research recently at least. Funnily enough, respondents didn’t mention ‘dysfunctional relationship with partner’ as a factor. Instead, 73% of UK holidaymakers are worried about terrorism when booking a holiday, and nearly half of us get stressed out reading negative reviews after we’ve made our booking.

It’s even been given a new name. ‘Fearcation’. Leading Psychologist Dr David Lewis says it’s what happens when “the stress of booking a holiday is outweighed by the benefit of going.”

“They say knowledge conquers fear,” says Dr Lewis, “but, especially when booking a holiday, concerns over how reliable that information is can result in paralysing ‘Fearcation’ with high levels of stress and anxiety that can ruin your enjoyment and spoil your plans.”

Sound familiar?

Fear not!

I’ve put together seven top tips to help make family holidays less stressful.

You’re welcome.

1 – Choose your partner wisely

If the thought of going on holiday with them makes you feel a bit squeamish then are they really the one for you? Come on, you can do better than that.

2 – Keep your holiday paperwork organised

One of my main holiday stresses is worrying about tickets. I have this paranoia that I will turn up somewhere and have forgotten my tickets, or I’ll have my booking but the hotel will have no record of it.

Luckily I have this to keep all my documents in. I actually won it in a competition that I entered three times – once as me, once as Belle and once as fiancé. I forgot to tell them, (obviously), and when fiancé won he nearly deleted the email as he didn’t know what it was about. When he casually told me about this spam competition email he’d got I properly shrieked. I think he was a bit taken aback. I really wanted it though. True story.

3 – Get your information from trusted sources

I’m sure if you look for long enough you can find a negative review about anything. You could read negative comments about even someone as lovely as me I expect, if you tried hard enough. (And I didn’t send them straight to spam.) Rather than getting yourself all in a panic because one person three years ago had a problem with their room at your chosen hotel, stick to recommendations and opinions from people you trust who have first hand experience. Asking friends and family, like the good old days before all your friends existed only on Facebook, is normally the best way.

4 – Leave the children at home

Only kidding! It wouldn’t be fun without them would it? Okay, it might be, but they have their perks. Like you can legitimately go to the ‘kids attractions’, which we all know are the best bits really.

5 – Book your holiday with Villa Plus

Well, I would say that in this post wouldn’t I? But seriously, Villa Plus are worth a look. They’ve got over 7,250 independent reviews on TrustPilot and lots of photos of each villa, Google maps and floor plans. 360 degree videos are being introduced too, and more will be rolled out over time, so you can have a good nose before you book. Most of their villas include things like wifi and private pools as standard.

6 – Brush up on your language skills

Feeling confident about the local language will make you feel far less stressed about all the things that might go wrong. The Google Translate app will come in handy here, but you might want to learn a few key phrases in advance. I’d suggest:

‘Can you please point me in the direction of the hotel kids’ club?’

‘A large gin and tonic please.’

7 – Become a man

If you’re not one already. A little drastic perhaps, but the Villa Plus research showed that women are the ones that get most stressed out by the holiday booking process. ‘Women are much more likely’, the study shows, ‘to shoulder the burden of choosing where to go.’

On the plus side, that does mean we normally get to choose where to go, so you know, pros and cons.

What do you find most stressful about family holidays?

stress free family holidays

Ice cream – the recipe for any stress free family holiday

Produced in association with Villa Plus. Header image – Sunny studio/shutterstock.

About the research – The research was carried out by onepoll between 02/09/2016 and 06/09/2016 amongst a panel resulting in number respondents type of respondents. All research conducted adheres to the MRS Codes of Conduct (2010) in the UK and ICC/ESOMAR World Research Guidelines. onepoll is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office and is fully compliant with the Data Protection Act (1998).

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Belle and I have been on a lot of mini-breaks on our own. They’re fun. We have our little rituals, which mainly involve planning our snacks and which village-based murder mystery we are going to watch in the evening, and we rub along perfectly fine. Here we are in fact, looking adorable as always, outside our Hoburne Naish cabin a couple of weekends ago:

Hoburne Naish review Hampshire View Post

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My lovely fiancé wrote this post about our trip to Woodland Tipi and Yurts in Herefordshire.

I won’t go into the details, but lately, as a family, we really needed to reconnect. Work has meant we’ve had far less time to spend together as a family and we were all feeling the need to go spend some quality time together. Cue a weekend away at Woodland Tipi and Yurts in Herefordshire.

When I was a child, a tipi was something you read about in a book about native Americans. Along with Eskimos in their igloos, they were things I never thought I’d experience first hand. Admittedly they seem to be everywhere nowadays, but a boutique campsite that offered the chance for us to be together seemed like too good an offer to miss.

