Tracey Davies

Tracey Davies is a freelance journalist who lives with her estate agent husband in Brighton and their three children, Angus, 11 (26/2/2002) and eight-year-old identical twins, Nancy and Lola (17/11/2005).

Tracey and Antony met while they were both travelling in the mid-90s and they bumped into each other when, as the story goes, Tracey was ‘working as a waitress in a cocktail bar’ in Hong Kong. They then travelled for three years together around Asia and Australia before coming home to London, where after 15 years in the capital they moved to the seaside and settled happily in Brighton.

What’s your favourite holiday destination as a family?

We all absolutely love Ibiza. I’ve been going since I was 17 and Antony and I try to go with friends every year or so for a long weekend. The children are just as enamoured by the island. It has perfect beaches, watersports for the kids and gorgeous boho beach bars to make me feel young again.

What’s your first family holiday memory?

From the age of three until I was 10 my entire family; Nannas, Grandads, Aunts, Uncles and even our neighbours – everyone bar the dog – used to go to a holiday camp in St Margaret’s Bay near Dover for the same two weeks every summer.

I would always win the fancy dress competition (my parents were very competitive) and my dad and uncle would inevitably have to dress up in women’s clothes for another camp contest. I remember it very fondly as it was the only time I was allowed to drink Coca-Cola from a bottle.

What would you take on a desert island?

Ray-bans, Jilly Cooper’s back catalogue and a corkscrew on the off-chance a case of Sauvignon Blanc from a shipwreck washes up on the beach.

What’s on your family holiday wish list?

I would love to take the kids to Thailand next year. It’s such a beautiful country, and has great people and stunning food. We’d spend a week exploring up north to play with the elephants and then head to the islands for some beach time. I’d tie it in with a stopover in Hong Kong so they could see where Mummy and Daddy met.