Collaborative post
Over the years we have been lucky enough to go on quite a few different kinds of holidays. We have been to lots of places such as a holiday to Majorca, a couple of days in Ipswich and even places like Center Parcs. However, we are a family of non-drivers and this can sometimes restrict where we can travel to and can cause issues when trying to book our holidays. Although things can sometimes be difficult we do always manage to go somewhere and have a fantastic time. Nor being able to drive doesn’t have to totally restrict where and when you can go away so I wanted so share how we plan some of our family holidays.
Plan ahead
Sometimes people at John’s work laugh because as soon as the new year starts I send him to work with a list of dates to book off for holidays. I always like to plan some getaways for the year ahead for various reasons. It’s always nice to be able to spread the cost of a holiday and places such as Haven, Butlins and Center Parcs offer a deposit system where you have to pay off the balance so many weeks before you go away. This makes things a lot more manageable for us and it means we can book slightly bigger holidays.
Explore your local area
Over the past couple of years we have tried to find somewhere to stay in our local area of Norfolk. It’s a pretty big county and we’re lucky to have some amazing beaches and attractions here. When it comes to holidays people tend to want to go somewhere away from home but I bet there is something amazing right on your doorstep. Some of the places in Norfolk we have been are Kelling Heath, The Grove in Cromer and we have so far visited 2 different Haven locations.
Split up a trip
This year we have a holiday to Butlins planned and it’s REALLY far away. As we can’t drive straight to Bognor Regis we have to think of another way to get there. So that the travel isn’t really bad for Erin were are splitting up the trip, staying in London a night on either side. This puts on additional costs of hotels, food and any attractions we visit there so planning ahead means that we have plenty of time to book cheaper deals and save up for what we need.
If you split up a trip to make the travel more manageable you also get some time elsewhere and get to have even more fun!
Public transport
Without a car we rely heavily on public transport to get us to where we need to be. Although parts of Norfolk are a bit lacking in the bus department we are very lucky to have good connections to other parts of the country if we want to travel by train. Some places we have already visited include Ely, Cambridge and later this year we have planned a trip to Birmingham and only have a couple of changes on the trains.
If you’re looking to go further afield then public transport is also a great way to get to an airport before jetting off to (hopefully) somewhere warm. London has fantastic links to the airports and getting the train to Gatwick Airport from there would save you a lot of time and stress. There are fast direct services which take you right to the terminals ready for your next adventure.
Are you a family without a car? How do you plan your family holidays?
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