Greg Rutherford didn’t stumble into Olympic gold at London 2012 – he planned for it. Months of preparation, executed perfectly under pressure as the world watched. Turns out, he applies the same precision to booking a family holiday.
The Olympic champion and dad of three has navigated everything from transatlantic trips with babies in tow to the delicate diplomacy of pleasing a pre-teen, a primary schooler and a five-year-old simultaneously. And if new research is anything to go by, he’s far from alone in finding it a challenge. According to Marriott Bonvoy’s latest family travel survey, four in ten British parents say it can be hard to please everyone when planning a family holiday.
So what’s Rutherford’s method? We asked him everything and it turns out there’s a lot parents can learn from an Olympian’s approach to the family break.
Greg and his family
Start with the research and involve the kids
Rutherford is clear that preparation is everything. “We do a lot of research and planning ahead of trips to make sure there’s something for everyone,” he says. It’s an approach backed by the data: the survey found that over a third of British parents already let their kids help pick where to go and where to stay and 72% say they’d feel curious or excited about handing over the planning reins entirely.
Rutherford’s children are already making their voices heard. His two boys are lobbying hard for a trip to Japan, while daughter Daphne has set her sights firmly on New York. Rather than shutting down the debate, Greg and partner Susie lean into it. “We’ve shown them videos so they understand both would require a fair amount of walking and the hustle and bustle of city life”, he says. Expectations managed, excitement maintained.
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Give everyone something to tick off
One of the most transferable tricks in Rutherford’s holiday playbook is what you might call the ‘tick box’ rule. “We have a bit of a rule that so long as we’ve all done something in the day that’s made us happy, then we can’t grumble,” he explains. “Some of us might not fancy a particular museum trip or a theme park but providing we do something to tick our own box – eat a certain meal out, visit a park – then that’s fine.”
It’s a simple framework but an effective one. Rather than trying to engineer the perfect day for everyone every day, the goal becomes ensuring no one goes home feeling shortchanged. The research suggests kids are actually pretty reasonable in their expectations – 39% say the worst part of a holiday is simply being bored and 35% dislike being dragged around on adult-only activities. Give them something fun that’s theirs and you’re already winning.
Greg and Daphne on holiday
Choose your base wisely
Rutherford has learned the hard way what happens when accommodation doesn’t pull its weight. A trip to Lake Annecy with the boys, then aged two and five, turned into an exercise in making the best of a difficult situation when the rooms proved too small and poorly suited for family life. “It really highlighted how important a hotel centred around family is,” he says.
Rutherford now looks for hotels with connecting rooms as standard (“so we don’t feel like we’re on top of each other”), along with kids’ menus, activity options and enough space to breathe. He namechecks Le Méridien Barcelona as a recent highlight, where a morning spa visit, an afternoon at the salt pool and the beach right outside the door meant the whole family found their rhythm.
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Know your children and plan around them
With three kids at different ages and one child with AuADHD (a neurodevelopmental condition that affects how the brain develops and functions), Rutherford is thoughtful about what each child needs from a trip. “We do a lot of research and planning ahead of trips to make sure there’s something for everyone and if there’s anything we think certain members of the family really won’t enjoy (one of our children has AuADHD so we have to appreciate his comfort zones and boundaries), then we just enjoy some one-on-one time“, he says.
Parents say quality time together is their top holiday priority (66%), while nearly half say making the trip easy and stress-free is key. Rutherford would agree and he’d add that knowing your children well enough to anticipate friction before it starts is half the battle.
Greg’s holiday snaps
Don’t underestimate the hotel
When Rutherford was asked to describe his family’s dream hotel, he turned the question over to his kids. The answers were telling: Milo wants a hub for older children and paddleboards on tap. Rex’s wishlist begins and ends with climbing walls and milkshakes. Daphne? Dressing-up costumes, please.
It’s a reminder that kids’ holiday priorities, while simple, matter enormously to the success of a trip. The survey backs this up: 57% of children rated a big pool with waterslides as one of the best parts of a holiday, 58% said ice cream for lunch and 63% said having whatever they wanted at the breakfast buffet. Freedom and fun, in other words.
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Pack Calpol. Seriously.
Even the most meticulously planned trip throws up the unexpected. Rutherford’s parting advice is refreshingly practical: “Don’t forget Calpol – our children without fail get leg ache after all the sightseeing.”
No amount of Olympic-level planning can prepare you for tired little legs or a child who’s hit their limit. Build in recovery time. Say yes to the ice cream. And if the day didn’t go to plan, as long as everyone ticked their box, call it a win.
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