I'm not enjoying my holiday.

[Polkadots72]

First family holiday with our 2yo dd 1 week away in a fairly chilled part of Spain. Husband booked it. Hotel not child friendly we are self catering in a bedroom.. No lounge area no kitchenette not even a kettle!

No evening entertainment or other guests in the hotel. Majority of tourists are German so feeling a bit isolated. Getting dirty looks from locals if we dare go for a quiet drink in one of the local pubs or bars so each night we are stuck on the balcony while we wait for dd to fall asleep.. also its unusually cold here at the moment had a bit of nice weather but it's very windy. I know I should be grateful to go on holiday but there's no fun to be had here it sucks and ita BORING!! early flight home will coat in excess of £300 so not really an option got 3 days left and I'm feeling thoroughly miserable... any advice. Please be gentle I've had a rough few days dd is playing up and being sugar nearly every where we go oh and she's frightened of the sand. All there is to do is walk up and down the same strip of shops and bars day after day can't even find a boat trip or anything.

To be honest holidays with 2 year olds are not holidays . I did uk caravans at that age . I always went abroad before Ds.

I hope you have a better day tomorrow

If it makes you feel any better the horrendous cheap holiday my partner booked:

Had a 7 year old, a 15 month old and 6 months pregnant. Middle of nowhere, crap pool that was in the shade and freezing most of the day and 15 month old terrified of the water. Near an ok/ish beach but 7 year old’s skin irritated by the sand and sea water. No parks or playgrounds nearby. Had booked car hire prior to the holiday but they tried stinging us 1 week before so we cancelled. Ended up booking a tiny cheap shit car for less time than the original one at the higher price they tried charging. 15 month old refused to sit in high chair to eat so couldn’t break the day up having nice meals (all inclusive at least). 15 month old refused to nap in the day so was crabby and desperate for bed by 8 but our room was below the dining room and we would near non stop chairs and furniture being moved between 8-10pm, then endless running around on the corridor and door slamming from the drunks who had booked themselves into the wrong part of the island until 3am. 15 month old woke multiple tones in the night. Balcony was overlooked by restaurant so couldn’t relax on balcony in evening without being watched. Went out to dinner once and me and 7 year old got food poisoning so taking it in turns to sit on the toilet/ sharing a bucket. Had to check out of room at 10am whilst flight was not until 5am the following day. I wanted to cry the entire time... have never been so relived to see my car in a car park at an airport

I'm actually feeling a little calmer

Thats great

Sometimes all it takes is speaking out.

Are there any larger towns/cities you could get that bus or train to? YOu'll probably feel much better if you can walk around a proper town with shops and cafes which are used to toddlers and you can shop a bit!

Mishfish... that sounds awful!! I found that so hard to read! I feel bad i had such an outburst today I told dh how much I hated the holiday and how boring it was so we ended up falling out for an hour or so but then he admitted he's not having a great time either so we made up and went out for dinner.. is it bad that I kind of enjoyed that argument as it broke the afternoon up a bit.. I also got some detergent and did some hand washing I'm not joking when i say these things where the highlight of my day. Tomorrow will be better!!

Sorry for my horrendous spelling... My auto correct is rubbish it's a new phone and I'm not 100% used to it yet.

I'm amazed the Spanish are giving dirty looks. We have always taken our DC out to eat on holiday, we have often found family owned restaurants will offer to make dishes for toddlers that aren't on the menu.

Would DD eat scrambled egg? Or scrambled eggs with other stuff in? Revuelta is vegetable or bits in scrambled eggs, brilliant for toddlers. You may well find there isn't an English style kids menu, be adventurous, let her try everything you have. Mine would all eat squid, fish, fried aubergine, she'll fish, melon

How would you like it to be different?

Can you spend a day on the beach or go on a small walk? It sounds nice to me but maybe the issue is children and it's limiting you from doing things you don't want to do. While I don't fully understand why it's so bad, I'm sorry you're not having a good time, it isn't nice being far away when you feel like that. Hope it picks up for you.

