Package Holiday or Villa for 1 year old?

[gemmalilysmum]

Hi! We are looking to book our first family holiday with our (will be) 1 year old daughter in October. Firstly, can any one recommend where to go, but most importantly would you recommend package holiday (all inclusive) or Villa? Initial thoughts were Villa as the thought of being confined to a hotel room every night from 7pm does not sound very appealing, but on the flip side the day activities for kiddies in the day sound great and I wonder if my daughter would get too bored in a villa (not that we would be there all day every day obviously).

Any advice would be great!

Gemma x

Villa. Every time
Majorca is lovely

On October maybe the canaries

Villa every time. October for me it would be Lanzarote - Playa Blanca has some lovely small villas and a safe beach at Playa Flamingo. Took our DS at 6months and almost 2. Only downside is the 4 hours plus flight.

best of both worlds, go for self catering with hotel facilities. somewhere like caserio del mirador in spain (top choice on mumsnets list of hotels) which really is as lovely as it sounds, or there are plenty of cheaper places in france or the canaries if you look at babyboltholes. villa is a bit boring and you end up spending your time keeping it tidy, dont see the point really.. go somewhere on babyboltholes and everything for baby is provided and you get a bit of being looked after too. no brainer.

Villa - we found that only from 3+ DD needed a bit of entertainment but not with just 1 year. Often villas have a pool so if you get a decent warm wetsuit your baby can paddle.

Majorca may get quite wet in October. A colleague owns a flat there and warns against renting it if you want sun and warmth. Canaries are better.

We always do self-catering and never find it boring but DH and I never like the typical package holiday hotels anyway, even without child. It is our idea of hell actually.

im with sparrow.. villa you spend all week keeping it tidy and self catering accomodation is never as comfy as home, mattresses, bathrooms etc, just not as good as in hotels. we had amazing hols at caserio del mirador. best of both worlds. really comfy bed. and all the baby gear you need, including your baby getting fed while you have an evening vino..

villa. you don't children's activities for a one year old.

Fiesta - it depends on what you rent. We had the most amazing villas but like to splash out. We have dishwasher, washing machine, what do you tidy, we are hardly in all day? Towels back on rails and putting dishes into the dishwasher. Beats the queues and bad breakfast buffets for me.

We had some bad choices, so we know now what to look out for it. If it is called "rustic charme" we skip it fast.

90% of the owners put the cleaning charges into the price nowadays, so now frantic cleaning before you leave.

We did villa holidays when ours were that age. I would much prefer a villa to AI at any age. I don't spend all my time tidying, you create the same mess wherever you stay anyway and we eat out most nights.

I have the same thoughts as you, being confined to a hotel room doesn't sound like fun and if you have a villa you have somewhere nice to sit while baby is sleeping. We have never been back at 7pm though, we always took our girls out in the evenings.

At 1 she wont need much entertaining and most places don't really do kids activities for that age anyway.

We spent holidays up to when DD was 2.5yrs in Villas. Great for her but I didn't much like it. I cooked, cleaned and did laundry - didn't feel like a holiday for me!.

Since she turned 3 we go to the first choice holiday villages which have fantastic facilities for small children, kids cluds, entertainment, even swimming lessons etc. She loves it and I get to relax a bit!

I have never cooked, cleaned or done laundry in a villa! The most we cook is a barbeque