Santorini with Kids? Are you kidding me?

Thats the response I got from most people when I started planning my much awaited Greece trip. The Greek isles have been on my travel bucket list for the past 5 years. Each year, we postponed it wondering what will the kids do on the party struck, beer doped beaches of Mykonos or the romance oozing Santorini? But not this time! Fate played a part when my globetrotter friend informed me of a great deal for air tickets. But booking the tickets was the easiest part, it was all the other things that were very difficult. For starters finding a hotel in Santorini which had a sunset view and allowed kids. it took me almost a month of research to find us apartments in all our spots. It almost came to an extent where I almost decided to skip Santorini and add a friendlier island like Crete or Corfu. But who dare escape the lure of Mykonos and Santorini? Even if that meant not partying the night away in the alluring beach paradise or not watching the sunset from the furthest point in Oia.

So here is how it was pulled off. Summing it in some easy steps-

1. Choose Apartments with pools and kitchen- Since kids feel bored all the time, water works wonder. Having a pool in your apartment always help. When choosing one in an expensive town like Santorini even a sunset facing jacuzzi will do. A kitchenette will be handy in handling those any time hunger pangs since apartments will not have room service.

2. Spot the nearest park- In the planning stage, don't look for must visit restaurants. Look for the nearest park in every destination. Having a park nearby gives them the time to burn those extra calories and some  'we are free' time.

3. Day Flights work for us- Now this is something which goes against the basic logic. I have always heard people prefer to fly at night with kids where they'd sleep the night away. You also won't waste money on the room night. I beg to differ on this. Day flights work better for me. The kids watch movies, play, chit chat, snack around etc during day flights and reach the destination ready to crash. You get time to settle in that way. The evening is free to settle and relax. Hitherto had done night flights, where the kids slept ON ME leaving me sleepless. I reach my holiday spot with active kids and cranky and sleepy self. So i did save money on the room night but i wasted my day's enjoyment.

4. Mathi Rocks- Whoever said mind your diet or watch that ghee in the mathi must be kidding. For my younger veggie child, mathi is the staple diet during holidays. So stack up those home made mathis and keep the trip going.

5. Play the poor burdened parent- Oh how i love this card at airports, train stations etc etc...Basically all queues abroad. Act like the burdened mommy who is hauling her kids around on the airport and you will be made to jump the longish queues. Basically you board at your ease, you get best seats on the trains/buses, you get discounts on entry tickets, you get freebies in the markets, sometimes you even get upgrdes- all thanks to the kids.

6. It's Greek to me but the natives love kids- While the rest of India thinks kids are nothing but trouble makers, the Greeks love kids. that's what all my prelim research on the country had suggested and hence proved too. No where did we not have our kids hounded by smiling, hand shaking Greeks...Calling them pretty princesses, have an ice cream on me, a rose for a rose and what not! The girls were pampered as if they were the real princesses in Disneyland.

7. Mykonos is for Beaches and Santorini is for swimming- We wiped the mindset of partying the nights before going. The option of having baby sitters was there in Mykonos but we kinda partied the days away. With water babies who love beaches, I didn't know my kids had the capacity to make sand castles for 6 hours at a stretch leaving us ample time to sometimes spend entire days on the same beach. Santorini might mean watching the sunset through the eyes of your lover and holding hands walking down the cobble stone path. We discovered santorini in a completely different light. We did walk hand in hand(with the kids) but most of the time was spent either in the jacuzzi or in the swimming pool splashing with them looking at the sunset at the same time. Not a bad deal at the end of the day I would say.

8. It's all in the mind- I read somewhere that fun depends on your perspective. For someone fun might mean drinking yourself crazy for another it might mean having an early dinner watching the sunset and for another it could be partying the night away. Fun is what suits you best and what makes you happy. So I decided to keep my options open and not go with any expectations or mindset. Let the days unroll and fun take its course.Just take it easy, the kids will resonate the same.

So after 8 days we got back to stories of 'wow, mom what a pretty sunset' and 'that aunty was dancing on the beach'. Lessons learnt- We weren't the only ones who adapted ourselves. We weren't the only ones who compromised on the partying and the romance, the kids compromised too. They climbed the tougher hiking route to Acropolis and followed it up with cycling. They walked along, checking on the Fitbit if we did our daily 10 kilometres target or no. they spent hours under the sun as we drank ourselves silly on the beach.

So isn't all that part of what a Family holiday means?