Where should we go on holiday in June with a 16mth old baby?

[AnaYorks]

Looking for inspiration for our first family holiday abroad with the litte one. Normally we go to the Dordogne, but the flights to the nearest airport are on Ryanair and not sure I'm prepared to risk Ryanair with a baby. Plus we'd need a car and would have all the hassle of sorting one out with a baby seat.

So I'm looking for an alternative. We ideally want somewhere quiet (not loads of nightlife) where we can potter around a harbour/small town on foot during the day, swim in the pool, maybe visit the beach and sit on our balcony at night once the baby is in bed. It needs to be warm (not UK!) but hopefully not too warm and not too far away in terms of flight time. To give you an idea of the kind of thing we like, we prefer places that are not too anglicised - Benidorm, for example, is as far away from our idea of the perfect resort as it's possible to get; Budapest we loved.

Any ideas?

We've travelled abroad 2-4 times annually with all our children since they were tiny. The easiest country we've found has been Greece - Ionian islands are great - direct flights of about 3 hours, warmth, luscious green compared with some parts of Greece, fab beaches, Venetian towns/castles, and loads of different accommodation to suit all budgets and tastes. Corfu, despite it's image of cheap beery madness, we've found brilliant for family holidays; some beautiful bays and villages, lovely tavernas, locals very geared up for holiday makers and keen for you to want to return so chatty, approachable and helpful.

However, we ALWAYS rent a car (well, a bus now!!) as we like to explore as much as possible, and many airlines eg easy jet, BA etc will carry your car seat from home as well as your buggy for free. Alternatively, you can easily hire (frequently freely in Greece from local companies) car seats. (it's not a hassle really, you just tick a box on the car hire form!) I've never tried staying all day, every day in one place for a holiday so if that's what you want, Greece may not be ideal.

Also, although Ryanair isn't my preferred airline, they're OK and they do fly to lots of airports. We used them to fly to France a few times and it's been fine, especially as it's such a short flight. Easy jet is definitely better though and has the free car seat carriage thing going for it.