If your family holiday requires greater flexibility, space or freedom than a hotel can offer you, a villa holiday may be just the thing for you.

A villa family holiday will provide you with some of the creature comforts from home and often this will include the luxury of a bedroom for each member of the family, living space in which to relax and a fully-fitted kitchen for the preparation of meals to suit your family without having to select items from a menu that doesn’t really cater for your children.

Many villas will come equipped with a private or communal pool – if your children are very small then check that there are security gates to prevent access to the pool area before you book.

A villa holiday will often mean freedom to explore the local area, so make sure you have booked a rental car with sufficient space for your passengers and luggage – you would be surprised how often the latter part gets overlooked!

Portugal and Floria are tremendous destinations for a villa holiday, with a large selection of properties and activities.

The Holiday Villa Company offers a large selection of accommodation in popular locations.

Travelling with toddlers can fill any parent with dread but approach it like an adventure and build in a few surprises and it can be pain free.  The following ideas are just things that we have tried that have worked and have ensured that we have come back from our trips away feeling relaxed and revitalised.

Planning for your family holiday: long journeys

We have embarked on long haul flights, 4 hour coach transfers and exhausting car journeys with toddlers in tow and the enemy is boredom. Small children love to feel grown up and allowing them to share in the packing of hand luggage and suitcases is part of the adventure. A favourite bag that they are responsible for looking after is a good ploy and ensures a favourite toy can travel too at close quarters.  We have always liked to wrap up a series of small presents that can then be opened at staggered intervals on the journey to revive spirits: a small book that can be shared, stickers, a snack – nothing expensive but certainly a diversion, if only for a short while.

Food opportunities may be limited and expensive and we all know that the youngest family holidaymakers may have very specific tastes. We rarely travel without mini cheese biscuit snacks, bags of dried fruit and dare I say it sweets. You do have to make a game of it and not deliver these too early or regularly but it can break up the time.