A different way to travel for an uplighting start to a family holiday

Holidays don't have to just be about the destination. Sometimes you can have your own mini adventure on the journey and still arrive refreshed, writes

- Nancy Fielder.

Stena Adventurer and, inset, a haul of goodies from Duty Free.

We took a mini break away with our teenage son and decided to rise to a challenge set by Stena Line. Not only were we going to swap the plane for a ship, we were set to take on a shopping challenge while sailing. The Stena Line €100 Challenge asks travellers to see how many deals they can snap up without breaking the budget.

So we headed into the Duty Free. There are all the sections you would imagine and we immediately split up to head to the areas which tempted us most.

Being mum, I took a look at gifts to take home for those who hadn't been able to join us for the trip. There is plenty to choose from including specialist treats from the region you are about to visit.

My son, being a typical 13-year-old, went straight to the electronics section. There are plenty of ways for a teenager to spend far more than €100 here if you left them to it! What he really wanted were new earbuds. Dad, he headed to the gadgets.

We managed to avoid the alcohol although there were some great deals to be had.