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If you have a good tow car hire a caravan in Northern France and go down to the Med in easy stages. but not on the motorways, Carcasonne might appeal to the youngster. Then on to Spain or Italy. Did this for 3 weeks when my children were young

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If you have a good tow car hire a caravan in Northern France and go down to the Med in easy stages. but not on the motorways, Carcasonne might appeal to the youngster. Then on to Spain or Italy. Did this for 3 weeks when my children were young

+1 But hire a camper,loads of free (or very cheap) parks restricted to large campers, +1 for Carcassone, where Robin Hood prince of thieves was shot amazing place & Cassoulet for lunch! Then down to the Cammargue (@@@@spelling) via Andorra (same spelling), & watch a true Bullfight (no harm to bulls) they venerate them & when they retire & die they are buried facing south.Marsh cowboys herding horses,& everything seems to pass so slowly

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Rent a Scottish Sporting Estate (with castle) to include August. All basis covered.

 

Slightly tongue in cheek.

 

Lucky you.

 

Dear All

It looks like I'm going to be offered the chance to take 6 weeks off (as a bloc), paid, on top of my leave entitlement etc to do whatever I like (essentially). But in 18 months time. Despite the obvious attraction to shooting every day during that season, in reality I want to do something as a family. Which means I need to do something that my wife and little boy (who will be 7 by the time I can do this) can also take part in.

My rough plan is to take the entire 6 week summer holiday that my little boy has from school that year and do something in this period. I can use some of my leave entitlement too but don't want my son to miss school so unlikely that is a viable option. Unless you come up with something amazing that needs 8 or 9 weeks.

So my request, please, is for ideas as to what I / we could do ? I'm fortunate to have a healthy budget so money shouldn't be too much of an issue. But as this is likely to be a one off (unless i stay for another 7 years after) then I'm keen to do something memorable......

Edited by Penelope
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Wild camping, no tents just build shelters, my son(11ys old) loves this survival stuff.If hes chopping stuff up or whittling a bit of stick he is happy as pig is do dah.We are going to do the Nothumberland coast line this summer.

Edited by Davyo
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I can't imagine a 7 year old being enthralled about being stuck in a car/campervan for days on end. Personally I would break it up into lots of small trips or stick to flying.

+1

Although it's a very nice situation to be in, I don't envy you having to make the decision. Naturally your opinion doesn't count, who the hell knows what a woman wants and your boy wants to be doing not sitting.I'd be inclined to take, say, three bites at the apple and possibly regrouping at home for a day or two in between (seen your location). Couple of weeks in the South West based somewhere central-ish and the whole peninsula is in daily striking distance and the opportunities for the lad to get wet, dirty and entertained/educated are legion - plenty for the grown-ups too. Follow this up with the North West of Scotland - impossible for any age group not to be in awe of the grandeur here. Then last, when it's cooler, finish up in London. The good lady can run riot with the plastic and there's lots of blood, guts and thunder historically speaking for you and the lad, not to mention educational with all the various museums, etc, etc.

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Take him to see what may not be so readily available in 30/40 years. Whales, the arctic, tropical forest, some of the history of this world, bung a few plant shows in for the diggers and tractors .

 

He may not fully grasp what you share now but will remember when you are gone.

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Some places to visit as recommended by a Swiss friend of mine who does not a lot all year round except wander around Europe in a Winnebago with a Fiat 500 Cabrio towed behind -

 

Timmels Joch

Prato allo Stelvio / Stelvio pass

Stilfers Joch

Sondino

Lago di Como

Lago Maggiore

St. Gotthard

Furka

Gletsch

Handegg

Kaiserstuhl

Obwalden

Sörenberg

Flühli

Langenau

Solothurn

Further into France / or down South to route Napoleon or Grande Corniche

 

Names are mostly in German - but will come up in Google.

 

Enjoy. Throw away (or at least put away) socks, phones and watches.

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This is an opportunity to do something that actually requires time rather than 42 single days out or similar. This length of time allows you to see somewhere properly. You can also travel a long way and have time to do stuff at the other end. Kids can and will fit in to what you do though I know of families where somehow the kids run the show. When my brother was in Australia they did lots such as walking up Ayers Rock and I'd guess the three boys were sort of 4/5 through to 8/9 years old. They came back by train through Mongolia and Russia, the boys loved it.

