Plea for holiday ideas! Can anyone suggest anything?

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Hi. I've posted this in travel too, hoping for some inspiration.

We were originally planning on backpacking around south east Asia, for 4-5 weeks, but for various reasons (I can go into but won't bore you with unless prompted!) have moved away from that.
And now we're a bit stuck.

Looking for an affordable and interesting destination where we can base ourselves for the whole summer without breaking the bank. The tricky thing is our DS is desperate to stay somewhere with pool, kids to play with, etc.

And obviously staying in your typical European resort for this long would be £££££££££. So we're trying to think outside the box a bit.

I've been looking at Thailand, but the flights are pretty steep, although once there I can find some decent resorts in Phuket etc for about £1500-2500 for a month which is fine.

Here's the brief:

• 4-5 weeks in school summer holidays
• single location base with surrounding areas to explore
• suitable for family of 4, DC both under 8
• other families around (ie resort or complex) - do not a villa or private house
• pool
• love to be near beach but not essential

Anyone have any inspiration for me please?

Let me know if I need to give more info than this.

I also note that August in Thailand is rainy season

Brazil northeast beaches. Cheap as chips, great beaches, resorts etc.
Only drawback is not a lot of English speakers.
I spent most my summer holidays there as a child and loved it

South America would be amazing. I would love to go.

I think it'd be a little hard on DS not to have much English-speaking? How did you find it as a child?

Although our original plan wouldn't have either, to base somewhere without the whole time maybe seems tougher?

I speak Portuguese so that wasn't an issue in my case. Having said that, all the hospitality staff speaks English and some of the guests would too, I imagine.

We used to stay in various resorts around Bahia etc. and do lots of day trips to sand banks, nature resorts etc.
There's so much to do and it's still so unspoiled.

I don't know how far you want to go, but I'd happily spend a few months in Bali, new Caledonia or Vanuatu. Another great place is Tel Aviv with lots of trips, but I appreciate that's not everyone's cup of tea. I don't speak Hebrew, but everyone speaks English there.

Closer and cheaper, I'd be remiss not to suggest Portugal. Virtually every kid will speak English and happily interact with your children. I'd stay away from anywhere around Faro (and airport) and head to the Lisbon coast (troia is fab) and you could drive to lots of places from there!

Bali, very cheap, lots to do, loads of other families.

If ds wants other kids to play with have you considered a group family tour? Appreciate a guided trip isn’t for everyone, but they’re a good way of ensuring your child has someone to play with. You could finish up with a couple of weeks at the beach. Intrepid, G adventures, KE adventures, Exodus etc do family tours. They will also let know know the ages of the children already booked on the trips.

I really want to go to Peru or Borneo but need to get saving!

If you want something a bit closer to home have you looked at the European versions of Center parcs and similar sites? Much cheaper than the U.K. Plenty of English speaking kids and pools. Netherlands is good - Efteling, Beekse Bergen and Duinrell. Only thing that can’t be guaranteed is the weather.

have you thought about Turkey - we did 3 weeks last summer (one of them on gules) but my brother has spent a month there travelling around with his family as they hired a car.

Alternatively South africa or namibia are great