The Baby Holiday that started it all

It’s dawn on an unseasonably gloomy Autumn Saturday, I’m looking through bleary, make-up free eyes and dishevelled hair at a tired, grey and stubbly husband, who is sitting opposite me on a First Capital Connect train returning from London Gatwick. My one year old is merrily banging a very noisy rattle on my right knee whilst he “uh-ohhh, gaga and babas” as loud as is humanly possible. Without warning there’s a sudden pause in movement, the hand holding the rattle tightens, his lips and fists clench, and he morphs into a familiar raspberry red. He turns and looks me intently in the eye as he dramatically forces three days worth of food out into his nappy and all the way up his back. I throw my head back with a loud, defeated groan and sigh a deep sigh.

We are forced to conclude that, on this occasion, we got our choice of Baby Holidays WRONG, horribly WRONG! With all the best intentions we booked a holiday in a beautiful penthouse apartment on two floors in a stunning Barbados hotel for our special Honeymoon…with no child-proofing, no stair gates and no bath. It was not a Baby Holiday. Every day we battled to stop our son from making a bee-line from the hotel lobby to the wide open and wild Barbadian road. We chose a hotel with no baby holidays pool, no child friendly holiday club or baby holidays nursery, no child friendly menu, no toddler holidays park, no child friendly holiday babysitting, and yes, you’ve guessed it, no other kids!

We spent hours pulling an under-stimulated baby off our fellow holidaymakers on the beach, chasing him around our hotel room, and acting as his full-time entertainment. We are returning shattered, more shattered than when we left. We have learned the hard way that we now need to be booking child friendly holidays, and final dirty nappy is just the cherry on top of a rotten nightmare of a holiday cake. In this moment, I promise myself that next time and every time until our kids turn 18, it’s child friendly holidays all the way: we are going to get it RIGHT!

I immediately set out to book next year’s baby holiday, but, as it turns out, trying to find a truly great baby or child friendly holiday, which keeps both children and adults happy, is rather like trying to find one chocolate sprinkle in a bowl full of a million zillion sickly pink ones. I spend hours trawling through site after site, reading through mountains of information, trying to unearth whether each individual holiday provides all the baby friendly and safe facilities that I need. Every time I find something satisfactory, I discover it’s super expensive. I am exhausted and frustrated by my Baby Holiday search, and feel like throwing my laptop out of the window. To add to the stress and irritation, I have a to do list of parental chores to complete as long as my arm, a mountain of washing in the corner, and not very much baby-free time remaining.

It is whilst I am cursing yet another not-so-easy-to-navigate Baby Holidays shop that a bright idea pops into my head…wouldn’t it be fantastic if there were a website that saved you precious time by delivering you top-rated, AFFORDABLE holidays, within minutes? A site which was fast, efficient, and gave you the opportunity to find your perfect child friendly holiday with kids within a few clicks of the mouse? A site where every break detailed offered the best opportunity for kids, toddlers, babies and their parents to have an exceptional and relaxing time, which actually felt like a real holiday?! Wouldn’t it be lovely, if just one of the many jobs we had to do as parents was quick and simple…??

So here it is, our little labour of love offering all of the parents out there the best in baby holidays, toddler holidays, child friendly holidays and, most importantly, the best in holidays for them, because everybody (especially a parent!) deserves a great holiday.
Love Emma (Managing Director) and Paul (the loving husband who built her the website to accommodate the dream)

Ps. we have two beautiful boys now, and return from our Child Friendly Holidays, Baby Holidays and Toddler Holidays with giggles, smiles and laughter these days :)