OP, holidays with small DC aren’t really holidays, as you have discovered. It’s hard work, performed in a tiny space with a fraction of your usual equipment and your’e SUPPOSED TO BE HAVING FUN don’t you know?

We found strategies that worked for us, but our first couple of holidays were straight out of the from the dont - do - it - like - this - book. We took then 18 mo DS to lake Garda in September, thinking it shouldn’t be too hot. It wasn’t. It rained every bloody day, the pool was closed, the free hotel bus into town wasn’t running, and the hotel was full of retirees. Who were perfectly lovely, but not the company we were looking for.

Hope you have and better weather tomorrow.

We haven’t been on holiday since .

Sorry you are having such a rotten time . I guarantee a number of years down the road you will look back and laugh. We did after a holiday to Menorca when my daughter was 2. It was in the days before TripAdvisor. The first floor apartment had an open balcony that was dangerous for adults, never mind children. Daughter screamed blue murder to go out on it, we had to lock and tie the doors shut. After 2 days a really lovely couple on the ground floor swapped with us (probably sick of her screaming). Once we moved she refused to go outside.

The children's pool was freezing and too deep. The one and only day we went to the beach she screamed if she as much as got a splash of water on her and kept wanting dry clothes. We gave up and went to a nearby hotel while we waited for the bus. Yup she was still screaming and people were trying to console her, offering their kid's toys. Didn't work but thankfully she fell asleep eventually. The last few days were torrential rain and the icing on the cake was getting up one morning and the apartment kitchen was heaving with ants.

I think sometimes you've got to force yourself to have fun. Find interesting things to do and do them. Spoil yourself a bit.

Ah, he’s one of those fabulous men who book a shit holiday with no thought to the needs of the family, and then because he’s such a good dad he’ll take the baby off your hands for 20 mins. Amazing.

Honestly there are some beautiful places in Majorca, it’s only a 40 minute drive from one end to the other but if you don’t fancy it, the bus services are really good.
Go to Sóller/Pollensa and Puerto pollensa. It’ll be quite in Majorca iat this time of year, and it’s cool, southern Spain is usually warme, Majorca takes a while to get going!
Palma is stunning too, oh and andtrax love it there. Get a taxi out at night somewhere, have a lovely meal then a walk to tire her out and take the pushchair and go for a sangria!
Enjoy!

Oh god I feel your pain. We were taken on holiday to Cyprus by my mum when ds was 2.5. So generous of her but I hated nearly every second we were in a villa with a pool on a hotel complex - super luxurious yes? Should have been the perfect combo but the villa had an open marble staircase with total open plan layout, no way of separating ds from the stairs and no lock on the door out to the pool. It was february, the pool was unheated and even in Cyprus it was too cold to swim. Dh was very unwell for the whole week and in bed for large chunks of it. With the result that i had to watch ds LITERALLY every second he was awake. There was a telly with one channel showing a local folklore festival all week. I'd taken six pieces of Brio track and a couple of trains, plus a pot of playdough. One day I begged for an hour off just to rest; dh took ds out to the poolside, lay down on a sunlounger and naturally ds fell into the pool. (What really kills me about this is it became 'the time when dad rescued me' rather than 'the time when dad proved useless at basic parenting').

It wasn't all awful - going out on day trips was reasonably fun and Cyprus has some amazing things to see, though my mother's belief that anything not available in 1956 is too extravagant is a pain. But I learned my lesson. The holiday needs to be built around the kids and the reality of parenting a toddler; and you need to get out and moving every day, sitting at home only works if you ARE home. Dh never really got used to the needs of small children - he once took ds for two nights' camping with his brother and nephew - neither even thought to take a football or a children's book with them. Talk with your dh about how to make your holidays work in future.

Haven't read whole thread, but I think dome people struggle to enjoy themselves and think everyone else is better at doing holidays and Christmas. I used to be one of those people. Sometimes, I still am.

Too late now, but I recommend euro camping - kids roam free in a secure site and you can just chill with cheap wine. In a hotel with a toddler, I would eat out. If finances won't allow, do what we did. Good bread and cheap local supplies - lovely. Beach it. I promise you that children eat sand and still grow up without visible signs of sand-damage. Bad weather, well, we did indoor pools and reading, but I suppose now it's loads and apps.

