Our family summer holiday to Perran Sands Cornwall

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Fiona Martin

After visiting Perran Sands in Cornwall for the first time last summer, we were quite impressed. We had glorious weather, spent everyday on the beach and I have to say the Haven caravan impressed me. I’ll be honest and say I was sceptical not having holidayed in a caravan for years, but it was almost brand new, modern decor, en suite toilet etc.

So as soon as we got back, we booked again for this year without hesitation. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t quite as sunny this year, but we did manage most days on the beach and the caravan surpassed itself. We believe we were probably in an upgrade to the level we booked and I reckon we had the best view on the whole site as we had a full on sea view and our caravan jutted further onto the cliff then any others so it felt very private. We had a decking balcony with table and chairs, not to mention a bath with shower over, as well as an en suite shower room off the main bedroom and washing machine in the kitchen.

Here’s the view from standing on our decking outside the lounge of our caravan:

So aside from my amazing caravan, the children couldn’t wait to get exploring. Not knowing that their cousins were due to arrive in another caravan, we headed to the central area where they had a play before we surprised them with my brother and his family.

Most days where then spent on the beach. Both my children just adore the sand, although Miss M has become a total water babe, she spent most of her time body boarding in the sea with daddy whilst Mister B and I played in the sand.

Mister B’s beach dumper truck was a big hit as usual, creating all sorts of imaginative play, it kept him occupied for hours!

Miss M opted for some beach gymnastics, to practice her cartwheels and handstands and I can definitely say she’s improved.

There is a steep cliff face coming down to the beach and with some water trickling though which made a river right across the beach. The children loved this and collected water there as well as making dams out of sand across the river, and having “sandball” fights against the cliff!

What I like about the beach at Perran Sands is that it is vast, so much room that you don’t feel cramped and they children had plenty of room to play. I’m pleased we had some good weather days where the sky was blue and the beach was sheltered, so the children could run around to their hearts content.

One day we went down quite late in the afternoon, not realising that the tide was on it’s way in, but that just provided extra entertainment with the children digging holes to sit in, and wait for them to fill up with water, before running inland a bit more and starting again!

When we weren’t on the beach, we made good use of the indoor pool, with Miss M enjoying one of the junior pool parties. She also had an archery lesson which she really enjoyed although I was surprised to see the bow was almost as tall as her!

The bungee trampoline was a big hit with Miss M where she could bounce up as high as the sky! She also successfully attempted some backflips which were amazing to see her twirling round in the air.

It was soon time for our holiday to come to an end, and typically we woke up to an exceptionally sunny day when we were due to leave, so once we had packed the car up and handed in the key, we walked down to the dunes overlooking the cliff and finished our ice lollies, threw some whistling foam javelins between us and played in the sand bunker behind a huge dune. It was so peaceful, warm and sunny I could have stayed there all day, but it was time to say goodbye to another wonderful family beach holiday at Perran Sands…

A Trip to Looe Beach in Cornwall

Posted on July 10, 2014 by Fiona Martin

A few weeks ago, we ventured down to Looe in Cornwall for the day. The husband was working and the children are always itching to get out and love the beach so Looe seemed like the ideal place to go without being too far to travel.

The weather wasn’t as good as I’d hoped, a bit drizzly, but the children didn’t bat an eyelid as we parked up and walked off. We couldn’t help but walk past a rather fun play park at the end of the car park so I let them have ten minutes to run around.

In fact the park was so good, I wished it had been nearer to home as it would be a great place to pop to for the children to have a play. Mister B loved climbing a spider web like rope structure to be like his favourite superhero “Spiderman”. Miss M was at home on all the ropes and swinging paraphernalia being the action girl that she is!

With swings, slides, things to climb on and lots of rope activities, they could have stayed here all day, but we soon headed down towards the beach.

The children were delighted when they saw the vast sandy beach in front of them, Miss M ran straight down to the water to fill the buckets whilst Mister B couldn’t wait to start digging in the sand. He happily built himself a little castle and found a feather to put on top.

They both played happily in the sand before deciding to dig a hole by the sea.

The tide was coming in so they dug faster and faster eager for the sea to fill their hole, and when it did they excitedly giggled before encouraging each other to dig even quicker to make a longer river for the sea to fill.

As you can see the finished river was quite long and if it wasn’t getting a little chilly and the sea wasn’t coming in quite so fast, I think they would have been happy to stay their until bedtime!

All in all a successful day at Looe, my children love the beach whatever the weather and being somewhere we can travel to in just under an hour, it’s a great day out that always guarantees fun and excitement.

As you can imagine, after something to eat and a hot bath, they slept soundly through the night after a day in the fresh sea breeze.

Wembury Beach – family fun in the January sun!!

Posted on January 16, 2014 by Fiona Martin

Waking up last Saturday to the glorious sunshine, we just knew it was a day to take advantage of. So we decided to head over to the beach which turned out to be packed, not a carpark space in site!! The tide was in, the beach was rocky, the few sandy spots were murky grey, gritty sand – but the children didn’t care!! Dressed in their rain suits, wellies and accompanied with buckets and spades they were in fresh air heaven, digging away, building dams with the rocks across the mini rivers than emanated down from the rocky cliff face, finding rectangular ‘car’ shaped rocks to drive through the makeshift sandy roads, braving the shallow waves hitting the shoreline to fill their buckets with seawater, they were in their element playing as the bright sunshine hit the beach for the afternoon.

