Been on hols in the last couple of years or so? UK or further afield? Help shape future MN content - and share your holiday heaven (or hell)

[JaneDMumsnet]

Here at MNHQ we're busy revamping our "Where to travel when" section and want to know your favourite holiday hotspots and the best time of the year to head there. We'd also love you to add a review for any holidays you've been on in the last two years or so - whether they were ace or crap not.

It might be that you've discovered a gem of a hotel in Italy which offers free ice-creams to kiddies (and wine for Mums) during the third week in May, always visit the Lake District each October to appreciate the stunning autumnal colours, or take the troops to Florida each October half-term to take advantage of cheaper hotels and far fewer crowds. Whatever your reasons, we want to know! Please please, share your top tips and recommendations on this thread. We can't promise to use all your suggestions but will certainly use them to do our research and steer our content.

Also - whilst we are talking holidays - please add a review - reviews on MN are split into lots of categories - below are the links:

Family Hotels UK and Ireland
Self Catering UK and Ireland
Camping in the UK
European hotels
Self Catering in Europe
European campsites
Ski-Snowboarding holidays
Hotels - longhaul
Longhaul self catering
and family activity holidays, anywhere

And if you haven't been away - you can always add a review to the family days out section

Thanks so much - reviews always welcome - but please do on this thread tell us where families should go and when and anything which made your family holiday special - we'd love to hear from you

thanks
MNHQ

Hi JaneD :)

Are there multiple Janes now?

luabay Los Gigantes in Tenerife. This was an all inclusive holiday where the food was very good.
The kids actvities were many ! They had a kids club morning / afternoon and in the evening.
One day of the week they have a large inflatable in the pool that the kids get to climb over and the adults attempt to do the same.
There are two or perhaps three specilaity restaraunts that you have to book. The steak restaraunt was very good.
The kids had competitions all the time and they all loved collecting their certificates at night.
There is adult activities around the pool like , darts etc.
And also a thermal circuit pool which you get one free entry too which was fab!
There is a small gym ( I peeked in the door)
There is a kidies disco at night.

This holiday would be for toddlers till 12 year olds I would say. There was not so much for teeneagers to do .

The rooms were two separate rooms with a living room and pull down couch and another separate bedroom.
The mini bar was filled daily.

We were there at the start of July and there were many people there on 2nd and 3rd visits .

Are looking specifically for places that are very child friendly or is it just anywhere that we've been?

Antrim coast, Northern Ireland, love going back there, the beaches are fabulous, a proper bucket and spade holiday.

We stayed in my cousin's house in France. I could do a review but my cousin isn't really touting for business

Since we have had kids we have mainly done Sun holidays at Haven which have always gone down well because if the entertainment, pool and beaches.
We splashed out last year and went to Australia before DD started school, I would recommend Sci tech in Perth and penguin island. That was obviously a fantastic holiday.
However we have had two fantastic weeks in Amroth near Tenby. First time we had fantastic weather and saw lots if beaches enjoyed the countryside etc. second time the weather wasn't so good but there was still plenty to do. I am the biggest fan of Folly Farm and I would have a season ticket if it wasn't five hours drive away, DD now 5 was 3 last time we went and she still asks to go back. I would return to Amroth again and again because it was such a beautiful place, affordable, and there were so many things to entertain the kids, us and my parents too.

I took my DC to Cape Town a couple of years ago. I had always wanted to go and it was even more beautiful than I expected. We visited a couple of places each day, never more than an hours drive away and then finished of the day with a swim in the hotel pool. We stayed at the hotel Protera President which was a great base for exploring with stunning sea views. Cape Town is a great family destination as no jet lag and very good value for money.

@Trills

Hi JaneD :)

Are there multiple Janes now?

Zillions of them...

@FellatioNels0n

Are looking specifically for places that are very child friendly or is it just anywhere that we've been?

Anywhere you've been that you'd like to recommend, really. But do please note if it's meant to be child-friendly or not (and if it is, whether it actually is!): helpful for others.

Blue Lagoon Village 5* Thomson resort in Kos. Fabulous place, new, spotless, spacious, all set up for families. Rammed with mumsnetters, you could just tell. Loved it!

Kuramathi in the Maldives. Heaven on earth. None of us wore shoes for 2 weeks (not the only reason it was so good, but indicative of the atmosphere)

We've done four holidays with DS who's 20 months:

Sunsail resort on vunaki (sp) Greece that had an amazing kids club, ESP for tiny ones (he was only 5mo) although pool was cold in sept which was a downer.

