In these winter months, our thoughts turn to holidays. We love to get away and a have a break from the norm. We have never been abroad as a family before, so booking a holiday for a large family, was an unexpected experience!
Now, I never really considered having three children to be seriously unusual. I know of lots of people who have three or more children, yet finding holiday accommodation to suit a larger than ‘normal’ family has been trickier than expected.
What is a ‘typical family size’ anyway? They come in all shapes and sizes these days, there’s not one size fits all. There are many single parents out there trying to take their children on holiday.
Then on the flip side, there are many families with more than two children or those with extended families. Not everyone is your average sized family of two adults and two children.
We previously had a fantastic holiday at Coombe Mill and at Centre Parcs. On both occasions there were no problems finding accommodation to suit a family of five, so I really never expected any issues when going abroad. However, I was wrong.
After making the decision, that the time is right to finally take our children abroad for a holiday, we excitedly searched on the internet for options and availability. This turned out to be a lot more difficult than it should have been.
Finding some lovely holiday destinations and deals were easy, there was loads to choose from. However, every time it came to choosing accommodation it became difficult.
In most places, the only way to accommodate three children, would have been for one adult and one child to share an apartment and one adult and two children to share a separate apartment.
This to me was not an acceptable way to spend my holiday. My holiday is about spending time together as a family and as husband and wife. Being in separate apartments is not the answer.
Eventually, we actually gave up, admitted defeat and waited until we could go into a travel agents to help us. We headed to Thomson one weekend. The staff were very helpful, but it was still difficult.
Hotels and holiday resorts just don’t cater much for larger families. Our options were very much reduced, compared to a family with two adults and two children.
After a long search, we did eventually book our first holiday abroad. We are really excited, but the process of booking a holiday for a large family was a lot more difficult than it needed to be.
Have you had this problem? What companies accommodate well for the large family?
We always struggle to find enough space for our family and we have never been abroad. It is surprising that more companies don’t cater for this, especially with the rise of blended families who may have 2 lots of children to take with them. I hope you enjoy your break when you go away!
We have 3 children now too and although we holiday in the UK at the moment I too have struggled to find bigger accommodation.
We stayed in a premier inn recently and were only allowed 5 in the room as the baby was in a cot, next time we visit my family in Devon we’ll have to have 2 rooms.
Add petrol to that and it is one expensive weekend no wonder we rarely visit them unfortunately we can’t afford it
We’ve never had a problem on the uk – often book cottages for ten or more people. We used to rent large villas. In Spain with another family when I was a kid but that took more planning.
Funny how I always assumed it would be easy booking for a large family. This post has certainly raised issues.
I’d never considered this before. It can sometimes seem that companies ‘expect’ you to have more than one child with the way family price packages are listed. Family tickets seem to always cater for 2 adults, 2 children. There should be much more flexibility, times change!
Growing up as a family of 5 I always remember my parents facing that struggle and it definitely limited our options for holidays. Which is just not fair is it really? Like you say a family of 5 or more is hardly unusual yet so many places only cater for families of 4.
We’d never considered how hard it might be to find accommodation for a large family, we always though a villa would be the way to go, but that can be expensive with flights as well.
We find it so hard to get away, weekends away are now impossible as family rooms in hotels only cater for 2 adults and 2 children, unless I want to book a whole extra room for us! Which is completely out of the question, I mean who can afford 2 hotel rooms for 1 weekend away! I would love to find a hotel who caters for larger families too.