As it’s the summer, we asked the Wealth Design team about their holiday plans this year, and here are their responses:
Fiona Holt, Practice Administrator
We are taking a late summer holiday at the end of September to Kent for Darren’s 50th. We’ve already taken a pre-Easter holiday to Brean with our grandchildren.
Laura Flemings, Practice Administrator and Scott Flemings, Director and Chartered Financial Planner
We are off on holiday in August with our 16-year-old daughter and her friend. The girls will have finished their GCSE exams and collect their results while we are away, which will be exciting. We would normally have gone away earlier in the year, but due to exams the focus has been on revision rather than relaxing – sadly!
We are going to Portugal, spending the first half of our holiday in Alvor before moving onto Albufeira. Have visited both destinations several times with Alvor being my favourite – and Albufeira being Scott and our daughter Ellie’s!
Richard Clarke, Finance Administrator
I enjoy the great outdoors when taking time off and my May holiday was hill walking in the Lake District.
Hannah Price, Marketing Director
We’ve been camping this year in Lancashire. A very tranquil experience and a world away from the office. It makes me appreciate the finer things in life, like a bed!
Linda Wallbank, Practice Administrator
For my summer holiday this year I will be going to Almeria in Spain with three of my girlfriends. I haven’t been to that part of Spain before so am looking forward to visiting somewhere new.
I am not one for sightseeing, but I do enjoy lying on a sunbed listening to tunes on my iPod and soaking up the sunshine with the odd dip in the pool to cool myself down. As long as the hotel is clean and the sun is shining, I am sure we will all have a fabulous time.
Beth Evans, Practice Administrator
I was off ‘on holiday’ in May, which consisted of days out at Alton Towers and it was my son, Theo’s first time on a rollercoaster! We also visited the butterfly farm in Stratford. Apart from that, our time was spent on less interesting pursuits such as gardening and painting the fence.
We went to Tenerife in July, which was our first holiday abroad, just the 3 of us, before Theo starts school in September.
Gay Nebel, Chartered Financial Planner
My summer holiday this year will be a week in Windermere in a lovely cottage with my husband and friends.
Then it is 9 days in September in Fuerteventura with daughter Alice (who will hit 30 at the end of October) on my birthday. It is now rare that we actually spend the day celebrating together as we did when she was younger. So, no jelly, ice-cream and whizzing down a dry ski slope or round a skating rink, but rather a girlie holiday in the Canaries in a villa.
It will be a very chilled and relaxing holiday, where I will be catching up with my reading list (that does not include anything on finance), and Alice will be reading and class planning, as she is a full-time Pilates teacher.
Gemma Oliver, Chartered Financial Planner
We very much value our holidays and quality time with our children, along with our wider families and friends. My husband and I visited my sister, who lives in Amsterdam, earlier this year.
We’re taking the children to stay with my mum and stepfather at their holiday home in Majorca in August. We’re very lucky that my stepfather has a holiday home in Pembrokeshire and are taking the children along with some friends and their children for a week in the summer holidays.
As a couple, we’re hoping to spend a weekend with friends in the south of France in September.
Chris OMeara, Senior Financial Planner
With my first grandchild Ruairí having made his arrival in May, we have held off booking any holidays so far this year.
David Philips, Director and Financial Planner
Holiday plans this year are for week 1 in St. Ives, Cornwall, to give me an ‘Arty’ fix and then a drive up to Salcombe in Devon for week 2.
Sharon Gilbert, Group Paraplanner
It has been some years since we have known exactly where we are going on holiday until shortly before we set out in our VW campervan. The destination is usually somewhere on the Welsh or English coast as we love the sea. Time is booked off work; the van is always ready to go, we check the weather forecast, then off we go.
We always try to go somewhere new each year as well as re-visit some of our favourite places. I never have to weigh my luggage and I’m always happy with the accommodation. If we want a change of scenery, we can pack up inside 20 minutes and move on. It’s a perfect way to relax.
Andrea Bennett, Practice Administrator and Steve Bennett, Director and Financial Planner
This is a year for celebration, a landmark birthday for myself and an opportunity to try and tick a few things off my bucket list. Steve and I have planned trips to Dublin, Berlin and Portugal. We plan to celebrate my big birthday in Portugal this summer, our favourite holiday destination.