No one ever steps in the same river twice, and you can say the same about any place you visit, especially with children. As they grow and change, the way the entire family holidays changes. They become more independent, they want more adventure and different types of activities. They want to hang out with you…until they don’t. And for us grownups — transformed by our experience as parents — we change too.
This October we return to St Lucia 8 years after our first visit. Then, my daughter was 3, just learning to swim and discovering the joy of sandcastles. Now, she’s 11, an avid sports player, looking forward to waterskiing and boat outings. Then, my stepson couldn’t come withus. This time, he’s 16 years old and will be reporting on the experience for the blog.
The #EliteIslandFamilies Project
This trip is part of an exciting #EliteIslandFamilies project I’m doing with my BritMums co-founder Susanna Scott (A Modern Mother) and family travel blogger Cathy Winston (Mummy Travels). It’s part of the Elite Island Family Blogathon, sponsored by Elite Island Resorts.
Each of us is visiting a resort, reporting on the wide variety of things to do with kids of different age ranges and interests, over one month. Susanna and Cathy are going with their families to Antigua. We’re off to St Lucia, staying at all-inclusive St James’s Club Morgan Bay, in the northern part of the island near Castries.
I’ve gotten a preview about the resort from Cathy, who’s stayed there before.
So what are we looking forward to? Lots of sports. We’ll be swimming, waterskiing, and embarking on a boat trip to see some of the island’s sights. ,Now that the kids are older and have more stamina, we’re taking a rainforest walk to learn more about the island’s ecosystem. And we do a bean-to-bar chocolate experience (some of the world’s best chocolate comes from St Lucia) purely for scientific study, you understand.
An additional bit of good news: Now that the kids are older, we’ll actually have some time to loll by the pool with fruity cocktails and actually get some time to chill with them. That is, when they’ll let us…
I’ll be blogging, tweeting and Instagramming using the #eliteislandfamilies hashtag. Please do follow me for inspiration and message me any questions, tips or advice, whether it’s about St James’s Club Morgan Bay, St Lucia or how you holiday with your older kids.
Twitter: @JHowze
Instagram: @JHowze
See you on the island!
This sounds wonderful – such fun to go back too and see the differences. Hope you have an absolutely fantastic time. Look forward to reading about it too, from you, and your stepson!
Sarah, it will be quite a contrast. I’m interested to see what my stepson likes compared with what we like.
Sounds fabulous. I’m looking forward to the day I can take my two on a trek through the rainforest (though we ARE enjoying the wee tinies stage for the time being!) I’ll look forward to following your adventures.
The fun when they are tiny is quite special, plus it’s good to know that it all evolves as they grow.
Enjoy! Looks like you had an amazing experience first time around, so hopefully your return will also be great. I always enjoy returning to places I’ve already been, just to see how things have evolved.
Wow, i love the last photo – the sunset. I hope you just sat their and watched it till it became all dark. How peaceful.
It was incredibly peaceful and beautiful. I can’t wait to see more of the island on our upcoming visit.
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