A UK holiday with young kids is always appealing as you never have to travel too far or deal with flights, bag weight limitation and jet lag. It's nice to discover some great places that are conveniently on your doorstep or just a short drive away. However, the biggest issue for a UK break with kids is packing! As we all know the UK weather is unreliable, especially in April which means packing a fair bit extra to ensure you have all weather situations covered. We recently got back from a week in Camber Sands, East Sussex, where we experienced it all - from sunny beach days to rainy cool days. Luckily Marks & Spencer provided the kids with some relevant staycation clothing essentials to make sure we could have a good time whatever elements we had to contend with! I always think it's better to expect the worst weather then be grateful if you do luck out with some good days. However, I am such a holiday person that I always insist on taking some fun colourful holiday clothes, even if it just means playing indoors in them, creating our own sunshine. Staycation essentials for me include wellies, waterproofs, sun hats, lightweight knits, swimwear (you never know!) and hoodies which also double up as a lightweight jacket.
We stayed in Loma Beach House, which is just behind Camber Sands Beach (a few minutes walk over the dunes to the beach) and just under 2 hours drive from London. It was the perfect family escape from city life. We lucked out with a few sunny beach days and the kids even got to get into swimwear for one of them! But otherwise it was classic British weather and I was glad we had packed for all circumstances. The beach house worked really well with the kids wardrobes and I wanted to show you some of the outfits which could be mixed and layered up depending on the weather.
Finn wore this classic blue Fishermans Coat (it also comes in other colours), which is a wardrobe staple for all year round as it has a stripy jersey lining so keeps you warm as well as dry. Violet is wearing the Hooded Clear Mac - we love the colour pop trim and layering something bright underneath which you can still see through it.
We spent a lot of time around this table in the house - eating, colouring, chatting and planning! We also had friends that came to stay which was a really nice way to mix the week up hanging out with new people and other kids to play with. We packed plenty of games, lego and colouring activities for the rainy days stuck inside.
We ventured to Dungeness (about a 20 minute drive away) and went on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch miniature steam railway which we all loved and is a great way to spend a morning or afternoon. We visited the toy and model museum at New Romney Station and the kids loved pressing all the buttons and activating all the trains on the tracks. When we got home we headed back to Camber Sands for some sea splashing in our wellies on the beach followed by fish and chips. You can't have a UK holiday without fish and chips right?!
Violet wears the Glitter Mac with Stormwear™ and she loved all the sparkly sequins inside.
These were the looks we created for Finn (below) using the Fishermans Jacket, Pure Cotton Knitted Jumper, Pure Cotton All Over Print Polo and Striped Swim Shorts. The trilby hat is old Marks & Spencer but they have a similar one here.
The Polo shirt worked well under this lightweight knit and jeans or equally on its own with some shorts. It's got little embroidered pineapples, waves and ice creams on it, perfect for holidays. It would also work well with a long sleeve tee layered underneath on even colder days. The bright coloured swim shorts could of course just be worn as shorts and I love the mix of yellow and turquoise.
Violet's dress and hoody injected some colour into the house - she wears Cotton Rich Frill Hooded Top, Striped Bow Dress, Hooded Clear Mac and Seahorse Cross Body Bag.
We love the bright stripes and pretty retro bow on the dress, it also has a fuller skirt making it super playful, fun for everyday or a more special occasion. The blue ruffle hoody was a really useful extra layer and super soft and cosy. No words are needed for the Seahorse bag! She played with this for hours, filling it with treasures and it was a great addition to the holiday wardrobe!
We were blessed with some blue sky and warmth on the last day and we did an Easter egg hunt in the garden. Then all the kids got water bombs out which meant one thing - getting into swimwear! I honestly didn't think it would happen but it really was warm enough and we soaked up every minute of it.
The kids swimwear range at Marks & Spencer is always exceptional and this stripy Seashells Swimsuit is retro fun at it's finest, Violet loved it. All the little ruffle details and smocking on the back make it feel really special. We have our eye on a few other Marks and Spencer swimsuits for the summer holidays too.
We couldn't have had a better staycation and had so much fun hanging out as a family and with friends, refreshed and ready to return back to London. We will be back!
This post was commissioned by Marks and Spencer but as always all opinions expressed are my own.