Please introduce yourself and where you blog
My name is Victoria Sully and my travel blog is Travel Vixta. I’ve been blogging since 2013 and I’m a full-time blogger at Lylia Rose already which has a travel section, but I decided to set up a new travel focused blog last November (2018) to have a separate blog for purely travel content.
Last summer we bought a Mazda Bongo camper van which we hope to take on some adventures this year and share on the blog. It’s also a place to document our bucket lists, travel advice, family days out, festivals and kids-free adventures. It will mainly be a family travel blog as we have a four year old boy Reuben and a six year old girl Bella, but occasionally my husband Ben and I will get a day or weekend to ourselves to explore kid-free.
Where was your favourite ever trip?
As a family it was Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. We went in April 2018 and it was our first ‘proper’ family holiday abroad. We’ve been abroad to Germany as a family several times, but to visit my husband’s family and it never felt like a holiday. My husband and I had only been on a babymoon to Gran Canaria together and before we met we had travelled a small amount each.
As we’d always spent our money on going to Germany to visit family, it was a real treat to go on an actual holiday abroad of our choosing last year. We stayed in the four star Club Jandia Princess Hotel which was a premium hotel and very nice! It was very different to the usual European hotels I stay at which have often been very last minute cheap deals and only two or three stars. I could really tell the difference with the four star rating. The hotel and surrounds was beautiful.
What made you choose to go there and who did you go with?
At the time our children were three and five and they hadn’t been on a beach holiday before. We chose to go in April as the weather wouldn’t be scorching, but plenty warm enough. We picked the canary islands as the flights aren’t too long and the weather is usually always dry and sunny. We didn’t specifically look for Fuerteventura, but at all the islands until we found a holiday we liked the look of. I’ve been to Tenerife, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria before so when I saw a trip I liked to Fuerteventura I was sold! I was happy to go to an island I’d been to before, but it was ideal to see one I hadn’t seen before.
I went with my family, so my husband and our two children Bella and Reuben. They were just three and five at the time so they were super excited. We booked around one year in advance so there was a long wait and a big build up!
What made it so special?
It was a really special trip because it was our first family holiday abroad. I think because of this it will always be remembered and special to us. Bella still remembers the holiday almost one year later and regularly asks me when we are going back to Fuerteventura!
It was also a long awaited break that I think was well deserved. For Ben and I it was our first actual holiday abroad for six years! Ben and I had a pretty cheap babymoon when I was pregnant with Bella and then we got thrown into the whirlwind of having two children, buying our first home together, doing up our home and getting married! So travelling abroad and holidaying took a backseat whilst we had so much going on.
Life was manic for a few years and we really just needed a break together as a family with no normal mundane routine for us parents and for the kids to relax and enjoy themselves in a different environment. This holiday really couldn’t have come soon enough for us and was the ideal break away.
We booked it around a year in advance so we could afford to pay for it by spreading the cost over the year. The holiday cost more than our joint monthly income combined, so it really was a very special treat!
Holidays and travelling are so special to create memories whilst also being away from the usual stresses of working lives and home life as parents. A break from the norm and a week without washing up and cleaning was amazing!
Seeing the children play togeth1er so nicely and enjoying the beach and pool was a joy. We could barely get them out of the kids splash pool!
For Ben I think he mostly enjoyed being able to go up to the bar and grab a beer without paying as we had booked all-inclusive. It’s a real novelty.
My favourite part of the trip was a boat ride out to see where Bella and I saw a dolphin so close to the boat. I love boat rides and always try to go on one when on holiday. Seeing the landscape of the island from afar and being out in the sea-breeze on a pirate style ship is something I won’t forget.
Where was your least favourite trip and why?
My least favourite trip was a year or two before this trip, which is why I was inspired to go abroad to guaranteed sunshine! We’d gone to Cornwall for a week and it rained the whole time. As we are restricted by school holidays, we booked a week in the summer holidays. The prices everywhere were extortionate, so as soon as I found a great price that was a third of other prices, I booked it without hesitation.
Sometimes it’s not all about price though as we learnt. The holiday accommodation was a holiday park in north Cornwall and we had to drive for hours to get anywhere. It also lacked any facilities for the children. We literally just had our holiday home. It rained and rained which really did put a damper on our holiday! As we were self-catering we went to Tesco lots and I had to cook and clean. I felt like I’d just moved my house for a week to another place where it rained constantly and I had to do all my usual mum chores. Hence why our next holiday was a sunny holiday abroad and all-inclusive!
I do love Cornwall and we have been several times, but at that time with very young children in rainy weather which I really hate and being far from anything… we just hadn’t planned the holiday very well!
Thankyou so much for sharing this Victoria
