To ask you to plan my holiday?

[Dazedandconfusedma]

My husbands job makes it incredibly hard to plan holidays - he’s freelance working on projects where the timings change constantly, and he hates to let clients down and will never tell them no. After a lot of negotiation he has agreed that come rain or shine he’ll take the last two weeks of October off so we can go away. I’m so excited but I have no idea where to start - what would you do?

It will be my husband, my 2.5 yr old and me. We have about £3.5 to 4.5k to spend on everything. It doesn’t have to be the full 2 weeks, I’m up for a shorter holiday (& some chill time at home) to make things more affordable.

We both work v hard so we need a bit of time to relax (if possible with a toddler…) but some adventure would be great too. We LOVE good food, and it doesn’t have to be a beach holiday, but it would be nice for there to be a beach-y/swimming element.

Given it’s October I think we’ll need to go further afield for good weather but can’t really go to thailand etc because my toddler is allergic to peanuts.

This holiday means so much to me but I’m really stuck for ideas - how do you combine relaxation and adventure with a toddler, good weather in October, and stay on budget!? What would you do?

What about a cruise? I went a few years back and love cruising

I think an all inclusive in Turkey will work...great value for money, plenty of history and nature to enjoy if you choose, still hot/warm...

The Canaries definitely!

I would agree with a previous poster. Have a look at a cruise. Fab kids club and great food. If you did somewhere like canaries you'd have good weather and sometime for the beach on port days.
I highly recommend celebrity cruises, they have a canaries sailing from Southampton on the 12th October for 11 nights. Not sure if that would be in budget. Cruise kings are great for cruises. Give them a call and see what they can find for you

Scandinavia is brilliant for kids in terms of being very easy with transport, accommodating and lots of free entertainment and in Copenhagen especially I’ve seen some brilliant pools and spa’s in hotels. But weather wise wouldn’t be a summery hot holiday at that time obviously.

We loved Marrakesh (lots of options for trips for adventure and exploring the souks) but fantastic facilities in hotels for relaxing too … but ours was slightly older when we went and we didn’t have to push a buggy around.

We travelled to the Maldives with friends with a nut allergy and everywhere was understanding, hotel staff especially were very attentive. More so actually than we’ve found in places in Europe.

Wherever you go, go for a week that's earlier in the window so not half term, for obvious cost saving. You could then go for days out, nice lunches etc during half term week - lots of places often put on Halloween/light trail type events then.

The Canaries will still have good weather then, and there's often children's playparks, waterparks etc, plus also beaches, things like the volcano park in Lanzarote, or mountain villages of Gran Canaria to make it more than a beach holiday. I'd probably go self catering or B&B and eat out daily for a nicer experience than buffet AI. But you might get a la carte AI in that week in budget.

The Copenhagen suggestion is interesting. You could combine it with Billund where there's a Center Parcs style holiday village with waterpark/activity dome and also the original Legoland. Aarhus, Denmark's second city is between the two and public transport in Denmark is very good, so you could fly to Copenhagen, travel between the other places by bus and fly out of Billund so not need a car. The weather might not be great, but you just do as the Danes do, wear warm waterproof clothing and carry on with your day.

I would go all inclusive somewhere warm like Turkey, canary's, Morocco, Tunisia that has a decent kids club so you can also have some downtime.

Hotel Letoonia in Turkey is gorgeous but there are loads of other beautiful locations.

Gran Canaria, if you stick to any beach on the south side that looks like a ‘cove’ rather than a long stretch of sand you’ll have a good chance of avoiding the wind. Hire a car from your hotel for a day or two if you want to go off exploring mountain villages but with a toddler you might just stay put. Mogan is pretty. Food - not amazing…

You could also look at Sicily or Sardinia if food is a priority. Both would be a nice temperature in October I would think?