We haven’t been away as a family this summer, but have spent our summer at home, with days out and some more local exploring. We have also spent quite a bit of time around the fire pit, toasting marshmallows, chatting late into the night. It is amazing how much more talking goes on when you turn the TV off. Who knew?!
One of the questions that sparked the longest debate was:
What’s on your holiday wishlist?
Mr B said:
I don’t want much on mine, just a breakfast chef, who then preps lunch in the background before disappearing for 6 hours, then reappearing late afternoon to cook a lovely dinner and serve it up for me and my family.
As if!
It’s lovely to have one or two meals out when we go on holiday, but these days, with the kids being more adults than children, they’re more likely to want to do their own thing, so big family events are less common.
These days, my holiday wishlist is for us all to have the space and freedom to each have our own holiday; for us to have time to come together when we want to, and time for the kids to have their freedom. The luxury of having a car big enough to get family and luggage in it without bags on people’s knees/heads; a safe environment for us all to relax, whether that’s around a pool, on a resort or in safe communal spaces at campsites.
As long as they’re safe and happy, I’m happy.
But if I *have* to make a wishlist, I’ll put some of our favourite activities on it while also browsing for extra inspiration.
- Dolphin-watching from a RIB just off the Portuguese coast.
- Taking the submarine trip from Bridgetown down to 100 feet or so below the surface
- Mr B scuba-diving (just the once, his ears started playing up)
- Going out on Marvin’s boat from Holetown
- Sundowners with Martin and Rowena at the Little Bristol Bar
- Monkey-spotting on golf cart
- Stealth-diving with Francis
- Watching the sunset from Zacchio’s
- Arriving at 2am, stripping off and jumping in the pool because it’s just too hot to sleep yet
- Ice cream by the Trevi fountain in Rome, although apparently, they’ll be stopping this type of lovely experience from happening in the future.
- Burgers at my Happy Spot, a rather unimpressive bar on a rather unimpressive stretch of coastline, but a place we found, closed, on our honeymoon that they opened for us and we had the place to ourselves as the waves crashed on the shore and turtles went back and forth in the shallows
- One of our least successful, but most fun, meals in a hilltop village in Italy. We were late, it was out of season, so we had a choice of one restaurant. The lady spoke no English, our Italian was almost nil but we somehow managed to order a lovely meal.
- Beer and pizza on a Saturday lunchtime in Ste Foy
- Finding the perfect gîte, in the perfect village, in Bergerac
- Chips on Southsea sea-front
- …and the best meal I’ve ever had on my holidays, a cheap chicken roti from a Texaco garage, taken down a grotty road behind an abandoned shopping complex to the most beautiful hidden stretch of beach, flanked by empty millionaires’ villas. Just us and the waves.
I know this isn’t a holiday wishlist in the strictest sense, but any holiday should give you the chance to make memories, to capture one or two moments on film perhaps, but not to the exclusion of making them in your mind.
Whilst remembering the great times we have had on family holidays in the past we had a lengthy discussion about what would make the perfect holiday for kids and Caity said that for her it would be about exploring with her camera. She has a real passion for photographing street scenes (and a real eye for framing a great shot too). Jonnie wanted the perfect mix of a great pool to relax beside whilst still being able to go out for a great lunch and some retail therapy. And for Ellie, well it was all about the beach and being able to top up her tan.