Go Big Or Go Home

Despite a tight budget, EMILY TOXWARD is determined to raise adventurous kids. Here, she shares her big-family holiday tips and explains how a change in mindset makes it possible.

- Emily Toxward

When you’re not a cookie-cutter two-adult, two-children family, it can be disheartening to see incredible flight and accommodation deals that you simply can’t access. The trick is to not fight the system, and by this, I mean just because a family of four can easily stay in a swanky hotel for two weeks, it doesn’t mean larger families have to do the same.

Don’t get me wrong, we have spent 10 luxurious days in adjoining rooms at the Novotel Cairns Oasis Resort to explore Far North Queensland, Kuranda and the Great Barrier Reef, and it was epic. But it also cost thousands (don’t tell my husband).

When you’re a big family without a big budget you holiday a little differently. Our family of five takes between four and six trips a year, but the difference is they’re usually just for two to four nights, with a 10-day beach camping adventure around Christmas.

And what’s our secret? We meticulously comb websites for deals, don’t travel far from home and have come to realise that you don’t have to jet-set across the globe in order to make memories with your family.

We had a fabulous holiday just an hour from home at Echo Valley Farm Stay in Spring brook National Park, which is found in the lush Gold Coast hinterland. The working farm has a quaint cottage big enough for six people, and the kids frolicked with goats and horses and collected fresh eggs every morning. To them, we could have been anywhere in the world.

Holiday parks for the win