After years of self-catering we want to try all-inclusive with teens

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

We like the Dordogne, particularly Le Banquet in Les Eyzies (thanks, Portofino, for the recommendation a while back!).

We like Puerto Pollensa and Pollensa itself (have booked a villa in the countryside for this year)

In England we like St Ives.

But DH and I now both work fulltime and we want a sodding break from all the shopping and cooking so are considering an all-inclusive for hollow-legged teens (14 and 12). I think their eyes will be on stalks at an all-inclusive buffet. Just for 10 nights plus. August next year. Ideally £6k or under. (May consider slightly over if very nice)
Don’t want to spend £££ on Sani Resort as we are not posh but just want somewhere where kids do not run feral till11pm and families load up in the all-inc booze.

We don’t want Turkey, Sharm, Mexico or Dom Rep but will consider anywhere else within 4 hr flight.

Absolute priorities are:

Nice food
No fighting for a sun bed.
Stuff to do for teens (eg table tennis, WiFi, not necessarily kids club for that age)
Maybe a gym.

We don’t need little kids entertainment/club anymore.

Any ideas, anyone?

Here you go!
Morocco was a revelation! Lovely food, lots to do and cheaply.

For that money you could go to the east coast of the USA for 2 weeks!

We are going this summer and our flights were only 400 each. Leaves plenty of money for hotels eating out etc.

Would suggest 5 days in nyc and 3 or so in Boston. Book early and you can get cheap train tickets from NYC to Boston.

Wow that’s a great price for August etino and agree Morocco is an interesting place to visit- especially if you can do some trips into the mountains.

I’m more confident now that we will be able to afford holidays once the little starts school. Actually we will be saving on childcare so doesn’t seem too bad.

Btw sorry to hijack thread OP but this is turning into a great thread for school holidays- I’m writing lots of the places down for future reference

You can probably do Walt Disney World Florida around your budget if you book now with the free dining offer and be ready to pounce on cheap flights. With the dining plan you can eat in loads of different restaurants, it’s masses of food and definitely not all burgers and fries.

Club la Santa, Lanzarote. Brilliant if you have sporty teens. We went a few years ago. Not all.inclusive but you can book a meal package (drinks not included).

Hendrisky
Which hotel did you stay in ?

Other tip for flying indirect book a through route with the same airline on their website (we used luthansa) then think you are covered if times change, get delayed etc. Don't book each flight individually as one won't care if there are issue with the other leg. We saved £1.8k in half term by spending 4 hours in Germany!

@Iloverupertp the hotel portaventura ... it's right next door and has easy walking access to both the theme park and the water park .... it's such a good holiday as you can dip in dip out . Literally sit by the pool but if you get bored walk to a ride or show or anything .. we will go again for sure even having been 3 times ..

Well I’ve gone ahead and booked the GF Costa Adeje Gran, thanks, Tenko.

Got 10 nights AI for £5,700 at the end of July next year. I have my reservations about the package style of holiday but think the kids will enjoy it. And will be a complete break for me and DH for a change. Worth trying once at least I think.

Only thing is. I had to book 2 separate double/twin rooms and name me and DH in sepArate rooms sharing with a DS in each one as it wouldn’t let me put them in their own room you had to be over 18. Can they really just not stay in their own room together at age 15 and 13?!

You’ll be able to sort sleeping arrangements however you like in “secret” once you get there. It’s just a formality that an over 18 has to be in each room. Hope you have a great holiday.

Hope you have a great time. I haven't stayed at that hotel but I've seen it and had some great holidays with teens in Costa Adeje.
Yes you'll be able to use rooms however you wish.

Ah im too late I was about to suggest Sicily.

Have a lovely holiday OP! Looks lovely (bookmarking for future )

RJ: there will be other years for us, and other people are reading this thread for ideas so Sicily is an equally valid suggestion!

That’s a relief about the room. Kids are looking forward to all the food, plus Siam Park (I hate waterparks but hey ho). DH is just worried he’ll hate it all!

