Thinking of next summer where was your best holiday with older children

[Brighteyes27]

Thinking ahead to next years holidays as for the past 3 years we have holidayed in the Algarve in August Alvor or Carvoeiro for easiness. Staying in private holiday let's with pool (mixture of children families from different nationalities but mainly English). Nice relaxing atmosphere during the day warm but cooling breeze during the day good food nice family meals out at different restaurants at night. But no on site facilities for the kids just a pool and made up games of tig, hide and seek and ball games which has always proved successful etc. Thinking next year we would like either a few more facilities table tennis table football and or snack bar etc but not the mad busy level of All Inclusive. Where was your favourite holiday with older children and why?

Bump

Villa plus have things like pool tables - or you could have a look at detached villas with pools on developments like rocha brava or Quinta do Paraiso which have other facilities?

I've travelled all over and I don't think the destination would matter so long as the weather was hot, they were close to the beach, all inclusive do they could eat and drink what they wanted and with waterslides and entertainment. We've booked last minute to go to turkey in 2 weeks and that's what we're doing. Not my sort of thing at all but if they're happy then I'll be happy. Nothing worse than paying out money to be left with moaning kids

Neilson....hugely successful holidays with my DDs and then with DDs and DSDs...

started when youngest dd was 5 and older one was 9 and still going now with 22 yr ranging down to 17 year old.

great if you like acitivites or like lying by pool and kids are the active out going types

Have you thought of a city break? We have had great trips to Barcelona, Dublin, London, New York and San Francisco with our teenagers and are off to Rome in October.

Thanks yes we've done city breaks which are great for 3 or 4 days but thinking of 10-14 days to recharge all our batteries. Neilson and the facilities of your Turkey holiday sound worth looking into. But not sure I fancy Turkey especially at the moment. Also I start to feel hemmed in and like a prisoner after a few days of an AI holiday and am desperate to break out both during the day and at night. So your kind of paying twice.

Costacoffeeplease I'll look up those resorts and do love the Algarve but was thinking of maybe having a change. I like other kids around as our two enjoying having fun with holiday friends.

We've been to big Eurocamp / something Soleil (anyone??) etc style self catering chalets - which we like as we love trying new food and don't want to eat out all the time - often have good pools with lots of slides etc, tennis/basketball facilities etc also sometimes arranged activities - pretty mild, things like archery etc, but made a nice change. One we went on was v near a canoe hire place (Dordogne, France - utterly fabulous on the clear river - you could see the bottom, full of fish, castles on all sides. Glorious).

Brittany isn't especially hot but the rockpooling/snorkelling can be fab, fascinating prehistoric monuments as well. Snorkelling in Majorca was even fabber! (though there we stayed in a plain old rental so no recommendations for one offering more). My (big) teens still really enjoy doing these last two activities!

We went with older teens to Costa Adeje Tenerife.
Big hotel B&B. This gives all the advantages of a big pool, lots of organised sports and games, gym, sports facilities etc. but you can still eat out and try lots of nice restaurants.
Also there is Siam park, a stunning water park

We've done every sort of holiday known to man, over the years. We did one all-inclusive in the Caribbean, but by the end of the second week we were all beginning to tire of it - was only because we met a couple of nice families that we got through without falling out.

Another year we went to Barbados - 4 families of similar-aged kids in two villas. Hired jeeps per family, so we could do things together or separately if anyone wanted. There were enough of us (16) that we could hire a catamaran for a couple of days and split the costs so it was manageable.

But one of the best we did was the French Alps, where we (and 2 other families of similar-aged kids again) stayed in a ski hotel and did loads of outdoorsy activities, like water-rafting, canyoning, mountain-biking, paragliding etc.. We drove down via Paris for some sightseeing, and returned via Eurodisney.

The above were all with teenagers, if that's relevant. It's much harder to please everyone when they're old enough to have loud opinions!

Best holiday we ever did was at Easter this year. 3 nights beach/pool/boats in Fort Lauderdale, 7 night cruise round the Caribbean with amazing beaches and trips, lots to do on the ship, 2 nights at Busch Gardens, 5 nights in Orlando (Seaworld, Aquatica and Discovery Cove).

