Seeking Cultural holiday for 6 ….not AI as want to go out and see experience new adventures

[Needacupofteaandcrackers]

Hello mumsnet,

I wonder if you could inspire me and help me find a suitable holiday. We save all year for a week away, and look forward to it. The kids love all-inclusive and it’s easy in some ways as late teens boys are big eaters 🙄so the last couple of years have been AI holidays. Fine, but other than a couple of walks into local towns, we didn’t go out much, car hire expensive and as DH said already paid for food and some activities/ entertainment. But I couldn’t even tell you now which country we went to as no cultural experience

City breaks?

What are you looking for? Long haul, short haul, self catering or hotel, sun and beaches, loads of outdoor activities, history and art?

I know AI is popular here, but I find it ghastly. (Except maybe skiing in a chalet AI). It definitely was an upside of divorce knowing I would never have to do a holiday like that again.

I think you start with the culture first and build up from there. Where would you like to visit, most countries have places worth visiting and you can create a lovely itinerary.

Thankyou good question like to be beside the sea. Not anywhere where service people are treated unfairly

bed And breakfast in a hotel in Souss Tunisia. You are on the beach but there is a good town for eveni by meals and you can travel easily on the train to places like Tunis to see
the amazing Roman mosaics. If you did a package holiday they would also sell you trip to other sites. You can also visit the Star Wars set

I think you need to identify a budget, time of year, and what you're interested in then go from there. We tend to do one beachy holiday a year and one more interesting holiday. So we're planning a holiday taking the train through France and Spain then a ferry to Morocco, we'll do a few days in the atlas mountains and a few days in Marrakech before flying home. Kids will be 8 and 4.

Flights to Athens are reasonable. The metro takes you from the airport to the port of Piraeus (via Athens centre). From there you can strike out to the islands. The nearest are the Saronic Islands - Aegina (under 1hr), Agistri, Poros, Hydra, Spetses. All very lovely and the ferries are modern, reliable and cheap

Most countries have interesting places to go to beyond the AI! I would suggest going at least B&B as hungry teenagers are a complete pain.
You could go to Spain and visit Barcelona, or Seville if you're in the South. Or from turkey there's places like the ruins at Ephesus. Go to Corfu and have a day trip to Albania. Croatia might be a good shout, there are beaches but also Dubrovnik looks amazing.
Or maybe a euro camp holiday in Italy. You would need to hire a car but could get to lots of interesting places

DH and I rarely hire a car. We often do city breaks or use local transport to see things. Do you like museums, history, trying new foods, snorkelling, just sitting on a beach all day?

Malaga- beach, museums, great food. A good day trip is to get the train to Ronda to see the famous bridge.
Crete- We stayed in Rethymon which also has a beach. We caught a local bus to Heraklion to go to the museum and Knossos. People have also recommended Chania, but we never went there
Thailand

I really like Northern Cyprus. Far fewer tourists than Cyprus and very affordable - but you can cross over into Cyprus and explore Nicosia. Great, quiet beaches particularly out towards the panhandle which also has beautiful wildlife. Ruins of Salamis, Kyrenia old town, Gazimagusa is simply beautiful, I believe Varosha is still open for exploration - it’s eerie but very cool. You can drive or cycle through quiet little towns and find fascinating little museums and old buildings. Have never eaten badly there, the food and the hospitality is great.

Also enjoyed Mallorca much more than I was expecting to: plenty of beaches for lazy days but also some amazing walks and cycles up into the mountains and out to the caps, kayaking and paddle-boarding, can hire a car and explore the old city of Palma and lots of little towns in the interior.

We used to drive with ours and visit lots of places, I highly recommend driving down the west coast of France, through the Pyrenees then the Picos before heading to a resort on the north (Atlantic) coast of Spain for some r&r you can include Madrid easily and if you do, visit Toledo, it’s amazing. My dc still talk about seeing Guernica in Madrid 10 years on, and the gold in Toledo. The smaller very Spanish towns on the Atlantic coast are perfect to chill out in, just a word of warning, do brush up on your Spanish and/or download a translator because English isn’t spoken as widely, we managed through google translate easily though

Athens would fit the bill, lots of history and island hopping for beaches is very easy

You need to be a bit more specific OP

• When are you planning to travel?
• What's your budget?
• What sort of cultural stuff are you interested in?

I personally think that nothing can beat Venice, 2026 is an Art Biennale year, which is a superb event throughout the city, and it's easy to go to Padua to visit the University and the most famous anatomical theatre in the world. But summer isn't the best time, it's very hot and muggy and busy. Italy in general is so much nicer in spring or early autumn. I went to Sicily in May last year, it was perfect. So beautiful it's almost too much.

In terms of culture, I'm a big design / architecture and city planning beef, so I love going to Eastern / Central Europe. But that's not everyone's cup of tea.

