To ask you to help me plan a child free week away with dh?

[Callie85]

My amazing mum has offered to have the kids next year in May half term so that dh and I can have a week away together. ALONE!

I now have the very first world problem of being unable to choose where to go.

Ladies of Mumsnet - can I ask you to plan our trip? We are erring towards an all inclusive somewhere (where?!) but also keep coming back to the idea of New York...

Where would you go in our shoes? Any amazing hotel or villa recommendations? Budget preferably under £2.5k.

Thank you in advance for any ideas you might have!

We recently went to an all inclusive on the coast near Athens so pool, beach, city, ancient ruins, bit of everything.

From personal experience, definitely chose somewhere without lots of kids. Ideally somewhere with none.

I spend the whole of our week away watching other people's DCs having a ball and thinking how much mine would have enjoyed it 🙈

The W in Barcelona looks amazing, but very pricey!

If you do AI definitely needs to be adults only 😂😂

Ooh @ArtisanPopcorn do you mind me asking where you stayed?

Hotel Duquesa de Cardone is lovely in Barcelona. It has a small roof top pool and bar too.

I agree with Barcelona, we stayed in the Gothic Quarter which I would recommend.

We also went to Skiathos last year which I loved, such a laid back island. It's beautiful, with beaches and a lovely town. We hired a boat, lazed by the pool, wandered around the town, stopped in almost every bar for a drink. I would definitely go back.

In my opinion, I wouldn't choose all inclusive as you're so tied. Going out to explore and trying the local food is what holidays are about for me.

If you want City and sea- Nice is good as you can access lots of other places by train like Cannes.

Dubrovnik or close by is also an option. Nice around the Croatian coast and Dubrovnik is good for a couple of days mooching around.

As it is half term I would avoid anywhere that will be full of kids.

Find an adults only all inclusive resort. I went to one in Jamaica once which was fab but might blow your budget as it was about 3k 10 years ago.

South of France? Stay in somewhere like Nice in a 'nice' hotel with a pool. Days trips to Monaco, Menton etc. Pre-DC we stayed in a fantastic hotel in St Paul de Vence if you don't mind a bit of driving.

Or Portugal? Fly to Lisbon, have a few days in the city and then head to the beach.

I would go somewhere that you couldn’t do with young kids.
We chose Santorini, gorgeous, chilled & nice food. We stayed in Oia you could also tack on a few nights in Athens.