Families with young children, please tell me all your holidays in last 2 years

[redjumper]

I'm really running out of ideas for a family holiday and keep going round in circles: we want some sunshine, can't be bothered to go far with 3 under 5s, don't want to he ripped off but need to travel in school hols. Currently looking at easter. I look at a villa in the Canaries for £2.5k and think we could go long haul for that but we don't want to fly all day. Then think maybe we should stay in the UK - but there's no sunshine so back to square one again. I think I'm missing a trick please help inspire me.... Where have you been in the last couple of years with young kids?

Here's my list to get it going...
Forest holidays weekend loved it
Camping weekends round northern England loved it
A weeks camping on the south coast loved it
Mid week centre Parcs break in term time pretty enjoyable
Week in Greece with Ionian island holidays very nice
Mid week break at Crieff Hydro loved it
Week at eurocamp not so great

Tuscany on an agriturismo - perfect
Washington DC - amazing! Brilliant for our nearly 2 year old, loads to do.
Ile de Re - in a chalet right on the beach. gorgeous place but rained a lot.
Paris - 3 year old loved the Eiffel Tower, still bangs on about it. Again loads to do.

City breaks in Lisbon and Seville. Tiring but loved them
Duinrell holiday park in Holland. Expensive but fun
A week in the peaks. Loved and going again this year
Lake garda in a chalet bungalow thing. Gorgeous
Majorca in a hotel. Relaxing
Glamping locally for a weekend. Loved it and getting back to nature (despite ds behaviour nearly ruining it)

I'm frequently having the same dilemma as you describe though!

Agadir with 2 children.. we went all inclusive in the Rui resorts.. have a look cos they have some good offers on sometimes.. you may need to travel the day before schools break up tho..

We only started hotel holiday when DD was 7, before that it was always s/c

3x farmstay in Germany in Summer, Baltic Sea, Lake Constance and Frankonia

2x s/c villa in Majorca - lovely but weather was difficult in May, one week Summer weather, one week rain an 15 degrees. Great but when DD was 4 she needed entertainment and the isolated location wasn't that good, so need to look at the area more closely

IoW week s/c - late April - weather was hit/miss

Devon/Cornwall border s/c - May - lovely weather

With Easter so early this year I think you will be hard pressed to find a location with Summer sunshine and warm temperatures. Even my Greek colleague said that the southern Greek islands will be cool in the evening and you need to search for a heated pool. Friends with a time share in Gran Canaria say the same.

We go again long haul to the Caribean this year, we want def warm sunny weather and I can't stand the heat in the Med during August.

Venice - August, airbnnb - visiting friends, just a long weekend
Dominican Republic - November, Paradisus Punta Cana, 10 hour flight with 18 month old was perfect, but weather was rainy so got a bit bored. Got pregnant a couple of months later so the zika scare wasnt worth the trip!
Greece - May, Sani Club, could have been a couple degrees warmer but can't fault hotel or service
Think that's it!

Bendy how was punta Cana? My kids are desperate to go to 'spongebob's house'

Craft I don't think we left the hotel so can't really comment on the place itself I'm afraid! Hotel though was amazing, lovely service, great food. Cheesy entertainment as with most AIs Was lovely and hot for first 2 days, then rain storms, pools closed etc for the other 5 days We were there the first week after hurricane season though!

All inclusive on Croatian coast. We have 3 kids under 5 too and this all we've done (and all we're likely to do) for a long time to come. Beach, indoor pool (we usually go outside the summer season when it's cheaper). Lots of playgrounds. Kids' clubs. Buffet meals. Lovely little towns just a balance bike/road train ride away.. for this stage of life, it's pretty good.

We’ve done a few Greece/Cyprus/Algarve AI resorts, a couple of Eurocamp, two cruises from Southampton with Royal Caribbean, a caravan, centre parcs, two hot tub lodged and this year we’re doing a P&O cruise and a Eurocamp- the ones Ds has enjoyed most have been the Cruises and Eurocamps

Pelly which hotel did you stay at? Always fancied Croatia and that sounds ideal.

Various ones, our favourite is Hotel Diamante in Porec (but we can only afford it off season) also had great experiences in Novigrad and Umag. There are loads of other very similar towns. As a day out, don't miss Dinosaur Land. Not much in the way of health and safety, but if that doesn't put you off it's a lot of very cheap fun for small people (miniature theme park style rides and model dinosaurs in an abandoned quarry...)

Also, we've been to a few places on the Slovenian coast (very similar to Croatian coast only a bit quieter) Hotel Convent in Ankaran and the Belvedere hotels in Izola and Portoroz.

Best holiday we did when dc under 5 was a week long med cruise. On board entertainment, kids clubs, pool - though unheated- and it was a very early Easter then too but weather ok.

Villa in Menorca
Villa in Corfu (x2)
FIrst Choice holiday village in Egypt (x3)
FIrst Choice Holiday Village Turkey
FIrst Choice Holiday Village Kos
FIrst Choice Holiday Village Cyprus
FIrst Choice Holiday Village Tunisia x 3
FIrst Choice Holiday Village Rhodes
Sensatori Fethiye in Turkey
Voyage Belek in Turkey
Globales Bouganvilla in Majorca
Lilly Beach resort in Maldives
Jaz Aquaviva in Hurghada, Egypt
Jaz Aquamarine in Hurghada Egypt
LTI Akassia Resort in Marsa Alam egypt

DD is 10 now so is pretty widely travelled and DS is 6. The first choice holiday villages are great for younger kids however we now usually choose somewhere with a big water park to keep the kids happy.