Woodland Tipi and Yurts review View Post

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As avid readers, (which you all are obviously), you’ll know that we recently went on a bit of a motorhome adventure, in a van very kindly lent to us by Bailey of Bristol.

This was it:

Bailey Approach Compact

Motorhome crush

As well as being great fun, and an opportunity for us to listen to countless mystery novels on audio book, it was actually part of a grander plan. It isn’t for nothing after all that a girl is prepared to wheel a box of her own poo across a field of holidaymakers. It was in aid of ticking off another item from my list of 40 things to do before I am 40; specifically to visit every county in England. View Post

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The big day is here! Get your best frock on, mix yourself a mojito – it’s party time! I’m joining Gocompare.com tonight at 8pm for an hour of chat about travelling with children.

We’ve all been there; you’re ten minutes into a journey and everyone is complaining that they are bored, you’ve made one toilet stop already and somehow the car is covered in a thin layer of Wotsits. An hour in and you realise you’ve forgotten the phone charger, spare pants and your credit card.

This bit might not be fun, but it’s worth it for that moment when everyone finally relaxes. The sun is shining, the wine is chilling in the fridge and the children are exploring, leaving you in peace, even if just for a blissful few moments. That’s what holidays are all about.

Get into the holiday spirit by joining the Twitter chat tonight and talking all things travel.

Gocompare Twitter party

So here’s how to join the party fun. Simply follow me – @mummyblogger – and @Gocompare, and join us at 8pm tonight, using the hashtag #gocomoneytalks. We’ll be giving away two £50 Boots vouchers during the chat, so come and get involved for your chance to win.

See you tonight!

For full T&Cs please see here. This is a sponsored post.

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Update: I wrote this post originally in April 2013, but rather that start from scratch I thought I would just add new things to my list here as I thought of them and cross off the ones I do. This post has new things since you first read it, so best read it again :-)

…

This week, with my 35th birthday looming, I have taken some important first steps in my 40 things before 40 project.

First off, I bought a new notebook. This is possibly the most important step, and I do sometimes wonder if I may not have just come up with the whole idea purely as an excuse to do this very thing. I do love a bit of cutting and sticking after all. However, despite having purchased said notebook, got it home safely, and stroked it for a little while, the novelty didn’t seem to wear off, so it was time to start writing in it.

Best felt tip pens at the ready.

40 things before 40

I am looking for a total of 40 things to do over the next five years, but I figure I don’t have to have them all decided until a year before the deadline, as I am known for being a tiny bit fickle and am sure to come up with new ideas along the way.

Here’s what I’ve got so far then:

  • Eat a meal in a Michelin star restaurant – I did this one on my birthday! Read all about it here.
  • Got to the opera – Done! I went to see Turandot originally and have seen a few more since. I’m not a fan, although I did like that with Turandot we came out into the restaurant for a different course between each act. That was fun.
  • Visit Auschwitz – Done. Read about it here and why I didn’t feel how I expected to feel.
  • Visit the Dark Hedges – Done! Read about it here.

dark hedges northern ireland

  • Ride on the Orient Express
  • Stay in one of the places from the Amazing Spaces programme. – Done! I actually can’t remember where it was, but I remember thinking ‘Oh this means that I can cross this off my list!’ I’m sure it will come back to me.
  • Drink a milkshake in an American diner – Done! See the evidence here.
  • Grow an avocado plant from a pip. – I’m really trying with this one but the damn things refuse to grow.
  • Solve a mystery Nancy Drew style (i.e. in matching hat and gloves) – I went to a mystery evening at Belle’s school and bought a Nancy Drew style hate to wear especially, so I think this counts?
  • Go to a festival on my own. I’ve thought about this one a lot and decided it’s not that important to me anymore. Although I have been to things like the Bath literary festival so maybe that counts??
  • Do a driving experience where you get to go off road and drive through rivers and things like that. (I like driving through puddles at the side of the road when it’s really rainy.) – I’ve done this one – evidence here.
  • Hang out in a 19th century Ottoman mansion and take a cruise up the Bosphorus

Istanbul hotel

  • Sing in public – did you not see my Mariah Carey at the 2017 taunton freelancers Christmas party??
  • Tell a joke at the Edinburgh festival (this one can be just in the street)
  • Cook a souffle – I’ve done this!

