Holidaying with teens........help please!

[SheilsW]

Was wondering if anyone could make any suggestions for holidays (at home or abroad) for our family which includes my 16yr old daughter and 13 yr old son?
I imagine my daughter won't want to holiday with us much longer (hope I am wrong, but getting prepared!) so am trying to think of something special.
We arent a particularly active family i.e. don't do abseiling, white water-rafting that sort if thing but are open to less tiring activities :)
Have done Disneyworld quite a few times and cruising with companies such as Royal Caribbean, which cater very much for families, but want to find something fresh that we haven't done before.
So all you lovely people out there with teenagers who don't think it's always cool to be with Mum & Dad on hol but they have to put up with it, any ideas? All greatly received!

Well, mine (will be 17,14,and 11 when we go) are very excited to be off to our first All Inclusive this year.
We've done years of UK holidays, and I think to keep the older ones wanting to come, you have to do something they can't afford to do on their own to tempt them.

SheilsW I started a similar thread yesterday on shorthaul here.
Not much joy though! It sounds like your family might like the same things we do.
BackforGood I'm sure you'll love AI, where are you going? (By the way did you used to be have a different name by any chance?)

Hotel Jodquellenhof, Bad Tolz, near Munich. Linked to Alpamare water park, short train ride from Munich for sight seeing and shopping.

Beach plus holidays from Neilson are brilliant too. Dabble at water sports as much or as little as you like, nice atmosphere.

We tend to team up with other families with similar-aged kids, so the teens can hang out together. We are renting a big house in Cornwall this year, six kids in total; the oldest will be able to go out and about independently, but still do some family stuff.

Last year I took nearly 14yo DS and then 9yo DD interrailing round Germany (Berlin etc), Prague, Austria & Switzerland, two nights in each place. DD got a bit fed up of long train journeys, so if I did it again I might do fewer stops but stay for three days in each, but DS loved it.

The year he turned 13 we did a week in a Eurocamp style place in France. There was a special deal with the ferry company so that you only paid per car and per mobile home, not per person, so it didn't cost any more to take a friend of DS's with us - that worked pretty well too.

This year we (me, DS who turns 15 while we're away, & DD 10) are going to Cuba on a family-with-teens group trip organised by Exodus. They do lots of group trips to Europe as well as further afield, some very active (riding, mountain biking, kayaking etc), some more relaxed. The advantage of that is that there are activities if you want to do them, and other kids/teens to hang out with. I'll report back after we've been, but another MNer did more or less the same trip with the same company last year, and it sounds like it was good. There are lots of companies doing similar things.

EggsEggSplat just looked at the Exodus website. They look fabulous and I would love the India trip but sadly all that enforced socialising it would not suit DH who is a hermit and can easily spend a two week holiday without speaking to a soul.

secret - we're going to Tunisia, and yes, I did have a different name for many, many years

Hi! Just wanted to say thanks for all your diverse ideas which I am looking through now. I really appreciate you taking the time to post your ideas and fingers crossed we book something soon, thanks again and keep the ideas coming! :)