Family fun in the sun, trees and temples
WHEN I was very small, we self-catered in Devon and Cornwall and I have blissful memories of rock pools, and windy beaches.
I was 10 when we took our first foreign holiday – a gite in the Dordogne. I remember stilted conversations with our hosts and my parents being incredibly excited because the milk came warm and unpasteurised from the cows on the farm. We kids were not so keen.
My favourite student holiday was to Greece. Flights to Athens and the ferry from Piraeus were relatively cheap, and the relaxed freedom of islandhopping and glorious sunshine made for amazing student travel.
With our own children, we have made travel a priority.
A great many of our favourite family memories have been made on holidays, and we’ve been lucky enough to take several really amazing trips together.
Living in America for a few years while they were younger made lots of places suddenly more affordable.
So we have skied in Vancouver and surfed in Hawaii, (I say we, but I really mean them, I’m happiest spectating!) and we’ve sat on the world’s best beach, Grace Bay, at sunset on New Year’s Eve.
A road trip between San Francisco and Los Angeles (with an inland foray to Palm Springs and Las Vegas) stands out for the extraordinary variety it offered our family.
From the stunning scenery of Highway 1, where we tried to join hands around the enormous giant redwoods and collected honey from beehives in Carmel, to the awe of the Grand Canyon.
A couple of years ago, we went to Cambodia to visit the extraordinary temples at Angkor Wat, and last year we spent Christmas in Australia.
Now that my girls are 18 and 20, they have both caught the travel bug that takes them off without us as independent travellers.
I like to think we can take a few more “last family holidays” with them, but that doesn’t mean my husband and I don’t have a little list of places we’re longing to see, just the two of us.