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?

kahlua that place looks amazing. Have immediately bookmarked. Don't tell anyone else about it please .

Great thread. I am passionate about travel and live for my holidays. This year will be my DD's first without us at age 17. Trying to think of the places we have loved best when she was younger. I think the very best was Voyager Resort in Kenya near Mombassa which we booked AI with Thomsons and then found our own 3 night Masi Mara safari package which we booked from the UK directly with the camp. Fantastic experience. Voyager is a great hotel for kids aged 8+. Lots of great food and activities, nice rooms, lovely staff.
The camp was Siana Springs. They had a fantastic programme of kids' activities eg fishing with homemade rods, bow and arrows, a poo safari..
Another great trip was Brazil . 5 nights tour then Superclub Breezes on the coast . Booked with First Choice, just tremendous.

Closer to home we have also enjoyed mobile homes in Italy ( esp Europa Silvella in Lake Garda ) and France . Best french site was Armor Heol near Guerande. We could cycle to the beach and it was such a friendly site with very few other British . We rented directly from the site in both cases .

There are many , many wonderful French and Italian campsites and it is a very good holiday if budgets are stretched. We have done it by flydrive, self drive and by public transport alone ( Lake Garda ) .
Other great hols have been Sri Lanka and Australia. Plus plenty of ordinary apartments in Majorca, Ibiza , Menorca and Lanzarote.
My friend keeps returning to Lykia World in Turkey with her littlies and rates it highly
Best European family hotel for us was the Grecotel chain. We stayed in Rythmna Beach when it was owned by them, since changed hands but still looks good. Also stayed in their hotel in Kos. Any of the other Grecotel hotels are worth checking out , the kids facilities were second to none .

Has anyone stayed at Camping Ca S'avio in Italy? It looks great. I need somewhere we can fly to.

I stayed at Ca savio ( if it's the same one near Venice) in a ready tent quite a few years ago. It has a really nice beach and pizzeria that does lovely sparkling one. I went in August and it did feel quite crowded and pitches are close together. We drove, the journey was fine a did a day trio to Venice and another to Verona.

Ooh Denmark is such a great idea! I thought it would pretty much have to be France again if we wanted to avoid flying. Am going to look into it now. Thanks maycontainnutz

Lavenderhoney - how old were your DCs when you did Sri Lanka and Phuket? i"m desperate to go further afield but am a bit concerned about jet lag (mine are 1 and 3.5).....

Thanks fluffy, yes that's the one.

pine cliffs in Portugal, would recommend

Best holiday was in a villa in Pollensa,Majorca. Only went out to the beach one day.

Has anyone been to Martinhal?

Or Almyra in Cyprus?

We have done Pra' delle torri - which is slightly up from Ca S'avio - and love it.
It has the biggest swimming pool complex in Italy - so all the mainland European visitors go there and the Irish and British go to the beach. So the beach is quieter. Lovely shallow water and you can get the sand wet enough for decent sand castles.
If flying to Marco Polo, there is a bus which stops at the reception for a few euro. You can book at reception for one to take you back too.
The resort do day trips to Venice etc

Our ultimat best holiday was a safari in Kenya. We did Mout Kenya, the lakes, the Samburu and Masai Mara parks, and ended up at the Voyager Hotel in Mombassa. Cost £2k per head (both kids charges as adults) but we had a safari bus to ourselves for the week and it was amazing.

Florida was great.

Many campsites in France were fantastic, but we loved Sanguli in Spain-near Barcelona as could walk to the beach, walk to the train and have a day trip to Barcelona, and many days at Portaventura around the corner.

Best ever budget holiday - camp bestival 2012 with a week in a caravan at Durdle Door afterwards.

Best ever £££ holiday - Knoll House Hotel in Studland. We've been three or four times. Love it.

We love Dorset.

HilaryM - How did you do your camp bestival week and then your caravan week? I am camping four nights at bestival and a week in a caravan afterwards sounds really nice.

Did you leave your camping stuff (tent etc) in the car for the week you were in the caravan?

How old were your dc? I'm wondering 5yo dd1 will be too tired to enjoy a week in a caravan after 4 days camping?

