OUR TRAVEL REGRETS

Given that no matter how much we travel, it's always going to be something we don't do all too often - we're bound to make mistakes, do things wrong and generally regret some of the choices we make. I'm no exception, though with each journey we take as a family we learn a thousand new things, there is so much we realise that we haven't quite worked out yet and actually, are still getting massively wrong. Just last month we ventured off to Turkey and I already know a dozen things that I'd do differently if we had our time over, but there's a dozen more that I learnt from our trip last year to Spain. With children especially they're ever changing and always growing meaning that while you can plan every last detail till your hearts content - you can't always predict what will happen and how things will end up.

Before our trip to last year to Spain with the boys, I was always the kind of girl who wanted to be waking at two o'clock in the morning and excitedly getting ready for an early morning flight. I now realise how completely absurd it is to add extra stress and tiredness to your journey when you're a family. It'll be different when the boys are older and we potentially venture into more long haul flights, but if your journey is within the EU it seems silly to impose jet lag onto yourselves for absolutely no reason. So then as me and John travelled to Spain on our solo holiday in September, I realised what a blessing day time flights would be - thus surely making our four o'clock in the afternoon flight to Turkey, a breeze? Wrong, it was a bit of a disaster thanks to some delays and Patrick didn't nap at all like I expected. Looking back it was so much easier on our return which was a super late evening flight, the boys slept the whole time and it was peaceful. When we landed it meant we could throw down our bags and all hit the hay, which I don't know about you but I always want to do no matter what time I land in a country - given the fact it was the early hours of the morning it meant no feeling of guilt or no jet lag. I would now always opt for a later flight if the option was there.

To take the camera everywhere or not to take the camera everywhere? Last year I opted for the latter and I hugely regretted it when we got home, I thought that by putting down the camera and enjoying the moment it would be 100% more worthwhile. I was right in a way as not having the pressure to be constantly snapping photographs was lovely, but in truth - I enjoy it, and even though it technically is a job it's something I really love doing so I don't see it as much of a chore. When we got home I realised that whilst I'd been present in the moment, that moment was gone and I'm sure I'd forget a thousand things that I could have captured in still shots with my camera. I felt a bit gutted, especially as we'd took my Nan with us and I'm not sure if we'll ever get a holiday with her again as she's 72 now. This time in Turkey I did exactly what I wanted, I took all the photos and maxed out memory cards, it never felt like an issue and now we're home I have so many treasures that I can't ever be grateful enough for. Lesson learnt, you'll never regret getting snap happy.

Falling out of routine isn't always a bad thing, I always worried before holidays that the boys having late nights and late mornings would set us all out of sync and cause havoc when we returned home. That is true and it can be a pain, but you're on holiday and you have to learn to enjoy yourself. Being in bed every night at nine o'clock, or confined to your balcony because you want the little ones to be fermented in their routine isn't fun and you wont get those moments back. Let them stay up late and go to the mini disco, eat tea at seven o'clock and breakfast at nine, nothing has to be rushed. It's something I wish I'd told myself more over the years, but thanks to the 'listening service' at Mark Warner, it's something we fully embraced in Turkey.