I've stayed there it's great. Five minute walk down to the beach, upmarket resort, 15 minutes walk to playa fanabie (sp?) which is nice.
Be warned though there is a nudist pool on the top of the hotel!!

Make sure you eat at il molino blanco (the white windmill) a short taxi away but great fun and excellent food.

We went here https://www.onthebeach.co.uk/hotels/spain/tenerife/golf-del-sur/sandos-san-blas-hotel?mvpc=googlecpc&CampaignID=106378583&AdGroupID=4614740783&Keyword=kwd-19891916971&MatchType=e&Device=m&AdID=194667981021&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIio3bnZLU2wIViD8bCh0OqQQ1EAAYAiAAEgKGTPDD_BwE

I was a bit snobby about Tenerife but we all loved it! Near enough to the tat to be fun, close to Siam park water park and gorgeous food and drink. You could do much worse 😀

Lol rtft woman😂

CurlyhairedAssassin come and post nearer the time for tips on maximising the Siam park experience .

Ooo try a Sensatori! I’ve been to loads of AI and that was by far my favourite. We went to the Crete one, it’s a TUI, but they have them in various other places. We did it for £750 each for a week in May, so you’d be well under budget (depends when you go and room type i suppose tho). Lovely food, lots to do (or not do in our case), there are kids there but they have adults only pools and areas. No yobbos or beer swilling shirtless types. Very nice!

Clubmed
Plenty of activities for everyone, truly all inclusive (european resorts tend to have different levels of what is included). In clubmed all activities and food included. Exceptions are external excursions and some drinks. We've been to several european ones and never got bored (where else can you do flying trapeze?:)

Well I’ve just come back to update. We’ve had a fantastic time in Tenerife on our all-inclusive holiday, which is something I never thought I would say! I had completely blinkered snobby prejudices about it but I think it’s been the best family holiday we’ve ever had and we want to come back next year. (And don’t ever want to go back to self-catering if we can help it!)

So thanks to everyone on the thread for their advice with Costa Adeje, MN comes up trumps with their recommendations once again! The hotel was perfect for us, food was fantastic. The immediate area around the hotel is lovely and all the buildings are nicely laid out. We walked to La Caleta for a drink which we loved, and it was exciting to see the parascenders/gliders Landing literally in front of us on the beach.

We loved our trip to Teide (did the cable car etc), it was totally fascinating. Will save the north is the island for our next visit as it looks beautiful. Also want to see a place called Masca (photo attached) as the scenery looks like something out of the Lost World!. I just didn’t realise that there was more to Tenerife than Irish bars and People trying to flog you English breakfasts for 3.50. We did go for a walk and found those type of places and they are surely very good value but that vibe just didn’t do it for us so we turned back round and came back up to the playa del duque end of the coast where we stayed for the rest of the holiday. Some people might think there is not enough going on at that end of the coast but it suited us just fine.

I wasn’t too keen on Siam Park But then I’m not a fan of water parks, we just went for the kids. But They seemed to just let far too many people in. The crowds were awful and made it unpleasant moving around. The pool bar we had plonked ourselves by on a sunbed had run out of food by 1.45 so we had to traipse across the park fighting the crowds to queue up at other places only to find a limited choice.
Toilets ran out of toilet paper. Kids had to queue for over an hour for some slides so they only ended up going on about 8 all day so if course want to go back again next year .

I went in the wave pool only but that was brilliant, the highest man made wave in the world I think. Anyway, should have researched it more on here to get the best out of it but just forgot to.

A big thank you once again for the advice, it was absolutely spot on!

The Rubicon Palace in Lanzarote was really good and was our first experience.

We also stayed in Salou at the best Los Angeles. Found it to be full of all nationalities, close to the town centre but a good base. There was also the theme park. The live cooking bars went down well with my teens and the snack bar.

Have you tried SC but not catering iyswim? We book an apartment with pool and only make our own breakfasts (sometimes sandwiches for lunch) but eat out every evening. Go somewhere in a small town/large village with a water park, mini golf etc and that would come well within your budget.