Mummy and Daddy Daycare plan an overseas family holiday, part II
The countdown to our first long haul holiday as a family of four has started and with just a few weeks to departure, our planning is currently into its final phase.
In an earlier blog post, we talked about our search for good flight deals and how to survive the flight. We have since made progress on planning for the actual trip – with our accommodations booked, and places to visit noted down, we’ve also started packing our luggage!
With two kids to consider, here is the current status of our luggage capacity: Kids’ stuff (70 per cent), Mummy’s stuff (25 per cent) – leaving 5 per cent for Daddy’s things.
Of course, when you have two young children in tow – in our case, a four-year-old (nicknamed “Barnacles”) and an 18-month-old (“Kwazii”), you would probably agree with the mantra to ‘expect the unexpected and always go with the flow’.
So here are some tips that we hope will come in handy if you are planning a long-haul holiday to the United Kingdom with your family.
Renting a car in the UK
Apart from spending some time with family living in the Midlands, we have decided to rent a car to travel to London as well as Southampton to visit Paulton’s Theme Park.
During our last family trip to UK two years ago when Barnacles was below three years old, we commuted from the Midlands to London by train. With just one kid at the time, it was quite a manageable journey – we brought some toys for him to play with on the train, and just one piece of luggage with a stroller.
However, with our 18-month-old Kwazii along for this trip, we decided that taking the train would be challenging with our double stroller, extra luggage, and of course two little boys who cannot sit still for long. We decided that renting a car would make more sense (also because we could ‘trap’ them in car seats for the journey).
Cost-wise, renting a car works out to about S$50 a day to rent a car for a week, compared to S$150 or so it would cost for all of us to take a one-way London Midland train ride. We chose the Skoda Octavia sedan which can fit all four of us (including two car seats, luggage and a stroller), and is within our budget (S$350) for the week-long road trip from the Midlands to Southampton – to London and back to the Midlands, covering close to 700km.
While in London, however, we plan to commute by the London Underground as we would rather not fork out hefty car park fees in Central London. If you plan to commute by the Tube, do remember to check the official ‘avoiding stairs guide’ to find out which stations have ramps and lifts if you are using a stroller or carrying luggage.
Choosing your accommodation
With so many hotel sites to choose from today, travellers are certainly spoilt for choice when it comes to holiday accommodations. However, it helps if you are returning to a familiar place. For us, we have decided on a hotel in London’s zone 3, which is a 45-minute tube ride into zone 1. Situated in East London, it’s beside Stratford tube station and within Westfield Stratford City, a megamall in its own right with lots of kid-friendly stores and eateries.
This means the convenience of commuting into Central London and purchasing some daily necessities for the kids, including kid-friendly meals. Do also check out Premier Inn, which is a decent budget hotel with branches all over the UK.
Safety first
We are sure all parents will agree that it can be stressful planning for such trips, especially when you are travelling with kids. It helps if you have a financial adviser who you can speak to about purchasing a comprehensive travel insurance plan. Remember to look out for coverage of travel disruption, as well as personal accident and medical coverage.
We also make it a habit to e-register our journey with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs so that we are contactable in times of an emergency.
Whenever we travel with our two young children, we like to joke that we should prepare as best as we can – which possibly means planning for an apocalypse! More seriously, though, our advice to ourselves is to go with the flow and relax as much as possible.
Mummy and Daddy Daycare are the pseudonyms of a Singaporean husband and wife who are raising two young boys aged four and one, nicknamed Barnacles and Kwazii from the children’s Octonauts series. Get into the minds of this couple who describe parenthood as a lifetime adventure – you are always learning something new! Whoever said parenting was a walk in the park?
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