Learner Dad: The pandemic is over and it's time to plan our holidays

We're considering going on a second holiday without the children 

'The kids will be happy enough with two holidays.' Picture: iStock 

How many holidays are you going on this year?

It’s a tricky question. A lot of us have travel vouchers burning a hole in our pockets, rolled over from last year. But I’m sure there are people, particularly those in the hospitality sector, who need the money for something more important than sun and sand in July. We didn’t all have the same pandemic. That said, it feels like travel websites are groaning with traffic these days. I like to look at flights this time every year, just to get a whiff of holidays, and I’ve never seen response times so slow.

We have a rolled-over voucher from 2020 for a campsite in the south of France. (It’s the cheap and cheerful bit down by the Spanish border at Perpignan, in case you think we have Cote D’Azur notions.) We were there in 2019 and hopefully, we’ll get to go back there this summer. Our kids loved the pool and the playground, and so did their parents because they kept our kids occupied with new-found friends. ‘Run away there for an hour and give your poor parents a clear run at this bottle of wine’ – that’s all we ask from a family holiday.

The question now is do we go on a second holiday? The good news is we have a few quid put away. The bad news is I can already hear my mother saying, “Isn’t it well for ye”, which she says any time I spend more than €10.

Anyway, I’ll ignore her just this once. It’s been a strange 24 months – we could do with a splash out to mark the end of the pandemic. (It is over, isn’t it?) We won’t be staying in Ireland. The reason is simple – last year’s holiday in West Cork was just too good. We met lovely people, the water was turquoise, the weather was in the high 20s, I kept saying this is just like being in Greece, even though I’ve never been to Greece. But only a fool would think it could happen in Ireland two years in a row.

Anyway, I like driving on the right-hand side of the road and looking at red-roofed villages. Half the crack of going abroad is the foreignness of it all. So we’ll probably go somewhere off-peak. I don’t know if we’ll bring the kids. No offence, very nice people my kids, but we’ll all seen a bit too much of each other recently. Like everyone else I know, we had at least one spell of isolation while we waited for close-contact tests etc to run their course. It can get intense at times and they’ve heard all my jokes.

So any second break might just be for myself and my wife. The problem is how to put a positive spin on: ‘Hey guys, you’re going to stay with your aunt in Cork while Mom and I go to Palma for five days, here’s a photo of the hotel, it has a pool and everything’.

The only bribe that works in our house these days is extra video game time, and they’ll get that staying with their aunt anyway. (No blame on the aunt there, I’d do exactly the same myself.) I’m not sure the kids would ever get over the injustice of it all. I can still remember every single time I thought my parents were unfair when I was small. Kids can be very unforgiving.

There is only one way to square this off. Rummage around behind the sofa and see if we can get enough money for a third break. The kids will be happy enough with two holidays. My wife and I might just manage a couple of days in Palma. It’s 2,500 km from home – but I’ll still be able to hear my mother saying, “Isn’t it well for ye”.