Edited by yod dropper
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I'm with yod on this. You got 6 weeks to do something amazing, you can do caravaning in France or Cornwall in a week any time you choose. How about something like touring the Far East (doesn't have to be back packing, loads of decent hotels) or the pan American highway, or Australia and nz, or tour the national parks of the US?

Loads to consider, but if doing anything 'exotic' look into getting all visas in place as early as possible, nothing worse than deciding to go somewhere only for the embassy to say there's a 6 week wait for a visa.

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The last word in your post "memorable" is the most significant but look at this from 2 angles, for him, that mostly means 'fun' but for you, the real value in your memories will be the time you spent getting to know him more.

Make things

Build things

Catch things

Discover things

Camp

Cook

Climb

Explore

Teach

The things we hold dearest are not the things that our parents bought for us but what they gave us.

Regards

GG

Wow, good answer

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I'm with yod on this. You got 6 weeks to do something amazing, you can do caravaning in France or Cornwall in a week any time you choose. How about something like touring the Far East (doesn't have to be back packing, loads of decent hotels) or the pan American highway, or Australia and nz, or tour the national parks of the US?

Loads to consider, but if doing anything 'exotic' look into getting all visas in place as early as possible, nothing worse than deciding to go somewhere only for the embassy to say there's a 6 week wait for a visa.

I agree. Whilst a long holiday is attractive, and many of the trips are the sort of thing I actually would enjoy, for me this has to be about using the 6 weeks to do something I simply couldn't do within a 'normal' holiday. Which is why I posted seeking some inspiration. Which a number of you have provided, thank you. I am currently Googling the likely cost of a Scottish sporting estate with a castle, clearly, but am suspecting something else will usurp it. Learning to sail and spending 6 weeks sailing from interesting place to interesting place is appealing to me, but I fear less so to the Mrs.

 

Great shout too about visas etc - I never plan anything really, so that was another reason for posting to really try and get the maximum value from this once / twice in a career opportunity.

 

Keep the ideas flowing if you have any more please, and thank you to each and every one of you that has taken the time so far to share your thoughts or ideas - it is really appreciated

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+1

Although it's a very nice situation to be in, I don't envy you having to make the decision. Naturally your opinion doesn't count, who the hell knows what a woman wants and your boy wants to be doing not sitting.I'd be inclined to take, say, three bites at the apple and possibly regrouping at home for a day or two in between (seen your location). Couple of weeks in the South West based somewhere central-ish and the whole peninsula is in daily striking distance and the opportunities for the lad to get wet, dirty and entertained/educated are legion - plenty for the grown-ups too. Follow this up with the North West of Scotland - impossible for any age group not to be in awe of the grandeur here. Then last, when it's cooler, finish up in London. The good lady can run riot with the plastic and there's lots of blood, guts and thunder historically speaking for you and the lad, not to mention educational with all the various museums, etc, etc.

You're winning from my wife's perspective!

Some places to visit as recommended by a Swiss friend of mine who does not a lot all year round except wander around Europe in a Winnebago with a Fiat 500 Cabrio towed behind -

 

Timmels Joch

Prato allo Stelvio / Stelvio pass

Stilfers Joch

Sondino

Lago di Como

Lago Maggiore

St. Gotthard

Furka

Gletsch

Handegg

Kaiserstuhl

Obwalden

Sörenberg

Flühli

Langenau

Solothurn

Further into France / or down South to route Napoleon or [/size]Grande Corniche[/size]

 

Names are mostly in German - but will come up in Google.

 

Enjoy. Throw away (or at least put away) socks, phones and watches.

Thank you - I would love to visit some of those places - may be using my holidays now to do so

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Go to newquay in cornwall and learn how to surf and kayak ,, as a family , then go somwhere with proper surfing beaches.

 

When my lad was younger , his favourite thing was to come shooting with me , as soon as we got to a farm , we would swap seats and he would drive, all week hed look forward to friday night lamping and driving.

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Phone up JCB at utoxitor they do tours but I don't know how easy or hard it is to get on them. And how often they do them!

 

I know a few people who do it and they didn't have a bad word against it!

 

Or teach him how to put HMRC in there place 😂

 

Funnily enough I did briefly earlier (so I don't think you sound bad or nasty !). He quite fancies being a knight and living in a castle. Or going to the moon. Both of which seem tricky today but I guess things could change in two years.

 

His main interests are tractors and diggers !

Edited by chady
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