Absolutely loved every minute of it - kids are 15, 13 and 10. Not cheap, but with a bit of shopping around, it was not much more than 2 weeks in Turkey the year before. It was supposed to be the last 'big' holiday before our eldest wouldn't want to come with us anymore, but now he's asking when we can go again!

I like the idea of the Tenerife holiday ie a few more facilities on site but still having the freedom to eat out but I've never fancied the Tenerife or the Canaries. The Easter holiday sounds fab but by summer I'd be regretting going early. I have fancied Eurocamp style but we enjoy eating out and I don't want to be stuck on a big site and it's difficult to know which if any are within easy reach of a local town for a bit of variety and culture other than what's on a big camp site?

we have teens and have done the following. happy to send more info if any appeal to you:

Canada and the rockies
florida half in the Keys and half at the parks
Belize - fabulous place
Ocean elements watersports holiday.

we went to crete recently and loved it but we do prefer our own company rather than big hotels or sites.

We went to Duinrell in Holland. Lots of different companies offer holidays here. There is a small theme park next door which you have access to which is great for teens. There's a lovely sandy beach a short drive away and Amsterdam isn't too far if you want some culture.

Yes Duinrell is great.. Loads to do onsite with indoor water park and outdoor theme park.. Can hire bikes with loads of cycling routes. So close to the village of Wassenaar with its lovely restaurants.. Then if want day trips you can visit Amsterdam, The Hague.

Duinrell is fab. Such good value for money with the theme park and water park included in the price.

Germany or Austria. The mountains and lakes. Loads of activities. There are family hotels: some are geared up perfectly for older children, with air hockey, pool tables etc so they can have a level of independence.

We usually go places like Egypt/Tunisia/Morocco where everything is on site but last year went to Kos and were pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed it.

We did day trips out to Kos Town, ancient ruins, different beaches and into the mountains.

We also did a boat trip to Turkey and bought a bucketload of "genuine fakes" for DD

We were at an AI hotel, but ate out every few days. The hotel was great and actually not to busy considering it was the school holidays.

We went back to Egypt this year and had a great time, but DD has asked if we can go back to Greece next year as she thinks she preferred it.

We loved Duinrell, took bikes and cycled loads.

We also did a week at Lake Garda followed by a week in Austria - was great - so much to do for the kids and great food.

The best was 3 weeks in California this summer but that was a bit more expensive than the above 2 holidays. Worth every penny though.

Thanks we are very fair skinned and can just about manage Portugal with a breeze in the shade in summer that's about as hit as we go. I will look up Duinrelll. The kids will be 12 and 13 next summer.
It's also hard work finding suitable accommodation if you have a girl and a boy of this age. As I find many unless you book privately offer a double sofa bed fir two kids of this age or it sounds like your all on top of ea h other in one room.

We've just come back from two weeks in Provance (2 families, 6 kids aged 6 to 12). It was brilliant. We booked a house through Airbnb that had a pool and a huge garden. We went kayaking down rivers, walking up rivers through gorges (had to swim through bits), cycling up mountains, wine-tasting at Chateaunerf du Pape, the odd pretty village, hiking through mountains with amazing views, practised some French etc.

Thanks definitely don't fancy going with other families that would be my idea of hell. After a few nightmare camping trips with a super bossy controlling mum I was very hard work. Thanks

We are going on a 2 week Mediterranean cruise with our DDs (aged 15 and 13) next year. Not done this before but has been recommended. Fingers crossed.

We are lucky enough to have been to a lot of different places.
By far the best with our teens was goa.
We don't like just sitting by the pool all day so we went on lots of trips out. They are really cheap. Sitting on the beach at night eating fresh fish and lobster was lovely and not at all expensive.
We also loved sharm el sheik but wouldn't go at the moment.

We have just booked for Tenerife AI next year. Expensive but hoping it will be ok. We have 4 teenagers who just want a waterpark and to be able to eat and drink what they like. The Siam waterpark looks great and is not far from where we will be staying. Fo rthe following year we are hoping to do a Eurocamp to the Italian lakes or maybe french Eurocamp. We have done this once before and chose a park with a waterpark and the kids loved it.