Children...

I don't want them to grow up too quickly and miss what being young and carefree is all about.
I want them to enjoy it all. But being their mom, I want to be part of their enjoyment too...So far so good.
My other children- the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers

Monday 18 July 2011

Booking a Holiday is Hard Work

Last Thursday left me with a headache, soar neck and google eyes from spending seven hours on the keyboard typing in hundreds of destinations all over the world trying to find a suitable holiday for Rooster, the Chicks and I in August.


Since boy is dead armed and doing nothing much more then physio and xbox(funny how that doesn't seem to hurt his shoulder even though he throws his arms all over the place while he is killing aliens!) until school starts again, I was assigned as holiday rep for the family.


Well,my aunt was a travel agent for many years and I always thought that her job was So clamourous, booking people into exotic locations all over the world. I was so wrong. It's really hard to find the perfect spot. The last five years I have had it lucky. We just go to our beach house in the summer and if we ski, we go to France with friends or out west to family, simple. No brainer. 


But to actually think of a place to go with two teenagers and a husband that needs a rest isn't easy. They want somewhere that is sunny but not hurricane season, flyable but not 14 hours and three changes of aircraft, adventurous but not too physical as boy will moan and girl won't hike, food has to be readable on the menu and meat not dog,donkey or dragon, a spa would be nice, history and shopping would be a plus, no sitting in traffic, dirty water or over crowded swimming pools, and no spending more then one term of school fees per person!!!


Really not a lot to ask of one mother and a computer. I think at one point I had the big Apple and the laptop open with about 10 pages each on them. I had to check NOAA for weather, google for maps, every package deal company I could think of and then when I was feeling beat, I called friends and trolled through the holiday sections of every magazine in the house. Of course my family only wanted to know what had I found? and where were we going? I just wanted to never look at the computer again. Nearly everywhere I suggested was wrong one way or another, too far, too ugly, too European, too close, too short a time, too expensive, too something. It was hopeless, I was hopeless. I could easily have just stayed at home with my dogs and pondered buying more chickens.


So I took Friday off from touring the world and ignored all destination questions until Friday night. The four of us sat down to a nice quiet dinner, my neck was just about tolerable when I moved my head up and down, and I was just tucking into my first bite of food when Rooster opened his big mouth-So where are we going? Considering all the options and the work I put into Thursday and all the negative feedback I got from the Rooster and Chicks, I nearly spat out my food.


But I didn't, I quietly got up from the table and got his laptop out, opened it and put it down in front of him then did the same with the chicks and the other laptop. "First one to find a place that we all agree on, I will book tomorrow. Ready, go". And I left the room with a big class of wine.


It was actually my sister who had a good idea and I showed the boy on Friday just to see what he thought. He googled and 'youtubed' it and was hooked but I told him to keep it hush until after dinner. 
In the Bahamas there is a place call The Atlantis. There is also the same resort in Dubai. It is big and loud and wet. Boy doesn't have to swim, all's he has to do is float down 51feet of slide into a shark infested tank (inclosed in a clear tube of course for 3-D viewing) and come out the other side and do it again, all day if he wants. He is thrilled. Hotel has 1500+ rooms so I can't imagine that there will be too much over crowding, there is shopping , sun (38c plus degrees but it's a dry heat) and sand and not too far away from wet England.


I secretly thought it looked like great fun but knew that daughter and husband would question my sanity. Really I like a bit of fun and water parks, white beaches and an all contained resort suit me and the boy. I let them all play around searching for holiday spots and they din't do very well in the couple of hours after dinner. So I quietly told boy to pull up our secret hot spot and show them.






There are hundreds of places I want to to for different reason. Iceland, Sweden. Sri Lanka, South Africa, Mongolia, parts of South America, parts of America, parts of England and Ireland and most recently, Zanzibar. That looked perfect and would be my secret hide a way. The world is huge and full of fantastic places but it's really hard to narrow it down. I am really pleased to have finally done my job, holiday sorted.

1 comment:

  1. I go nuts trying to sort out teh wheat fro teh chaff trying to find the perfect holidy spot; so have told hubbie he has to do it or we go where I want. I won't be holding my breath!
    Hope you have a fab time it looks truly amazing!

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