What a week! My husband, Florence and I just got back from a break in the sun and what a wonderful time we had. But why is it that as soon as you’re back it feels as if you’ve never been away in the first place and even though you cleaned your house thoroughly before you left in order to come home to a clean and tidy house, the mass of suitcase spillage leaves you feeling like you’ve just got to do it all over again? Ah well, this is the way I suppose and even though I have got lots of washing to do I’m going to leave it for a bit while I think about last week and what a terrific holiday it was.

Before travelling to Turkey the sun was constantly on my mind so when packing I took an array of products to ensure it wasn’t a problem and that Florence didn’t get burnt. I took far too much if I’m perfectly honest… (Taking two full sun nets and a parasol was totally unnecessary but I didn’t know which one would be best – I certainly do now). We used to travel with two small wheelie cases and nothing much else but this travelling with a toddler malarkey is a whole new ball game. I did keep things as simple as I thought I could but even so, when we were there we realised that we had indeed over packed. Must try and remember to pack ‘just the essentials’ for our next trip! We still took our two small wheelie cases but to add to them we also had a huge hard suitcase and Florence’s Trunki filled with toys. How does one extra tiny person mean sooooo much more stuff?! The Trunki was fantastic though and I would thoroughly recommend one. It seems most people with children have one as everywhere I looked in the airport there were children playing with theirs. Florence kept getting very confused as every time she saw one with a Ladybird design she thought it was hers, the puzzled look on her face was very funny. It’s surprising how much you can fit into one of those things and with it doubling up as a sit on toy and being the perfect size for carry on luggage it’s unfaultable really. The long handle on it unclips and you can attach it on to your buggy, sit the child on and while you push they follow on the Trunki. Florence was too little to do that but we had lots of ‘ahhhhh’ exclamations from everyone around us when she sat on and was pulled around by her Daddy for some entertainment during the wait to board.

As we got off the plane from a journey where Florence was unreasonably good for someone of her age, the heat hit us! Being 3 o’clock in the morning I was glad I had packed all the sun protection stuff I had as it was stifling in the middle of the night, with the sun out I envisaged it was going to be tremendously hot for an 18 month old baby during the day time! (I wasn’t wrong as most days it hit 40°). After an extremely long passport control period where we had to pay £10 per person including Florence to get through and another two and half hour journey to our resort, we arrived at our accommodation, The Babadan Apartments in Icmeler, (the less said about them the better – we had a lovely holiday despite them rather than because of them) fifteen hours after leaving our own house and we just fell into bed. When we woke it was to that glorious noise of crickets in the greenery and sunshine so bright it would lift even the dullest of hearts. Ahhhhhhhh and relax!

First thing I did was sort out the buggy to make it sun proof for Florence. I had taken with me a sun net and parasol by Sunshine kids. The sun net which is made from material with a UPF 50+ solar fabric boasts that it keeps children cool and comfortable with its elasticated sides to keep it securely attached to the buggy and has a generous size. I was baffled because although it was generously sized (it’s enormous!) it was much too big to stay securely attached to my average umbrella fold holiday buggy and there was no way I’d be able to keep it on without pegging it. Surely the purpose of having a specially made sun net is so that you don’t have to peg material to the buggy? Well as soon as I sat Florence in and she realised there was a big piece of material down the middle and the net only runs down the sides, she was having none of it and discarded it immediately. The universal parasol was just as useless. It didn’t fit properly, kept falling down at the sides and was far too big making it unwieldy when it was up or down. It was a big disappointment as I really thought it was going to be a good one, it’s their new design and it looked promising. I have come to the conclusion that perhaps all universal parasols are just a bit rubbish. I have had many and none of them have stayed on securely, were easy to use or have been in any way helpful so thank goodness – breathes a sigh of relief – for the third and final buggy sun protector I took with me! If it hadn’t been for this product my holiday would have been so much harder, exhausting and a constant worry. With it I had peace of mind, a happy little girl and not just one product to protect her from the sun but a second in its actual purpose as a blackout for sleeping meaning she wouldn’t wake up before time! I give you the Snoozeshade Plus!

