what do/did you do for holidays with preschoolers?

[Misty9]

Pre kids we loved city breaks and holidays with culture and good food. We were never fans of beach sitting around holidays. Now ds, 3.6, hates water and dd, 10 months seems to be following suit. But most family holidays seem to be centred around a pool.

What types of holiday do you take with young children?

We've done Boston Toronto, niagara falls, Orlando, Snowdonia, London, Edinburgh all with two DC under school age. We couldn't do a beach/swimming pool in a resort holiday, we'd be bored senseless.

I don't think you have to do anything beach related. We never really did, yes we spent two holidays in Majorca and went to the beach but hardly every day all day.

We normally go self catering and look for areas where there is a lot to do, sightseeing, nature, animals. You can do this everywhere.

Stayed with family, cos that was free and came with some free child-care!

For short breaks we've done Naples, Ireland, Butlins and holiday homes in the UK.

Longer breaks we've been to Greek Islands and Hungary (we spent part of the holiday rurally, part in Budapest and popped across to Croatia)

Personally, I much prefer a city break holiday but even when we stayed AI we only went to the beach once as we were off on day trips.

Camping!!!!

go in May or october, cheaper and pools are cold or closed anyway, so all the normal places in spain france etc but cheaper!

we stayed in the UK as couldn't face and wasn't able to fly with oldest DD. we went to Cornwall, Wales, Bath, Southwold all over. Kids didn't care really so we picked places we had things to see as well. didn't take them abroad until eldest was 7 to Euro Disney and didn't fly until they were in their teens.

I'd recommend Marrakech. People are really child friendly, the flight is not too long (and easyjet Ryanair fly there so you can get a return for £50 if you book early enough), and my toddler adored the sounds of the mosques going off

DS favourite was a cottage in Cornwall. It was nice but DS still bangs on about who he is and isn't taking to his holiday house.

Thanks all - We've got one UK cottage holiday with friends booked already. We did it last year and ds loved it - he too went on for ages about his 'holiday home' :)

I'm swinging between thinking let's just spend money on day trips and nice food here (we live near a very touristy destination area) and thinking I just can't resist the lure of a week abroad... its not helped by the fact that dh could care less about holidays, and he's self employed, so it's always me pushing for them.

Any other ideas welcome!

*Couldn't care less...

My kids loved Featherdown Farm holidays when they were that age.

dd is 2 and so far we've done short trips to Berlin and munich and longer Road trips through South Africa and croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina. This year were booked to do another Road trip through albania and montenegro. firm believer that having kids doesn't stop you from travelling!

Britany. Plenty to see, good food, decent weather and easy to get to with your own car. Beaches if you need them.

I really enjoyed Jersey. But the kids loved/love the beach.

Caravans by the seaside.
Then graduated to chalets and even cottages.

However, for us, a pool was always a must, as it would use up a couple of hours each day whatever the weather. Also did wonders for their swimming, just mucking about in a pool for several days in a row.