We're Going Camping in a Camper Van...

Disclosure: We were give a discount on Hartland's hire fees in exchange for Social Media coverage and honest feedback to the Cheltsea team.

Our Cheltsea story started in July 2020, when we booked our first ever camper van experience! We are seasoned campers, but fancied something a little bit different this year. A VW camper is something we have often talked about and lusted after, but we are not in a position to buy one (nor do we have space to park one), so we were really excited to get going! 

As our holiday approached, we exchanged emails with the Cheltsea team, arranging details like which awning we wanted to hire and booking me in as an extra driver. We didn’t tell the children about the holiday until the van was parked on our driveway and we had packed it up. It was so much fun planning everything and imagining their reaction and Cheltsea did everything they could to ensure that our surprise had maximum impact!

Hartland and the Drive Away Awning.

Once we had shown the children the van and established that we were free to roam in it for the next four days, we headed straight for our favourite place, Woolacombe. It’s been a special place for my husband for many years and I have shared his passion for the place over the last 10 years, we even got engaged there in 2011! 

 

Van life is a little different to camping, some differences we loved and others not so much, but it’s all down to personal preference! Here’s our top three perks of van life:

 

1.   You get your very own mobile changing room and kitchen! We made packed lunches in car parks, ate takeaways overlooking the sea and used the van to change in and out of wetsuits.

  2. The cool. Hartland is very cool. There’s no way you can lose this van, even in a car park full of campers! Its distinctive colourway appeals to my love of bright colours and is a great change from the usual block colours.

3.  Setting up is fast, even faster if you’re travelling light and don’t need an awning! If you’ve  

     been organised and kept your bags etc tidy, you can pack away quickly too.

 

When we go to Woolacombe, we usually stay at Easewell Farm in Mortehoe. It’s part of the Woolacombe Bay group and we love it there because it’s nice and quiet, but you also have access to their bigger, busier sites (should you wish to visit them), which have more facilities and evening entertainment. We don’t normally go down there in the summer holidays and unsurprisingly, Easewell was full this summer, so we booked Woolacombe Sands as we have friends who have stayed there and recommended it.

 

The main difference between the two sites, was proximity to town and therefore, the beach. Woolacombe Sands is the closest camp site to the beach and there’s a lovely foot path which leads you there in around 15 minutes.

 

Our few days away were a blur of exploring beaches (we loved Grunta and Combesgate this time), walking, bodyboarding and enjoying delicious food. Shout out to Fudgies for their incredible pasties and sausage rolls, Big Chief for their wonderous waffles and ice cream and Woolacombe Bay Pizza Co for the obvious!

We loved being back in Woolacombe and loved our first foray into van life. We look forward to making more camper van memories in the future! 

P.S. If you sang the title, you are my people! ;-)

Honey and Ace wear... T- Shirts tie dyed and printed by AMG Cre8tes

Playmobil EverDreamerz...

Disclosure: We were sent the products featured in this blog post to review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I have a bit of an issue with dolls. Honey has some great ones, some terrible ones and some average ones in-between. The terrible ones lose limbs, have torn clothing and sometimes their paint even chips off. The average ones sit in a drawer for a year or two and then get passed on to a younger friend or relative or sent to the charity shop. But the great ones? They encourage role play, story telling, imagination and even problem solving. The great ones, like the new Playmobil EverDreamerz, are played with often and by everyone and will be kept and passed down to cousins and grandchildren in the future. 

As children, my brother and I were lucky enough to own some Playmobil sets and I remember them keeping us occupied for absolutely ages. They were such good quality, robust enough to pass on to our younger sister a few years later and then I took it all into work with me years after that, for classes full of excitable 6 and 7 year olds to enjoy. I am pleased to report that modern Playmobil seems to maintain the high quality standards I remember.

       

Playmobil's new EverDreamerz collection couldn't be more up Honey's street if it had been designed by her! The dolls are brightly coloured, come with a whole host of accessories to inspire exciting, creative play. There are two worlds, Candy World and Comic World and there's an introduction to the characters and collection on the Playmobil website. Honey loved watching the cartoons, singing along to the positive, empowering song and playing the simple online game, this content is all free for anyone to access.

The packaging is great. Aside from a few small, thin plastic bags (which can be recycled alongside your supermarket carrier bags), everything else is cardboard and is designed to be reused and then placed in your kerbside recycling bin, once it reaches the end of its life.                      

Inside each box, there's a doll and a range of themed accessories, including a bracelet which your child can add charms to. Everything comes in small parts, ready to be assembled at home, hence the recommended age of 7+ for these dolls.

Each set also includes a water pen, which can be used on the stickers provided, to reveal words, patterns and designs, there's also a collector's card and sticker set to go with each doll.

 

So, if you're looking for cool toys that will stand the test of time, you can find the full range of EverDreamerz here.

Honey wears... Butterfly dress by H&M