34 year old teacher, Emily Williams, lives near Fareham in Hampshire with her product manager husband, Dean, 35, and daughters Eden (3) and Rosie (6 months).

Despite a fear of flying, Emily always braved an aeroplane to enjoy holidays abroad, but since starting a family, she has become a staycation convert. 

“The more I thought about it, I just couldn’t face the idea of getting on a plane with two young children. I wouldn’t be able to help with the girls at all, which would be really tough on Dean. Plus we’d be at the airport for hours. When you travel with children you’re lugging loads more luggage around with you and you can’t do automatic passport scanning – there’s so much queuing and waiting around. We realised it just wasn’t worth the hassle.

“Usually I can only go away during school holidays, but being on maternity leave has meant we can take shorter breaks in off-peak times. We went to Warmwell holiday park in Dorset over the winter for a weekend, and Eden had the most incredible time. We’d never been on a holiday with entertainment and kids’ clubs before, and we enjoyed it so much we decided we’d book again for a longer stay in February. We went swimming every day, and Eden was never bored because there were fun activities to do all the time.

“Then my dad suggested we try the Isle of Wight – we live quite close to Portsmouth but we’ve never really been over before. The ferry only takes about an hour, and it’s so easy. We stayed at another Parkdean Resorts park, Nodes Point, and used it as a base to explore the island, which was stunning.

“When we got back we were raving about it to my sister and her husband, and next thing we knew they headed off to stay at another holiday park on the island with their two children! They loved it too, and we’re already talking about all going back as a big family next summer. I know you can’t guarantee the weather, but you have to accept that. The weather wasn’t the best when we went, but it didn’t matter at all.

“We save so much by holidaying in the UK instead of going abroad. But to be honest I’d happily pay more for our staycation, just because it was so low stress! There’s no hassle at all – you just chuck everything in the car and drive off. Then when you arrive, there are so many things to keep the kids occupied.

“And because you’re in a caravan or lodge rather than a hotel room, you can have a bit more freedom at night. The kids are in their own rooms so once you’ve got them down to sleep, you don’t have to creep around worrying about waking them up.

“As a parent, breaks aren’t always relaxing, but the best thing I can say about our Parkdean getaways is that I felt like I had an actual holiday!”