Family holiday before school age

[Nocturnalpearl]

I’m looking for some advice or suggestions on destinations for a family holiday with a 3.5 year old and 2 year old. We’re looking to go around March time and want to take advantage of the out of term prices before older child starts school in sept.

We are considering a range of destinations. Such as, Thailand but concerned about length of flight and how kid friendly it will be to Caribbean staying in big hotel that might have more kids facilities such as water slides/kids club etc.

Pre kids I was not a fan of these huge all inclusive hotels but wondering if it might be a better option whilst kids are younger and then take them (hopefully) on a more cultural trip when they’re older.

Any tips/advice is welcome - thanks

Sorry I posted this on wrong forum , don't know how to delete oops

No worries. My first time posting and got all excited! 😞

If its the first time they've flown I wouldn't do too long a flight.

We found at that age AI was great so easy, apartments are a bit more work but can also be good. Definitely choose family friendly hotels.

Having pools on site is good. I would say they are a bit young for a waterpark, they really need to swim a bit before then like a few lengths for safety and kids can be a bit crazy running round these places.

Caribbean is pleasant, mainly beaches / watersports though not sure kids would know the difference from a similar European place. South Africa / Cape Town is lovely - just do organised excursions but they have penguins on the beach and big 5 safaris. 10 hour flight is pushing it though. We just did the First Choice Holiday Villages then not very cultural but good value, easy as AI and loads for kids to do - pools, kids entertainment, beaches, kids clubs and you can do trips out to places like Gibraltar where can see the monkeys. We saved the longhaul until kids were 10 and would remember plus could cope with flight better, did Costa Rica last summer which is amazing but more older kids though lots of wildlife - sloths, monkeys, toucans, geckos, raccoons, coati etc and nice beaches. That's 11 hours and you probably could still do that with little ones obviously missing out the high ziplines etc.

If you are interested in Jamaica, I can recommend www.fdrholidays.com.

If you want it hot, you will have to travel outside Europe. Barbados and Antigua are 8 hours and you cannot get winter heat for much shorter than this other than Dubai of course. Personally I would never do AI. Did it once with the children and never again! I much prefer self catering in a villa. Dubai was fairly boring but little children will like the pool at any hotel.

March is still high season in these areas so you won’t save anything. Could you possibly wait for June and do the south of France or Sardinia perhaps?

@PenguinsandPandas would you say Costa Rica could work with a baby? I'm concerned about health risks / quality of hospitals and healthcare