A Caribbean Christmas
Wednesday 1st February 2012Christmas at home is fine but it usually means too much cooking, too much washing-up, too much clearing up and maybe too many relatives? And throw in a bit of cold, damp weather to boot!Well all this wasn’t an issue for our wise group of single parents who opted for the Small Families Christmas Caribbean cruise. 11 days of glorious sunshine, beautiful picturesque beaches with azure blue seas, suburb cuisine in luxurious surroundings and of course, the atmospheric steel band music that abounds the Caribbean.
Sailing from Miami took us to Grand Turks, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Roatan, Cozumel and the Grand Bahamas. Lazy days, lazy nights, social relaxing meals, gala dinners - and no washing-up!
We swam in the ocean, climbed the awesome Dunns River Falls in Jamaica, swam with Dolphins and visited Mayan ruins, oh yes, definitely better than being at home. A lovely experience for us all.
Allen & Carole - Small Families Hosts
Moroccan Christmas
Monday 2nd January 2012Sun, Santa and a Christmas day surprise!
So nice to get a bit of sun on the bones (instead of frost) over Christmas. Admittedly, first thing in the morning and late evening it was a bit on the cool side, nothing a light jacket didn't fix but daytime temps were wery pleasant with plenty of sunbathing.
Christmas Eve was great, the complex really pushed the boat out with a very impressive production of the Navtivity followed by nibbles and cocktails round the central pool before we all headed in for a special gala dinner. The table service proved a bit slow and it wasn't 5 star dining but perfectly acceptable and a lovely atmosphere.
Christmas day around the pool saw Santa and his helpers arrive on camels - yes I did say camels, ok not exactly traditional but hey, this is Morocco and reindeer are a little bit hard to come by but again, a great atmosphere and all the children received a gift.
This event was followed by another Christmas special - a total power failure, which lasted 12 hours, just the Caribbean Village was affected, (wern't we the lucky ones) and it caused a few difficulties when the sun went down but with hundreds of candles placed everywhere it was actually very Christmassy, (the old Dunkirk spirit prevailed). As a group, we decided to eat out on Christmas day evening and found a delightful local Moroccan restaurant and enjoyed a great evening with music. After one final day of tan topping up, Dec 27th saw us heading home to the UK in time for the New Year celebrations.
Keith hosted this Small Families Christmas holiday to Morocco
Lapland - Fond Memories
Monday 5th December 2011I have got married again - something I never thought would happen nor indeed wanted after being widowed so young but I married a chap I've known all my adult life but had not seen for over 20 years but we met up, things happened and now we're married. My wonderful boys could not have a better step-dad.As a single parent family we have such very fond memories of our holidays with Small Families. I held a WAY Foundation (Widowed and Young), coffee morning recently and some of our new members were talking about holidays so I became an ‘ambassador.’ It's so strange how things work out - only last night I was showing my new husband a copy of the Sami Museum leaflet showing just how far inside the Arctic Circle we actually were when holidaying in Lapland over Christmas.
Ok this might sound very sentimental but Small Families provided us with an escape from the sadness of the first few Christmases without Simon. We will never stop missing him and wishing that things were different but you allowed us to make new memories and to build a new life and we and the boys send our regards to the rest of your team, it would be great to meet up.
Melanie - Guest post (and former holidaymaker)
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World Travel Market - London
Friday 11th November 2011The world's biggest travel event
The entire Small Families office workforce (ok the 4 of us) have just spent a hectic 4 days at the World Travel market (WTM) in London, an industry event where just about all the world's airlines, hotel groups, tourist offices etc have stands. (The WTM is where the global travel industry plan their forward programmes). As usual, we had many meetings (and the odd glass of champers) well all that talking!
Keith (Small Families Holidays)
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Tunisia turns the corner!
Wednesday 2nd November 2011..and we were there!
Nine months after former dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali was deposed, Tunisia went to the polls on Sunday October 23rd 2011 for the first democratic elections for 24 years and we were there - when I say we, I mean Small Families. 'So what', I hear you say, as well you might!
I have tried really hard to look for (or invent) any relevance or omen for our holiday group arriving in the country on the very day of these historical free elections but just can't think of any, so I guess we must put it down to serendipity.
Tunisia relies heavily on tourist income for jobs and general growth and we at Small Families are quite proud to have ‘done our bit’ over the past 11 years by helping (albeit in a tiny way) in that cause with around 91 holidays so far. But obviously it not really us, it’s you, the single parent families without whom we wouldn’t have visited Tunisia even once, so we and our Tunisian partners salute you all.
Despite the oppression of the past, the local people have always been kind, polite, attentive and helpful. Now with the freedom that lies ahead, Tunisia is reborn and Small Families will of course, continue its long association and happily celebrate with them throughout 2012 and beyond.
Keith (Small Families Holidays)
TweetCruise Jitters?
Thursday 20th October 2011To Cruise or not to Cruise?It still surprises me how many of our customers will book a hotel based holiday without hesitation but are still very warey and nervous when it comes to considering a cruise. Of course, there are fabulous ships and there are the not so fabulous ships, just as there are very basic hotels and then there’s the Ritz!
During my career in travel, I’ve experienced both ends of the scale, I’ve been lucky enough (and unlucky enough) to have cruised on the best and the worst! – and yes, there is still the odd ship that make Butlins look positively 5 Star, they are cheap but certainly not cheerful and we will never use such ships - on one such ship, we all needed arms like Rambo just to chop through the Christmas pud - I'm not joking either! (But that’s a blog for another time), I laugh now but at the time it wasn’t that funny.
We don’t run many cruises but when we do, it will only ever be on a fabulous ship so it won’t be the cheapest but then you obviously want a great holiday and we obviously want the same for you too - after all, why would you pay out good money for a second rate holiday when you could stay in you own comfortable home for free!
So fear not about cruising, it’s fantastic for kids/teens too and there’s a whole heap of information out there on the www and we’re all experienced cruisers in the office too if you have questions. (I will tell you the full Christmas pud story some time).
Keith - (Small Families Holidays)
The new free Tunisia
Monday 10th October 2011Welcome to the Small Families Holidays Blog
The new free Tunisia – Still safe for tourists
Tunisia was Small Families first ever destination in 2001, since then, we have hosted approx. 90 single parent group holidays there and it’s popularity never wanes. BUT, as the world knows, Jan/Feb 2011 saw the popular uprising that finally ousted the dictatorial regime which kept the population oppressed for 23 years.
Small Families have always had great times in Tunisia but few people (myself included) ever truly realised that while we tourists were looked after so well, the lovely locals who did all that looking after, were themselves very much under the thumb of a hugely corrupt political regime.
Such major change brings its own problems obviously but these will be solved and life for the Tunisians is already so much better and the first free elections in 23 years are being held in October 2011, so it’s an exciting time for Tunisia.
Understandably, a number of you were nervous about going there and we had to cancel our Easter visit for the first time in 11 years! Our May half-term holiday was much better supported (12 families) and remained steady throughout the 2011 summer.
So for those of you who might still be nervous about Tunisia, put those fears aside, it’s still a great country but even better now and the ever friendly Tunisians are waiting to welcome us all back again, (did I mention the fantastic weather and gorgeous safe sandy beaches)?
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