Island holidays evoke wonderful images of white sand beaches fringed with palm trees and clear blue waters lapping on their shores, but not all islands are tropical in nature and many are decidedly the opposite.
Canada’s Vancouver Island is a good example of a popular holiday destination that’s hardly tropical in nature, as is the UK’s Jersey and Russia’s Olkhon Island, so it’s safe to say that not all island holidays play out the same and that holiday makers taking their family on an island holiday have quite a few options regarding the island holiday they’re planning to take.
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Where to go?
Deciding on an island to take the family is the first thing to do and depending on your location, the time you have to spend on holiday, your budget and a wealth of other factors, including the weather, you’ll find that you have seemingly countless options to choose from.
The age of your children and their interests are particularly important when deciding on a holiday destination as they need to have access to child-friendly swimming beaches and places of interest that interest them as well as mum and dad.
Norfolk Island, a small island that lies in the Pacific Ocean between Australia and New Zealand, is a wonderful island holiday destination, one that offers holidaymakers a chance to really get away from their lives at home and experience something new.
It’s actually not in Australia as many people wrongly assume, though it’s still part of the Commonwealth of Australia and Kingston, its capital, enjoys a large degree of self-governance over its affairs.
The weather
The weather is a major factor to take into account when planning an island holiday with the family whether you’re heading to the Canary Islands which are renowned for the number of rain-free days they boast, Vancouver Island which is obviously very cold in winter, or Norfolk Island, which although lies in the Pacific Ocean doesn’t boast the roasting summer temperatures many would assume, but rather offers a lovely 19C to 28C temperature all year round.
There’s more to take into account with the weather than how comfortable you and your family will be, as the weather at certain times of the year dictates peak seasons and therefore how many other people also have the same holiday destination in mind as you.
Peak season
The peak season on Norfolk Island, which is the warm season with an average daily high temperature above 23C, sees the island’s population swell from around 2,000 to 3,500, so if you’re planning a holiday at this time of year you’ll need to make arrangements for accommodation well in advance, for although there’s quite a range of accommodation options on the island, they have a tendency to fill up quickly.
Accommodation
As you’re planning an island holiday it suffices to say that you want to arrange accommodation for a short distance from the beach, if not right on it. Accommodation located right on the beach is often expensive, though not in all cases, so do your homework and see what your efforts uncover; you might be pleasantly surprised with what you find.
When holidaying with the family, it’s advisable to look at holiday apartments and similar styles of accommodation because hotels, although most holidaymakers’ first choice of accommodation, can usually be improved upon.
For instance, if there are four of your, i.e. mum, dad, and two kids, you need to arrange a hotel with extra beds and room rates will increase as a result. However, it’s often possible to arrange a holiday apartment with two bedrooms for roughly the same price
When one takes into account the extra space, not to mention the self-catering facilities that most holiday apartments come with, it becomes immediately obvious that holidaymakers and their families have better options when planning Norfolk Island holidays than hotel-style accommodation and that these options are well worth looking into further.
If you’re considering taking the family on an island holiday, booking a holiday apartment is likely to be the best option available to you, and Norfolk Island, as with many other holiday destinations, has a number of self-catering holiday apartment options that are perfect for families on short or long breaks.
