Where to take 4 yo for his first holiday abroad?

[fragglerocker]

We are looking to go away next year and it will be ds first proper holiday but we can't decide where to go. We don't want to go to Turkey or Bulgaria (OH and I had bad holidays there) We want somewhere with nice beaches, not too long a flight and enough to keep ds entertained. We looked at Tunisia, OH and I had a lovely time when we went and the hotels are right on the beach but have read a lot of bad reviews for the hotels there lately. Any ideas? Where do you take your kids??

My boss took my charge 4.4 to Tunisia all inclusive and they had a fab time.

Italy. The four year old only eats pasta, pizza and ice cream so perfect for him. Plus, I know it's said a lot, but the Italians genuinely seem to like kids.

Hadn't thought of Italy, will have to have a look. DS's eating habits are pretty much the same! Pasta and pizza!

Menorca.

Portugal...look at Rocha Brava at Carvoiero.

portugal - nice beaches good value, or i would get the ferry to brittany. i wouldn't go anywhere that was too hot. if you can go say june time some areas of mainland greece or the islands are nice - they too love kids.

i would want someone with reasonable hospitals just in case. italy always looks really expensive when i've investigated it and i can't see the beaches would be that much better than cheaper places.

I'm with jellybeans on recommending Menorca.

Flights are less than 2 hours from South East England. The island is really easy to drive around and takes about an hour and half to drive from one side of the island to the other. Roads and driving standards are really good compared to mainland Spain, Italy or Greece.

The island is aimed at young families, so most hotels and resorts are full of attractions and entertainment aimed at under 8s.

We stayed at the Mestral & Llebeig aparmtnets (sc through Thomson or AI through First Choice) in Santo Tomas and DS (5) made loads of friends his age to play with. The hotel has a really lovely shallow splash pool with slides where he played with all his friends. Most of the children in the hotel were under 6.

TBH, many of the hotels in Menorca have a similar setup, as they are nearly all aimed at families with young kids.

Early/mid June is a good time, as it's not too hot, but he weather is more reliable than May/October.

Beaches in Menorca are truly wonderful.

Menorca's mentioned already so I'll suggest another one: Cinq Terre area, Italy.

We've taken our kids to Provence, Beune area, Normandy (mostly for dad who's in love with WW2 stuff), drove the Romantische Strasse (Frankfurt to Neuschwanstein basically), Heidelberg - Trier area, and Bruges.