How was your summer holiday?

[PovertyJetset]

So we are on our way home from 2 weeks in France.

Thought it would be nice to hear your gems, advice and recommendations/warnings.

We camped on the Ile de Ré

It was lovely, weather was great the place is so beautiful and we biked our asses off everyday with the kids. Eating out was lovely but EXPENSIVE €70 at lunch for 4 and that was with the kids having the kids menu!

We ate on site and I cooked a lot too to keep €€ down.

We stayed in a place called le Phare near Ars En Ré, beautiful site and great mobile homes. The pitches for tents and caravans were pretty grotty looking and although the facilities were clean they were old and dark. DS really didn't like showering in them and there was no hand soap anywhere.

Can recommend Bois En Plage for a beach day, specifically plage de gros jonc, cycling from ars en Ré to Saint Martin along the spit around all the salt flats is stunning. Portes en Ré is tiny but really pretty. 2 excellent places to eat there, but be warned they don't do mussels at all as it's a it inland.

We also did Paris a bit too, but that was just journey breaking up really.

Anyway, tell me yours!

Cefalu in Sicily. Beautiful place and fabulous food. I would go back tomorrow.

We went to wales this year. Weather is awful. Cold and rained a lot. Certainly significantly colder than home. (South coast England). We spent half a day in Tenby in insulated jackets playing sand on the beach. We walked in the rain.

But it was quiet peaceful without a lot of tourists. And very cheap eating out. £35ish for 4 of us, 2 adults and 2 children meals. And very good food. With the weak pound it feels certainly value for money.

However because it was so cold, we booked to go to Kos next week!

As a comparison I looked at bbc weather. 26C and sunny at home, 18C and overcast in Pembroke. It's better to stay home if I want beach and sun.

mine was great. we went to Cape Cod. However we got super-lucky with the weather 24-30 each day, which IMO is perfect for a beach holiday.

hijiack - LoniceraJaponica I am already looking for next year, and Sicily is on the shortlist. How are the beaches in Cefalu, and how was the weather?

Went to Salou the first week in July. Was a great week. Hot hot hot. Got the relaxation I needed before going in for surgery.

I'm currently on Ile D'oleron, in a really pretty cottage 5 mins walk from the port and beach.

It's lovely, so laid back, but noticeably expensive but that's the exchange rate.

Currently have a rotten cold and temperature though so on sofa snoozing and DH and DSs at beach with D dog.

Should also say if shellfish is your thing come here, it's where they cultivate oysters and mussels.

DH pops out for croissants in the morning and gets himself some oysters for breakfast (3 euro for 6 oysters)

North Wales in a static caravan. Absolutely gorgeous, cheap as chips and lovely.

Also Chester, equally good. Shoppers paradise, unfortunately I am not a shopper so ok, the zoo was fab, blue aquarium not so good, crocky trail, put your life into your hands...kids had a ball though.

Next year I'm looking at all inclusive hot sunny somewhere, Wales again, Probably London definitively the lake district , we LOVE our holidays!

TheTurnOfTheScrew There is a sandy beach there and it shelves a little bit steeply to start with then very gently. You can walk a long way out to sea before you are out of your depth. I hadn't swum in the sea for years, and swimming there was heavenly. The beach was very crowded, but as our hotel was just across the road, we left our towels etc by the pool, nipped across the road for a swim and then went back to the pool.

We went the fist week in August, which I would avoid as it is there local saint's festival and it was very busy. There were live bands playing just outside our hotel a couple of nights. Fortunately they were pretty good, and when I went to bed I had no trouble getting to sleep.

It was hot. Temperatures between 33 and 37 degrees, but it was part of the European heatwave.

We stayed here, which I highly recommend. It really does justify the excellent Trip Advisor reviews.

Thank you so much! That's really helpful. We're definitely giving it some serious consideration, but perhaps for May half term, as I'm a bit rubbish in the heat.

Just back from Ibiza with DC 5 & 3 & overall we had an awful time & I'm still pretty depressed about it. One of the main problems was the place we stayed in (self catering) was not at all comfortable or child friendly. The few minutes walk to the beach was up & down an incredibly steep hill so coming back such hard work in the heat (poor DH often carried out youngest) the pool was a good size but filthy & tired looking. We also made the massive mistake of not hiring a car to travel about to see stuff & also meant we were stuck where we were & the 'supermarket' was small with hardly any fresh food we ate rubbish a lot. Eating out was very expensive (similar to OP €70 for 4, not drinking that much). And to top it off I got ill & had such bad toothache!!
Seriously doubt we will go abroad next year!! Sorry to be a misery guts, I'm so annoyed we got it so wrong.

Not so good... I'm not ready to fully talk about it, yet!!
I have a sedentary desk job so I want super active holidays. Sitting around reading a book (or DC on screens all day), I'd rather do that for a lot less money at home. Plus we pranged the car (expense still unclear) & teenager rudely scolded me after SATNAV got me lost. I am not resilient enough for all this hassle.

Would be a Lot funner to spend much less time with these people family.

