So last week I was a bit quiet on social media but if you saw some of my updates then you would have seen that I was in fact on holiday. Corey took his first ever trip abroad to Fuerteventura. It is part of the Spanish Canary Islands. We have only ever done holiday's in the UK like our Butlins trip last year. We were lucky with the weather it was in the lower 20s which was lovely as hot enough but not too bad where you can't do anything - perfect for children I think as didn't want Corey to burn. I was going to split this into a couple of posts but decided not too - this holiday was the perfect excuse to use my Canon 700D to test out my photography skills so bit of a picture heavy post!
I admit I was quite worried about a 4 hour plane flight with a 4 year old. I had no idea how he would take to flying or if he would be good. To make it even worse our flight out was at 6 am, so we needed to leave at 2.30 am to get to the airport for check in. Despite waking up in the middle of the night, he was extremely well behaved considering. He didn't like big queues though and as you can imagine there were a fair few! He went through the security fine, not like most kids we saw. He sat on the plane nicely - we brought lots of food and movies on the phone. It worked! He even liked the really loud noises of taking off and landing. On the flight home it was a mid morning flight, he was still as well behaved, although he spilled his orange juice on my new handbag *sheds a tear*. Oh yeah or the fact that the car was broken down in the airport car park on the way home - just to prolong the journey a bit!
We stayed in the most beautiful villa in Parque Holandes. It had four bedrooms, two with en suites and one shower room. It was tiled throughout which was great as meant stayed really cool even in the hotter days. A lovely huge conservatory where we ate all our meals. The best part was the outside, a little area with a swimming pool with beautiful sea views. It was so peaceful and quiet being outside, no noises to be heard at all. It was pure bliss! I felt relaxed after just an hour of being there. I admit I really didn't want to come home and could quite happily move there forever!
I admit, I haven't taken Corey swimming since he was a baby due to illnesses, operations etc. In the past year he has been a couple of times with his dad so I was really excited when we had our own swimming pool so I can finally see him swim. Corey had told me he could swim with just arm bands but that was a bit of a lie. He did need a tummy ring but his doggy paddle was really good. I also taught him the froggy swim and how to float on his back which he loved! It was really fun swimming and now we are back home, he is really excited as I said he could get swimming lessons :)
Between where we stayed at Parque Holandes and the closest town called Corralejo there are around 9 miles of pure sand, it really is beautiful. So one day we headed to the beach to build sand castles which we were really rubbish at, they always fell apart. You weren't allowed to swim in the water at this beach but allowed to walk in it of course. Corey was far too scared to do this at first, it took a good half hour of persuading. But in the end he really enjoyed splashing his feet around and said it tickled :)
Although it was quite expensive to get into the Oasis Park - Fuerteventura Zoo. Around 100 euros for 3 adults and 1 child, it was an amazing day out and well worth it. It was much better than we had imagined, it was huge but packed full of animals. They had over 400 camels!!! We saw all sorts of crocodiles, flamingos, monkeys, children's farm, otters, meerkats, lynx and more. We missed the cheetahs for some reason and they didn't have lions or tigers which at first I thought was a let down but it really wasn't as so many other animals. Corey got to feed some elephants and giraffes which is just a great experience :) We watched a sea lion show which was great, they brought one out into the audience which was right in front of us. They done all sorts of tricks down slides, hula hoops, clapping, diving and more. The parrot show was really good too, they done tricks too including a bird sunbathing. The lady got a bird to sit on my head, I was a bit shocked as wasn't expecting it but Corey found it funny. They kept flying so low that Corey ducked and almost fell off his seat - luckily my mum and uncle were sitting behind and managed to catch him. Corey was not impressed! They had a cute little children's park in the shade that Corey enjoyed, a trampoline which he loved - even more reason to get one at home soon. It had a Botanical Gardens too, which was just full of 100's of cactus'.
We had lunch in Correalejo one day, looking over the port and where the boat trips to Lanzarote were. It was so beautiful and a lovely way to spend our lunch - the food was yummy! Corey had this amazing clown face ice cream which he really loved :) These are some of the beautiful views too, so many mountains which Corey called volcano's!
So one of the best bits of the trip was everything was so cheap like it was insane. Corey and I were given some spending money by my nan so we certainly spent away :) Here is some of the bargains we got that we would not be able to get so cheaply here in the UK - Havianas Flip Flops £15, Vera Wang Be Jeweled Perfume £35, YSL Lipstick £16, Rimmel Nail Varnishes £1 and Corey got a Spanish Football Top £15. Then of course I got a few souvenirs such as a fan, fridge magnet (I collect one from every holiday!), lucky coin magnet. Corey got a shark tooth necklace, a ring, a toy car and a boomerang that he really wanted from the start of the holiday. The dinosaurs are from the local food shop called 'Hiper Dino' - Corey really wanted to spend his money on them, there is a mummy one, boy one and baby one. He also got flip flops for the beach and goggles to swim under water with - for like £2 each. I also got this black handbag, I have spent around a year looking for the perfect black every day handbag to replace my 4 year old one and finally I have for like £15!!
