Looking for the perfect UK staycation that offers both relaxation and fun for the whole family? Explore our top picks for family-friendly destinations with free childcare, where kids can enjoy supervised activities while parents unwind. From countryside retreats to coastal escapes, these hotels and resorts offer the ideal balance of luxury, adventure, and family-friendly amenities without the added cost of childcare.

It's no secret that Center Parcs can be an expensive holiday! Here are my top tips for saving money (as well as my blog on free things to do while you're there).

We wanted to squeeze another holiday in between Austria and Menorca (to come in September) and decided to keep it fairly local and explore some of North Yorkshire. We were praying for nice weather given a lot of July has been a bit of a wash out but we were very lucky! Of course I had done my research on rainy day activities if needed but it turns out we didn’t.

We've been to the Lake District quite a lot but we hadn't yet made it with O so when we got a chance to stay in a friends flat in Kendal for a few days we jumped at the chance! I was heavily pregnant at the time so the trip wasn't quite adventurous as we might normally do as I couldn't walk very far at this point, however, we had a lovely trip and did some things we might not ordinarily have done.

This was a long awaited trip to the house in Cornwall that A stayed in every year as a child. We had no idea what to expect as the only way of booking was via an email address from a sign outside that we had spotted on an earlier trip. We wondered whether it would have been updated at all in the 20 years since A had been and in all honesty it barely had. However, that didn't matter as it was really special to be staying in the place with so many memories for A and it was clean and had everything we needed.

A and I decided that now O was a little bit older (almost 18 months by the time we went) we should give Center Parcs a go. We decided to go to Sherwood Forest as it was the closest to us and we'd heard they had a great splash pool for kids. You can arrive at any time from 10am on the day of check in but can't access the lodge until 4pm so we decided to drive over O's lunchtime nap and arrived around 2 and headed straight to the Sub Tropical Paradise as this is free for all guests to use everyday.

Given all the building work we were having on the house we didn't feel like we could leave the country and as such we opted for a trip to Northumberland in mid September just before I went back to work. We decided to base ourselves in Amble as it had it's own amenities and is close enough to a lot of sites. I've added the highlights of our trip including where we stayed and where we ate.

A favourite of my Auntie and Uncles, my family wanted to try out Brompton Lakes lodges in Richmond North Yorkshire. We had originally booked as 6 adults earlier the previous year but given the due dates of the babies we decided to rebook the following year and go with the babies in tow. At the time of our trip O was 8 months old and my niece was 6 months.  In a beautiful lakeview setting, these luxury lodges each have 3 bedrooms (plus one 6 bedroom lodge). Each  lodge feels very private due to the way that they are laid out on the sight and each one has a terrace with outdoor seating looking out onto the lake. We stayed in "Juniper" for the week and had a lovely time.

We’ve always wanted to go to the highlands of Scotland and after chatting to a friend who had recommended basing ourselves in Oban as a base we decided to get planning. We were nervous about such a long drive with O has he had never been great in the car - plus we had to navigate the electric charging for our first long distance holiday as we have a fully electric car - but we figured that could work hand in hand quite well as we would have to stop frequently for O anyway.

Given covid restrictions were still ongoing and O was a terrible(!) sleeper, we decided to opt for a break away close to home. We had seen Malton on the Hairy Bikers and discovered it was known as the "Food Capital of Yorkshire" so we decided to give it a try. We packed up O's next 2 you (it comes with a handy travel bag) and off we went for some culinary delights! Our highlights were: