1st September, 2018, Alex Salmon
The school holidays are well and truly underway and believe me, I know it.
The house is in a constant state of chaos, I keep tripping over toys and I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve asked my two children to ‘share’.
But the summer months also signal the opportunity for a trip to sunnier climates (if that’s possible with the current British weather) and we have been fortunate this year to book two holidays abroad, one of which we have already taken.
Luckily for me the kids loved the flight on the plane, spent most of the week on the beach or in the hotel pool and were very keen on all the food.
The biggest hit was the jelly, which seemed to ping off their spoons into the direction of most of the other holidaymakers.
We also had an incident involving my son, some water fountains and a poor unsuspecting man lying on a sunbed, but I won’t delve further into that.
All in all, everything went surprisingly smoothly, but it did get me thinking about how to avoid any pitfalls with children in tow.
There’s been a lot in the news this year about people getting stuck abroad, so for anyone taking a holiday I strongly recommend booking through an ATOL registered UK travel company.
It means that if your travel company ceases trading you won’t lose any money you pay out, or become stranded.
I work at accountants Stephenson Smart and we have two members of staff who have an ATOL qualification, meaning we can support clients in the travel industry holding ATOL certificates with annual renewals to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
All renewals need to be signed off by a CAA registered accountant called an ATOL Reporting Accountant (ARA).
Martyn Benstead, partner at our Fakenham office, was one of the first accountants in the country to become an ARA - and the first registered in the county.
With that in mind I’m off to pack for our next adventure with a mental note to keep my son away from any spraying water.
