Booking our Venice Summer trip for less than £500

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There is nothing I love more than planning and booking a trip away, so when the eldest said he wanted to go on a Venice summer trip to celebrate his 18th, the laptop was open and I was ready to start researching. This would be our first trip to Italy as a family, the eldest went on a school trip to Sicily a few years ago, and I was already dreaming of Italian Pizza and Gelato overlooking one of the canals.

Venice summer trip

Venice summer trip

With planning holidays I guess that everybody does it differently. Some people will book hotels first … Continue reading

2018 – Looking back at our year of travel

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I love starting the year by looking back at our travels from the previous year, and hopefully this will give you some holiday ideas 2019. I always knew that 2018 would be the year we travelled less, mainly down to GCSEs which happened in May and June. This meant that we swopped our usual holiday in April, as the teen was revising over the Easter holidays, to going away over the Summer.

2018 - Looking back at our year of travel

Considering we were not meant to travel much during 2018, we still managed a total of 13 trips between us. We usually spend between £3500 and £4000 … Continue reading

Family Road Trip – Car Safety and 5 things you need to do

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Following on from my post about my top tips when taking a road trip, today I am writing about car safety. Over the years we have taken many road trips around the UK, from Scotland to Wales, Bath to Northumberland. We love exploring new destinations as a family, and my trusty car of 14 years has never let us down. Whilst I concentrate on packing clothes, food and basically anything else that will fit in the boot of a Citroen Picasso, my husband deals with the car maintenance.

Car Safety

Top up your windscreen washer

The last thing you want to … Continue reading

Escaping to the forest – Our last minute break to Center Parcs

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For the past few months our family life has been full of twists and turns. I have been through the emotion of being made redundant, the teen has been studying for his GCSEs, he has been to prom, finished high school, and there have been a few other things in between. Life has been busy, emotional, and stressful, and I desperately needed a break away. And if there is one place that can guarantee that your stress magically disappears the minute you get there, it’s Center Parcs.

Escaping to the forest

We decided to have a change from our usual park of … Continue reading

How can Simpson Travel inspire our next holiday ?

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‘There are two gifts we should give our children. One is roots and the other is wings’ 

This quote has been at the forefront of my mind recently. Our eldest will be turning 16 in the summer, and I am well aware that we are on borrowed time when it comes to family holidays. It will soon be time for him to spread his wings, go off on his own adventures with his own friends. Every holiday has me treasuring the moments we are together as a family, even those times when he is bickering with his sister.

Simpson Travel

When Simpson … Continue reading

Welcome to Sani Dunes

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Last week I had the amazing opportunity to experience Sani Dunes, the latest luxury hotel to be built at the Sani Resort in Greece. Located in beautiful Halkidiki on mainland Greece, the resort is around 50 minutes from Thessaloniki airport.

Sani Dunes Hotel at Sani Resort

The impeccable service that Sani is renowned for starts at the airport. Being greeted with a bottle of water and led to an air conditioned car was certainly welcome in the heat. And forget standing in a large queue to check in. At Sani Dunes you are welcomed with a cold towel, a refreshing spray of cold mist to … Continue reading

Little Loves – Summer Clothes, Cocktails and Greek Luxury

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I have had a complete break from blogging over the past fortnight, and whilst it has been nice to switch off, I am now itching to get back. If you follow me on instagram you may have noticed we have been in Greece. We returned to Ikos Olivia which is in Halkidiki, the most amazing 5* resort. We were treated like family when we arrived at the hotel, and we spent the week relaxing, eating and sampling the huge cocktail menu they have. The lovely Sarah from Extraordinary Chaos is there at the moment, and I am gutted our holidays … Continue reading

Little Loves – Trip to Bath, Ben Howard and my love for Instagram

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I am writing this week’s Little Loves post a little hungover, after enjoying a few gins with friends last night. It’s the end of our half term and what a fabulous week it has been.

Read

Lots of information on Bath. As it was our first time in this beautiful city, we gathered up lots of leaflets to plan our days. We had fun exploring the Roman Baths, Bath Abbey and a fabulous bus tour around the city.

Bath Leaflets

Bath Abbey

Roman Baths - Bath

The Weir in Bath

Watched

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Hmmmm not my type of film, but the husband and kids seemed to enjoy it.… Continue reading

2016 – Looking back at our year of travel

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At the start of 2016, I was inspired to join in with the Take 12 Trips challenge after reading Karen from Mini Travellers post. The idea is simple, to take 12 Trips over the course of the year, which was thought up by blogger Clare from Need another holiday. I have taken a total of 14 trips during 2016 (1 night or over), of which 2 have been girlie weekends, 4 trips with my husband and 8 as a family.

January

15 days into the New year and we were off on our first trip of 2016. It was a … Continue reading