The best Family holiday you have been on & where you stayed?

[MorningCoffee]

Looking for our summer 2013 holiday, What is the best Family friendly holiday you have been on & the nicest hotel/apartment you have stayed in?

The Three Corners Fayrouz in Marsa Alam, Egypt. Unfortunately there are no flights now from Manchester so we can't go back.

Watching thread with interest for our 2013 holidays.

Cruise on P&O Azura to eastern med - Venice, Dubrovnik, Korcula, Katakolon etc. Fabby.
Prior to that, Villa Pia on the Tuscany/Umbria border.

Neilson Beachclub our current fave but before that Keycamp in France - Le Vieux Port.

A tie between a Disney cruise around the med and Hotel Protorea President in Cape Town.

L'Elzet Gites, France.
A beautiful house in the middle of nowhere, but lots of lovely things to do and explore.

It is separated into 4 gites and the owner lives there too. She is an amazing lady, fantastic host and chef.

It is paradise, very remote so no overcrowding. I felt so relaxed when we left. Dh thought the kids might get bored initially as no entertainment save from a pool, but they loved it and repeatedly ask if we can go back.

Would recommend

bumping as watching with interest - trying to decide too and so far from my kitchen stool today I have visited USA, Crete, Halkidiki, Spain and France and am still none the wiser on where to go!

Double mum we have been to villa pia 3 times when Ds was smaller. It was one of our best holidays ever.
Aside from that Bella Italia campsite in lake Garda and also splash hotel in St lucia

Bump. Interested.

We've only been in the UK so far, and would recommend Glynn Barton in Cornwall for pre-schoolers, but am here looking for some further afield options. Bumping for other ideas!

Also looking or ideas - but currently looking at Spain. Anybody been to Salobrena?

Watching this with interest too. Our last big family holiday ended in disaster as dd1 caught salmonella.
Have visited Disneyland Paris since then which was fantastic. Drove and stayed at Davey Crockett ranch. Highly recommended.

Best place in the UK has to be The Bedruthan Steps hotel near Newquay. It's entirely designed around families with adult only time as well.
Indoor & outdoor play, kids entertainment, kids teatime or you can all eat together, 2 hours free childcare every afternoon!!!!!!
You can put your kids to bed and leave them to go and have a meal on your own and they are perfectly safe - all rooms have free listening service (you are given a pager at reception) & rooms are alarmed so if your child opens the door (as our son did!) an alarm goes off at reception & they drop everything to go straight to your room. They also have babysitting service if you want to go off site for a meal.
There is an adult only spa and the hotel overlooks the beautiful bay at Mawgan Porth. The sister hotel, the Scarlet, is a few mins walk away and is adult only with fine dining restaurant.
This is without doubt the best family hotel we have ever stayed at! all the staff have kids of their own so they KNOW what is important to stressed out parents trying to keep their kids entertained while also wanting some relaxation time for themselves..... I honestly can't recommend this place enough! We are going back this year :-) (and no I don't work there!!!!)

bedruthan.com/

The only other place we have been that was really good was the Sensatori resort in Tenerife - available from Thomson. Great place but not pram friendly so would recommend for slightly older kids.

Ibiza in April/ may. No clubbing yet, villas are a good price and the beaches are lovely.
Sri Lanka- lovey villa right on the beach, no telly, no wifi, tuk tuks into the village for Internet cafe or walk along the beach to a restaurant. Lovely driver, 3 weeks of bliss. Dc loved it, and loved being able to get up at 6 as usual and dash into the garden and build sandcastles.

Phuket - same, lovely villa, dc's perfectly happy with no telly etc for 2 weeks and no toys, just sand, buckets and sea:)

France- Provence- best ever. Markets, play areas in tiny villages, lavender fields to run in, amazing food...

Hattiemattie - yes. Lovely place .

Northern Spain by 24 hour ferry with car. The hotels were very family friendly; we all ate dinner together with lots of other families, mostly Spanish.

With new babies we enjoyed Cornwall, Switzerland by train and central Spain. When our kids were younger we tended to book self-catering but then eat out, so at least we had a lot of living area.

France, place called Ty Nadan, Arzano, Brittany, one of the camping people can't remember which but my boys still talk about it now and they are 16 / 20 now. there was loads to do for them high wire thing, pools, club, river and pools, a great hol all round.

Jen127 I think Villa Pia is fab, and the food is so delicious, but I think it would be quite a different experience with bigger children. We only went a couple of times out of season when ours were quite little so I'd be interested to hear from people who've been in summer with older children.

When children were young we love our holidays at Torridge House Cottages in Devon. This is a wonderful farm with holiday cottages around edge of the farm yard. Each morning and evening the children feed the animals and even get assigned a pet for the week to look after. They loved collecting eggs and getting mucky cleaning out the pigsty with the farmer. There is a pool and lots of new friends on tap... Bliss.

Now they are older we do family adventure holidays abroad. We went to Thailand and trekked through the rainforest to stay with a hilltribe in longhouses... a real adventure but with 4 days on the beach and 3 days in the city to add to the mix.

This year we are doing another adventure holiday to Egypt. Can't wait.

We have been to Davy Crockett ranch at DLP as well and it was excellent, we upgraded to premium plus and it was worth it for the extra room and being closer to the village part.

Gambia was fab with kids as theres beautiful beaches and lovely fresh food, all inclusive is the way forward with children!.
Italy best as a couple, but saying that they Europe is generally very family friendly so I would take kids there.
A nice self catering holiday with kids was Cornwall but doesnt work out any cheaper than going abroad.

I hired a camper van and went round the UK for a week catching up with friends and relatives we hadn't seen for ages - boys aged 7 and 9 at the time. We slept in the van and showered / bathed in our friends' houses. One night in a campsite off the M6. It was fab, although I was too ambitious in my scheduling as I did all the driving. Boys want to do it again next summer.

My kids are teenagers now but when they were younger we went to Mallorca several times. It was always great, short flight, kid friendly and good weather (but not too hot).

I recommend the Sa Marina in Cala d'Or for little ones, really safe, clean and offers self catering or half-board.

My favourite was a lovely apartment on Cap D'Antibes where it looked like the owner had just popped out - wine in the fridge, lovely terraces, Sky TV. We walked to the gorgeous beach at Juan Les Pins every day. Will try to find a link. Dd loved La Carabasse with Siblu, with great pools and the town/beach/funfair in walking distance - and Park Albatross in Italy with Canvas - loads going on all day and the kids club did a couple of evening sessions meaning DH and I got the chance for dinner alone.

Dd said she loved last summers holiday, where we stayed at LeBanquet in the Dordogne - loads to do, stunning scenery, and Logis du Pressoir in the Loire, which was wonderful for running about with other kids - very relaxing. That one was a MN recommendation. The Zoo at Doue La Fontaine is the best I have ever been to.

Agree with Lavenderhoney, Ibiza is great for kids. Loads of small, shallow beaches so they can't wander off too far, lots of privately owned villas fully stocked with cots, plastic bowls and plates, high chairs etc. The Spanish love kids so no problem with having them at restaurants in the evening. The Dalt Vila is great for exploring and many of the high end beach clubs have kids clubs if you want an afternoon snoozing on the beach.

I'd second Majorca if you have DCs who will swim all day and you and they are happy to spend a day on water chutes.

I'm told Palma is nice to look round, but in 9 visits have never stayed dry long enough to look round.