The Dye family from Essex leave their routine and sample life on the desert island of Anariki, Kiribati. Is it the beautiful paradise they hoped for?
Families leave their regular lives behind and sample life on a desert island. Hairdresser Denise Querino-Busby and her cabbie husband Richard worry that they've forgotten how to interact with their daughters Leila and Alana, due to the pressures of modern life and lengthy working hours. Catapulted 5,000 miles from London to a wild island off the coast of Panama, Richard goes into overdrive providing for the family, but is he pushing himself too hard? Meanwhile, the sisters discover a genuine love of nature and Denise reassesses her parenting skills and reveals her plans for the family to escape the rat race - permanently.
Families leave their regular lives behind and sample life on a desert island. The high-earning, high-spending Hunt family from Swindon who are used to a big house and a lavish lifestyle head off to the Cook Islands in the Pacific. Dad Rikki is a big businessman, but Mum Laura feels that money is their biggest bugbear and that the kids are far too used to having it all on a plate. She's desperate for the family to give back to basic living a go and explore how they can change their ways. As they arrive on Atiu in the Cook Islands they face tropical storms and struggle to make a watertight shelter. Chris uses up their much needed food supplies on an unsuccessful fishing trip. But as their local guide Ngaa opens their eyes up to some of the island's riches of taro, the local staple, and a wealth of tropical fruits, Laura is in her element as this is just what she came for. Can she convince her high-earning, business-obsessed husband and their three kids that there's much to be gained from the simplicity of the island way of life?
Hospitality king and queen, Chris Edwardes and Amanda Blanch have worked round the clock for the last nine years to make a success of their hotel - and a dinner club in Brighton. But since the recession they've hit crisis point. They're struggling to stay afloat with an enormous million pound loan to pay off. That would be bad enough, but for Amanda it's made worse by the guilt she feels for work having got in the way of family life - and time she hasn't spent with her children, 18-year-old Jake, and 16-year-old India. They head off for three weeks on an island off Pemba in Tanzania, to spend much needed time as a family - and to make some key decisions about what to do with their sinking business. It's a whole new world for the Blanch family as they overcook octopus the boys have spent hours hunting for and then after stumbling knee deep in mud for a crab, struggle to cook that too. But once they adapt to their new African environment and get a taste of local life, they come away with very different priorities and a new way to battle their massive debt.
