Quality Holidays For Single Parent Families Tel: 0845 9000 895 |
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Frequently Asked Questions |
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What kind of people come on your holidays? Our holidays are open to anyone and we have clients from all walks of life, (with many repeat families), however, we find that most of our parents are generally over 25. I'm a single parent and very nervous about travelling on my own with my children, how can Small Families help me? We specialise only in holidays for single parent families. On our holidays we are all just like one big family with everyone in the same situation. You will find all the friendship and support you need from both our full time host and from the other single parents in the group, this is the Small Families Concept, just think of us as just like one big family. We are always happy to chat to you first and answer your questions and inevitable concerns, feel free to give us a call.
How safe is my money with Small Families
Your holiday is 'packaged', so your money is completely safe*. In accordance with EC regulations, your payment to us
is fully protected under our bonding agreement - Air Travellers
Operators Licence (ATOL 5801). For more details please visit
www.atol.org.uk
How do your holidays work? We meet our families at the departure airport and fly out together,* (by which time, new friendships are usually already in the making), we have a private transfer coach to our hotel. There is no regimentation at all and you are obviously free to do your own thing, although we do find many in the group, spend time together during the day, simply because they've made friends, both adults and children.
We
generally meet up for a pre-dinner drink before dining together at
our reserved tables; dinner is a great social time for the group. Your
Small Families host is always on hand to ensure your holiday runs
smoothly and any problems are dealt with. What are the age groups of the children? Our youngest has been 12 months and the oldest 21 years. Generally we find that age does not matter to much, as all children tend to get along together quite happily together, however, the age mix is usually between about 3 and 13. We are happy to tell you how many children, their ages and the boy/girl split, to help you make your decision. You only seem to use scheduled flights and not charter - why? To make the travel experience as comfortable and stress free as possible, we prefer to use scheduled flights. Charters can suffer a higher risk of delays and cancellations and many of the flight timings operate at unsocial hours. Scheduled flight timings are generally more social (always important where children are involved), have more legroom and, when delays occur, will always have take-off priority over charters.
That said, we do use charters sometimes because our clients have asked for destinations that may only be served by charters. What’s are the Small Families Party Weekends? They are joint party / re-union weekends we hold once a year, early in the New Year and at good quality UK hotels. The weekends enable families who travelled with us in the past to get-together again. It’s also a good opportunity for anyone who has not taken a holiday with us but maybe thinking about doing so and would like to learn more, meet us and chat with other single parents in a social environment. It's a great weekend for adults and children alike. We have a private dining suite, disco and our own children's entertainer on party night. Do the overseas hotels have kiddies clubs? Most of the hotels we offer have excellent children’s clubs and accept children from about the age of 3 or 4 and have sessions geared up for different age groups. We do find that most children generally prefer just to play in and around the pools / beaches and getting involved in hotel sports and games. Do your hotels have beaches nearby? All of our hotels have beaches very close; Tunisia, Croatia and Majorca are actually ‘on’ the beach. Other resorts beaches are just a few minutes walk away, but still close. Does Small Families get many fathers? Yes, we get plenty of fathers and the numbers are growing, although we do tend to have more ladies than men in most groups. What does 'escorted' mean? All our holidays are accompanied throughout by our own tour host. Their job is to ensure everything runs smoothly, gather information, host the Small Families evening meals, deal with any problems for you and arrange private tours if requested. However, your host is not there to dominate or regiment your holiday in any way.
What deposit is required? Deposits on holidays are generally £100 per adult and £50 per child (under 12). Cruises and long haul holidays require double deposit as a requirement by the cruise lines and suppliers. When do I have to pay the final balance? The balance is required no later than 8 weeks before departure (5 weeks for UK holiday/weekends). We are happy to accept payments by instalments as often as you like, a method favoured by many of our clients to help them budget and there are no extra charges for this method. When will I receive my travel documents? All travel documents, luggage labels etc will be sent to you no less than 2 weeks prior to departure, although we generally try to send them earlier where possible. You will also receive a detailed information itinerary from us which should answer all your questions, plus some you may not have even thought of! Do you organise excursions? Your escort will not try to sell you excursions; however, in most resorts there are a number of interesting tours and attractions available, which you can book if you wish. If you wish to do a tour as a group or part group, the escort will be happy to make the arrangements where possible, in such instances; we can usually arrange our own private transport which gives us total control over the tour schedule - a very useful advantage! What money do I need? All the hotels we use will change money / travellers cheques and most have ATM’s either in the hotel or close-by. All the hotels and many local shops accept major credit cards and you can usually charge hotel purchases to your room if you wish. How much money do I need to take with me? That rather depends on your personal spending habits. You will need less cash on a day to day basis if on an All-Inclusive or full board holiday. The most popular way is to maybe use your credit card for the main purchases rather than cash; you can also charge items to your room in most hotels and settle the bill by credit card or cash at the end of your holiday. Note: personal cheques are usually not accepted. What does ‘All-Inclusive’ mean? Generally, All Inclusive means you get all meals, soft drinks, beers, wines and *spirits included. Some hotels also include all daytime snacks; some facilities, such as room safes, sports equipment, cocktails, drinks in disco's etc, may not be part of the all-inclusive deal and vary from one resort to another. Please check with us if necessary *Occasionally, spirits in some resorts may not be included How big are the groups? That depends, during the summer weeks our groups usually consist of a maximum of about 30 (approx 10-12 adults and the rest children), other times this number could be smaller. Our ever popular skiing holidays to Lapland and Canada, generally has a larger number of families as does our annual UK re-union/party weekends. Where will I meet the rest of the group at the airport? We generally have a meeting point in the departure lounge at the airport for people to meet up for the first time and say hello but this is not compulsory, (you may prefer to indulge in more retail therapy instead, as you will all meet up on our transfer coach anyway, it's entirely up to you).
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Holidays for Single Parents
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