The ease of travel when you have no children

By Nina Steele 

One of the advantages of not being a parent, is that you are able to travel at any time of the year, and at short notice. We have done a fair bit of travelling recently and are looking forward to our next adventure. As keen walkers, we have enjoyed some thrilling holidays to mountainous parts of the UK and abroad. We love nothing more than to walk for hours, enjoying all the treasures that nature so abundantly has to give. That feeling you have after you have walked for hours, is priceless. The tension in your legs, the excitement of knowing that you are not only doing something that you love very much, but also that you are looking after your body, as you should.

We are in no doubt that we are able to travel as much as we do right now, because we have no children. Let’s face it, travelling cost a fair bit of money (unless you don’t travel abroad and only go camping), and if you add children to the mix, then something inevitably has to give. Most of the parents I know, can only afford a maximum of two holidays a year, and of those two, they often can only afford one foreign holiday.

Money issues have always been on my mind, particularly when we were still trying for a child. If like me, you grew up in a household where money was always in short supply, you will understand why. All the parents I know of (bar one or two wealth off families) are always struggling to make ends meet, and complain that they have no savings. A lot of them have accumulated a great deal of debt, but still feel obliged to take their children on holiday, particularly in the summer.

A typical family of 4 can spend as much as £4000 on their summer holiday. It doesn’t take a genius therefore to work out why the typical British family can only afford one holiday abroad each year. Our recent week long trip to the Italian Alps cost less than half that amount. We are also able to go on weekend breaks abroad, and I am in no doubt that things would have been considerably different had we been parents.

There is so much joy to be had as non-parents. To be able to pack and go at short notice and see many new places is very exhilarating. And unlike many parents, we don’t have to wait until the children have left home to start being more adventurous.