Suggest us a holiday for October half term with 13 and 11 year old

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We're trying to book a holiday for October half term - either UK or Europe.

I say trying as the DC have changed so much in the last year, that I'm really not sure what sort of holiday will suit us any more (gone are the days of a different playground every day being good enough ...)

I'm thinking of either city break (that's not BOORRINNG) or more of a beach type holiday - though wouldn't want to spend all week on the beach.

Can anyone suggest what sort of holiday worked well for them when their DC were these sort of ages?

Somewhere warm with a waterpark and a town for getting out and about.

We did Kos and that went down a treat. Waterpark at the hotel (and a great beach waterpark too), a short bus ride into Kos town for knick knacks and an hours ferry for a day trip to Turkey for shed loads of excellent knock off branded hoodies for a fraction of the price. I am constantly asked when we can go back!

What about either an explore or exodus family holiday. Not sure of your budget
www.explore.co.uk/holidays/turkey-family-holiday

Barcellona particularly if either of them like football ? Mine are the same age and we are hoping to go to Berlin at half term (Ds is learning German and I massively regret not going in '94 when I had the chance.

Watching. We have kids of a similar age and they get bored so easily! We went to Rhodes Holiday Village last Oct and was great but they would have really enjoyed it a few years ago but they got bored most days instead!

I'd love to do another cruise with them as a good cruise line like Norwegian or Disney have great stuff on the ships and you get to visit several new places. We did a 3 night Disney cruise when we went to Orlando a couple of years ago and it was amazing.

Can I hijack and ask what the weather was like in Rhodes in October and if the holiday village was busy? I am planning on booking a half term holiday today and that is currently top of the list.

And as a suggestion what about a barge holiday? Possibly not the most relaxing of holidays but different. Or otherwise somewhere warm with lots of water sports.

We did Bruges vis Eurotunnel last Oct with ours the same ages. The weather was kind to us, we did the first day in Flanders exploring WW1 sites, two in Bruges itself and on the fourth over to the Netherlands for a breezy day at the seaside. They really enjoyed it.

The weather was lovely - about 28 most days. It wasn't too busy and half way through the week loads of people left so it was very quiet.

However I wouldn't go back again for the following reasons:-
The pools were freezing. Far too cold. I even bought wetsuits for the kids but they hardly spent anytime in the pools because they were almost unbearable.

The food was blah. Most nights we had to use the buffet because the 3 sit down restaurants were full (even if we tried to book as soon as the booking window opened!). Two closed completely part way through the week. Drinks were definitely watered down.
The last two days they started closing everything up. We were there the Saturday to Saturday of half term week so the whole place was closing on 1st November. The kids clubs closed, some of the staff left, bars closed etc etc. We were not impressed at all.

So personally I wouldn't go in half term sorry!

Useful info - thanks. I guess that is the problem with that time of year. Maybe we'll try and book a villa with a heated pool instead.