Also, I'm French so a bit biased, but France has a lot to offer. A personal favourite of mine is Ile de Ré (and La Rochelle). And Brittany (perfect in summer).

Holidays of note for us

We did a great road trip with in America plus portions are big there but was a few years ago and for a month.

Safari in Kenya plus beach, week for each and really very nice hotels.

Cruise, they can eat as much as they want and then day trips from the boat. We did a Med cruise, Rome, Pisa, Cartegena, Gibraltar, Monaco and some other places. I was surprised how much we all liked it. I liked how we just did nothing but read, relax, have dinner, swim and gym for a day or two and then had a day trip.

Hiring a Motorhome, pub dinners, hiking, swimming in the sea and travelling about.

Canal boat hire, they would be allowed to steer the boat, did a week, we had great weather. Board games, wildlife spotting and visited a couple of museums when we tied up in Stratford upon Avon.

Road trip through France visiting D day sights, eating out, museums and the beach.

You really need to indicate budget

Highly recommend Mallorca. Easy to get round by bus, loads of excursions. Porto pollensa would be good. Palma is lovely for a day. Beach time too.

Sicily is fab and has so much to offer. Ancient ruins, beautiful architecture, beaches, food, gorgeous scenery, Mount Etna…

I would do a touring holiday with a hire car where you stay at various places to really explore the island.

We do city breaks with our teens and if we're near the coast we'll have one day at the beach (I grew up on an island and so going to the beach isn't a holiday for me). Copenhagen is on the coast and you can swim in the canals in the city as well. Not the warmest and expensive once you are there but loads to do with teens.

Malaga is more chilled and cheaper, there are lots of beaches but also Roman and Moorish remains, lots of art galleries, flamenco dancing, lots of good restaurants. We went in October a few years ago and the weather was mid 20s every day, perfect for sightseeing.

We go to Austria a lot. Still warm in summer but unlikely to get the heatwaves of the Med. We stay lakeside in the Alps so lots of active stuff to do but also good public transport sport and easy access to bigger towns and cities like Salzburg and Innsbruck.

There's endless culture and history in Spain, including the Balearics and even the Canary Islands. It saddens me when people assume it has nothing to offer beyond AI hotels. Public transport is also generally good and cheap so you can get around without needing to hire a car. Plus you can go to the beach, swim in the sea, do watersports.

I went to Lanzarote last Autumn and I got the bus to/from the airport, to a couple of inland towns, I did a coach tour around all the Cesar Manrique places in the north of the island, did an introductory free diving session and walked and swam each day. I even went to the little 'history of aviation and tourism in the Canary islands' museum at the airport on the way back. There's also the volcano park, but I've been there before.

If you hired a villa near to a coastal town, you could eat out daily, which is generally good value and also stock up on easy food, ice creams, drinks and snacks etc for breakfast and also some lunches or dinners and so you're not paying convenience store/kiosk prices all the time. So better food and a nicer experience than AI, which is just bland and samey unless you pay a fortune.

I don't go AI. If you don't want to hire a car, then you can do city breaks. If you don't mind driving, then stay more outside the city and often you can hire a holiday cottage. I'd suggest you find out what you want to do first and go from there.

After years of European holidays we went to Thailand and Vietnam last year. The extra money we spent on flights was made up for by much cheaper accommodation, food and experiences. 2 weeks for 6 of us came out much cheaper than AI in Europe and kids were never bored because it was all so new / different.

Do any of you speak another language? Are your DSs studying a language at school? I'd start there. Or are there new places you'd like to visit?

In the past, I have booked a flat - much more economical than hotels - and we have self-catered for some meals; breakfast, especially, can be expensive at a café or restaurant. We've had success in Barcelona at Easter, Vienna + Salzburg in Oct half-term, Paris at Easter - these were all 5 - 7 day trips and using trains/buses. We also had a great summer trip to Sorrento, staying 1/2 board for 2 weeks at a hotel with a beautiful pool but also going out some days to Pompeii, Herculaneum, etc, using trains/buses.

Many summers, we've rented a flat in central France and driven. Again, self-catering but some meals out and having the car meant we could make day trips but the accomodation usually had a pool so we had some pool days too over 2 weeks.

I wouldn't choose AI either but with kids it is very practical. How about a happy medium - I stayed in AI very close to Marrakesh years ago. Close enough to culture but the kids still get a pool and to eat all day so everyone is happy.

Sri Lanka. Very cheap when you're there so feeding teens enough no issue. Lots of culture, beaches and wildlife.

Interrailing's great.
I have a hungry teenager and a younger son who has just aged out of child meals, and work suddenly dried up before we left, with passes and reservations and accommodation paid for. Suffice it to say that our cultural tour of Europe involved visiting Lidl in every destination 😆