No matter how many children you have, you’ll know how hard having a family can be. We all need a break from time to time, a chance to get away from the stresses of your everyday life in order to spend some quality time with the ones you love.
If you have four or more children, you will have experienced some of the difficulties many parents face when trying to book a holiday for the whole family. In order to pinpoint the exact problems larger families face, we have asked members of the Larger Family Life community to give us their insight.
We asked parents to let us know what they are looking for in a holiday, and what problems they have faced when taking holidays as a larger family.
What is the main thing you look for when booking a holiday?
Lynsey Walker in Eyemouth looks for a location that is “suitable for everyone in the family, from a 10-year-old boy to a 1-year-old girl”.
Theresa Hardy in East Sussex says, “the main thing I look for is a family friendly holiday. They must have good facilities for children, especially toddlers.
What problems do you face when taking holidays as a larger family?
Kerry-Anne Head in Norwich says that the main problem she faces is price. She says, “accommodation is not big enough. We have to be separated with no guarantee of inter joining rooms.”
Sara Meredith in Walsall confirms this complaint; “having a family of 6 means that we have to book two hotels rooms as the max are normally 4. This makes the holiday double the cost.”
April Dougherty in Farnborough thinks, “the hardest thing is to find affordable large spaces. For short breaks we aren’t necessarily looking for something luxurious but a simple, clean reasonable sized space preferably with an extra cot and 2 double or queen beds. For longer breaks we find a house rental currently is more affordable than apartments.”
Of all the comments we received, the following from Georgette Shearman in Wollaston stayed with us. Georgette says “I do appreciate a large group of particularly young children can seem daunting and noisy to many companies but I fully trust all my children to behave in social situations. Coming from a large family I believe helps them to learn how to behave and realise you cannot always be out for yourself but to put others first. The older children have certain responsibilities and buddy up with a younger one, this works well to curb unruly behaviour and keep the noise down, as the little one can look to their buddy for immediate help rather than fighting for my attention all the time. If companies would just take a moment to take us as we are rather than judge us before we have even met it would mean we could do so much more.”
It’s terrible to think that some families feel judged or scrutinised by holiday providers. According to the details provided by our participants, parents are spending an average of £500 to £1000 on a holiday. When you are investing this much money, you should be getting a great experience.
Travel provider Holiday Gems have been taking these complaints into consideration and have created a dedicated page where you can find low cost holidays at hotels and resorts that specifically provide accommodation to sleep large families, as well as offering a whole range of family friendly facilities and activities to suit all ages.
If you want to share your thoughts and experiences of travelling as a large family, leave us a comment below.
