Family Holiday 2025 - booked!
Our eldest is 8 this year and I am slightly sheepish to admit that I have never taken her (or the others) abroad. They don’t even have passports. In fact, as we have not been abroad for so long, mine and my husband’s passports have expired. So that’s 5 new passports to buy this year (eek).
We have always been so fortunate to have family who live by the sea and have utilised their facilities for our family holidays. Honestly, an all-inclusive somewhere hot and sunny has always been financially out of our reach and we have just opted to make the most of British summers.
But the time has come to put out money where our mouth is and finally take the children away. My husband and I are not sun worshippers and have a borderline obsession with everything Danish (particularly after reading Helen Russell’s fantastic book, ‘The Year of Living Danishly’). The thought of watching the kids in shifts play in the pool whilst the other occupies the baby, did not sound like £5k+ well spent. So we made our excuses and stayed in our (UK) comfort zone.
However, this year is slightly different. My husband is turning 40 and to mark the occasion (and to distract him from his dark obsession with this milestone) we have finally booked a family holiday abroad! And, even more excitingly, we are going to Denmark. The kids are so incredibly excited to visit another country, I feel genuinely guilty we had not done this sooner. I know, it is not exactly an obvious summer holiday destination, but it’s exactly what we have wanted to do for so long.
As neither of us have flown in so long, when trawling through flights, we balked at the cost of the additional luggage we would have to cough up. Instead, we have doubled down on the atypical family holiday choices, and decided to drive from the UK to Denmark. In all honesty, this has added to the excitement as we now have an overnight stay in Germany on the way in and out, to break up the drive. The kids are fascinated by the idea of driving through multiple countries to reach Denmark!
We have booked a beautiful home, 75m from the beach with white sandy beaches and kayaks at the ready. We are making the most of having the car with us and plan to explore the surrounding areas. The kids are delighted to have Billund less than an hour away so we can spend a day at the motherland of Lego. We also have brilliant cities like Aarhus a short drive away so my husband and I can revel in the Dane’s incredibly good taste and surrender to some tourist traps.
The last time I left the UK was to go on my honeymoon to Florence (back in early 2018!) and I cannot deny, I genuinely feel quite nervous about going abroad. It’s probably because I am a control freak and crap at languages, but I think it’s also the sense of responsibility that comes when bringing your most valuable possessions (the kids)! I am torn between planning every aspect of the trip to within an inch of its life and taking a step back and saying, “hey, let’s just see what happens?”
I think I may opt for the latter.