Hiring local nannies on holiday???

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(Apologies for cross-post - have put this in the Travel section too because not sure where it best belongs!)

I know that if we take our 2 year old on holiday to a normal self catering villa then I will spend my entire week working my butt off cooking and cleaning and trying to stop him falling in the pool and drowning.

So I had this plan to go to a holiday place in southern France (highly recommended by MNers of course): a smalll farm where they have a few self catering units, but, crucially, a creche and an evening babysitting service staffed by English speaking nannies.

However, my partner has vetoed the plan on the grounds he thinks this place is too child oriented and he hates "forced socialising" with other families (hence he would never countenance things like Mark Warner!). He would rather rent a villa in Greece or the Caribbean (needs to be somewhere still hot at the end of September/early October) and hire a local nanny to take care of him during the day and evening.

Does anyone know how easy it is to find a good local nanny to do this? Has anyone tried it? Is it a realistic option? Are there UK based agencies which specialise in this? Is there anything one should bear in mind?

Have a look at Peryali villas on Zakynthos, we went loads when our DC were little. I think it might suit you.

Blimey, what judgemental posts!

It's very reasonable to want a few hours of time to yourself on holiday, and also to have some adult evenings out when your child is asleep. And as for the 'why bother to have children' comment - what a ridiculous thing to say!!

We're in a similar situation wrt holidays, OP. We used to holiday very independently before we had DD (2.5) and we really struggled to figure out how to holiday successfully as a family. We haven't had much success with villa /cottage holidays , since it's basically more work than being at home (since you don't have your usual things). Hotels can work, but it's a bind having to eat at restaurants every meal, and expensive.

What we have found works best is self-catering (ideally serviced) somewhere with restaurants within walking distance - either a town or resort (and making sure you use them). Even though we had never stayed at a resort before having DD, we've actually found that self catering within a resort has worked really well. Toddlers LOVE beaches and pools - and we find we enjoy them more now alongside DD. The trick is to find somewhere where you can also do a few day trips and visits which are interesting to the adults as well as OK for the toddler. It's great to have the convenience of restaurants most nights when you want them, but still be able to cook simple meals when that's more convenient. As pp said, children's clubs tend to only take them without the parent once they are 3 or 4, but they are often happy for you use the facilities if you stay with your child, which is handy.

Portugal is great. In fact I'm sitting by a pool in Portugal writing this post . My recommendation would be to fly to Lisbon and hire a car then:

1. A few days in super-cool Lisbon - get your 'grown-up travel' fix with loads of surprisingly toddler-friendly things to do like the oceanario, cable-car, tram 28 (get to the terminus VERY early). Even the Jerónimos Monastery worked well with our toddler, since there's lots of space to run around, and it's very beautiful.
2. Spend a few days in Sintra. We only went for a day trip, which wasn't long enough.

We did see Quinta da regaleira which is absolutely magical and fantastic. We would have liked to see Pena Palace and the castle of the moors too, but it was too much for a single day with a toddler. Sintra fills up with day trippers mid-morning, so take advantage of your toddler-induced early mornings to see things without the crowds 3.Visit lovely Cascais beach on the way to/from Lisbon/Sintra if you feel you are being unfair to the toddler waiting until the Algarve.

1. Then spend the rest of the trip in the Algarve. We are staying at Vale d'Oliveiras Resort,which is a lovely small resort made up of self-catering apartments. It's in the countryside, very quiet, but just 10mins drive from some lovely beaches.

Alternatively, don't discount Tenerife because of the fly-and-flop image. It's actually really nice to visit if you hire a car. The volcanic landscape in the interior is stunning, and the cable car to the top is pretty impress. There's also a big zoo/bird-park which makes a nice day trip, and some nice towns eg Orotavo and La Laguna.

Do check the weather though, I think they have an unsettled period in October /November.

Tenerife also has the amazing Abama hotel - the hotel which changed my mind about resorts! It's very beautiful, with a lovely laguna-type swimming pool, with nice shallow areas for toddlers; it has a beautiful, sheltered private beach with imported Saharan sand (Tenerife has black, volcanic sand) which you get to in 5 mins on their little train shuttle; they have lots of pool and beach toys out (or you can just ask) so you don't even need to pack bucket and spade (as well as beach towels of course). It also has a fab children's club: you can't leave your 2yo, but it's like having a little soft play on site. It's really, really lovely.
The downsides are:

1. cost - although in term-time, it's not outrageous
2. It isn't self-catering and on-site restaurants are expensive - but if you have a car, you can drive 5 minutes to San Juan which has good, inexpensive restaurants
3. It probably would feel kid-centric to your DH, although as I said there are some interesting day trips to do. We actually, only spent part of our trip to Tenerife in the resort. We spent the other half in Garachico, which is nice, but only really worth a day or two, and incidentally the most geographically isolated part of tenerife you can find.. I'd recommend La Laguna (which we visited briefly and really liked) or Puerto de la cru instead.

Other possibilities to consider would be Malta and Sardinia.

Oh, forgot to mention the crucial advantage of resorts, which is that they can pretty much always organise babysitting! We've only used it in the evenings, since our DD is rather 'sensitive' and would hate to be with a stranger during the day. But we always have the babysitter come early so she can meet them (in case she wakes up) and she's always been happy to get to know them, whether they speak English or not.

(The babysitter we had in the Abama did say that she very often did day-time work too though)

Tenerife is lovely. I'm here now. Abama also nice and as I said the company was owned by my friend Lisa when she lived there but has now sold it on as couldn't run it from UK

Try Coastline www.coastline.co.uk/ for villas with a nanny service

They are pretty pricey but out of school holidays it might be more affordable.

Your best solution is a catered villa or hotel tbh that doesn't have kids stuff so not kids focused.

We go to a lovely hotel that has restaurants and we have always taken kids out late to them or they fall asleep, but they do also offer room service to your own terrace off your suite. So you could put child to bed and have them bring food to your terrace for example

Or can you just encourage long afternoon siestas and keep them up late to join you out wherever.

We always travel with slings also for toddlers so can go exploring/ on beaches/ to historical places/ out late and just pop small child in sling on back when they get tired so we can carry on and they can rest or sleep

nordicwannabe thank you - v helpful.

Some of the other comments I will just ignore....

I would just avoid Carebear Nannies - the owner has a terrible attitude and temper. She let us down considerably during the Christmas period of Dec 15 and benefitted from pre paid services which she did not provide. She effectively stole over 350 euros from us. She did not show up after 3 days and did not even bother to even call us, just sending a text last minute which is shocking given her responsibility is child care. She demonstrated no care for the children and only about the cash in her pocket and taking advantage of the good will of people. She has not refunded our money to date after committing to do so in writing.