Our family holiday to Majorca. Part One!

Going on holiday is something that my husband and I have always enjoyed doing. Long before we had children, we’d ventured to Marrakech, Valencia, Barcelona, Prague, Rome, and many other wonderful places.

Holidaying with children is slightly different to a city break though! However it’s even more fun! For our last three holidays abroad we chose to book an all inclusive package deal with Thomson.

We’ve always had a good experience with them so this year was no exception in booking our holiday with them. We usually go to Menorca, but this time around we decided that we wanted something different. We knew that  we didn’t want to go on a long haul flight, so we opted for Majorca which is a quick two hour flight from Cardiff. Perfect for travelling with young children.

I scoured the Thomson website for weeks to find the perfect hotel. I chatted online to them, spoke over the phone with them and also interacted with them via their social media channels and eventually we chose the Family Life Coma Gran (separate review coming soon).

It looked ideal. It was a stone’s throw away from the beach, had a swimming pool, plus splash park for children, as well as a soft play area and an outdoor park too.

We decided to go all inclusive as we just find it easier when travelling with children. I’d hate to have to wander around finding somewhere suitable to eat, plus the convenience an all inclusive holiday offers in terms of food being available straight away is great when you’ve got hungry children!

To the airport!


I guess the only slight downside of our holiday was that our flight was at 06:10. This meant we all had to wake up at 3am to get ourselves ready and travel down to Cardiff airport. I set around five alarms on my phone and also on my husbands phone! Turns out I didn’t need to set any though, as my natural body clock woke me up at 02:50!

After getting myself ready, I woke my husband and then spotted R wandering down the hallway sleepily! After dressing her, I woke M and dressed her too, whilst my husband loaded the suitcases into the car.

I thought the girls would sleep on the way to the airport, but they must have been too excited about going on holiday! When we arrived at the airport, we checked in and had just enough time to scoff down some breakfast before boarding our plane!

As this was our girls third time flying, there were pretty blasé about the whole aeroplane experience! I mean they were looking forward to going on an aeroplane, but it was nothing new to them! I guess that’s a good thing though as they already knew what to expect so had no need to be nervous about it.

The girls (and I!) slept for most of the plane journey, which was great as it made the flight go by pretty quickly!

After collecting our luggage, we had an hour coach ride to our hotel. One of the benefits of having an early flight is that we got to spend the majority of the day by the pool. Previously we’ve had late flights which has meant that when we arrive, we’d eat dinner then go to bed. I think I prefer flying early as we had most of the day to make the most of the hotel and the facilities available to us.

Our one bedroom apartment was lovely, and because it was situated at the very end of the corridor it meant that we benefitted from two balconies, instead of the usual one. However, the downside was that there was a pub right beneath us that was pretty noisy at night time. Not that I heard much as I slept with my ear plugs in, but it did wake my husband on a few occasions.

Day One: Swimming Pool

So, as mentioned above our first day was spent dipping in and out of the swimming pool, which was great!

In the evening, we found a Thomson rep and booked an excursion to Marineland for the Friday (two days away).

The entertainment for the kids in the evening was great! They had Thomson dog, who the girls remembered from last year, but this time Thomson dog had been transformed into a super hero!

After the show we found a soft play room, along with some toy cars that the girls enjoyed playing on before bed time.

Day Two: Beach

On our second day, we decided to go to the beach which was a short walk away from our hotel. We could actually see the beach from our room, that’s how close we were!

On the way there we wandered past lots of souvenir shops much to my husbands delight as he loves to buy tat when abroad!

I have to say that the beach was lovely! The sand was golden, the sea was crystal clear and the sun was shining brightly in the sky!

The girls took no time at all in whipping their clothes off to reveal their new swimsuits before starting to make sandcastles!

My husband did get pretty competitive when it came to building sandcastles and was very proud of his moat!

We spent all day at the beach, and like most Brits abroad we raided the breakfast bar for rolls and made ham baguettes to bring with us, along with some fruit, biscuits and muffins, which we enjoyed on the beach!

I enjoyed paddling in the sea, as did R. M wasn’t so keen as the water was too cold for her!

After a long day on the beach, we headed back to the hotel, where the girls and I took a nap! Hubby had other ideas though and made the most of the peace and quiet by watching the football!

After dinner, we headed to the stage to see what the evenings entertainment had in store for us. It was pretty much the same format at the first night, in that Thomson dog came on stage with two other ‘super dogs’ (puppets – which were very well played by the reps!). R and M thought it was great when the pups patted them on the head!

Following this, there was a clown show, Coco and Charlie. The girls loved the show and if I’m honest so did I! I sat on the floor, right down by the front of the stage with the girls and laughed along with the rest of the kids!

After the clown show there was a show called ‘Download@611’. This consisted of games, music and singing, which again the girls really enjoyed.

Although the children’s entertainment was good, I always find that the adult entertainment lets Thomson down. I wish they’d get in some professionals as the reps just don’t cut it for me I’m afraid! Although they do get top marks for effort as they certainly gave it their all!

Day Three: Marineland


After a quick breakfast, we picked our packed lunches up from the hotel reception which was free as we were all inclusive, and then we waited outside for the coach to take us to Marineland.

It was an hour journey, which wasn’t too bad, but the female tour guide who accompanied us on the bus talked for the entire journey on the overhead speaker. I think the majority of people on the coach got pretty fed up of listening to her waffle on about nothing!

Aside from that, our experience at Marineland (full review coming soon), was amazing. We had such great day and one that we’ll all remember for a long time.

Marineland is an outdoor tourist attraction that has a variety of animals and shows, as well as a splash pool for children.

Upon arrival, a parrot was promptly sat on my arm as a photo opportunity! I don’t think the tourists had much choice in having their photo taken with the parrot, which didn’t bother me at all, but my husband quickly switched places with me when he realised he was on the side of the parrot!

We saw lots of amazing animals such as flamingoes, seals, turtles, sharks, a huge snake which looked like it had just had a big meal, along with some other fish, monkeys, lizards, frogs and more!

What we were all really looking forward to though was the dolphin show! I think if we had more time, and if the girls had perhaps been a bit older I would have paid for the ‘Live the Dolphin Experience’ which gives tourists the opportunity to spend 35 minutes with the dolphins, and even get in the water with them too!

We all loved the dolphin show! The girls were in awe of the dolphin trainers who were clearly passionate about the dolphins and cared greatly for them.

I also managed to get some great photos too!

After the dolphin show we had an ice cream and then watched the parrot show. We didn’t have the best seats which did mean our view of the show was slightly blurred, but we did have a great experience when one of the pirates conducting the show stood right next to us, and a parrot flew over to him. It flew so close to us all and the girls loved it!

In total we spent four hours in Marineland, and thoroughly enjoyed it! Before we left the girls played in the splash park which was a lovely way to end the day.

We were all pretty tired after a long day, so we all nodded off on the coach on the way back to the hotel! We had a pretty early night that night, but did manage to let the girls have a play in the soft play area. They had it all to themselves which they thought was great!

Part two of our holiday will be live on the blog, Monday!