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The Perfect Holiday – Does it Exist? 

Last Sunday was declared the hottest day of the year so far (not hard considering it’s only April). I’m sure I wasn’t the only Brit airing their milk bottle legs for the first time in about 6 months. I’m also pretty certain I wasn’t the only one staring at a rather scarlet reflection in the mirror later on that evening. Will we ever learn?

Summer is on its way.

Like me, I imagine you’re now wishing that you had taken better care of your skin over the winter months, whilst hastily researching every step-by-step guide to a bikini body (if you find one that still involves eating and drinking wine, then please let me know).

Unlike me, I imagine you booked your family summer break months ago and have been excitedly dreaming of cocktails by the beach or ‘meet and greets’ with Mickey, for a good while now.

The Holy Grail.

Herein lies the biggest problem: Too many people + Too much choice = No decision made.

One daughter wants sea, sun and selfie opportunities. The other one has two simple requests: plenty of sleep and zero demands being placed on her. Thankfully, the twelve year old has yet to discover his hormones, so as long as there is wifi and not much walking or sight-seeing, he will be happy.

As parents, all we really want is five minutes peace and a nice glass of wine (my husband might have one or two more items on his list!).

First Word Problem.

There, I said what you were thinking didn’t I? Yes I know it’s a nice problem to have and you can rest assured that we are fully aware that going on holiday is not a right but a privilege. However there still remains an empty diary…

Two things that have made this quest to find The Perfect Holiday a little easier:

  1. With every passing day we are successfully narrowing down our options as one hotel after another gets booked up.
  2. Knowing that we will spend a minimum of one week in Les Gets, France (we have an apartment there) ruled out at least four continents!

Eureka.

This last week has seen me frantically scouring what’s on offer in every corner of two countries (France and Italy) in the hope of finding something that will entertain two adults, two teenage girls and a twelve year old boy.

It might have taken up more head space than I care to admit this week and the ‘heated discussions’ that this quest seems to have caused beggar’s belief, BUT I think I might have finally struck gold (once I decided to veto certain contributions).

Lake Como in Italy. Have you been there? It looks like paradise….it had better be for the amount it’s setting us back!

Do you feel under pressure to find The Perfect Holiday?

Do you involve your children in choosing a holiday (perhaps that’s where we are going wrong)?

Inside, Outside & Beyond

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10 COMMENTS

  • I feel your pain! There’s no such thing as a perfect holiday with two teens and a tween because they all have their own interests/ demands. We’ve booked Padstow as usual, much to the delight of two of the kids and the disgust of the other. We wanted a different house, but left it too late, so have ended up in the same one. We may consider doing a European city break in October, but one child just wants to go to Center Parcs…
    Have never been to Lake Como, but we did go to Lake Garda, which is a whole other (long) story. Hope it proves to be as close to the perfect holiday as possible!

    • Suzanne W
      AUTHOR

      Sometimes it’s best to just go to the same place if it works for your family but when we said Les Gets again, there was moaning involved! But a certain child moans at everything and I know once we are back there it will be lovely, we just wanted to break it up with somewhere else too. I think this will be a great solution but an 18 hour drive home. Ouch! x

  • Natalie

    Ah lovely I am guessing this is the good thing about having little ones! They don’t understand that they get a choice ha! The last few years we have spent a couple of weeks in a villa with our family although I know that at 6 Meme really needs to go somewhere that offers a little bit of entertainment! I think this may be our last year in a quiet peaceful villa!

    • Suzanne W
      AUTHOR

      I think as they get older, for some reason you think that you need to involve them in every family decision. But then again, we are paying so I guess it’s more of a ‘this is what we are doing’ thing! We used to do villas when they were much younger, now they prefer something a little more ‘happening’ – not sure that Lake Como would be described as that but there are cities nearby so…xx

  • I have been to Como! We used to drive down for the day when we lived in Zurich. Personally? I couldn’t spend more than a day or two there and much preferred hopping on the train to Milan. It’s very beautiful, though.

    • Suzanne W
      AUTHOR

      Oh. We’ve provisionally booked 6 nights! My husband suggested that we go to Milan for the day too. Is it worth visiting? For some reason I thought that it was more of a business city but I could be wrong. Thanks for the heads up. x

  • Tracey Williams

    Gosh yes I am always striving for the perfect holiday, and I think sometimes I research the holiday for longer than we are actually there sometimes. We have just returned from Greece where we went too last year. It was pretty much perfection, if you ignore the fact the teens head of year was there AGAIN. We include the kids when deciding where to holiday, but ultimately the final decision is always mine (cough). The husband just pays and turns up lol. We have never been to Italy and I can imagine Lake Como is going to be stunning x

    • Suzanne W
      AUTHOR

      Ha ha yes I research the holiday for longer than we are there too – what a waste of time! Really looking forward to it already 🙂 x

  • Sandra

    I’ve been to Lake Como (honeymoon, 10 days, nearly 30 yrs ago!!)…it was absolutely beautiful and lots to see…day trip to Venice was lovely and boat trips to the lovely villages around the lake…it’s always hard to please the whole family especially where teens are concerned!!
    We’re off to France this yr, 3 generations of us, so hope that works out ok!!

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