Holiday with another family? Any recommendations?

[mrsbjunior]

Hi

We are looking at going away next summer with another family. The initial thought was a Eurocamp style holiday in France with caravans next door to each other but that looks really expensive and still means I have to cook etc.

Has anyone been to a hotel/all inclusive where they have apartments rather than hotel rooms so we can all have our own space?

Realise this may well be more expensive than a caravan but would be good to compare

thanks

If you are going during school holidays then everything is expensive I'm afraid. Just before I paid the balance on this year's holiday I compared with other options and our two weeks in a 3 bed Eurocamp chalet still worked out the cheaper option.

You dont have to cook all the time on a campsite - practically all campsites have restaurants, takeaways etc as well as on-site shops. If you are in a large group the more relaxed nature of self-catering might help reduce stress compared to having to go down to the hotel restaurant for every meal. You are also free to decide how much you want to muck in with friends and how much you want to do your own thing.

How about renting a couple of gites on a gite complex? There are plenty of these in France. Yes, you are cooking but you would be in a smaller group of accomodation than on a campsite.

We do a big family holiday every year at center parts and really enjoy it. It works well for groups and you can request chalets together.

I mean Parcs.

Having holidayed in groups when young and also with family members I would strongly suggest thinking long and hard before you commit to a holiday with another family. If you are planning to eat together more than a few times, spend time together etc do you share views on:

• meal times
• table manners
• bed times
• general discipline
• level of parental involvement in children's activities

If you plan to share accomodation do try to have separate bathrooms at the very least. Look at how private the couples can be from each other unless you are happy to share detail of your sex lives with each other.

How about renting a villa or cottage?

We have been away with friends a few times now and we always rent somewhere to stay. It has worked really well.

Don't!! Spending leisure time with another family is fine, but living with them is a different ball game. No families bring their children up in the same way as you do.

Most of our holidays have been with other families. Has always worked out fine.

We are about to go away tomorrow to Tuscany (YAY) with 2 other families we have shared with them twice before.

Top tips are - rent your own car, don't do things together in the day time as you will be spending enough time together in the evenings, if your child is an awful eater ( like mine) try not to stress too much and don't expect them to suddenly become like the other children.

The advantage of sharing a villa is that you can swap babysitting with the other family. I wouldn't sweat too much about finding a hotel location, a villa is loads cheaper and you can use the money you saved to go out for dinner - somewhere within walking distance of a restaurant is always good. Oh or at our villa this year we are paying someone to come and cook our dinner for the first night - this could be an option for you as well if you don't want to cook ( which I completely understand!)

However when we go away with DH's SIL family we stay in two separate cottages - main reason DCs are different ages and there are a lot more of them as a family so could get overwhelming.

I would stick to 2 separate accommodation units so you can both have your own space. Both your options sound good. The all inclusive idea could work as the issue of money doesn't come up at all. Depends what type of holiday you usually like.

Thanks for all the advice - we've been to Centre Parcs with these friends before and it was fine but we have had a couple of other kids since then so I think that separate accommodation is the way forward.

Think the other family are very keen on the campsite option and when my DS found out he was very excited so I think we'll try it and see what happens.

"Hire a big enough place for all of you"

No don't. If you want to stay friends I would go for separate accommodation. I agree with gnome that you shouldn't be in each other's pockets all the time. In my experience and many of my friends you discover unpleasant traits and habits of friends that you didn't realise they had and this often ruins a perfectly good friendship.

We regularly go on holiday with friends. I personally think a villa/gite with a private pool is the way to go. Much more space than on a campsite and you can actually enjoy spending time and eating together. Some properties even propvide meals and babysitting so you can have time off.

I am always surprised at the number of people on MN who want to go on holiday somewhere which will guarantee friends for there DCs. IMO the only way to do that is to take the friends with you.

We have twice, but i wouldnt do it again.
The second time we stayed in different areas and that was much better.

Im not a very tolerant person anyway but a holiday is a long time to put up with other people who arent your family