COSTA DEL SOL I’d be happy for UK campsite to keep our cash

KATIE ROSE, 44, is a counsellor and lives in Chigwell, Essex, with her husband Simon, 47, an IT manager, and their daughters Sadie, 13, and Poppy, 11. Katie says: OH, HOW I long to sip cocktails beneath a Mediterranean sunset and splash around in the warm waters with my daughters this summer. I’m also desperate not to have to cook a meal or make a bed for a little while!

But just in case our ten-day holiday to Estepona in Spain goes to pot, in February I also booked a camping trip to the New Forest while there was still availability.

We haven’t been abroad since we went to Spain in 2018, because last summer’s visit to the gorgeous apartment with a shared pool that my mum owns on the Costa del Sol was cancelled, and the year before we didn’t have the cash to spare. Now, we’re so desperate for something to look forward to after the challenges of the past year — in which I’ve changed careers, my husband was furloughed and our daughters have missed out on so much — that I booked a UK break as well.

I did the same thing last year and double-booked Spain with a different campsite in the New Forest, which is, of course, where we ended up.

We rolled over our £1,000 flights to Malaga from last summer and we can move them again if we’re not allowed to travel.

Meanwhile, a pitch for our tent in the New Forest is £200 and we only paid a £20 deposit — but I’d be happy for them to have the whole £200 if it means we get to go sunny Spain!

Although we love the New Forest, the British weather is usually the deal-breaker. So if we can get to Spain and all that guaranteed glorious sunshine, we’ll be off like a shot.

My girls are desperate to go as they have lots of friends with holiday homes there and we can spend our days having lots of fun at waterparks and taking pedalos out to sea.

But I fear that we may have to wait another year the way things are going.