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?

Link to Antibes apartment.

Marking my place

We went to jungle aqua park in hurghada last year, it was brilliant. Rooms are In circles of about 50 each with a pool in the middle, ds had the one near ours to himself most of the time as most people were in the waterpark.

We went to the first choice holiday village in sharm this year and that was brilliant too despite the terrible trip adviser reviews.

the gulf coast, a place called treasure island near st Pete's.
been twice and just love it there,
great food, cheap, amazing beaches,
the wildlife is amazing, wild dolphins everywhere, pelicans and the clearest sea I've ever swam in.

Another vote for Villa Pia. As close to perfect a holiday with young children as you can get. I went there last year, my first holiday as a single parent with the DDs and it was just perfect. We all loved it.

The Atlantis in Dubai, amazing hotel, beautiful beach, right next to the best water park ever. Got up early and swimming in the massive hotel pools and pretty much had them to myself. There's a huge aquarium built into the centre of the hotel that goes up through every floor. If the kids got at all restless while we were getting ready to go out one of us just walked to the end of the corridor to look at the fish with them. It was just gorgeous.

Kalkan on the 'Turquoise' sout-east coast of turkey... family friendly, relatively uncommercialised, lovely beach clubs, huuuge choice of eateries... been taking our 5 children from when they were aged 6 - 20+ and they now take their own kids... nothing not to like as far as we're concerned...

breward Do you use a company to arrange your adventure holidays through, or do it all yourself?

Having suddenly developed a crippling fear of flying I am noting with interest all of the holiday recommendations where we could drive!

Flossiechops DH's sudden total fear of flying was one of our reasons for trying a cruise, I'd totally recommend it.

We went to Jordan with Families Worldwide. None of the hotels were amazing but we had a fantastic adventure!

Other good holidays were spending summer in the Alps with Esprit- great childcare so plenty of opportunity to go off and do grownup stuff if you want to.
The Maldives were lovely but a bit boring and last summer we went on safari in Namibia, which was amazing!

Thanks doublemum my parents and inlaws cruise and are always telling me how marvelous they are. I'm just worried I will be scared of the boat too!

French Riding Holidays in the Tarn. Fabulous all inclusive holiday.

Otherwise I'm recommending the French Jura to everyone I meet at the moment. You have mountains, clean lakes, great scenery, caves, all kinds of activities and great local food. Perfect family holiday destination. I have details on a couple of really nice chalets with pool,happy to pm you them (I don't own them just don't have the details to hand)

Flossiechops DH was very worried about that too, but the fact that we've now been on 5 cruises tells you he didn't need to worry. It's so radically different to being on a plane and the bigger family-friendly ships are absolutely huge so there's none of the claustrophobia of being on a plane. It can take a good 20-25 mins to get from one end of the ship to the other. For our first cruise we got a late deal and shelled out for a balcony, in case DH felt the need to get to the outside quickly. It was great having a balcony, but he never needed it for that reason. Since then we've even done an inside cabin and he was fine. In school holidays there are lots of families on board and the average age is a lot lower.

Flossiechops, I wouldn't do this with very small children, but dd & went by eurostar then overnight sleeper train to Spain, and it was absolutely fantastic, such a great adventure. There were quite a few families on the train, and so long as you book well in advance it doesn't work out too pricey.

We then went on by high speed rail down to Seville but I'd also like to do the trip again but stay in Madrid or alternatively go down to the south of France. (Hostels/car hire/eating out are all pretty cheap and reliably family friendly in Spain once you get there.)

dd & I that is, she didn't go on her own!!!

Petite Raleuse
Can you please send me the Jura chalet details pleeease!

Thanks

We r looking for family of 5 holidays for 3 teenagers, any tips?

I'm looking at Kalkan this year. Went to Dalyan last year and loved it so cheap and not too commercial.

Huge villas are about £400 for the week in Dalyan and its perfectly safe for teenagers to wonder about on a night.

Wells-next-the-sea in north Norfolk.

It's heaven.

Ooh we stayed near Wells next the Sea for a few nights last Aug, 'twas bliss. Ile D'Oleron fabulous. Hoping Lake Garda this year will be our best yet....

Dondy, I recommend Royal Wings in Turkey or FC Holiday Village in Costa los Gigantes Tenerife for teenagers. They have suite style rooms which means you can all be together but not cramped and it definitely works out cheaper than separate rooms. Loads going on all day and evening in both and all inclusive is the only way to go with teenagers as far as I am concerned, plenty for them to eat whenever they want it.

Hope you have a great time wherever you go.

Could you please pm the details to me too Petite?

Thanks!