Two years ago, my husband and I flew to
Provence with our then one year old son. Although we'd rented a
great property, we quickly realised we were missing
two vital ingredients...
toys and on site
entertainment. A trip to the
supermarché for some cheap
plastic rubbish and he was temporarily
amused. Fast forward two years and we now have
three children - one year twins and a three year old. With our
hands full and both absolutely knackered we wanted a
holiday with some
sunshine, but having learned our
lesson from our previous trip, we knew we needed something uber
child-friendly that could also cater for
twins. A quick search on
The Sunday Times' website for ‘family friendly villas' threw up
Tots To Travel, a genuinely child-friendly company, which rents properties suitable for families with small children. Translated that means their
holiday properties come complete with
stair gates, cots, highchairs, blenders,
plastic plates, spoons, toys, baby baths,
secure pools and many offer babysitting.
We plumped for a property in the
Charente region of France called
Abelia. About a four and a half hour drive from
St Malo, or a 30 minute drive from
Angouleme airport, the gîte sits in
beautiful countryside on the farm of an English family. It's not overtly
child-friendly, in that it's beautifully
decorated and furnished (though thankfully the sofas were all
wipeable). But it's the
small touches that make it a successful
holiday home for children - Sky TV with an endless supply of
CBeebies for those inevitable meltdown moments, a
children's playground, free use of adult and
child bikes, a wonderful pool and
horses in the field opposite.
The
owners couldn't have been more helpful and gave our
son a ride in the cart pulled along by
Sid the donkey, provided a
paddling pool for our babies and were always
on hand, without being intrusive, with
helpful suggestions and advice. They also have their own
wood fired pizza oven, where you can order pizzas from only
5.50 euros! Venturing out of the
gîte, there's also plenty to do in the area including
Futuroscope, Valley Des Singes (monkey world), Cognac complete with a
tourist train (a must for my son), St Yriex-Sur-Charente, a park with a
man-made beach,
watersports and
quad bikes (for children nine years plus) and
bike rides direct from the property.
Although
Tots To Travel is a relatively young company, their
properties are hugely popular, so if you want to book up for
next summer, I'd suggest doing it by early
autumn to get your first choice. We left it until
November and many of the properties were
already booked for the following summer. All in all a
fab holiday and we're already looking forward to the next..!
Prices range from
£975 rising to £1175 in
peak season.
