That was us: young, rested and not a care in the world.  We were honeymooning on the beaches of Indonesia in the above picture, and as far as we were concerned, it was a once in a lifetime trip.

Fast forward 6 years and life is very different! We now LIVE in Indonesia with our two world travelling daughters.  Life has been anything but boring!

We wanted to show our kids some of the new country that we now live in, and thought, what better way to do that than go back to Bali, our honeymoon destination. We could literally relive our honeymoon!  Ya, right!!!

As great as it would be to retrace our steps, we now march to the beat of a different drum.  A two and four year old are setting the pace these days.  We weren’t sure that we’d be able to have the relaxing holiday we wanted AND give the kids a holiday that would be fun for them as well.  After all, moving to a new continent is hard work for everyone; they deserved a treat too.

We came across The Westin Resort Nusa Dua and it looked pretty promising.  They assured me that they could make our second honeymoon happen and they were confident that they could provide a holiday that would be a enjoyed by the whole family.

We decided to give it a shot.

The girls were won over the moment we stepped out of the taxi.  Two ladies, beautifully dressed in traditional outfits, tucked flowers behind the girls’ ears and led them inside where they were given “yummy smelling” cool cloths to clean up with, and cold juice.  Now we were all feeling refreshed after our cab ride across the island and ready to check out this vacation spot.

The room, while it wasn’t exactly what we had on our ‘first’ honeymoon; was very family friendly with two beds, which we aren’t used to after traveling in Europe for so many years.Our kids, like most kids on vacation quickly went searching for their bathing suits and wanted to head straight for the pool.  That was easy enough to do since there were many pools to choose from.But the pool of choice….…it was the one with a water slide for the kids and a swim up bar for the parents.  I couldn’t help but think that this pool set up had to be designed by someone who had kids of their own.

Although there was a kids club at the hotel, we didn’t use it because if you wanted to leave your kids there they had to be 4 years old and up, or you stayed with them.

I didn’t feel like spending the morning in the kids club, and our 2 year old wouldn’t have been happy if her sister went without her, so we decided to find something else to do, which was easy enough.

After swimming and exploring the beach, we found that there was still plenty of family friendly activities that we could do together. I loved that they had bikes to use of all different sizes.  Everyone in our family found one that worked for them and we were able to explore the area further on the beautiful paths that we could ride on, just beside the beach.

The next morning, we were invited to the Prego family brunch in the Italian restaurant on the resort.  We arrived expecting a normal brunch and were blown away by how much it catered to both kids and adults.

While my husband and I ordered some drinks, a magician came to the table to entertain the kids.  They were then asked if they wanted to join the kids area, where they could put on a chef’s hat and apron and make their own culinary masterpieces.  And you know what that meant for us adults…quiet time! It was a win-win!

For the kids that didn’t want to cook, there were supervised activities outside, and an entertainment area just beside the restaurant.  They really had thought of everything.

So, if you’re wondering if this trip was exactly like our Honeymoon; obviously it was a bit different.  But what it did provide was a chance for our family to spend time together having fun.  There was a little something special for everyone.  Our kids loved that there were plenty of activities to keep them entertained.  For us, happy kids meant happy vacation and we appreciated a chance to spend a bit of quality time together without feeling like our kids were missing out.

Life changes after kids, and although we weren’t able to exactly replicate our honeymoon because of the 8pm bedtimes of our little travellers; this trip was pretty darn close to a second honeymoon–even with the kids!

Thank you to The Westin Nusa Dua for hosting us as guests of the hotel.  All opinions are my own.