UK Holiday – A family that travels together stays together…

Written on Sunday, January 10, 2021 by Jacqueline Leemann

This was the first overseas holiday for our children, so the excitement level was immense. From the moment we gave them their itinerary as a gift on Christmas Day, to them waiting 6 months until we departed, the discussions & speculations were amazing. They wondered what the flight would be like, how long it would take, what the airplane food would taste like, how small the bathrooms were on the plane…and that was just the flights!

From getting everyone’s passports organised to arranging travel details, working out where & how we would travel, which airline we would use, what date we needed to travel and for how long. A million questions were floating around our heads.

We had to be in Canterbury for a wedding on a set date, so arranging travel around this was easy enough.

We decided that doing a coach tour would be the most economical and easiest way to travel around and learn a lot about the areas as we went. That meant we didn’t have to hire a car or follow a map; we didn’t need to book accommodation along the way or miss out on the history of all the old cities we went through. It worked out well and was very easy with the kids. There were not too many long hours of driving between one place and the next, so they didn’t get bored. The information & history our tour guide gave us along the way was entertaining and informative.

Travelling with 2 adults & 3 children meant we needed 2 rooms at a lot of the hotels throughout the UK, so that added an extra expense. They don’t really cater for larger families.

We did hire a car for a few days to head into the countryside and down to the coast. We wanted to avoid the daily ‘Congestion Zone’ fee heading out of London and thankfully the GPS saved our sanity on many occasions.

In London, we used the Hop On, Hop Off bus. Unfortunately, on this day it was 40 degrees and London doesn’t cater too well for hot days. We did get off at a few places along the way, but it was nice just sitting on the bus listening to the commentary and looking at the sights that London is so famous for.

Travelling in the UK with children was very easy, everyone speaks English, road signs are in English & children under 10 are free on public transport in London.

Meal deals are also a cheap way to feed a family on your holiday. We ate many ‘meal deals’ from Boots, Tesco and Sainsbury.

So as you can see travelling the UK with a family of 5 on a coach tour can be done with ease – we loved it and wouldn’t hesitate to go again!