Beach, pool and sightseeing family holiday, do they exist?

[RicottaPancakes]

I'm not sure if this exists....we'd like to go to a nice hotel with a pool, near a beach where there are also other things to do, old castles, museums etc. Spain would be great, or somewhere else in Europe. But I can't find anything like that. Any ideas? Thanks.

Barcelona? Has beach and city but no idea about hotel with a pool.

Well, we found Majorca pretty good. Stayed in Port de Soller, easy train to Palma, easy train to Soller, pleasing walks, pool, shallow beach.

Ditto Barcelona.

I love Malta but only one sandy beach, rest rocky. Fine if your children are reasonabl3 swimmers.

Croatia's good- loads of history. Stay in a tourist area like Cavtat or Lapad, easy to visit Dubrovnik, Montenegro, Bosnia.

Thanks :-)

Was also about to suggest Dubrovnik in Croatia. We had a two week holiday there this summer and loved the mix of beach, pool and sightseeing. Montenegro is also worth a trip. Lovely place- really worth a trip

Portugal - on Atlantic coast near Sintra. Can easily visit Cascais/Estoril (could stay there as well, of course, but felt more built up to me), Sintra and Lisbon. Plus loads of great, wild beaches on Atlantic side.

Malaga? There are resort type hotels and beaches but you're in a city with stuff to see.

South west of France, carcassone and those sort of pyrennees cities towns are lovely, but also beaches are nice round argeles, narbonne, couilloure

Also south east france, round Nice

Neopolitan coast or Venetian riviera?

I'd recommend Nice or Valencia, possible Barcelona although not many hotels with pools near the city centre that I know of, and, if you are happy to drive around (not long distances), Málaga.

Happy holidays!

Have a look at Athens - the beach out near Glyfada has a few hotels, plus you're near Athens. 'Nuff said about that as far as sightseeing goes. About 20 mins into town and the bus tours go out there along with the metro/tram line

Cyprus. Hot in July/August though.

Try Son Bou, Minorca-cracking beach, nature reserve, ruins and caves

2nd the Venetian Rivera. Beautiful friendly family resort in Caorle, ferry trips to Venice, great beach with loads of activities, water park easily reachable by public transport......and it isn't expensive like other Italian Lake or 'trendy' resorts are.

These are the only sort of holidays that we take but we don't stay in hotels because we are a large family. some places to suggest that we have been to/on the bucket list:

Cyprus
Crete
Canada
belize
USA
Croatia
Rome
Barcelona

Lots of choice out there. start with guide books on places you like the look of and work from there.

Mainland Greece.

Of course they do, even Europe itself is a huge continent with such a diversity of countries, you just need a bit of imagination and to be good at planning and organisation

Have you considered eurocamp? We are just looking into it but the prices seem reasonable and some good locations available

Of course it exists, why wouldn't it?

Barcelona or Malaga would be perfect. Also Tossa de Mar on the Costa Brava has a castle and there's also a beach, Roman ruins, close to Girona which is a lovely small city to walk round. Figueres is about an hour away and has the Salvador Dali Museum, plus loads of other stuff to do in the area.

There's absolutely loads of brilliant historical, arty and cultural stuff in Spain, plenty of it in easy reach of beaches, eg Nerja/Granada as well as the above mentioned.

Also Malta and Gozo, few beaches, old temples, historical sites, Valetta is this year's European Capital of Culture.

Loads of similar things in Greece too. As well as the mainland, you've got places like Lindos in Rhodes, and also Rhodes Town.

Corfu has good beaches and ok ruins...

Minorca has good beaches, outstanding roman mosaics, a gin factory etc

If going for cheaper option, the Eurocamp at Domaine de Drancourt, easy drive from Calais, pools, beach pretty close, short drive, the castle where William the Conqueror set off from and Joan of Arc holed up in, outstanding bird sanctuary the other side of the estuary, ditto fantastic restaurants, mini train round the estuary, they do day trips to Paris where you get up at sparrowfart but hey ..ok, so northern France so can’t be 100% sure of weather but one of our best holidays. Kids safe on site, go karting, playing badminton around, buying themselves pizzas at the shop, dragged them off to eat nice food ( not worth wasting ace food on them), BBQs by site, good supermarket close by, beach, donkeys in beach,, ( it was 10 years ago or so). Most relaxed holiday ever other than Langkawi in Malaysia, another brilliant holiday but long haul.