How to beat the Single Parent Holiday Blues

Let's face it - what children want from a holiday is to be able to relax, have plenty to do and hopefully make new friends. Not that much different from what we want out of a holiday - but as we know, for single parents, this isn't always as easy as it sounds....

Travelling alone with all children, especially little ones, brings its own particular set of stresses. On my first holiday alone with my daughters, after battling a series of flight delays and cancellations, when we finally got to our destination I found I was so exhausted by keeping them busy and amused during the day and getting them off to sleep in an unfamiliar environment at night that the holiday passed in a blur and I was quite frankly glad to head home for a rest. As they've got older, more often than not they're off exploring with their new pals from the first day or getting into clubs and activities, leaving me feeling the odd one out in a sea of couples, with just my new novel and a bottle of sunscreen for company.

Whatever the age of your children, evenings on holiday can be the toughest time of all. Very small children mean early bedtimes and the prospect of every evening of the holiday alone in your hotel room, whereas teenagers can often tend to shun your company for that of their new friends and the temptations of an exciting new environment.

So what's the solution?

Holidaying in a group with other friends with children can work well, with the right spirit of compromise - and it can help keep costs down too. However, it helps to talk things through beforehand - if you're going the self-catering route, try to decide in advance just how you want to share tasks like cooking, babysitting and cleaning, as well as just working out what you want to do and see. Trying to do everything together and cater for everyone's tastes all the time can put quite a strain on even the most solid of friendships, so it's a good idea if you can to split up and do your own thing from time to time, and then get together in the evening to chill and chat over dinner.

A great piece of news for single parents is that over the past five years, a number of companies have sprung up offering holidays which are particularly tailored to one-parent families. These can range from luxury bespoke guided tours to activity vacations to hotel-based package deals, but the services offered by all have one thing in common - they're not based around the two-parent-two-children model so beloved of most travel operators. As well as the various tailored services on offer - such as kids' clubs, evening babysitting, travel support and transparent costs (no more nasty single supplement surprises!) - most importantly, you and your children are part of a community for the duration of your holiday. Everyone's in the same boat, and you've all got company and support there when you need it.

If you'd prefer the flexibility of organising your own holiday but would like a way of meeting other single parents in the same situation, try the Single Parent Travel Club, which was set up in 1991 to link single parent families around the UK for days out and holidays away. Don't forget, too, that many single parent websites arrange days out and weekends away with one-parent families across the country, if you're looking to fill the odd gap in the holidays.

Getting away just got a whole lot easier...

For further information

Mango Holidays
www.mangokids.co.uk

Small Families
www.smallfamilies.co.uk

Single Parents on Holiday
www.singleparentsonholiday.co.uk

Single parent travel club
www.sptc.org.uk

Article written for Spring 2010 issue by Rosalind Kazi