Corsica with childcare, food cooked and nice room?

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I know there have been threads on various Mark Warner resorts and I have been looking at Corsica, San Lucianu. I have a ds of 18 months and we're hoping to go away in June, seems like such a long time to wait!!!. It also seems like a lot of dosh - eek! My main worry, having been reassured about childcare and not having to join in holiday camp forced activities, is accommodation comfort and room for cot etc. Has anybody out there been? with a cot? are the rooms really small? is it quiet/noisy? Do you have to have two children to qualify for a suite?
help please! We went to Ibiza last year with Airtours superfamily first which was really good but childcare was limited to 2hours a day for under 2's. Please let me know what you think or have you been on a similar hol? Has anyone tried a Nielson beachside(?)hol?

Tab, we went to San Lucianu with Mark Warner in Sept 01 and had a really good holiday. When we first arrived I thought the reception area was a bit grotty (well more the stairs area)but the rooms themselves were fine but not luxurious. I seem to remember it was the usual white walls and dark wood. We had two children sharing our room, one in a bed and one in a cot and that was a squeeze. I had to cimb into bed from the bottom cos there was only a few inches between that and the cot. However, if you only have one cot you would be able to put it where we put the extra bed for ds 1 and have more space. Remember, you also don't spend a lot of time in the room!

I second what you have said about not being forced to join in activities, there was quite a lot going on, mostly water-based or tennis but no-one ever approached me waving a beach ball or tennis racquet!

Food was also good (although better at Club Med) and it was quiet at night. Because we went at the end of season there were very few night time activities organised, a few quizzes or prize presentations but nothing that kept anyone awake. Lots of people there had kids so on the whole people were pretty considerate and kept the noise down.

With regards to a suite, I think they only have five family rooms and by now they are probably booked up. Also I imagine you pay more for them which if you only have one little one in a cot is probably unecessary expense.

Oh, just saw you also asked about Neilson, we did one holiday with them when we only had one child and were also happy. We went to Greece (can't remember where at the mo) and the place we stayed was very little so there were only 4 children in the creche and 2 nannies as one was under 2. The kids had a great time! However, there was no night time babysitting and it's not full board so you do end up spending more on food. Also check how close restaurants etc are to your accommodation, we only had two close by and otherwise had to walk about 2 km into town which was fine for us but difficult with a 2 year old in the buggy. Sorry, this turned into a monster post!

Thankyou Annh for providing such a good response to my question (hope that turns in to a smile face!). We're finding it so hard to make a decision. Id really like to go to Corsica as several friends have raved about it.

I note you've been on Club Med too. How did that compare to Mark Warner? We went on an Airtours super family last summer in desperation - we booked quite late and it was so difficult to find anything with childcare. it was fine but very cheesey. I think probably better when the children are a bit older and you feel happy to leave them in a kids club rather than baby creche.
Thanks for your advice. If you're still out there - Id love to hear your comments about club med.

You're welcome Tab We only stretched to Club Med once and were going to go to a 2 Trident one (their star rating) but ended up in a 3 Trident one as the one we were due to go to ended up not opening until later in the season. It was April last year and most sensible people were thinking of the Iraq war and not venturing to that part of the world - except us!!! So my view is probably a bit biased as we obviously ended up getting more than we paid for (even though we had already paid quite enough, thank you very much!)

We went to Palmiye in Turkey which is one of the larger Club Meds. Briefly in comparison to Mark Warner, the rooms were of a better standard, we had booked a family room which the travel agent (not Club Med direct) had said was 2 separate rooms with a connecting door. This turned out not to be the case when we got there and our family room was quite frankly horrible. (Something may have gotten lost in the change of resort?) We complained and because the hotel was quite empty we were moved to two separate but adjoining rooms which were clean, bright, nice bathrooms etc.

Food was great, a huge choice every day with various themes for dinner. It is much more international than Mark Warner, we met a lot of Dutch, French and Russians there. Although the staff would hotly dispute this, it IS very francophone but having lived in Belgium and speaking reasonable French we found this quite appealing. Of course, they do all speak English

We were happy-ish with the childcare - our kids were used to nursery and school at that stage but I think it could be a shock if your child has not done anything like that before. They also have loads of different nationalities in the kids club and all the instructions had to be repeated in about 4 languages. I don't know how they ever managed to get anywhere! It's worth bearing in mind that for the older kids (from about age 4?) the childcare workers don't have to have childcare qualifications.

We did have the feeling of being in a very upmarket Butlins at times which we didn't really feel in Mark Warner but we were comparing a smallish MW with a v-large CM.

Hope this helps, any other specific ?s just post.

We went with ds1 when he was 5 months. We've also done Mark Warner last year with 2 under 3 in Greece, where the accom was 2 interlocking rooms which worked fine.

Have to say that I didn't join in with anything all week though we did decide to share a table with another couple one night - we just wanted to crash really. We also went in Sep 01 so I echo the above comments on decor (and the irritant that it seemed to be impossible to find a teapot with a lid on it!). However friends went last year and it seems to have been done up. We just can't sleep in the same room as ds so he ended up in the "lobby" area of the room (so we had a door between us and ds, and another door between ds and te main corridor of the hotel)and we all slept fine. Baby listening worked well for us, childcare is great, but should warn you that your son's nurseryroom will be the noisiest (in terms of kids being upset)- it must be the age or something.

MW is scarily English (only one member of staff spoke any French), but I tend to prefer this over Club Med. A friend had her children at Club Med and there only seemed to be one or two other English-speaking children in their groups. I know I ought to be thrilled at the opportunity of diversity for my children, but I'm on holiday!

150%, how funny, you must have been there at almost the same time as us, we were also in San Lucianu in Sept 01 (we flew the Sunday after 9/11 - oh what a joyous seven hours that was in Gatwick airport!) and also had a 5 month old so our kids must have been in the same room! I laughed when you mentioned the teapots - I had completely forgotten about that but it also reminded me of the teaspoon shortage, they were always running out at breakfast! I think it was an end of season thing, they were closing the week after we left, which reminds me the beauty salon had closed already - think the therapist left early and wasn't replaced - and the beach bar was also closed, not a problem as in Sept it was too cool at night anyway.

Tab, you can choose to share tables at dinner with another couple or you can ask to sit alone, it's not a problem either way and we tended to vary. Dinner is normally 3 courses with a choice and is served, on changeover day they have a buffet and larger tables which I found to be a pain, you never actually got to speak to anyone properly cos one of you was always trotting off to get food.

Yes, it's all coming back to me now!

thanks 150 percent and annh again. We will have to make a decision soon I think! I do quite like the idea of not being in a huge place and note your comments about Club Med being big.
Re your comment 150 % about not joining in all week - thanks for that - that may well be me. I certainly feel that Im getting a lot of activity with ds although not always of my choosing! Ideally Id love to try out a few things so I think its great to have the option there but not feel bad if a nice drink and sunlounger is more tempting (mmm - that sounds good!). Thanks again to both of you - Hope I can help you on another topic at some point!