Without sounding like a D!ck as it isn’t meant to be, but I’m grateful we got our 4-week holiday in last Xmas. 75% of our holidays are camping, but around 4 years ago we decided we wanted to splurge on a trip to Europe with the kids because soon they will be at the age where going away with your parents isn’t cool.
I’m the type of person who refuses to get a loan for holidays, so over the course of the past 4 years we lived a simple lifestyle and put away as much money as we could. We also researched where we wanted to go, but also what attractions we could do ourselves without needing to go on expensive guided tours. (It’s amazing how many attractions/places you can see yourself just buy doing a bit of research – IE: one tour in Germany would have cost $550, doing it ourselves cost $75)
I have to say getting public buses and trains in different countries can be daunting, but you also get to experience so much more because you see the real city and just not the pretty streets the tour companies use. Plus you get to speak with locals who are normally willing to help with advice.
So mid-December we left for our trip to Paris, Munich, Austria, Finland and then the highlight was a White Xmas at the home of Santa Clause in Rovaniemi which is located in the Arctic Circle.
For us, if we put it until say this year then most likely the trip would never happen because this year all overseas travel is cancelled, then next year could well be either priced out of our reach or I might be unemployed. So it would have been a shame if the years of making sacrifices was for no reason, but more importantly the memories we made on the holiday were priceless and something the kids will never forget.
