Why I love the FAMILY HOLIDAY...
Whether your children are going to kids’ clubs or nightclubs, there’s nothing better than all the family spending time together every summer, says bestselling novelist Victoria Hislop
Over the years, our annual family holiday has changed beyond recognition. There are, though, two things that have not altered in decades: I continue to call my children ‘children’, even though they are now 26 and
24, and I still fuss over their sun lotion.
The trips my kids have enjoyed are the antithesis to those I was subjected to when I was young, in every way. My childhood holidays were essentially extended pub crawls for my father. My sister and I would sit outside in the car, the rain drumming on the roof, clutching a bottle of ginger ale in one hand and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps in the other. The colour palette comprised a sludgy brown (the English channel) and slate grey (the sky and matching pebbles). The soundtrack was the mournful squeal of seagulls. I’m convinced that being raised amid this landscape led to my later passion for the blue skies, azure seas and golden sands that have characterised our travels with our own children, Emily and Will.
Fun in the sun
I willingly admit to selfishness. I hate the cold and overcast skies. I won’t camp in Cornwall, get wet in Wales or be consumed by mosquitoes in Scotland. I can’t bear cagoules and anoraks and Barbours. I don’t like the taste of tea from a flask, and I have never owned a Primus stove. The children can discover these things for themselves (and they have). But I never subscribed to the idea that discomfort is good for you. What is good for you is sunshine and swimming in a sea that leaves your skin the colour of skin, and not a dangerous shade of blue. I prefer the kids to absorb natural vitamin D, rather than swallowing vitamin C pills to keep a holiday cold at bay.
At 21, I bankrupted myself to buy a flight to the sunshine and over the past two and a half decades, holidays have continued to consume a disproportionate amount of my income. They have given an equally vast amount of pleasure and their importance to family life has been immeasurable.
Treasure islands
When the kids were very small, one of our preoccupations was how to find relaxation and rest in spite of having small children. The solution: Mark Warner resorts, mostly on Greek islands. We parked them in the kids’ clubs – where they had lots of fun – and off we went to play tennis and sail, collecting them for an hour at lunchtime and then late afternoon for tea. In the evening, there were babysitters, so we could enjoy dinner. It was a win-win situation.
One year, we worried we’d become stuck in a holiday rut and decided to break out of it with a rather different
trip. It only served to prove to us just how relaxing those holidays had been. We went to a villa in Italy where we spent two anxious weeks monitoring the edges of a deep swimming pool, strapping them into a roasting hot Fiat, then torturing them with small churches in Tuscan hilltop towns. Tied down into buggies, they could not escape the Madonna, and they were vocal in their protest. By the end of the week, even I had to admit I’d seen enough Renaissance paintings. The following year, it was back to the kids’ club and all-inclusive catering, and nobody complained.
When Emily and Will reached double figures, they began to express their own views. And so began a period of greater democracy in family life, and never more so than in the planning of family holidays. They wanted activity and adventure. We went on safari in Africa, white-water rafting in the US, and whale-spotting in the Galápagos.
The result was two children who developed a taste for the far-flung, who have gone on to fling themselves even further than the places we visited together. Unlike me, they can do without creature comforts, and have no fear of spiders the size of dinner plates and lurking snakes. Having taken them on planes and trains before they could speak or walk, I know I only have myself to blame when they are
‘Blue skies, azure seas and golden sands have characterised our travels with our children’