Travelling with your children

What’s the one job in the world, that doesn’t pay a cent, has no formal working hours and doesn’t offer you any time off? You may have guessed it, parenting! Despite what the critics might say, parenting is by far the most influential position you’ll ever find yourself in. The perks of watching your kids experience snow for the first time or to see how their eyes light up at the sight of a real medieval castle is priceless.

With so many places to see and so little time, travel specialist, Pentravel’s CEO Sean Hough suggests ditching the map book and saving yourself hours of tedious research plotting your route through Europe by rather choosing a family coach guided holiday. Especially designed with kids in mind it could save you from whinge-worthy moments, like “are we there yet?” or “this is so boring!”

Kids just want to have fun! For families who love to mingle, a coach tour is the ideal setting. With free Wi-Fi on board and anywhere from 20 to 25 other children for your kids to socialise with, its pure heaven. Although the tour is open to children between five and 18 years old, Hough suggests the ideal age is from ten to sixteen. Tour directors know how to stimulate young minds by offering dramatic and animated descriptions of sights. In the UK, expect visits to Harry Potter movie sets and overnighting in a real castle.

Feel like a celebrity. If you were to rent your own car and travel through Europe, its most likely that poor old Dad will be the one driving around the block several times looking for parking before having the backbreaking job of offloading all the bags and carting them to the hotel. On a family coach guided holiday, you’re given the red carpet treatment and delivered to your hotel’s front door, while your luggage magically appears in your room. Absolute bliss.

Experience a destination like a local. Blending in with your environment makes travelling far more relaxing and authentic. There is nothing worse than being harassed by a local haggler who triples the price just because he knows you’re a tourist. Tour directors are experts in local tourism and will show you the best places to eat real authentic Italian pizza that won’t cost you an arm and a leg, or where to find the prettiest spot to watch the sun setting over Paris to avoid big crowds.

Stop counting your pennies. For budget conscious travellers there are no hidden costs when you choose a Guided Holiday. Before you leave South Africa, you and your family can decide on which additional tours or sights you want book. Border crossings, ferries, toll gates, gratuities and entrance fees are all taken care of before you leave home. Plus you are exempt from standing in line at a monument or museum and can walk right to the front of the queue.

University of the World. It’s one thing learning about the Invasion of Normandy during the second World War from a text book and actually standing on the beach looking out across the English Channel with your kids while they rattle off details about the day the invasion unfolded. And then the enormity of a glacier in the Alps can’t be fully grasped by reading a text book or watching a video, however standing on it as it moans, creeks and cracks will be a moment that moves you forever.

Show and tell will never be the same. When the kids go back to school, just imagine the show-and-tell moment, when they display selfies on the smartboard taken with a guard outside Buckingham Palace, or share stories about the day they spent at Gladiator School in Rome learning how to handle a sword and spar just like an ancient Roman gladiator.

There are many ways to create lasting family memories but a family Guided holiday will change you and your kids’ lives forever. No longer will stories just be words on a page and is bound to change the way they learn and grow as young people. To see the world through their eyes is priceless but it will be them bugging you to book their next holiday even before you touch down.

To find out more about the 2016/17 touring season contact Pentravel www.pentravel.co.za or follow on @pentravel. Bookings made before 27^th September are based on 2016 rates minus 10%.