Quality Holidays For Single Parent Families Tel: 01763 226567 |
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Frequently Asked Questions |
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Hopefully, any questions you may have will be answered here. If not, then please feel free to give as a call - we are always happy to chat - or send us an email. info@smallfamilies.co.uk - Tel: 01763 226567 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 boat. 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 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 all 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 of our 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 18 months and the oldest 17 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. Why do you generally only fly from London? When we book seats with an airline we have to guarantee a group of 10 people as a minimum. With most of our groups being only 20-30 people we cannot guarantee getting 10 people travelling from the same airport outside of London. By flying together from London, we are able to meet the airlines strict criteria. Many of our guests who live in the north of the country, fly down to London to connect with the international flight, please contact us for information. Some destinations do fly direct from airports outside London, mainly Manchester, please contact us for details. Why do you generally only use scheduled flights and not charter? To make the travel experience as comfortable and stress free as possible, we prefer to use scheduled flights. Charters 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 always take priority over charters.
That said, we may be using some charters in the future because our clients have asked for destinations that are only served by charters. What’s the Small Families Party Weekend? This is a joint party / re-union weekend we hold once a year, usually in January at a good quality UK hotel. The weekend enables 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. Do the 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 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. Morocco and Portugal are just a few minutes walk away, but still close. In Torquay, the beach is just a 10 mins stroll away. 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, reserve tables, deal with any problems for you, arrange tours - should families wish to do an excursion together as a group and generally organise where required, however, they are not there to dominate or regiment your holiday in any way.
What deposit is required? Deposits on holidays are £100 per adult and £50 per child (under 12). When do I have to pay the final balance? The balance is required no later than 8 weeks before departure and 4 weeks before for our re-union / party weekend. We are happy to accept payments by instalments as often as you like, a method favoured by some of our clients to help them budget, (details in the brochure and on the website). When will I receive my travel documents? All travel documents 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 as an individual if you wish. However, 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. How much money do I need to take with me? That rather depends on your personal spending habits. You will probably 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 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. *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 12-15 adults and the rest children), other times this number could be larger or smaller. Our ever popular February skiing holiday to Lapland generally has a larger number of families. Where will I meet the rest of the group? We generally all meet in the departure lounge at the airport, although, if you prefer, you don’t have to mix with your fellow travellers within the group before arriving in the resort, there is no regimentation. |
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Holidays for Single Parents
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