Phil is Family Traveller’s cruise expert, and when he and his family aren’t cruising the world discovering new adventures, destinations and cruise ships, he lives in beautiful countryside on the Dorset/Wiltshire border with easy access to the great outdoors and wonderful beaches.
Phil’s children are Tilly, 11, (born 14/02/2002) and Hal, 9 (born 30/09/2004).
Phil is a freelance journalist and met his wife Michele, a PR, through a work function when he was editing industry magazine Travel Trade Gazette and have been married over 14 years.
What’s your first family holiday memory?
My first holiday memory was long car journeys in my father’s Vauxhall from Buckinghamshire for our annual two-week summer break in Woolacombe in North Devon. We went every year, rain or shine, and I recall spending many an idyllic day investigating the rock pools for crabs and braving the waves on what I still consider to one of Britain’s best beaches.
What’s your favourite holiday destination as a family?
It goes without saying that as a family we love to cruise and have travelled in Northern Europe, the Mediterranean, Caribbean, US, transatlantic and other parts of the world. My children can’t get enough of cruise ships, whether they be full-on mega ships packed with fun activities or smaller more laid back vessels where they are quite happy splashing in the swimming pool in between visiting a multitude of new ports of call.
We like the fact that we can just wander off the ship and explore different destinations at our own pace every day, stopping for lunch and coffee, rather than take lengthy organized shore excursions.
What’s your childrens’ favourite holiday?
Other than ships, the children‘s ideal holiday would probably involve a swish beach resort – Martinhal in Portugal or Carlisle Bay in Antigua for example – with a spot of big city buzz and shopping in the likes of New York or Paris.
What’s on your family holiday wish list?
On our family holiday wish list are taking a villa in the south of France to indulge in the wonderful markets and local cuisine, cruising around the hotspots of Asia, visiting Lapland at Christmas and returning to some of the wonderful hotels dotted around the coast of Devon and Cornwall.