Snoozeshade is a company who brought out their original product, the Snoozeshade, to aid sleep whilst your baby is in the buggy. I haven’t tried the original product yet but I took the Snoozeshade plus on holiday for what I thought would be purely for sun protection. It turned out to be so much more… Like the Sunshine Kids Sun net it too is made from material with UFP50+ but this one fitted on my buggy superbly and I could see that I would also have no problems using it on my big buggy at home. It has Velcro fasteners that if you fix as directed cannot be broken even when the child is trying really hard. Florence did give it a go a few times but as it happens most of the time she was happy to have it over her. There’s a lookout panel that can be zipped up if you don’t want them to look out and sometimes we just had it covering half the buggy doing the same job a parasol would but with much better effect. When she got tired we put it over completely and hey presto – the darkness made her drift off effortlessly. Florence is a girl who will fight sleep even when she’s extremely tired so it was fantastic to be able to use this for her and because it keeps her in darkness it meant she didn’t wake up before she was ready to and it gave us two whole hours every single day of sunbathing time together. We took her for a stroll every morning either to the beach or for some breakfast out and on the way back off she’d nod and on to the sun beds we’d hop parking her next to us under a tree and with the buggy fan on. It also meant that on the nights we wanted to dine on our own we could take her for a walk after she had eaten and get her off to sleep in time for that. Again with the black out element it meant she slept parked along side us through until we got back to the apartments which was just brilliant, we could really relax. I worry a lot so it was great that it also has the features of being made from breathable material allowing excellent airflow and not retaining heat and has a zipped part at the top where you can take a peak and make sure they’re ok. I really don’t know how anyone with a small child could do without one of these?! It’s my holiday must have from now on and I have not one word to say against its favour! It’s worth every penny of its £29.99 and knocks all other sun shade products out of the water!

With the sun protection out of the way and dealt with I could get down to really enjoying myself, relaxing and watching my little family do the same. We didn’t pack a lot into the holiday, we meandered along doing pretty much the same thing every day, eating, sun bathing, snoozing, swimming and a bit more eating. I read two whole books which is unheard of these days for me and we had a real giggle all of us together. Part of me longs for boutique hotels in Morocco with hammocks hanging from strategically grown palm trees and waiters handing me Bombay Sapphire cocktails. Late nights and lie ins and fine dining restaurants with a touch of glamour but I have to admit that it’s such a small part of me these days that it’s barely worth thinking about. I watched my husband swimming with Florence one afternoon and thought this is exactly what I want, all I’ve ever wanted and all the boutique hotels and hammocks can pass me by thank you very much. Holidays these days are about us as a family. When we got married in Portugal last year, Father Haynes Hubbard who performed our ceremony gave us our blessing as a family and not just a couple as he would usually because he said it was about us as a unit from that day forward and I couldn’t agree more. Family is where it’s at and it doesn’t get much better than a family holiday! We still had time for each other and we still had lots of time to do the things we would usually like sun bathing and reading. We even both went to have a Turkish Bath – what an experience that was but everything we did we included Florence. She didn’t have a Turkish bath obviously but we took her with us and took it in turns to look after her while the other was getting beaten up – sorry massaged to within an inch of our skin!

After her nap which ended about 1.30pm every day I took Florence up to the room for an hour or so to give her some lunch while Jonny carried on sun bathing and when I’d bring her back down with her little all in one suit and a fresh round of sun cream applied Jonny would take her swimming while I had a relax. Every afternoon was the same with lots of swimming and playing and ice cream for Florence, the odd G & T for me and quite a few beers for Jonny. By the time dinner time came around for Florence she was already half asleep from all the activities of the afternoon so sometimes we gave her something to eat from a kids menu in a bar while we had a drink then we took her out for her sleep walk before we had our meal and other times we just ate early all together. We’d borrowed a portable DVD player and taken paper and crayons so Florence was always occupied. We also discovered that neither Jonny nor I can draw an owl?!