Buckets and spades at the ready, Miss M and Mister B couldn’t wait to get digging. With the tide in, there was little sand to be found amongst the rocks but this didn’t deter them one little bit. There were squeals of excitement as they dug in, trying to build the biggest hole they could!

Mister B was excited by a rectangular shaped rock he found and decided it was a car. He then made a sandy track with his hand to drive his ‘car’ through. He was absolutely thrilled with his little road and just loved the freedom of the beach and fresh air to play in.

Miss M was keen to have a little paddle and fill her bucket with water to fill their freshly dug hole. She loved waiting for each wave to come in although had to keep emptying her water filled wellies!! Not that it bothered her, it just seemed to add to her fun!!

They then decided to venture over the rocks at the back of the beach and Miss M was eager to climb, while Mister B was desperate to copy. I wasn’t too keen so they posed for a couple of photos and came back down.

All in all we had a fantastic afternoon at the beach. The children loved being outside, the thrill of the beach, however small and stony kept them entertained for hours and they were sad to go home, but after some dinner and a warm bath they were soon tucked away in their beds fast asleep for the night and mummy wasn’t far behind after spending time in the fresh sea air!

We’ve arrived – Our Summer Holiday in Pembrokeshire, Wales

Posted on July 28, 2013 by Fiona Martin

Our family summer holiday finally started last night when we arrived in Pembrokeshire, Wales. My parents had kindly rented a holiday house right on the beach with it’s own infinity swimming pool, hot tub and huge balcony literally a stones throw down to the beach. As well as my parents, my brother and his family joined us with my 3yr old niece and 12 week old nephew.

We woke up this morning to the sun beaming and the children eager to get down to the beach. I was surprised to find the beach virtually empty and the minute we stepped onto the sand the children were digging away, excited beyond words, looked for buried treasure.

Nanny and Grandad kindly bought Mister B and sand truck which he was thrilled with and kept him occupied for hours. It just shows how such a simple thing can keep little ones happy – he played with it for hours loving filling it and emptying it across the sand.

After playing around on the sand for a while, Miss M decided she wanted a go at body boarding after finding a board in the shed of the house we are in. She loves the outdoors and is willing to have a go at anything so off she went to try her luck on the waves.

Time for lunch so we all headed back to the house for a filled wrap and salad. We decided to spend the afternoon in the pool and hot tub, although I have to be honest at this point and confess to never having been in a swimming pool since 2004 when I was in the Maldives on honeymoon. I have never been swimming with my children and today wore a tankini that I brought after my 5yr old Miss M was born and finally pulled the price tags off today and made the plunge. Although I still feel really uncomfortable with my weight I have lost 12lb through the Porridge on Tuesday diet in the last six weeks and that has really given me more confidence in how I feel. And the honest truth is I really enjoyed it – I think being in a private pool really helped but it was great to get back in the water and the hot tub was utterly divine!!

We have had so much fun today – a completely action packed day – I can’t wait to see what the rest of the week aholds and hope the sunshine stays with us!

A day at Bigbury on Sea

Posted on September 22, 2012 by Fiona Martin

With the gorgeous sunshine upon us last week and knowing it wouldn’t last we decided to fit in day at the beach – probably the last opportunity we would have this year. Having decided to descend upon Bigbury on Sea we set off early with Miss M and Mister B no knowledge of where we were going. The constant whines of “Are we nearly there yet?” and “It’s a long, long way” soon ensued but the delight upon there faces when we parked up were most definitely worth it.

With buckets and spades at the ready we headed down the steps to the powdery sandy beach. They were both thrilled to see the sand and run free across the beach to have a paddle in the sea. It was lovely to see them having such fun and enjoying the outdoors. At lunchtime we tucked into a homemade picnic then set about burying daddy’s legs in the sand!!

The beach got steadily busier throughout the day as the sun held high but what a lovely September day and the children thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Late afternoon we set off home and within minutes of driving off through the country lanes I turned around to find two sleeping beauties – aww my little babies were exhausted and just couldn’t keep their eyelids open any longer.

We had a lovely family day out and with family days being limited with Miss M having started school and daddy working lots of weekends it was nice to spend time all together, having fun in the sun!!

Our Family Holiday to West Sussex

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Fiona Martin

Last week we had our long awaited family summer holiday. We set off for the small town of Selsey in West Sussex where our beach side bungalow awaited. The unique aspect of the bungalow was that it was built around a luxury turn of the century railway carriage that has been restored and incorporated into the build of the seafront holiday house.

The big draw for this particular holiday house was the fact that it sits right on the edge of beach and although full of pebbles, we did manage to find some sand at low tide to keep the children occupied, along with collecting shells and playing in the fully equipped child friendly back garden. The children loved being in the fresh air all day and it was great to see them running around freely enjoying each other’s company and exploring new things.

Fortunately we were incredibly lucky with the weather and had one of the sunniest weeks of the year which makes a big change to other summer holidays we’ve had in recent years – umbrellas, raincoats, wellies have been the usual attire!!

So after a fabulous week relaxing, eating ice creams and spending time with other family who joined us we are finally home sweet home. xx