If you can afford to eat out or go out for a drink and your child doesn't disturb others, stop looking at other people and enjoy the outing - I doubt they're judging you, and if they are ...

*ipads

Hope you enjoy your last few days, take comfort in the fact that on Tuesday I’ll be in the same boat - Majorca with a 20 month old 🤣 although I booked it!!

For goodness sake, why if it is room only, are you not going out for meals? Go to a bakery/cafe for breakfast, lunch out and then if you don't want to eat out again do as someone else said and buy a picnic to eat later. Eating out takes up time. There's loads of things to do and see. You will be bored and fed up if you have decided to not go and do anything and to self cater in a hotel.

www.getyourguide.co.uk/mallorca-l47/palma-de-mallorca-hop-on-hop-off-bus-tour-24h-ticket-t3455/?referrer_view_id=acfeefd405a8586228d6dec02a860fdc&referrer_view_position=0

This looks fun! short bus rides and lots of different things to see. The bus company will probably have a basic map of things around the City to see. In fact this website tells you all the things worth seeing and doing.

There's probably a market or two which will be bustling and good for people watching and a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and a tapas and little one can have a good run around.

Another poster has mentioned Pollensa- it's a tourist attraction and has a little church up the top of a lot of stairs! very pretty if I remember.

Also, look for some big hotels that may have a kids disco on early evening where you can relax with a drink etc. Hotels don't usually mind you going in so long as you spend something while you're there. Some may have indoor pools too, so that may be worth researching.

Buy a pack of cards for the evenings or buy or make yourself a back gammon board while little one sleeps.

I think you need to shake off your negative attitude and disappointment and get on with enjoying the rest of your holidays!

Try booking a trip with No Frills. There are plenty and not too bad on prices - that may help find something to do?

No advice but I also made the mistake of letting ex-DH book us a holiday. Kids were teenagers so he asked if I’d ever been to Ireland and suggested just the two of us go for a week at Easter. Told me all the nice places he’d been to there.
Packing the night before our trip and I asked what the hotel was like eg would I need a nice dress for dinner.
Turned out he’d forgotten to tell me he’d decided we’d go to somewhere he’d had a few lovely childhood holidays. Before the war! He’d arranged for us to go to and island (not Ireland) called Gigha. Google it if you’ve never heard of it.
I’m sure it’s lovely in summer...
Took us a day to get there, we had an attic room in the Post Office, accessible only by a loft ladder, and we were blown about and rained on for three days until I threatened to leave him there. We got the ferry next morning and spent the rest of our holiday in the sunny Lake District.
I never let him book another holiday again.

In solidarity- my worst holiday, Egypt 2009... taba, really nice hotel in the arse end of nowhere. Food was dire. Ex boyfriends first time abroad, the flight out was delayed then diverted due to a fault so it took 22 hours to get there. The weather was shit! The hotel staff said it was the coldest week on record. The pool wasn't heated and there was no town to mooch around. Highlight of the trip was an impromptu trip across to Israel in search of the morning after pill which you can't get in Egypt and as it turns out you can pay a lot of money for in Israel I feel your pain. It's absolutely gutting to look forward to a break and be disappointed. Who knows maybe you'll have luck with a trip out tomorrow, fingers crossed!

Are there any restaurants with playgrounds? Go for lunch instead of dinner? Sometimes, you can find a good hotel and pay a daily rate for the use of their pool, pool area. This should include access to restaurants, etc.

A holiday with a toddler is never a holiday It can be if you bring family to help out or if you book a place with a kids club but otherwise it's just battling tantrums, naps, finding appropriate snacks in a strange place and hiding out in your hotel room at night waiting for them to fall asleep.

It is weird that you're getting looks eating out though. Spain is usually very kid-tolerant. Are you going to the resort places that are full of German tourists? I bet if you went out to the local town, not the resort, and sat with your 2-year old having dinner, you'd have no problems. Take them out in their stroller for an evening walk or something. You might feel better rather than being trapped in your room.