THE BENEFITS OF VILLA HOLIDAYS FOR FAMILIES

I feel as though we've tried and tested most varieties of holidays as a family. We've done all inclusive, half board and villa vaycays too, all of which have their own pros and cons but in terms of family holidays I do tend to lean on the side that staying in a villa just slightly outweighs the other options for a variety of reasons. Don't get me wrong it's lovely to have someone cooking the food for you, cleaning the plates from your table and making you drinks on tap - but when it comes to having children in the mix sometimes there is a convenience in a villa that you just can't get anywhere else. When we head off on our own it's usually my parents villa in Alicante, it's picturesque, a home away from home and thanks to all of the below, it actually feels like we had a holiday when we come home.


Nap time is the most important time of the day if you've got a toddler or baby on your hands, because when you're on holiday those precious moments are the ones you can relish and actually relax for longer than a nanosecond. When you're holidaying in a villa you have the benefit of extra room, meaning if your baby is napping your not confined to a balcony or tip-toeing around them like you would be in a hotel room. Instead it's much the same as at home, and for us we usually pop the baby monitor on and sit around the pool, it means Patrick gets a good sleep in a cot and we have some time to focus on Noah without missing out on our time away by sitting beside him in a stuffy hotel room.

Eating out is all fun and games until you have children, especially if you have two under five like us. Noah is a golden child and ultimately we could take him anywhere, Patrick - not so much. Whilst on previous holidays I have really enjoyed eating out, sometimes you really just want to stay in and not have to face the music, particularly if you've had a day of travelling. Then comes the question of 'Will my kids actually eat this?', we're lucky that the boys truly aren't fussy but I can imagine the frustration of paying for meals to go uneaten. Villa holidays are the number one way to combat this, you can cook what you like, eat when you fancy and cater for everyone. It's a real win win situation.

The space is a huge plus point for me when we opt for a villa vaycay. Holidays can be stressful sometimes, with the heat, jet lag and generally just being in new surroundings - the last thing I want is to all be on top of each other. I like my space and I'm used to having enough of it, having rooms that you can wander off to, bedrooms for you to all sleep separately in etc is a definite selling point for us. I know hotel rooms can be generous, but it's usually an array of travel cots and sofa beds crammed into would be living spaces, I prefer real bedrooms and kitchens that I can fully take advantage of.

Privacy is a big part of villa holidays and a lot of the people I know who choose to holiday this way, do so for this exact reason, they want to have their own peace and quiet. A pool to yourselves, no maids knocking on the door at 7am, no restrictions of mealtimes or bar closures, you can completely do your own thing with nobody else to thing about. If the kids want to play water fights and run around the pool, that's fine, if that want to dive onto the lilo from the edge, that's fine too. Nobody is going to care because nobody is around.

All in all villa holidays are definitely high up our list next year, we're already eyeing up a trip back to Alicante in April with the flight prices being so low at the moment, it seems crazy not to snap them up, and after eyeing up the Clickstay villas in Spain, it's very tempting. I know that when we head to a villa, we're getting what we expect, it can cost as much or as little as we choose whilst we're there and ultimately we're all going to have a good time - which of course is the most important thing!

*This is a collaborative post with Clickstay, however all opinions are entirely my own.