Families of 5... tell me how you do a sun holiday...

[ja9r]

Particularly interested in all inclusive but open to all good options. Tia

Have done a couple
All inclusive and half board
Booked family room which is 2 bedrooms in hotels and also stayed in 2 bed apartment a

Loads of families of 5 do eurocamp / al Fresco holidays. Though they aren't AI.

we are a large family and just find hiring our own villa a much easier option. particularly as they get older and don't want to share so much.

We did AI in Majorca, Pirates Village in Santa Ponsa (booked direct with them) and Playa Dorada in S'illot- also booked direct. One bedroomed apt, dc3 was still in a cot each time so he went down first in the bedroom then next child then next until we had some time alone then we dragged cot back through when we went to bed.
We hired a villa last year and this year.

Is this what you meant?

We get family suites with two bedrooms, but someone usually has to be on sofa bed.

There are a few hotels that have 3 bedroom suites, but they fill up quickly.

Hotel Viva Zafiro in Alcudia, Mallorca was AMAZING (but spendy).

Lots of FC/TUI and Thomas cook family resorts do rooms for 5.

Holiday village Cyprus is lovely but there are loads of other choices for 5 (although if you are looking for this summer availability may be limited.

We booked interconnecting rooms through Thomson in Riviera Maya, Mexico. We had 2 single beds for our teenagers and a sofa bed for dd. It worked really well, but I did do a lot of searching before I found it!

Good luck.

Family room 2 double beds and a sofa bed. Hotel AI. Thomson will find you something - go into one of their shops. You have to do an all in one room thing or it will be £££££. Sometimes you can get a family suite which is basically the size of 2 rooms but knocked into one with no door between. Just an arch in the wall or something

Great info. Thanks for hotel names. Do you tend to go package or book the components separately? What operators have you had most success with?

I'd go package with Thomson. If you have problems, they can fix stuff for you or advise you. I do think that when you are with kids, Rep service can be extremely valuable.

Villa much better for us as everyone has their own space - have done hotel holidays (taking a junior suite, two bedrooms and a sofa bed) and glamping (bedrooms with 3 singles for the kids, normally a couple as a bunk bed, and a double for us) in Europe. Club med good for all inclusive if your kids are ok with most of the other kids being French speaking. Centreparcs in Holland was a brilliant experience for us (went for a 3 bed villa) and so cheap compared to the UK - not all inclusive but you could book meal packages if you wanted to.

We're doing air bnb this year

We did villa holidays. They are more expensive though.

We have done a whole manner of things so we either do a 3 bed apartment if self catering or if in a hotel we go for a suite or 2 interconnecting rooms. We never go in one room, we need space!

We generally do Eurocamp.

Book independent flights through easyJet/ryan air/jet2 etc then look at golf resorts for apartments. You can get some fabulous accommodation but will often need a car to get to the beach, look at places on James Villas resorts, but google yourself and book independently. Car hire bumps the price up. You should be able to get 2 weeks for around 3-4K self catering. Or try AirBnb etc. Depends if your happy to eat out/ self cater or want the full hotel experience. Depends on the ages of your kids, but obviously out of school holidays can reduce it massively, so if you have babies and receptions aged kids you can get some fab bargains in June/early July.

Just seen you'd like AI. For the price of AI you could book SC and have some fabulous lunches or evenings out, in different restaurants, then do sandwiches/snacks etc for the other meal. Load the fridge with cheap wine and ice creams and you're all good to go!

@dinkystinky Can I ask which CP in Holland you stayed in? Thinking of a change next year from our usual Med holiday. Any advice?

Het Heijerbos as catered for youngest (3 at time) as well as older boys (8 and 11) - we also liked the look of De Kempervennen but thought it would be best for older kids

May half term is perfect time to go - Dutch back at holiday so not too crowded. If going over summer hols last two weeks of August also meant to be good for similar reasons

Sorry last response - we drove via the tunnel - super easy and good drive. Meant we could take food, bikes, etc to minimise costs while there

We have always gone with thomas cook, I have found Greek islands tend to have more 1 or 2 bed apartments on offer in aparthotels although we have had them in mallorca too , some of the hotels do ai, but I prefer to breakfast when I want ...very late and try new places to eat at night, so we usually do sc.

Thanks...will look for next year!