In Part 1 and 2 of Making the Most of Your villa I wrote about pre planning and the first day at the villa.
When you stay at a villa you may also want to buy things of the villa for the children to enjoy, these are relatively inexpensive.
When the girls were young we used to buy the beads that they made different shapes or patterns with and when you ironed them they were permanent reminders of their holiday. At a villa as opposed to a hotel you have loads of room for them to enjoy this sort of thing and they can be left out at night. We always kept these on the Breakfast Bar and I can still see sleepy eyed little girls getting up in the morning and going straight there to play with them. You can also buy fairly inexpensive children’s jigsaws from Walgreens or Walmart these too can be left out.
It is also great having your own pool. No more having to remember everyone’s books, towels and suncream and trudge down to the pool. How often during the day does someone have to go back to the hotel room for something they forgot, not with a villa you can just step outside whenever you like and have a swim. This may be as soon as you get up, cooling off during the day or even after you return from the Parks at night. I always keep a few towels by the door leading to the pool that the family can pick up on their way out.
We also buy a few cheap pool toys. Small rings can be bought for a dollar and we buy small sticks and rings that the family can throw in the water and spend hours diving down to collect them to see who can pick up the most. They also enjoy the small soft balls that you can play piggy in the middle with or just safely dive bomb each other.
A villa can make it much easier to holiday with little ones as they have their own bedrooms and you do no have to sit in a darkened room with the TV turned down once they go to bed.
After the first few days children can quickly get back into a routine. On days we stayed in all day we used to put the girls to bed about half an hour after their normal UK bedtime. If we read them stories it would just be a very short one as although they were tired they would still be exhilarated and want to talk. We would snuggle them up turn the light and TV (most villas will have TVs in every bedroom) down and within a few minutes they would be asleep. On the days we came back from the Parks they would often be asleep when we go back to the villa so we would put them straight to bed. If they were still awake we would give them a warm drink before bed we did not allow them in the pool so late as this just woke them up.
More about Making the Most of Your Villa in part 4.
When you stay at a villa you may also want to buy things of the villa for the children to enjoy, these are relatively inexpensive.
When the girls were young we used to buy the beads that they made different shapes or patterns with and when you ironed them they were permanent reminders of their holiday. At a villa as opposed to a hotel you have loads of room for them to enjoy this sort of thing and they can be left out at night. We always kept these on the Breakfast Bar and I can still see sleepy eyed little girls getting up in the morning and going straight there to play with them. You can also buy fairly inexpensive children’s jigsaws from Walgreens or Walmart these too can be left out.
It is also great having your own pool. No more having to remember everyone’s books, towels and suncream and trudge down to the pool. How often during the day does someone have to go back to the hotel room for something they forgot, not with a villa you can just step outside whenever you like and have a swim. This may be as soon as you get up, cooling off during the day or even after you return from the Parks at night. I always keep a few towels by the door leading to the pool that the family can pick up on their way out.
We also buy a few cheap pool toys. Small rings can be bought for a dollar and we buy small sticks and rings that the family can throw in the water and spend hours diving down to collect them to see who can pick up the most. They also enjoy the small soft balls that you can play piggy in the middle with or just safely dive bomb each other.
A villa can make it much easier to holiday with little ones as they have their own bedrooms and you do no have to sit in a darkened room with the TV turned down once they go to bed.
After the first few days children can quickly get back into a routine. On days we stayed in all day we used to put the girls to bed about half an hour after their normal UK bedtime. If we read them stories it would just be a very short one as although they were tired they would still be exhilarated and want to talk. We would snuggle them up turn the light and TV (most villas will have TVs in every bedroom) down and within a few minutes they would be asleep. On the days we came back from the Parks they would often be asleep when we go back to the villa so we would put them straight to bed. If they were still awake we would give them a warm drink before bed we did not allow them in the pool so late as this just woke them up.
More about Making the Most of Your Villa in part 4.