Single-Parent travel

Take the family's great holiday offerings
by Judy Reynolds

A trip away as a lone parent with a child/children can be a precious chance to reconnect and create new bonds as you share the fun of new experiences. If you plan it right, they also get instant playmates while you get the opportunity to relax in congenial company. Best of all, as the sole adult making the decisions, you’re free of the arguments or compromises that can plague many a traditional family holiday.

It’s not essential, but many single parents feel happiest using a travel company that doesn’t insist that all families have to be a neat 2+2, especially if you worry that being surrounded by two-parent families might make your children feel more concious that they have a parent "missing". For a list of such companies, see below.

Top Tips for Travelling as a Lone Parent
As with all travel with kids, plan your holiday carefully, taking everyone’s needs into account. You may fancy flopping out with a book on the beach, or want to grab some time in a hotel spa at least once during the holiday, but this may be especially tricky on your own. So it’s essential to chose somewhere you know there’ll be other kids roughly the same age as your own, and where babysitting or some other childcare is on offer (check how long in advance babysitters need to be booked).

Accept that even the most carefully laid plans might not work out. For instance, on my first solo-parent trip to Corfu, I was banking on the hotel kids’ club to provide some respite for me and some distraction for my then 5-year-old – especially helpful when there isn’t anyone to bounce off and share the load. But when we got there, Joe recoiled at the prospect of even entering the mini-club. This was my mistake – I hadn’t thought to discuss or sell it to him in the most positive light beforehand. But it wasn’t a disaster – I focused all my patience and energy on teaching him to swim, and he was so exhausted that we’d retire to our room so he could have an afternoon nap and I could doze or read for a while. This in turn meant that he had the stamina to stay up later and watch the fire-eaters and jugglers with me and I got to relax over a drink. The moral of the story being that you can still have a great time by going with the flow.

Perhaps even more than with other kinds of holiday, it’s very beneficial to involve your child/children in choosing where to go or what to see as a way of getting them excited in their upcoming adventure. Will the beach suffice, or would an activity holiday be more up your street – or a combination of both? Joe was sold on our early Easter break in Tunisia with Small Families by the promise of seeing a ‘Star Wars’ filming location and by spending a night camping in the desert, while I was able to grab some relaxation during the part of the trip spent in a hotel.

Complement rather than compete. One complication may be that your child is already committed to a trip with their other parent, in which case it’s a good idea to go for a completely different type of holiday. If they’ve just had a beach holiday overseas with Dad, how about a single-parent outdoor activity break in the Brecon Beacons such as that offered by single-parent specialist Mango.

Don’t be afraid to bombard tour companies with questions to make triple-sure the holiday is right for your family. On an escorted adventure holiday when you’ll be travelling as a small group, it’s particularly important to find out the age and gender of any kids already booked on the trip you’re considering to make sure that your child will fit in and hopefully make some friends.

If you fancy travelling with another family but don’t know anyone suitable/available, consider using the Single Parent Travel Club, which, for a joining fee of £10, will put you in touch with other one-parent families who want to hook up. ‘Holidays’ range from days out in the UK to Kenyan safaris (you can pitch your own destinations).

Once you’re there, don’t hesitate to ask other families to watch over your child around the pool while you need the bathroom or nip to get a drink. Most people are more than happy to oblige, but they won’t necessarily strike up a conversation for fear of straying into a sensitive area. We’ve met some lovely people around the poolside.

LINKS
As well as the companies mentioned in the text, the following are worth investigating:

The Adventure Company. Although not a lone-parent specialist, this firm running adventurous worldwide trips for families has some departures reserved for single parents.

Acorn Adventure. A company with an excellent reputation for its activity and camping holidays in Wales and Europe as a whole.

Crystal Family Ski Holidays. If you’re itching to escape to the mountains, teach your children to ski or just work off the excesses of Christmas, this company has more than 29 years’ experience – plus an encouraging 30% ‘one-parent saver’ discount on certain travel periods.

H.E.L.P Holidays. This charity specialises in helping any single parent in need of a good deal, support and company – Armed Forces’ wives whose husbands are away, prisoners’ wives, grandparents and more have been making use of their low-budget holidays for the last 28 years. To take advantage of the discounts they have with companies such as Pontins, Butlins and Haven Holidays you need to pay a £5 membership fee.

Responsible Travel. Set up in 2001 and one of the largest specialists in green/eco-friendly travel, Responsible currently offers 8 single-parent holidays, from sailing a felucca down the Nile in Egypt, to kayaking in Croatia or exploring Prague and the Tatra Mountains.

Single Parents on Holiday. This firm, now in its fourth year, arranges 4-star accommodation in Austria, Spain, Greece and Morocco. You either make your own flight arrangements or ask them to find you one that suits your requirements, and they will arrange the transfer to your hotel. The programme for 2010 includes activity holidays in Andalucia, the Dolomites and the Austrian Alps.