Playing the generation game

Not so young now, of course. Both James and Robert have left home – James rather more emphatically, having made a life and career for himself in the United States.

But they still like to get together when they can – which is how three generations of Blairs came to be spending an early summer holiday at HPB’s South Wales home, St Brides Castle in Pembrokeshire.

For James, wife Corinna and children Alicia, age 7, Rhys, age 5 and Hugo, age 3, any chance to catch up with Mum and Dad/Mum and Dad-in-law and both sets of grandparents is not to be missed – and HPB provides just that.

“It’s great to be able to do this,” says Pam. “To spend time with family and friends in such a beautiful place, with fabulous accommodation, attentive staff, acres of space for the children and superb facilities.”

Warming to her theme, she continues: “There is a perception that the Holiday Property Bond is for older people – but it’s a misperception, in my opinion. I suppose some sites appeal to the more mature holidaymaker – Stigliano, perhaps, or Blore Hall in Derbyshire – but at most of them there’s plenty for youngsters to do. My sons loved their early HPB holidays, and now James and Corinna’s children are enjoying the same benefits.”

So, which sites hold real “kid-appeal”?

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“As I say, they all do really,” she says. “But if pressed I’d have to say Rocha Brava – and this one. This is our third or fourth visit to St Brides, and it’s a favourite. We love it, and the children love it.”

Anyway, subliminal or otherwise, the message clearly went home. Pam and Peter were visited by a representative at their home in Suffolk – “There was absolutely no pressure,” Peter recalls – and invested in 1989.

In the ensuing years they have made full use of their investment, and to date have spent enjoyable and memorable holidays at, among others, Tigh Mor Trossachs in Perthshire, Scotland, Henllys on Anglesey, Le Manoir du Hilguy in Brittany, Constant in the Dordogne, Stigliano in Tuscany, La Reserva de Biniorella in Majorca, Sibton Park in Kent, Lanzarote in the Canary Islands and Rocha Brava in the Algarve, initially with two youngish sons in tow.

James echoes his mother’s sentiments, and adds: “When coming back home our first choice is always HPB – because the accommodation is fantastic and we’re yet to go to one that the kids don’t absolutely love. Le Mont de St Siméon is a great HPB site for families being fairly close to Disneyland Paris, but really all of them are superb for kids because of the romping space, the pools, games etc. Another huge benefit is HPB’s transferability – the fact that Corinna and I and the kids can use my mother and father’s investment to take holidays independently of them. Though Mum and Dad have first dibs on the Holiday Points, of course!”

“And when we eventually inherit my parents’ HPB investment – later rather than sooner, I hope – I know I speak for my brother Robert too when I say that we will have every reason to be grateful that Mum and Dad made so prescient an investment all those years ago. In fact, we already are!”