Then skiing in les gets. Highly recommend this as a ski resort as its so close to airport and everything in town is on one level. Whole place just seems geared towards families. Cannot wait to I back with ds next year for him to start lessons.

Various trips to Salcombe in s.devon to stay with family. Perfect again for kids of all ages - beaches, boats and crabbing! Avoid school holidays if kids still young enough otherwise town gets v busy and full of poncy gits in 4x4s.

Then we went to foca in turkey to stay at neilson resort. Kids club staff weren't so great for little ones - lots of lazing about eating chocolate in their part. Although the older kids seemed to have an amazing time. Overall the resort was ace though so would go back with older dc. Flight times are a shag tho and fairly weighty transfer from airport.

Hth

Cruising has been a real hit with us when the children were aged 10ish to 16ish.

Baltic capitals in the summer with Norwegian Cruise Line was best. But would also recommend Caribbean and the Mediterranean.

Not as expensive as you might think when you take into account all the meals are provided. Shore excursions can be expensive so we often did our own thing there.

The childrens clubs are fantastic and divided up into quite narrow age ranges so the activites are really appropriate.

Zermatt is a great place for a summer holiday if you're outdoorsy types. Doubly fantastic if you have transport fanatic children. It is car-free, so we flew to Zurich then caught the train (double-decker train with a children's carriage complete with slide!), then the mountain (cog) railway up to Zermatt. We got an electric taxi to the apartment we'd rented (found it on www.ownersdirect.com). We bought a lift pass which included all the mountain railways, cable cars, funiculars etc and spent every day walking - eg on a glacier, between five lakes (children get a prize from the tourist office for completing this walk), between different lifts/railways. You can get loads of suggestions for walks from the tourist office. There are "grillplaetze" in the forests where you can barbecue your sausages part way through your walk, a zip wire place. Tonnes of stuff for children to do.
This is the best family holiday we've ever had (DS was 5 at the time). The air is incredibly clean, the views (mainly of the Matterhorn, but you're actually surrounded by 38 mountains) are stunning and Zermatt is more affordable as a summer destination than a ski one! We were there at the beginning of August and it would have been possible to ski on the glacier - indeed, the Japanese ski team were in training there at the time!
We were only there for 7 days but could have stayed (and found new things to do daily) for three weeks. Brilliant place.

Twitchin caravan park ilfracombe - amazing.

However, I last went with DH and DM.... Never to be repeated.

Twitchin caravan park ilfracombe - amazing.

However, I last went with DH and DM.... Never to be repeated.

Neilson Adakoy great for older kids/teens (looked fine for little ones as far as I could tell) - the wind isn't too great but OK, and there's lots of activities as well as windsurfing and sailing. DD (13 last year) had brilliant time in Surf Squad. The great thing is its on a peninsular which is almost cut off so its really safe for kids of this age to be let off the parental leash. (and its really pretty and the transfer wasn't too bad)

On european hotels - DH hit gold last october - got a booking via Expedia at the Roma Cavalieri (waldorf astoria). Utterly fab hotel (heated outdoor pool) - we didn't eat there at all (its got a michelin starred restaurant ££££) but local cafes 5 mins down the road suited us perfectly. After a day trudging round the sights of Rome (and Ostia, terrific) a swim was just blissful.

In some ways this is mostly a tip to try Expedia to see what offers they've got - sometimes great places for a lot less than you might think.

Grimma that is one of my favourite hotels in the entire world. Pre-DC, we once got to stay and eat there with someone else paying. Bliss.

Ooooh Amroth ! That's my favourite beach ! Luckily we only live about 30 minutes away .
Free Parking , miles of beach ( when the tide is out ) fabulous rock pools .
Good cafe and shop for buckets and spades , ice cream etc

Cruises, we went on Celebrity Eclipse around the Med .
The . Best . Holiday . Ever.
Our 2 teenagers had a whale of a time , (13 & 15 at the time ) fantastic clubs for them , they did all sorts , a Bridge Tour , behind the scenes at the theatre , even careers talks from a selection of staff .

You've missed cruises of the list MNHQ. They surely are the future of family holidays!

bump because I was enjoying watching this thread and it's died a bit of a death for some reason