Here I am packing for our sun holiday and I still can't quite believe it has come around so quickly. When we booked this holiday many months ago it felt like a lifetime away. Right now we are in that lovely phase where we both just have two days left in work, a good dent has been made in the packing, and holiday-mode is starting to take over. We really just can't wait for some sunshine and a whole week together as a family.
We're going back to Caleta De Fuste in Fuerteventura. This will be our third year in a row to visit this place. I never really understood why people went back to the same holiday destination, but now I have a total understanding of it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? There are enough things to think about when it comes to planning a holiday with little ones. The financial side, sorting passports and holiday clothes, considering food and routines being changed etc. Deciding on a destination was just one less thing to do.
We first visited Caleta the year I fell pregnant. We went in May and the weather was gorgeous. Little did we know that in five months we would be expecting our very own baby. Life is such an adventure. The recommendation came from Peter's parents. They had been to Caleta De Fuste several times and they really liked it. It ticked all the boxes for them. We booked it on a whim and completely fell in love with the place when we arrived. It was quiet enough but with a lovely atmosphere. It was a breath of fresh air compared to the usual strip-type set up that you are used to seeing in holiday resorts. It is a small compact area with a couple of bars, restaurants and little trinket shops. Everything is within walking distance including the beach which is literally a stones throw from where the main restaurants are. There are about ten decent restaurants to chose from and we had some beautiful meals - in particular we had a gorgeous Indian and Italian (which we returned to three times). The best part about Caleta, apart from everything being so accessible and within walking distance, is the safety and cleanliness. It's still relatively new in terms of tourism compared to come of the other Canary Islands and this means it has been really well maintained. It feels very safe and family friendly.
So we are off on our merry travels again this year. This time we have decided to go all-inclusive because there was a particular offer we just couldn't resist. €480 for 7 nights all inclusive food and drink for myself, Peter and little Billy. That is unreal. In general the accomodation would usually set us back €300 or thereabouts for the week. It felt like a sin to turn down all inclusive food and drink for an extra €150 or so. €75 each (and that's not even including Billy). Sure we would probably end up spending that on one meal alone. It was a great deal. We've never even enquired about all-inclusive on any of our previous holidays because we love to try different restaurants. This will end up being great value for money though even if we only eat 2 out of 3 meals there each day - not to mention the free beer and wine which we can avail of also. When we were doing our internet search for the accomodation we happened to stumble across the all-inclusive deal and we decided that it would be worth it even if it were just to feed Billy. When we go away we like to eat dinner a bit later than normal - maybe 9pm or so. Last year we didn't have to worry about food for Billy as he was only taking breastmilk. We would feed him, put him in to his PJs and get him off to sleep in his pram. We would then cover him with his pram shade so that he could sleep in darkness. At that point we would walk to a restaurant and have a nice meal while the little man slept soundly. It worked out really really well. This year we plan to do similar except naturally we have to give Billy his proper meals now too. Having a huge selection of buffet-style food at the ready each day will be so handy. We can give Billy a good feed and once he's tired and nods off we will walk to a restaurant and have our own meal. We will also have dinner in the complex the odd night, but mostly we will eat out I think.
I've spent the last couple of days getting our holiday bits sorted whenever I can. This week is a bit of a write-off because we are both working every day until the holiday. As you all know the work-week for us is a bit of a blur and there isn't really any extra time to get too much sorted. We are getting there though. We managed to tick a lot of things off the list over the weekend. We headed out to Blanchardstown Shopping Centre and purchased some holiday essentials.
Dealz - is there a better shop in the world? I love this place. €7 bought us all of these little toys. They are for entertaining Billy during the 4.5 hour flight.
I popped in to Clarks to buy Billy a little pair of sandals but unfortunately they had already sent back all of their summer stock. All was not lost though - I picked up these adorable little sandals in Shoe Zone for just €7.99. They are perfect and will do just fine for the couple of days that he will be wearing them.
It won't be difficult to find foods that Billy likes while we are on holiday, but like all toddlers he can have his fussy moments. We decided to have a plan b just in case we find ourselves stuck. We picked up some oaty bars, corn snacks, apple biscotti, fruit pots and 5 Heinz baby dinners. It's important to plan for the unexpected. We picked up the little meals in Boots. They were on offer for €6 if you bought 5. They are foil-packaged which means we don't have to worry about keeping them refridgerated. Everything else was bought in either Boots or Dealz. Dealz is surprisingly handy for buying baby snacks.
Essential baby toiletry purchases. All of this was bought in Boots. Billy only likes the MAM soothers so we picked up a new packet to bring with us. I do not want a situation where we lose his soothers and cannot find a chemist abroad that stocks them! We also bought some of the clips to attach his soothers to his bibs or clothes. I think we're covered in that department now.
Last but not least we sorted out all of his summer clothes. A lot of it was given as gifts for his first birthday and I packed them away for our holiday. I had great fun going through the different items and I completely forgot about so many of them. See the bottom left corner? That is a Woody from Toy Story UV Swimsuit. The cuteness. It goes without saying that Billy has an entire wardrobe of new summer clothes while Mammy and Daddy will be rocking Summer 2014's!
I almost forgot to mention that we picked up this little bag harness. I always said I would "never use one of them" when I saw parents using them for their children. Oh how little I knew about parenting before I had a child. Billy has only recently started walking and is starting to zip around the place. In the airport, at the beach and in general in the resort we will be using this as much as possible. It will give us piece of mind in terms of his safety and at the same time will afford him the freedom to walk and run around the place as toddlers are meant to do.
This will probably be my last post until we return from our holidays. Stay tuned for rants about learning how to drive (finally) and my Slimming World Weightloss Journey.
As always, thank you all so much for reading and supporting my blog!
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