We stayed at home and had a holiday at home. We have been on a high ropes course, surfing, stand up paddle boarding, rock climbing, abseiling, coasteering, kayaking, body boarding, gorge walking and kite surfing. We have eaten out at little cafes by the sea, had fish and chips on the beach and had many picnics. I think we have done more and had more fun than we normally do on holiday.

Lovely 2 weeks in Iceland. First week was proper holiday. 2nd, my husband was on fieldwork. We had a mix of weather, from glorious sunshine to cold, cold, cold. We saw some glorious scenery, climbed volcanoes and walked on glaciers (even 2 year old DS), saw puffins and gannets, and lapped up the culture.

2 weeks in Majorca. Was lovely and hot and sunny. We self cater and hire cars so we did a fair bit of exploring. Went to a different beach every day (we were Cala D'Or side) went on a couple of boat trips and to the Caves of Drach.

We had a great time but have decided we won't go back to Majorca. Too touristy and busy for us. We prefer Menorca or The Algarve.

We had a great time Glamping in the Loire. Huttopia Rillé. We had a cabin with bathroom/dishwasher in a forest setting by a lake with cars parked off site. Quiet pool and pizza restaurant and low key kids club in the mornings. Everyone v happy with no screens/WiFi. Cheaper than centre parcs and better weather!

DS isn't school age yet so we are having 2 holidays this year straddling the summer holidays.

In June we went to Menorca, all inclusive. I'd never been before but it was lovely. I was a bit sceptical as we dont usually do AI but the food was nice, the pools were brilliant for ds and the beaches were very pretty and not overly busy. Would definately go back. Only complaint was the bloody sun bed hoggers who would get up and wait an hour before they were unlocked to reserve their beds for the day and then only use them for about 2 hours.
Saddos. I only know about them because our room overlooked one of the pools. We just sat on chairs!

And in September we are going to Butlins in minehead. We went the same week last year and had a great time. Again, not something we had done before and I was sceptical but it's perfect for ds, so much for him to do (which is the deciding factor on holidays these days!) and we enjoyed it so much we booked on site to come back this year. Looking forward to it.

Two weeks in Crete. Great weather and beautiful beaches. A few days sightseeing and the rest on the beach. Ate out a lot. Reasonable prices and very cheap wine! Came back feeling very chilled out.

blue I'm interested in where you stayed? I really want to go to Crete!

2 weeks in Sicily travelling around by train (Catania, Taormina, Syracuse) - lovely & varied but ridiculously hot. Mixture of self catering apartments and hotels. I really enjoyed it (and so did nine year old) but my DH wants to do a more 'relaxed' sit down and do nothing AI next year which isn't my bag but get his point about always packing & repacking! Any tips - book train travel online in Italy in advance, miles cheaper & go apartments over hotels to keep costs down (they're usually nicer too!). Seem to turning into my mother - packing salt, pepper, coffee and a few dried food items did turn out to be useful!

Hi Poverty. We stayed in an apartment in Elounda, East Crete. It's a lovely area and is close to Agios Nikolous which is a bigger, more lively town with lots of shops and restaurants. Also close to Plaka which is a lovely little village and where you can get the boat over to Spinalonga-an island which used to be a leper colony. A great area.

We had a long weekend in Ibiza staying with friends who have a villa in July, and then a week in Northumberland. The weekend in Ibiza was lovely, but it was hot and really expensive - even with free accommodation. The flights were ludicrous and we booked them in Jan! Eating out was expensive too, although the food was excellent. However, the bay we were staying in was stunning and I can totally understand why our friends bought a place there. I swam in the sea for the first time in years and actually enjoyed it, because it was so calm, warm and clear. I wouldn't go back in July or Aug though.

Northumberland was absolutely brilliant. We were lucky with the weather - it had been crap for weeks beforehand and it changed the week we were there, so we had some sunny days and even one hot one. There is so much to do - we could easily have spent two weeks. We stayed on the border of Northumberland and Co. Durham and loved it. In fact, we're already talking about going back next year. My DH and kids don't like hot weather and none of us are beach people, so sand, crowds and blistering sun simply do not appeal.

We did Sicily in May half term. Did 3 nights in Palermo (Airbnb), 4 nights in a villa just outside Cefalu and then two nights in a lovely hotel up in the mountains. There was myself, DH, DS1 (14) and DS2 (8).

Weather was great at that time of year and the food was amazing. DH hated driving there and it's a bit of a tatty island, but definitely recommended.

We like splitting our trips into a few different locations and mixing up more active days with plenty of relaxation. It seems to make it feel longer and we get a better sense of the country we're visiting.

thank you blue looks lovely!

I definitely want to go back to Sicily and see more of it. OH loathes driving so much that we won't hire a car. I do drive, but I have seen how Italians drive and am not keen to drive there either. I would love to travel around by train though. I wanted to visit Palermo while we were there, but it was insanely hot, so we will go back at a cooler time of year.

The food really was amazing. We didn't have a duff meal anywhere.