Two week holiday over Christmas and New Year

[fraggletits]

We've decided after years of pretty crap family Christmases that we would like to treat ourselves and go on a 2 week holiday this festive period. Nothing as far as Australia (I'm kinda thinking Canaries/Cyprus but am very open to ideas - main priorities are:

• Kids entertainment/other kids around (we'll have a 4 and 7 y old then)
• Family room with separate bedroom for kids - hate the idea of all sleeping in the same room together)
• Good food, things going on both at the hotel and an easy to get to local resort with restaurants/harbour maybe? etc (don't want to be somewhere with an 'end of season' wet weekend ghost town feel!).

We're not really doing anything in the Summer so am going to start saving my pennies now towards it - hence asking for advice as really don't want it to be a damp squib!

Any advice really appreciated. Thanks

Not sure if Cyprus would be warm enough but you could do some research.

The Caribbean would be lovely weather. Or you could check out Cape Verde, Dubai or Kenya.

My mum went to Egypt last Christmas and said the pool and sea were pretty chilly.

Would you consider a cruise as my children love them and there is also plenty going on?

Thailand or Oman would be my choices.

Think I'd have to put some serious pennies away for the Caribbean, would be lovely though - thanks for the advice

i looked into a 2012 xmas holiday.. oh my lord..... the prices were unbelievable.
For 4 of us it was minimum 6K to go to dominican republic or cape verde.
if we looked at somewhere more exotic like dubai or thailand then it was closer to 8K.

it would have made a huge differnce in cost to go slightly earlier and take the kids out of school for a couple of days. mine are too old to do that with now, but i see that yours are still quite young.

maybe look into a house swap to keep the costs down?

My friends did a two week cruise on the Independence of the Seas and said it was fabulous; kids would be well catered for but there would be the opportunity of some alone time too.

Prices do rocket at Christmas. If you want guaranteed hot sunshine and swimming weather then Cyprus or the Canaries may disappoint.
It can be warm in the Canaries in December but it can be cool or wet and it's chilly at night. The sea is cold and pools may be described as heated but......

It's true - prices almost double for Xmas and new year. We've done it a lot (twice to egypt, 3 times to the Dom Rep and twice to the Maldives). Egypt much the cheapest but sea water a little cool (although DD still swam every day and the hotels normally have one heated pool. Dom rep, much warmer but obviously much more expensive. I think if you want guaranteed sun and warm weather, you have to go a little further afeild and the further you go, the more the price goes up!

I know it's not the same as going abroad but i have had 2 lovely Christmas holidays at center parcs. Both times we went a bit mad with booking activities and had a really great time. Lots of stuff is laid on for the children and you book them into activities and have some adult time. Babysitters can be booked for a night out or sometimes we stayed in with a takeaway and cosied up with the fire on.
It was a good mixture of Christmas and a holiday.

Going to other extreme what about Kinderhotels? You'll get all the activities, nice food, separate room for the dcs, but in the snow. Skiing is not obligatory - most hotels have fab spa facilities - and I love sitting on the top of a mountain with a hot chocolate.