Family Travel

Where do you go to spend this holiday season with your family?? Whether you just let’s your childs spend your holiday season just only stay at home??

One of the main motivators for as family holiday is to create memories for one’s children, to take them to new places and allow them to experience the excitement of a holiday atmosphere. In South Africa we are blessed with so many opportunities to do this.

All however is rarely according to script, your baby and younger ones are immediately slip out of their normal routine, meal times and sleep habits are soon out the window, you have also I’m sure heard the painful cry from the back, “Are we there yet, Dad…?” usually as one passes the outskirts of your own suburb or town, the very beginning perhaps of a long trip.

Whether it is a beach holiday in Cape Town, perhaps Margate of a trip to the Kruger national Park, bless their little cotton socks, you’ve worked hard all year; earned some leave; packed the car; secured the house; sorted the pool; kennelled the dogs; mowed the lawn and all the other hard work you have to do before being able to take a holiday. The day has dawned, and away you go, happy but probably a little stressed out as you drive your family to one of the great Eastern Cape holiday destinations.

The attention span of children seems extremely small, you might be able to look at an antelope grazing at Addo Park for an hour or how a lion pride prepares for a kill for all of three hours, your four year old simply can’t it’s impossible. Who can blame them, you are driving, this gives you something to do, your spouse has worked hard in the preparation and is quietly relaxing next to you, perhaps with a magazine, now what about the children.

Our family has tried the eye-spy route, car cricket, singing songs, “old MacDonald” and his farm has really come in handy sometimes and many other methods of keeping the children happy and smiling. Thank goodness for modern gadgets like music player. Eating ones way along the kilometres does work, a few crisps and a sweet or two will do little harm in moderation. One of the key things is your selection of accommodation, you simply have to ensure that it is safe; secure and child friendly for the respective ages and needs of your children. Please visit www.staysa.co.za and the friendly staff will assist you in this process.

Our most important tip for travel at any time, is road safety. Travel those distance trips during day light hours only and obey every single rule of the road, most importantly stay within the speed limit and do not drink and drive.

It sounds a little boring and you’ve heard it before but it cannot be emphasized enough. “Are we there yet Daddy…” is a lot better than “What happened Daddy…”