Searching for the impossible?? Watersports/Activies/Sun/All-inclusive/Easy travel from Scotland.

[amck5700]

Planning next summers holiday.

We've done the last 2 years in the UK (lakes camping/hotel in Scotland) - not averse to doing UK again, but would love to see some sun-shine.

We like All inclusive but the food has to be good - Turkey a good option for this I think. However, when we went 3 summers ago, we did really enjoy the holiday, but even though we carefully chose a hotel with lots of waterslides, the kids did start to get a bit bored. They don't like football and although they did go to the kids club, they didn't really cater for them very well as most of the kids were younger - for example they signed up for the t-shirt art but they didn't have any t-shirts big enough for them.

Anyway, they will be 13 and almost 12 when we go away, they like watersports - e.g. windsurfing/sailing/canoeing etc - they aren't experts but have tried them a few times and enjoyed them so it would be good to find somewhere that maybe did tuition and then had free use of the equipment. They also like ropes courses and general outdoor stuff as opposed to actual sport iyswim.

I don't really care what there is - as long as there is a pool, food and drink and I have a few books, I am happy.

My OH doesn't want to drive abroad anymore (I wont drive abroad either) He likes similar things to the boys but again, he is happy as long as they are.

It has to be the first 2 weeks in July and we prefer to do 10-12 nights if possible and we are in Scotland so prefer a direct flight.

It just seems to be so hard to search by the criteria we are looking for and I'm getting frustrated and bored.

It would be great if anyone had a recommendation or even could narrow down the search a bit for me. :)

Our budget would be about 4k so can't go top notch :(

I would drive down to manchester for the flight as you can save up to £1K by not flying from Scotland.

we went here and the kids loved the waterpark - we were only there a week so didnt go many trips.

What about Neilson Beachclub Holidays?

Thanks both - the beachclub thing looks particularly interesting Monica, have you been on one of those before? I think the boys would love being able to do the sailing and windsurfing etc. Pit they don't go from Scotland but may need to talk OH into driving down to Manchester as dishwashervodkaanddietirnbru suggested. Or try to find a cheap flight to London that would connect.

Yep - been with Neilson for our last two holidays. Last one drove up from South Wales to Manchester - wasn't too bad really - same as a drive to Gatwick! We absolutely love Neilson, s does our dd 8yrs whom is not a huge watersports fan so i guess your boys will adore it. They make loads of friends. Let me know if you want more info - we went to Lemnos and Adakoy.

sounds good Monica - I had just looked at Adakoy - seems to be closer to our budget - OH seems to be convinced that we are driving down to Devon to camp - we are not quite so convinced :o It might take a fair bit of hinting/persuasion.

I figure that Turkey would be better in terms of food for our fussy boys - they were happy enough with it when we were last there - Greek food might take a bit more persuasion!

I see that they don't do all-inclusive - did you manage okay in terms of eating out or did you just pay to eat in the extra meals?

...and is the water sports actually included as they say and easily accessible - the pool looks fine but obviously just a normal pool so that wouldn't keep them occupied long - they are both excellent swimmers - a lot better than me :(

and lastly (sorry :o) did your son use the kids club? Eldest will turn 13 while we are away but younger doesn't turn 12 until just after we get home so looks like they would be in separate clubs. Although they are shy, they love to join in with anything going and when we are away it will generally be other Scottish kids or Irish as no-one else has broken up yet - except private schools so they should get on okay. When we were in Turkey before the only foreign kids were Russian and tended to be pre-school or very young, but thinking that as this is a particularly family activity place there may be people their own age even at the beginning of July.

op, can I ask where you went that had football abroad? my kids are similar to yours but love footy and we're looking for somewhere to go too!

We were at the Paloma Grida in Belek and they have a full size football pitch and the entertainment team organised games. I have seen quite a lot of hotels that do football coaching as well when I've been looking - if I come across any again I'll pop them on this thread.

Northern part of Lake Garda (Riva/Torbole) great for watersports. Fly to Verona or Milan. Alternatively French and Swiss alpine resorts offer lots of outdoor activities and highropes courses etc (fly to Geneva)

thanks op

I have been recommended this place on another thread

www.clublasanta.co.uk

Eating out was easier in Lemnos as there is a little village nearby. With Adakoy you have to catch the water taxi across to Marmaris (which is a lovely way to start and end dinner out). To be honest we only ate out once as it was Jubilee when we were there and stayed for the street party BBQ! Loads of choice in Marmaris too, particularly for fussy eaters!

Water Sports all included (thought there are limits on some of the more expensive things such as wake boarding). You sign up on day after arrival and then each day. There are courses too. If the boys are active they may want to try Hotshots - it's extra but they spend most of the time windsurfing, sailing, kayaking rather than other stuff from the kids clubs.

the pool isnt huge but there is a social water polo game every afternoon which is fun and they are always looking for people to join in.

Our shy dd (8) used the kids club most days. In the second week her confidence increased massively and she was pontoon jumping and all sorts. You may find that there will be quite a few kids there as many people go out of school hols due to the cost. You can post on the forum or call customer services and they can generally give you an indication of how many kids of same age will be there (or went last year)

We are looking at when to go - keeping an eye out for any deals!

Hope you find what you are all looking for - it's really worth it and dd asked again this morning if we could do another Neilson in 2013! Wasnt planning on doing many Med holidays but I guess until the novelty of this wears off for us all then we'll keep going!

Thanks Monica - that's really brilliant. OH and I went to Marmaris in our younger days pre kids and really enjoyed it - some of it was a bit seedy, but plenty of nice restaurants if you chose carefully. I think the only things putting me of at the moment are the cost which is a bit above budget, the fact that we would need to do either 1 week (seems to short) or 2 weeks (seems a bit long and uses up our entire summer holidays allowance) and the fact that we'd need to travel and maybe even end up having to overnight at the airport too.

It's funny. on the website it gives an option to choose 10 days and to choose some more local airports but in practice they don't seem to actually have any 10 day holidays or fly from anywhere other than London, Birmingham or Manchester . maybe it would be worth calling them. Seems that you can get a discount via Mumsnet too - code is Mumsnet12 for 10% of I think.

Thank you LIZS - we do have a hankering for Italy - we did a school trip last March for a few days and the boys loved it. I'll have a look about and see what is available. What we are finding with the boys getting older is that there isn't any option of family rooms in some of the independent hotels so we have to book two rooms and the cost really creeps up.

Thanks too ssd - I'll have a look at that too - we have never been to the canaries.

Mark Warner holidays are great for watersports and outdoor activities. I don't think you can go from Scotland but may still be worth looking into.