Are there any holiday destinations for families where the parents come back less tired than they went?

[PassOnThat]

I have a 3yo and a 7yo. Both off the wall crazy. Looking to book a holiday for this summer, but I'm wondering if there are any holidays that will "compensate" me, as the parent, for the stress of planning, organising, packing and travelling with the wee beasties? Either because there's childcare available or plenty of safe spaces where I can just turn them loose and sit.

So Disney

I don't cook, dont clean, dont drive, don't even vaguely have to think about what the child is going to be amused by because the you are both jointly being amused by the same thing.

If you spend a few days at the disney hotels and do the big queues first thing you don't spend hours and hours in queues.

But it does also depend on what you find exhausting. Spending time or even disciplining my children was never what I found exhausting. Nor getting up early and into the parks early. I find all the housework the tiring bit.

Good grief do not do Disney if you're wanting relaxation 🙈

And I say that as a parent of a child who was adhd but not diagnosed until very late secondary.

Does depend on how you relax. I get very bored sat on a beach for hours on end. The kids did too when they were young

Oh come off it @Icedlatteplease who has EVER gone to Disney and come back refreshed saying "that was the most relaxing holiday I ever had!" I love the place, but relaxing it is not, and that was without me being daft enough to take a toddler.

Me me me me!!!

@Icedlatteplease well I don't believe you frankly lol, and even if I did, I don't think it's good advice for the OP. I think you are confusing 'relaxing' with 'entertained'.

I think that's the point. It depends on what you find relaxing. I do not find the idea of cruises relaxing, I did not find beach holidays at all relaxing nor anywhere self catering (packed lunches). Self catering with outdoor activities, national trust etc was good but not particularly relaxing.

I personally found Disney relaxing as I didn't do the things I found un-relaxing. But everyone is different in that.

Our most relaxing holidays with young children were either cruises or camping.

P&O Cruise kids clubs were amazing and were open all day until 2am. We actually struggled to get the kids out of there to spend time with us.

The first time we went camping we set up the tent close to the kids play area , put out our chairs, opened a bottle of wine while watching the kids from a distance and wondered why we'd never thought of this fantastic idea before. We camped in the summer for two weeks every year for 12 years after that. Sad that we no longer do that now yeh kids are grown up.

Duinrell in Holland with Eurocamp was another great holiday. On paper it sounds awful as it is basically a campsite in a theme park. But it really is a very relaxing and chilled out place. One of the lovely things was that when the theme park closed to the public and the rides were shut for the night the whole area was still open to explore. Many kids hired go carts. Lots of parents took wine and snacks and sat on picnic benches around the huge central play area while watching their kids play. Then when the kids went to bed we sat on the deck of our accommodation and chilled while consuming huge amounts of Dutch cheese. We ended up going twice because we all enjoyed it so much.

Disney/Orlando is absolutely a holiday where you come home and feel you need another one to recover.

I found an old photo I took of a Neilson’s schedule from back when my dc was the same age as the OPs dc1. My kids (and lots of the others) wouldn’t fancy doing a full day so would take a photo of the schedule and dip in and out of kids club. Generally mine would want to do anything involving stand up paddle boarding (SUP) or sailing.

(There was a different schedule of activities each day, but it looks like this is the only one I didn’t delete.)

Just adding my vote to centerparcs. I don’t have grandparents to leave my monsters with either! We discovered centerparcs too late really — tried the usual suspects when the kids were little: uk beach holidays (cold & wet), a cruise round the med (hair raising, kids always seemed to need a poo just when we had to get the last port bus back to the ship… and really, 3 and 7 year olds are not interested in European cities), camping (never again) plus went on holiday with other families (diplomatic eggshell territory) before I despaired and booked a midweek break to Sherwood.

My god it was a revelation. Every restaurant has a little soft play, colouring sheets & crayons, Ella’s fruit pouches and some have robots which deliver your food. There is a play park round every bend. Kids can scoot and cycle safely, and there is big sandpit beach next to the lake (with a coffee shop next to it) so they can paddle and dig while you sit. And the kids loved the swimming. That’s before you pay for extra activities.

We actually could relax. We payed the equivalent of a trip to a French vineyard in tokens for the slot machines in order that my daughter could win things available in Poundland, but the kids were happy as Larry. We went out for pancakes, swam a lot and did the slides/flumes, self catered (ping food mostly) ate a couple of meals out and bought chips and doughnuts. We did activities but not every day; the indoor climbing is great as it is next to Starbucks 😉, and if you book a swimming class like aquajets first thing, you can pick up a coffee on route, take a book for that hour then you are in the pool first when it’s quiet. We mostly stayed in the cabin in the evening and put the log burner on, kids were pretty zapped and we let them have the room with the tv in it as they don’t have tv in bedrooms at home, so they nodded off in front of a film. And we opened the Prosecco.

Also I organised with hubby that I would get the kids up and out most mornings and he would meet us at the pool after a lie in, in return I got an afternoon to myself at the spa and a massage. He took the kids to eat chips and play air hockey/football pool (both convenient for the bar…)

We’ve tried 3 centerparcs and think Sherwood is best, it’s flat, and the pool, sports centre and shops are all quite central. Longleat is beautiful but it’s also harder work with little ones as very steep and spread out across an inconveniently long, narrow site. You have to be careful at longleat not to book accommodation which means walking miles to the pool or humping a buggy up several flights of steps. Woburn also quite steep, but compact, so nowhere is far to walk.

Hope you find something that works for you x

Skiing
Love to ski, but relaxing? It's exhausting. You'll be shattered.

Check out Crieff Hydro in Scotland ( Perthshire) beautiful family run hotel, with golfing, spa, lots of kids facilities. But the best bit is you get free childcare each day of your stay as well. Nice restaurants/decor and plenty to do/see in the area.

https://www.crieffhydro.com/?gadsource=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAm-67BhBlEiwAEVftNnNfzJv6wEZCHy-cBtfVLW7tCuE-HsNw0JbxQxMV6q78yE83VX8NkRoCIYcQAvDD_BwE

Not sad at all, after years of both my DS’s not wanting to go to any kids clubs, it was nice to see him acting independently when away from us. The kids club only operates whilst at sea, so on port days, they were with us all the time on excursions. My 32 year old DS still comes on holiday with us.

Seriously, take a look at kinderhotels (there is a central website that lists many of them). They are perfect for the little ones and many have kids activities that allow older siblings to be with younger ones. Some are even aimed at the post partum mum with older children and have childcare from 1 week old (nanny holds the baby in the next room while you have a massage type thing).

They will have the kids active the entire day, most activities are included, most regions offer free public transport for guests and free cable cars. The food is usually excellent quality for both adults and kids. They also provide off road prams, baby carriers, bottle warmers etc...everything you could need for small children so you don't need to drag all your stuff with you. Absolute bliss and in the summer it can easily be 30 degrees in the Tirol so perfect!