Travel Diary our Summer Adventure

We decided to keep a travel diary on the blog, with a short overview of our daily adventures on our summer adventure and intend to do this for all of our future trips.  We  have an action packed few weeks and thought it would be a great place to start a quick summary of our trip on the go!

Day 1

Our first stop in our 3 week adventure is Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.  We arrived late last night and had a later then normal start this morning to make sure we all recovered from a long day of travel yesterday.  We are staying in Yas Island and have found there to be lots to do in the nearby area for families and was really pleasantly surprised what good value for money this part of the UAE actually is.  We have been to the hustle and bustle of Dubai but with young children in tow, the more laid back feel of Abu Dhabi is a refreshing change.  Yas Island have a great deal at the moment with their #SayYas campaign, where a 2 night stay on the Island includes unlimited entry to either the Water Park and Ferrari world.  The hotels are really reasonably priced (by UK standards and with this inclusion is great value for money!)

We started the day at Yas Beach.  For guests of the island’s hotel it is free to access (chargeable for those not staying on the island) and though not huge the sea was a glorious blue, the colour which could easily be taken out of story book and the beach was serenely quiet and we almost had the whole area to ourselves.  Temperature wise, I will not lie myself and the other adults were very red, flustered and hot.  In comparison my three little adventurers though red cheeked took it all completely in their stride, playing in the water and gleefully hunting for shells, seeking the ones in which they can hear the ocean.  After a couple of hours we retreated to the pool in our hotel and it was a welcome relief from the blazing sun!

We love to try the best and most unique family activities and after discovering the Rollercoaster restaurant we decided to see how child friendly this was.  I loved the idea behind the restaurant and it merits a blog post on its own.  The restaurant has lots of mini rollercoasters and the food and drinks are delivered to your table via these tracks.  The children (and adults) loved seeing their food and drinks whizzing to their own and others tables.  It was an expensive meal butIi think as a one off experience its a well worth while splurge.  A big shout out to the staff as they were great with the children and tried to make the experience as child friendly as possible with colouring sheets, and generally taking time out to speak and laugh with our little adventurers.

Our last stop for the day was Yas Waterworld.  We decided to do this later in the day to a) avoid the blazing heat b) as it was Friday, the park is open until 10pm so we thought it would be a great way to end our day.  We all loved the water park, there is lots of rides for all different ages and range of adrenaline crazy to milder family rides.  I am not a ride fan and totally scared myself on the water ride, my niece has happily been filling my pure terror and screaming to Doc for hours after!  The lazy river is perfect for all the family and they even managed to include a rollercoaster which even Zayn was tall enough for.  Despite being a weekend I found the park to still be quieter then then Dubai ones which is ideal when you are watching three little children.  Overall, a perfect way to finish a day and it got a big thumbs up from us all!