Icmeler as a resort isn’t really my cup of tea. It’s highly illuminated by bright lights and brass although it’s not overly offensive. It’s more Benidorm circa 1960 than the harshness of such places as Magaluf or Ayia Napa today but it was still a bit Britishyfied for my liking. The beach is stony and unfortunately wall to wall sun beds which can be paid for daily but I’m not really into that sort of scene. I prefer a beach without sun beds for sale and sandy enough to make a sand castle but you can’t have everything and in the evening the promenade was just beautiful and we enjoyed a classy cocktail or two down there. We chose to eat mostly in the old town end of Icmeler as the restaurants seemed to be that touch more authentic, have fewer people badgering you to go in and served absolutely delicious food. We didn’t eat badly once and the mouth watering local food which is cooked in an ocakbasi grill oven is to die for! There were two restaurants we found which if ever in Icmeler I would say are an absolute must! The first was Kayra where we ate and drank handsomely for £18 including a 40% tip. We tried this restaurant because of reviews we read stating that it’s where the locals choose and I can see why they do. The food is delicious, we had mixed meze with dips and kebabs and we went back twice it was that good! The restaurant isn’t anything special to look at but the food and wonderful staff made it an experience not to be forgotten. The second restaurant we loved is called Hanedan and this was my favourite. A little bit more expensive than Kayra at around 80TL (which is £32) for a mammoth starter of meze with an array of dips and the most impressive bread which is blown up like a balloon, absolutely amazing main courses of kebabs (which are thankfully nothing like the kebabs we get over here), a gorgeously gooey traditional desert to share and drinks all still cheaper than you would ever expect to pay in the UK. In fact Hanedan is a restaurant that if it were in London could easily compete with any good restaurant I’ve ever been to in the capital and could charge five times the price it does in Icmeler. It’s fine dining, it’s delicious and it’s completely inexpensive. What’s more is that the owner and staff are so attentive and seemed to adore the fact that we’d brought our child out with us rather than in England where it’s frowned upon if anything in the evening and certainly not encouraged! I’d go back to Icmeler just for this restaurant alone, it was fabby!

Even though the resort wasn’t what I’d choose in an ideal world and the apartments were not great, ours was very small and we had a number of incidents with the bathroom (for me some elements of the apartment were not as safe as I would expect from a Thomson holiday and I will be raising this with Thomson), I would go back to Icmeler again. I wouldn’t stay at The Babadan Apartments obviously but in it’s favour the pool area, especially the children’s pool with it’s wonderful water slide which was just the perfect size for Florence was brilliant, most of the staff there were delightful and it had lovely shaded areas which was great for us but the rude receptionist who told me I worried too much when the shower broke and clonked poor Florence on the back of the head, the unhygienic way the cleaners (didn’t) clean and the fact the one bedroom apartment wasn’t big enough to swing a cat in made it entirely unsuitable for us and in my opinion any family. There’s no way it would be comfortable with more than one child that’s for sure! I’d stay somewhere else and in fact because it’s so very cheap to eat out and eat out well, if I ever go again I will splash out on the hotel I think! In most cases you get what you pay for so I had expected something very basic with our accommodation as we didn’t pay extortionate prices. I hadn’t expected somewhere unsafe of course and Babadan seriously need to look at some things we pointed out to them but next time I would go for a bit more luxury in general, it doesn’t cost the earth in this resort!

We travelled with Thomson and it was a great family holiday and I’m so looking forward to the next one, wherever that may be?! Wherever it is though we shall be taking our Snoozshade plus which you can buy at www.snoozeshade.com. And on one last note although it doesn’t apply for me right now but if you’re pregnant and thinking of going on holiday then check out Isabella Oliver’s new range of swimwear for this summer. I’ve just had a sneaky peak at their ruched cami tankini and ruched swimsuit and they’re absolutely gorgeous! Just because you may be pregnant doesn’t mean you can’t be looking great! Make like a celeb, Alyssa Milano, Myleene Klass and Selma Blair are all fans of the range and glam up this summer on the beach – why not?!

Next week the blog’ll be back to normal and once again I shall be telling you about delightful days out with children and the products we find useful when we’re on them instead of indulging myself so much with tales of our holidays! I shall be celebrating my birthday with friends and children at Discover in Stratford where we shall be pic-nicking and enjoying the delights they have to offer so until then farewell…