Albufeira / Salou

[Jennywallpaper]

Looking to book our first family trip abroad for next summer and not sure on where or when would be best, DC are 3 and 5 so still quite young, they love the water so a good pool or beach would be enough to keep them happy.
I'm not sure whether we would be better going in April/may or waiting and going end of September. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

I would go in September as the weather is more likely to reliable and the sea and pools will be warmer.

We went in September and whilst the weather was good during the day, the nights closed in early so the days felt rather short. We agreed we wouldn't holiday here again and definitely not at that time of the year.

I'd go in May/June. The weather in the Med is lovely and the days are long and sunny. The weather can change in Sept and be rainy, after a long, hot spell. The sea is warmer, yes, but with a 3 and 5-year-old I suspect you'll spend more time in a swimming pool than the sea. I've never been to either Albufeira or Salou, I'm afraid, but I suspect either would be lovely. Albufeira is on the Atlantic though, so the 'sea' is likely to be cold in May/June. I'd probably head to the Med.

Thanks everyone, I think I'm leaning more toward may/June as I think as I'd rather DS miss a week towards the end of the school year rather than the beginning. Unfortunately I don't think we could afford to go during the summer hols, our schools finish at the end of June so maybe missing a week at the start of the month won't be just as bad
Does any one have any recommendations of where is good to take young DC, we will be flying from Belfast so it does limit us a little, we would like al and somewhere with maybe a zoo/ aquarium/ water park something like that for a day or two.

If you're in NI then I'd just go when the schools break up unless the flights are really expensive, because prices in June and early July are always much lower than they are when the English schools break up at the end of July. A lot of companies offer free child places, etc, so check out packages if you're after AI - you could get a great deal leaving as soon as your DC finish for the summer.

Puerto Pollensa (Majorca) and Carvoeiro (Portugal), always get mentioned by families on MN as great resorts and Menorca also seems to get the thumbs up.

Cala Millor is also really good for young kids. You can walk miles on the front, there's a small funfair and rides, huge crazy golf, couple of playgrounds, entertainment in most hotels, bikes you can hire to cycle on the front, lovely restaurants, bars where you can play air hockey etc!

@juneau it's about £1000 more to go at the end of June rather than the beginning.
I've been having a look at Gran Canaria, it looks quite nice with quite a bit to do. Jet2 seem to have great offers on at the minute and are doing free child places, I might check with some of my local travel agents and if they are more expensive I think I'll go with jet2. Has anyone used them before?
@Peabody25 where is Cala Millor? It sounds lovely!

We've flown jet2 loads of times and had a few of their packages too, which are often quite a bit cheaper than booking separately. Always great deals, good service and the reps aren't pushy, they're just there if you need them.

That's great to hear @BarbaraofSevillle this will be the first holiday I'll be booking and organising myself so want to get it right. Is it easy enough to set up payments etc?

Look on Tui/First Choice/Thomas Cook as they have free child places now for 2019.

We did Salou last year with a 2 year old end of Sept. We had one day of rain but otherwise it was around 25 degrees every day. There's a large beach with lots of playgrounds on which kept dd happy plus there's lots of pubs with soft play type things.

If you're planning May then I'd head to canary Islands or Cyprus rather than Spanish med. I've been to Ibiza in May and the weather was quite mixed. Lanzarote has lovely beaches (although I found the place a bit dull but this was pre kids so I'm not so concerned about sightseeing right now)

I don't know, we usually just pay all in one go, usually because we don't book very far ahead, but I think they just charge the same card as you paid the deposit on, so you need to make sure the money/credit limit is available at the right time (we pay for everything on a credit card anyway and pay it off in full every month and the limit is huge so it's not an issue for us).

That's great to hear @BarbaraofSevillle this will be the first holiday I'll be booking and organising myself so want to get it right. Is it easy enough to set up payments etc?

Sorry don't know why that posted twice. That's great, it's good to know they are reliable etc.
@MorrisDancingViv I forgot all about firstchoice I'll have a look and see what offers they have. I'm really just looking something cheap and cheerful to be honest, a bit of sun and a pool will keep the DC happy. There's just so many places it's hard to know where to go, I suppose we will just have to try different places over the years

Jennywallpaper it's in Mallorca. There's Cala Bobs, Cala Millor, Sa Coma then S'illiot all next to each other so you can walk for miles.

That's Cala Bona even!

We went to Gran Canaria with Jet2 at Easter (it wasn't a package, but we booked our flights through them). The weather was great where we were (Puerto de Mogan), but it was much cloudier in other bits of the island. I liked Puerto de Mogan - really nice little town - pretty and stuff to do. We hired a car and it was easy to get around, although GC is a decent-sized island so some places were quite far and took a while. We liked Lanzarote for kids - small island, easy to get around, nice stuff to do. We stayed in Playa Blanca, which isn't anywhere near as pretty as Puerto de Mogan, but it was a good base with great weather. Black sand beaches there, but yellow sand in GC.