A Good Old Fashioned Family Holiday!

When you have children of different ages, it can be difficult to find a family holiday to keep everyone happy, particularly if teenage kids are involved! Which is why resorts like Butlin’s, where there’s a little something for everyone, can be a great find for parents. This week we’ve been chatting with parenting blogger, Emma Bradley, who headed off to Butlin’s as one of our Trunki ambassadors to check out everything the park has to offer and take a few of our Trunki characters along for the adventure.

Emma blogs at Emma and 3, sharing her journey of parenting a teen, tween and tot. Head to Emma’s blog for a daily dose of stories about education, health and the highs and lows of parenting.

Don’t forget, we’re giving away an awesome holiday at Butlin’s worth £1,000, along with a £200 Trunki voucher. Enter here!

The May half term break is always one of my favourites, it signals the start of the final school term and all the fun that it brings with it including sports days, residentials and plenty of sun. This year we were extra lucky in that we were also heading to Butlin’s Bognor Regis as part of our ambassador role. With the car loaded up, infectious smiles and chatty conversations from the three children we undertook the journey at a leisurely pace on the Monday morning. The children were doubly excited as we would be meeting nanny there who was also staying with us for the mini break. Butlin’s is great for multi-generational holidays and thankfully for me she is the type of mother in law you want to spend time with!

Before we left Trunki, a partner of Butlin’s had asked if Erin would like to choose both a Trunki and a PaddlePak for our visit to Butlin’s. Erin was more than excited by this and finally settled on Boris and Inky to accompany us on our trip.

Trunki is fab as they are pretty indestructible and the children can ride on them. This is great for when you are waiting around, not that we had any waiting checking in at Butlin’s. Erin gets tired easily and regularly gets leg aches and pains and therefore having something she could use as a seat to rest is a great asset especially when waiting at check ins or airports.

I had spent the day before packing and was thrilled with just how much I could get in the Boris the bus Trunki that Erin was taking. The weather has been hit and miss and therefore I needed to cater for all of the UK weather that we could experience in four days on the South Coast! I also knew that Erin would undoubtedly get grubby during the day because we had planned some great activities including messy play and crafts. Grass stained children on holiday is also a sign of fun times but I knew she would want to change again ready for the evening entertainment.

On arrival at Butlin’s we found our rooms just as the brochure had described (the children loved the towel art on our beds each day) and soon enough Chloe and Erin were unpacking in the bunk room they were sharing. Erin loved the blue room and had fun with the ladder even though she was on the bottom bunk! Dylan was in our interconnecting room and sharing with nanny – like I said perfect for multigenerational holidays.

Whilst unpacking Chloe and Dylan poured over the map we had been given that has the timings for all the activities that were on during our break. Armed with a highlighter they were soon planning our itinerary!

One of the children’s favourite things to do always involves the swimming pool. It is always one of the first places on their list to check out whenever we arrive on a holiday. Whilst the older two enjoy the slides and rapids, Erin swims wherever she can and makes the most of the wave machines and slides for younger visitors. Erin learnt to swim before she could walk and therefore is most confident and happy in the water.

Erin choose the octopus design PaddlePak which is a medium size and held her swimming costume, towel, googles and variety of pool toys easily. This back pack is waterproof and this meant that she could happily wear it after swimming without getting a damp back. She also loves carrying her own things – much like her older brother and sister who have their own bags.

The pool at Butlin’s was everything it promised and the children had great fun with the slides and rapids.
The PaddlePak also has handy pockets which meant that she could easily locate her own googles and get herself sorted whilst I poured myself into my own swimming costume doing some kind of rain dance to get it on!

After building up an appetite we settled on eating at The Deck where food is plentiful and yummy.  They also put on a birthday package for us later in the week as it was daddy’s birthday.

Overall the break and the Trunki products we have tried really suited us and made life that little bit easier which is just what you want when on holiday. To find out more about our adventures at Butlin’s and other places we’ve visited do check out the Emma and 3 blog.