1991 yes to Martinhal. Didn't quite live up to expectations, very windy and a little too quiet in the evenings. HTH.

We're looking at Pine Cliffs for this year but put off as it's close to Albuferia (sp?)...

HilaryM I love Studland bay! Gorgeous beaches - if a bit busy in high Summer. We camped at the nearby Burnbake Campsite, and visited Durdle Door too. Camp Bestival really is a fully entertained event for all as well!

We went to Alsagra last year. It seemed lots of people did a week at Villa Pia and then a week at Alsagra. We were a bit underwhelmed by Alsagra. I had read loads of really good reviews here. Their childminder was completely lovely though and it was the first time we had left our DD.

loving this thread , giving me lots to look up! We have had llovely family holidays in villas in pollensa area and St Maxime area in South of France , the key thing being for me private pools and plenty of space for us all and hire car to get around to explore.
In UK we had a great Featherdown farm summer holiday a couple of years ago - kids loved feeding the calves and horses and the accommodation was great fun and surprisingly better than I expected
We also love Elie and East Neuk of Fife area.
Not sure what we will be able to afford this year so looking for some good budget ideas too!

Best has been Costa Rica with www.adventurecompany.co.uk

weegie mum I am also interested in the outer hebs - any recommendations?

Disneyworld Florida. Didn't think we'd enjoy it, did it for the kids, but all loved it.
Stayed at Disney Polynesian resort and then hard rock hotel at universal studios to do Harry potter world.

Lovely hotels, sunshine, good food (honestly) and happy kids due to theme parks = happy family. Quality in USA is generally v good I think.

With kids have also loved: Rome. Lots to do, then 6pm glass of wine in piazza whilst watch kids play. Bliss. Taken them 4 times!

Also have done villa pia when kids smaller. Was nice but one week enough for us needed break from enforced socialising. Was like staying in a v nice commune.

How old were your dc when you went to Rome Euphemia?

I would love private pool but they are always expensive aren't they?

Stockholm archipelago in August was a top one for us. DD was 16 months. We stayed in a summer house on its own boat-accessible-only island. Taking the boat with outboard to the supermarket was fab. Warm water for swimming in lake.... Wild blueberry pancakes for brekky every day, blueberries picked by me and DD from garden. ahhh, lovely.

carriedaway first time they were 4 and 7yrs last time they were 9 and 12yrs.

We've found it great with kids- ours are happy to wander around all the little streets just discovering stuff, and of course there'sall the more obvious big stuff to see as well. My kids have been into roman history so the colleseum and forum have passed them time until evening drinks. They have their favourite pizzeria which we always go back to and our favourite gelateria, we've had some great memories there and will go back - this year going to Venice for a change though.

Oh, and its loads cheaper to rent an apartment in Rome than a hotel for a family, there are loads available, we love the Trastevere area.

Oh, and another tip: time the kids running around the edge of the piazza while you drink your wine,they get v competitive and try to beat their time, often buying yourself time for another drink.

1991all - we have been to the Almyra in Cyprus, a few years ago now. The hotel was truly lovely, as were the staff, and they have (genius idea) a big canvas sail over the pool so it is in at least partial shade all day, so the DC can stay in as long as they want.

The food at the hotel was lovely too, but really expensive, and we found the immediate surroundings depressingly English-breakfast-and-beer orientated and expensive - we despaired of finding anywhere where we could even have lunch for less than £100 for 4 of us. We did eventually find a couple of places where the locals seemed to eat, which did good food and were good value, but they meant dragging the DC away from the pool and driving. All in all I don't think we would go back (but then we very rarely go to the same place twice).

The one we would all go back to like a shot if we could afford it was Kuramathi in the Maldives. I feel wistful just typing that, I would SO love to go again...

triplets I too think you should just go for your holiday. Usually the insurance specifies that they won't cover treatment related to the pre-existing condition (cancer in my DH's case, as well) but should cover other things, such as accidents, which is what I'd be worried about mostly.

Also, you should still be able to travel within the EU at the very least, as you can put in for an EU insurance card (I forget what they are called, but everyone who is a UK resident should get one if they are traveling within the EU). It's a reciprocal agreement between the countries so I would think it includes anything which would be covered in the UK?