My holiday memories

Summer is fast approaching but unfortunately we have no plans to travel to any far off places. We will try to get around the British Isles and visit a beach or two during the summer holidays but in the meantime I will flick through photos of our first family holiday abroad to Spain and savour the memories.

This is one of my favourite images from our holiday because it is very typical of our whole week; me relaxing and topping up the tan while the kids enjoyed themselves in the water!

This is my entry to Covered Mags #myholidaymemories competition. To win a load of holiday goodies visit Covered mag and find your favourite holiday snap!

Estepona 2013

So we made it to Spain on my kids first holiday abroad and we made it back again... in one piece!

The holiday was very relaxing and not quite as stressful as I thought it would be. We had a lovely apartment with 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and balconies that seemed to be coming out of everywhere! The views were lovely and sitting out there for breakfast, lunch and dinner meant I got a lovely tan... see I am good at multi-tasking!

There were SEVEN swimming pools so you can guess where we spent most of our time, although considering when I was younger I would compete with my big bro to see who could swim the most lengths of the pool, the most I did was 62 lengths, yes you read right, that's 62 lengths! I can barely do 1 length now without panting and getting out to recover on the sun lounger.

On the negative side the resort was quite far from the town and we had to take taxis to actually get anywhere of interest and the resort itself didn't provide any entertainment for the children which meant I had to constantly keep them amused. Surprisingly there were quite a few English speaking TV channels so in between trips to the beach and the pool I managed 5 minutes of peace by sitting them in front of the Disney channel. (Just like being at home)

On one of our trips to the beach we decided to try out the fast food in Spain (you have to always compare it to home) We wanted to go to McDs but it was a mile down the road from the town centre so we went into Burger King instead. I can confirm that it was just as good, if not better than ours or maybe I was just really hungry at the time!!

Enjoying Burger king

 During the holiday I managed a few glasses of vino and to read myself through a whole Jodi Picoult novel so that was me sorted! I think next year though we will stay in miserable sunny Britain for our hols and maybe book a cottage in Cornwall.

Oh and I get to tick off another thing to do from my Bucket list which was to take my children abroad :)

Holidays are meant to be peaceful..

... well mine is just stressing me out and we haven't even left the country yet!

I'm hoping that when we leave for Spain on Wednesday that we are going to have a fab holiday, it will be the children's first trip abroad and I've been planning on taking them for years but it just hasn't happened.

I saved up because I thought these days a holiday overseas isn't much more expensive than one in this country and thought it would be worth that bit extra just for the aeroplane ride.

So first of all I booked the holiday because I thought if I didn't then I would just change my mind and we wouldn't end up going, then I got the email to say I had to book transfers because I hadn't added those on. Who would've thought it would be over £200 just to make a trip from the airport to the apartment!?!

Of course you cant travel abroad without passports and as only 3 out of 6 of us had them I had to send off for those. The man got his friend to fill out the forms and luckily we used the passport check and send service because first thing the photos, which we had taken by a photographer in the photo printing shop had been done wrong and we had to go back to have them redone, then the forms were filled out wrong... by him, not me! Then the picture was not signed properly so all in all it was 3 trips back to the post office and a long delay in getting those passports! Such a delay that we still haven't got 1 of them back and we are travelling in 5 days!!

I don't understand how my sons passport was sent back within a week of me applying for it and even though they have had my daughters for 6 weeks I've been told that if I want to get it back by Tuesday it will cost me another £78 *cross face*

As well as all these costs I have to calculate for fares to the airport, travel insurance and food while were there - why didn't I just book all inclusive?? and of course all the children need new summer clothes as they are just growing waaay too quick!

It's not just all about the money because as we know there is always those added extras that everybody has to deal with but I have been looking up about the resort we are staying at and all the most recent reviews are really bad :( First they are saying you have to drive as the beach is very close but not accessible unless you drive as its on the other side of a big motorway and the shops are 2 miles away and that's fine if you are driving but to have to walk it and carry bags back I can see its just going to be a pain. Then somebody else said their apartment was burgled while they were out and the staff didn't seem too surprised as if its a regular occurrence.

I know I shouldn't be pessimistic but when travelling with the whole family it is all really stressful and I want them to have a good time (and not starve while they're there!) So hopefully I wont regret booking our holiday and won't think about all the other things I could have spent the money on and places we could have visited and day trips we could have gone on, no I will be on the blog in a couple of weeks posting all the pictures and telling you what a great time we have had...