  • Visit every house I’ve ever lived in. I’ve decided I’m not that fussed about this one either. I mean, I LIVED in them all, so technically I’ve done it anyway right?
  • Swim (or splash a bit at least) outdoors in Iceland (country not shop) – this was a tiny bit late but I did it a couple of months after I turned 40 – the trip was a birthday present from my lovely sister and brother-in-law.
  • Fly business class – I’ve done this a few times now, only for work when someone else has been paying. It’s pretty nice being able to lie flat but I’m not sure it’s really worth it, unless you have more money that sense. You all arrive at the same time still.
  • Visit Sintra in Portugal. It’s a crazy multi-coloured fairy castle. What’s not to love? – I did this one just a few days before I turned 40!Sintra portgual

Image – Mapics/shutterstock

  • Take an open top bus tour in ten different cities (I am a sucker for these – all the best bits of sightseeing but sitting down!) – I’ve done London, Barcelona, Cambridge, Liverpool, Stratford, Bristol, Bath, Derry, Paris and Dublin. Hoorah!
  • Own one of those wicker baskets that fits on the stairs. (I know this is ridiculous, I’ve just always wanted one.) – My mum got me one of these for my 39th birthday! And very lovely it is too.
  • Live in a tree (even if just for a night) – So is this!
  • Make fresh pasta from scratch – yep!
  • Publish a book – this is happening! This is a weird one as I’d kind of decided it wasn’t something I wanted to do after all, and then TWO DAYS before my 40th birthday a publisher emailed me out of the blue. If that’s not fate then I don’t know what is.
  • Have a family portrait done – yep, we did this one! Courtesy of Life is Crawsome
  • Get a tattoo – done! 

  • Go to a make-up counter for a makeover and learn how to actually put on make-up like a grown-up – I’ve done this! Sometimes I even put the make up on…
  • Have something custom made – yes! I was a bridesmaid at my sister’s wedding in August 2016 and had my dress made. 

  • Sleep overnight on a train in a proper bunk, Hercule Poirot style.
  • Buy a house – Done! Who’d have thought it!

I was tempted to add ‘become debt free’ but I fear it may rather conflict with the other 39. If you’ve counted, you may see that there are only 39 things on the list – I’m leaving one for luck in case anything else amazing occurs to me.

So there we go! Not long left now… If you can help with any of the outstanding ones then please let me know!

 

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I want to go on holiday.

I know it’s only a few months really since we went off to Spain for ten whole days, but I really would quite like another holiday now please.

I suppose it must be the time of year, and the fact that my nose seems to be maintaining a temperature roughly ten degrees cooler than the rest of my body, that’s making me yearn for sunnier climes. I’m fed up of feeling chilly and shivering in bed. I want to be outside, and feel the sun burning my shoulders.

I’ve had a real hankering lately to go and stay in a yurt somewhere. We’ve never really been a package holidays kind of family, and for a few years running we spent a week every summer in the UK in a yurt. Like this one. And yes I do realise it’s just a cheaty, middle-class way of going camping but I’m sorry, I just don’t want to put up a tent. We do camp at festivals, but not even being able to stand upright while you put yesterday’s damp clothes back on is not my idea of an idyllic break.

Lately though too I’ve started imagining holidays further afield, which isn’t like me. We didn’t go abroad as children, so I’ve never caught the travelling bug, but in the last year or so I’ve spread my wings a little, and am feeling a bit braver. Who knows, one day I may even make it out of Western Europe.

For now though I’d be quite happy perched outside on the steps of a yurt, surrounded by trees, perhaps with a few chickens pecking at the ground around me.* In my fantasy holiday Belle has of course made friends with some good-mannered yet confident children in the tipi next door, and they are off in the woods, doing something wholesome like making bark rubbings or throwing sticks at birds’ nests. I’m cradling a large mug of tea and nibbling on some sort of organic, farmhouse cookie.

For now though summer seems a long way away. Looks like I’ll have to make do with a blanket on my knees and an Aldi rich tea biscuit.

*At a reasonable distance obviously. I find close up birds a bit frightening.

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I’ve done my life the wrong way round really. I have a child starting her A-levels this year. I am only 32.

When I grow up I don’t want to be wealthy. I don’t want to settle down. I don’t aspire to have a big house in the country, with a mortgage to match, or expensive holidays. I’m not looking to start a family either. I’ve done that bit.

When I grow up I want to be free. I want to shed responsibility, not gain it. When I grow up I want to be able to choose where I live and what I do. I want to get up and go to bed whenever I feel like it and if I fancy going somewhere for a while, I will just go.

I’ve always harboured a secret dream of living in a mobile library, travelling around, selling interesting books and visiting interesting places.

A friend saw this and took a picture for me. “I thought it’d be perfect for you,” he said. “It has ‘The Universe at Your Fingertips’ written down the side.”

I love it.

The Universe at Your Fingertips.

That’s what I want when I grow up.

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