While kids are young enough to happily hang out with parents (teens tend to go through a stage where it is uncool to be seen with mom and dad), family holidays are a great way to strengthen the family bonding.

Holidays need not cost an arm and a leg. Take advantage of local attractions and be a tourist in your own country.

Book a hotel, chalet or hostel room near the main attraction and stay there with your family, like a regular guest there.

We brought our family to the newly opened universal studios at resort world sentosa.

For that, we bought the tickets weeks in advance to avoid disappointment. As we were planning to be out all day, we got the cheapest accomodation available, outside universal studios. Costa sands chalets, or huts with bunk beds for 4 people, no adjoining toilet. The hut was the size of a storeroom but surprising cozy due to air-con and company of my loved ones.

Here’s a photo of the hut we stayed in.

Then we took an internal bus for transport between universal studios and the chalet, saving a lot of money on accommodation as a result.

With budget hotels, prepare to rough it out. Take it as a family adventure camp. We had to brave heavy rain to get to the common toilets to do our business. My hubby and I did not sleep well in that hut and felt awful the whole of the next day. Maybe it’s our age cos our kids absolutely loved it. that hut was like a playhouse to them.

At universal studios, we went for all available rides and visited as many attractions as we could cover.

The Mummy rollercoaster was too scary for my ten-year-old but my twelve-year-old said that was the best ride he’d ever been on in his life!

Here’s the main entrance to that attraction. It’s a very long walk through the creepy pyramid to get to the queue for the actual ride. The walk itself was interesting, with replicas and special effects to add to the experience. Do remember to keep all your belongings in the locker before going for that one, but keep at least $3 in your pocket as you may need that cash to unlock the locker as the ‘free’ period is half an hour.

We ended up having to borrow cash from strangers in order to open the locker to get to our wallets.

Jurassic Park was fun. Especially the water ride.

They sell disposable raincoats outside that ride. Unless you are going straight back to shower after that ride, it is wiser to wear a raincoat as the final part of the ride would leave you drenched.

The dinosaurs you’d encounter in the ride are pretty realistic. Kids love it!

Oh and if you get lucky, you might meet the zoo keeper with his baby dinosaur. Technology these days is incredible. That dinosaur moved and acted like it really was alive.

Lunch was at Friar’s using food vouchers. Kids
loved the fries best. We went to the chalet for dinner at the budget eatery. Then it was off to the songs of the sea, another of Sentosa’s long standing attractions.

We played tourists to the hilt, seeing everything through fresh new eyes. Taking the monorail or train, the trams and stopping wherever something or other caught our eyes.

Lunch at Hard Rock Cafe was another fave for my kids. But their #1 vote went to the Luge. We bought single rider 3 round trip tickets for my kids who had a blast.

This budget local holiday ranks as one of their best so far. They actually want to stay in that hut again, though my man and I beg to differ.

Actually there were so many things we wanted to do but just didn’t have the time.

I saw many teens playing beach volleyball.

Others were surfing on artificial waves.

I’d rather laze around on the beach.

At the end of the day, it’s the company that counts.