We stayed in the most beautiful villa in Parque Holandes. It had four bedrooms, two with en suites and one shower room. It was tiled throughout which was great as meant stayed really cool even in the hotter days. A lovely huge conservatory where we ate all our meals. The best part was the outside, a little area with a swimming pool with beautiful sea views. It was so peaceful and quiet being outside, no noises to be heard at all. It was pure bliss! I felt relaxed after just an hour of being there. I admit I really didn't want to come home and could quite happily move there forever!
I admit, I haven't taken Corey swimming since he was a baby due to illnesses, operations etc. In the past year he has been a couple of times with his dad so I was really excited when we had our own swimming pool so I can finally see him swim. Corey had told me he could swim with just arm bands but that was a bit of a lie. He did need a tummy ring but his doggy paddle was really good. I also taught him the froggy swim and how to float on his back which he loved! It was really fun swimming and now we are back home, he is really excited as I said he could get swimming lessons :)
Between where we stayed at Parque Holandes and the closest town called Corralejo there are around 9 miles of pure sand, it really is beautiful. So one day we headed to the beach to build sand castles which we were really rubbish at, they always fell apart. You weren't allowed to swim in the water at this beach but allowed to walk in it of course. Corey was far too scared to do this at first, it took a good half hour of persuading. But in the end he really enjoyed splashing his feet around and said it tickled :)
Although it was quite expensive to get into the Oasis Park - Fuerteventura Zoo. Around 100 euros for 3 adults and 1 child, it was an amazing day out and well worth it. It was much better than we had imagined, it was huge but packed full of animals. They had over 400 camels!!! We saw all sorts of crocodiles, flamingos, monkeys, children's farm, otters, meerkats, lynx and more. We missed the cheetahs for some reason and they didn't have lions or tigers which at first I thought was a let down but it really wasn't as so many other animals. Corey got to feed some elephants and giraffes which is just a great experience :) We watched a sea lion show which was great, they brought one out into the audience which was right in front of us. They done all sorts of tricks down slides, hula hoops, clapping, diving and more. The parrot show was really good too, they done tricks too including a bird sunbathing. The lady got a bird to sit on my head, I was a bit shocked as wasn't expecting it but Corey found it funny. They kept flying so low that Corey ducked and almost fell off his seat - luckily my mum and uncle were sitting behind and managed to catch him. Corey was not impressed! They had a cute little children's park in the shade that Corey enjoyed, a trampoline which he loved - even more reason to get one at home soon. It had a Botanical Gardens too, which was just full of 100's of cactus'.
We had lunch in Correalejo one day, looking over the port and where the boat trips to Lanzarote were. It was so beautiful and a lovely way to spend our lunch - the food was yummy! Corey had this amazing clown face ice cream which he really loved :) These are some of the beautiful views too, so many mountains which Corey called volcano's!
So one of the best bits of the trip was everything was so cheap like it was insane. Corey and I were given some spending money by my nan so we certainly spent away :) Here is some of the bargains we got that we would not be able to get so cheaply here in the UK - Havianas Flip Flops £15, Vera Wang Be Jeweled Perfume £35, YSL Lipstick £16, Rimmel Nail Varnishes £1 and Corey got a Spanish Football Top £15. Then of course I got a few souvenirs such as a fan, fridge magnet (I collect one from every holiday!), lucky coin magnet. Corey got a shark tooth necklace, a ring, a toy car and a boomerang that he really wanted from the start of the holiday. The dinosaurs are from the local food shop called 'Hiper Dino' - Corey really wanted to spend his money on them, there is a mummy one, boy one and baby one. He also got flip flops for the beach and goggles to swim under water with - for like £2 each. I also got this black handbag, I have spent around a year looking for the perfect black every day handbag to replace my 4 year old one and finally I have for like £15!!
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So really that sums up our holiday to Fuerteventura :) We had the absolute best time, it was such a great experience and I am so glad I got the chance to take Corey abroad with my family. We will hopefully be going back again and hopefully be able to explore more of the world too. I admit there is not a huge amount to do on the island so quite hard to keep children entertained but if you go to a hotel they have more suitable things for children like evening entertainment, games, pools, more children etc. So I would recommend that :) I hope you enjoyed reading about our trip. I have another post coming later this week on the big debate of taking children out of school for holidays - I'm all for it.
Now I would love to know where your favourite place to vacate too is? :) I really want to visit Barcelona, Paris and DisneyWorld!
Sounds like a great holiday , looking at your photos I would happily live there too ! I visited here years ago but there was nothing there it seems like there is so much more to do now. X
ReplyDelete400+ camels!!! Looks like you all had an amazing time hun. Lovely photos ;) xx
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a wonderful time, what amazing pictures! That oasis park sounds so cool :). I collect magnets from everywhere we go too :) xx
ReplyDeleteIt's looks beautiful! We are going to centerparcs as G is still a baby but I can't wait to take him further one day!
ReplyDeleteThis is seriously making me want to book a holiday... I need some sun!!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had a fab time! xx