Family Travel Uncategorized

Planning Our First Post-Lockdown Trip

April 26, 2021

Like most people in the UK, lockdown meant we weren’t able to get away last year. We didn’t have a great deal planned, but we usually do a few trips per year, either in a rented cottage/lodge or somewhere like Center Parcs. 

I’m not going to lie. Lockdown with two small kids has been tough. We haven’t had to homeschool, but we have both had to try and work full time around the kids, with no support bubble. We’re tired, we’re cranky and we’re sick of looking at the same 4 walls day in day out (hence the slew of home improvement posts about to come your way). 

So, now we’re so close to being out of lockdown, we’ve started to plan where we’re going to go. Other people will have started planning ages ago, but if you know anything about us as a couplet, is that we’re terribly disorganised when it comes to things like this. 

Returning to Ireland

I used to be a fairly regular visitor to Ireland, especially Dublin where a good friend of mine lives. There are daily flights direct from Newcastle so I could get a return flight for about the price of a train ticket to Leeds. I’ve had some of the best nights of my life in Ireland, great music, great people and great food. The group dining options are fantastic and I’m sure there are a lot of new restaurants opened since I last visited. There are so many different types of cuisine to try, even for our picky family.

Really, I’m looking forward to going back there with the kids. It’s been far too long. At first, it was work, then having Alex, then Ava. Just when it was beginning to look like we’d get our act together enough to travel, COVID-19! I’m not sure what life is planning on throwing at us next but I’m determined to get back there in 2021. 

Center Parcs

If you’d told me I’d be going to Center Parcs for a family holiday before I had kids. I would have laughed at you. But I really do enjoy it. The scenery is amazing, there’s plenty to do with the kids and there’s an amazing spa there. What’s not to love about it? 

So, as part of my lockdown bucket list, I’m making sure we do more things as a family. It’s not just lockdown that has caused me to want to do more. Even before the pandemic hit, we’d work really long hours through the week, then come the weekend, one of us would undoubtedly be ill with something, or there’d be so much housework and errands to run. We’d end up doing nothing. It’s not fair on the kids and Scott and I could do with switching off at the weekends. 

Price

I must admit, I’m a little disappointed with the prices people are charging for staycations at the minute. I completely understand how affected the tourism industry has been throughout lockdown, but some places we’d visited before were charging four or five times the price we used to pay. Some friends of ours found the prices they were looking for so high, they decided to buy a static caravan instead, so they could get away whenever they wanted.

So, there you have it. I’m hoping to be back here in a couple of months writing posts about all the great things we did on our hols.

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