In 5 years of holidaying with baby/child we have done:
Several ski trips,
AI in Canaries,
Villa in Canaries,
SC in Menorca
Beach hotel in Sardegna,
A few European city breaks,
Camping in Spain and Italy,
A few UK Centre Parcs short breaks,
A few weeks in Uk - rented big houses to share with other families.

Honestly loved all of these holidays 🙂
what did you not like about Eurocamp? That was probably kids’ favourite.
I loved Menorca. It was best place I’ve been for young kids but we went in term time, imagine it’d be busy and expensive in the holidays.
We usually go either last week of summer holidays or summer half term, except skiing obviously. The UK holidays (all during school holidays) were really cheap but so much fun but we’ve been lucky with the weather.

Italy - skiing Easter 16
France - gite Summer 16
Canada - skiing Xmas
Cuba - self drive Easter 17
Center parcs - Summer 17
Florida - family visit half term 17

Booked
Canada - ski Easter 18
Canal boat - half term
Iceland summer 18
Italy Summer
Italy - skiing Easter 19
Namibia - Summer 19

Also camped a couple of times

Might also be going to Sri Lanka Xmas 18 as going away with FIL

We are just starting to travel more with ours now our youngest is 7.

I do it on a shoestring though. I'd rather have a 2 star holiday than dream of 5 stars on my sofa!

Last year
Sicily staying on a farm
Montenegro
The Hague

Year before
Sweden
Denmark

This year
France Eurocamp
Lisbon
Geneva

We've mostly been camping with ours.
Probably the best place was the isle of Wight, there's a lot to do for small children and we were lucky with the weather

Ooh nomad86 can I pick your brains on Sweden and denmark as those are the places we want to go this year

Misty9 of course! Pm me if you like. We stayed in Copenhagen then took the train to Sweden, staying in Stockholm, Varberg and Nacka, mostly in airbnbs.

Threads like these really give me itchy feet!

Some of the hols we've done with DD(6) are:

Various ski hols
South Africa (overnight flight so DD sleeps and no jet lag)
Lake Garda (nice to take ferry trips to different parts of the )
Center Parcs x2 in Netherlands - lovely family holiday but 4 days is my limit.
Canvas holidays (like Eurocamp) holidays. 1 near Perpignan, 1 near Agde and one where we drove and did 3 nights Loire, 7 nights Ardeche, 4 nights in the Jura - that was my favourite.

I'm itching to get back to more adventurous holidays, but at the moment need places that DD has the chance to play with other children.

Northumberland hotel
Menorca s/c apartment
Eco-camp Cairngorms
Isle of Skye cottage
UK Youth hostels - London, Cornwall, Wales
Brittany gîte x 4
Brittany hotel
Disney Land Paris
Northern Spain casa x 2

All our holidays have been lovely. We always travel on a shoestring but manage to have fun.

Cruises - dd is about to go on her 5th next week. All food sorted, opt in/out entertainment, lots of new places to visit (no getting bored for us), pools on deck. It’s actually quite affordable as a summer holiday in kids holidays (teacher so we have to do holidays too - much to dh’s disappointment).
We’ve also done hotels in this country (as a baby) found tricky and 2 holiday parks (lodge and caravan) for long weekends which are great (liked self catering and stuff on site).
Got a self catering large apartment in Croatia booked for September (when we’ll have another and I’ll be on maternity leave) to share with family. It has a pool which dd will love (especially with family to entertain her!)

2014 - Turkey with DS(2) during August in Marmaris (Marmaris Palace) plus me 6 weeks pregnant.

2015 - No holidays except a weekend break in August (Fri-Sun) to Ripon in North Yorks.

2016 - Center Parcs Whinfell (3 nights) during Autumn half term.

2017 - Turkey (Side, Antalya) May half term with DS(5) and DD(2).
- Center arcs Whinfell (3 nights) during Autumn half term

2018 - Black Country (2 nights) during February half term
- Gran Canaria (Easter break) 1 week with DS(6), DD(3) amd MIL
- Turkey, Summer holidays, 11 nights - Club Turban Marmaris
- Center Parcs Sherwood (3 nights) Autumn half term.

I am STILL trying to persuade DH that we NEED to go to DW in Florida.

We have three children, 3, 8 and 12.

When the 3 year old was 9weeks we went all inclusive to Cyprus,

At 1 we went to Mauritius

At 2 to Thailand

At 3 to the US (NYC, Philadelphia, Annapolis and Washington DC)

We are going to the Maldives later this year when she turns 4.

The flights were tough, the holidays themselves were not. All hotels. So long haul is doable. We just had to go for it as if we wait the eldest won’t want to come with us anymore.

We took our young kids on this Black Forest walking holiday a few years ago, you seem to have enjoyed outdoorsy holidays before, could be worth a look