What's sets apart Holiday Villages from other family hotels?

[CremeDeSudo]

We're currently shopping around for our first family holiday, first holiday with kids. We want to keep it an easy holiday as possible and therefore thought we'd stick to a Holiday Village.

We're really struggling with flight times, wherever we go so out of curiosity I've looked at non-HV holidays, that are still family friendly. Within 5mins of looking I've found a 5 star family friendly hotel with a water park on site, kids club, entertainment etc etc for the same sort of price as the holiday village holidays and now thinking we should broaden our search.

What's the difference in the holiday villages and non-holiday villages that seem to offer the same pls?

I haven’t been to a holiday village but I don’t think you need to stick with them only. I’m currently at blue lagoon resort in Kos and I would rate them as very family friendly. It’s only 4 star. But like you said, it has a first choice kids club, kids pool with pirate ship and slides, an on-site water park, kids friendly buffet, evening entertainment, sports and wellness activities and a beach. It also has a bus stop outside to take you to Kos Town.

I think just look at what your family likes, read trip advisor, and select accordingly. I know the new HV in Montenegro has really bad reviews for example! For me, I pick somewhere with good onsite play areas like water parks, mini golf, playgrounds, but close to a resort, and with interesting day trips possibilities. Your essentials will be different.

Thanks for replying @AutoFilled. That's what I thought. Is it literally just a label for the hotel? Or because it's First Choice/Tui owned?

This has opened up the search massively!

Would you recommend where you are now? Your requirements sound similar to ours..kids will be nearly 6 and 10 months when we're looking to go..

Yes I would recommend as long as you bring your pushchair. I booked via Tui anyways and it seems very popular with Tui customers as it has 3 reps based in the hotel. The hotel is big and Tui rooms are in the annex/satellite and it’s a 10-15 min walk to places in the main part. It’s no bother for adults or 7yo DC1. We used the pushchair for my 3yo. There is a golf buggy service but people with luggages take priority so it could be a long wait sometimes. However the satellite area has a kids pool with pirate boat and 2 slides, a pool and an adult only pool. The first choice kids club is here also. It also has breakfast and lunch, and one of the dinner choices. But the beach and the water park are in the main area, along with the evening entertainment.

Food is ok for AI, and a lot better than Center Parcs and bluestone in the UK. If you have picky eaters, they have baked beans, sausages, chicken nugget, chips, pasta with bolognese sauce.

Thank you! Off to investigate 😁 enjoy your holiday! X

You could also look at Tui Family Life hotels. They seem to have the same set up as HV (unsurprisingly given first choice and Tui are connected companies). They offer a free kids club run to UK standards, a baby club which you can use for your baby (have to pay for baby), exercise classes, kids entertainment in the evening, playgrounds and the one we stayed at last year had a small soft play. We're staying at a different one this year as our DD adored the kids entertainment last year so we're happy to sit through it again(!). Both brands frequently seem to have one bed apartments as standard rather than double rooms but it does vary (we actually have a double room this year).

I've not done a HV although have been to a hotel which was part of a HV complex (Benalmadena) we really enjoyed that holiday as it has a small waterpark which was ideal for younger children.

Dissapointed with the reviews for HV Montenegro. We seriously considered booking it for this year but was wary as it only opened in June so assumed there would be some teething problems, although ultimately the 90 minutes transfer put us off.

Thanks @Morris, I've been looking at those too but having a similar issue with flights- surely we're not the only people who don't want to depart a 6am or get back here after midnight?!

Have found a couple of options now...just need to read up a bit more!

We like having 6am flights and returning straight after breakfast, it works well for us but appreciate it might not for you. Definitely not up for returning after midnight though(!)

We took a midnight flight back from Kos just this morning, arriving at 2am. It's that bad. We had dinner at the hotel, went to the mini disco, and then took the transfer coach at 9pm. The kids were tired, but were ok. Just make sure you have some freezer ready food so no need to cook when you are back. (Still need to get milk though for breakfast).

We've been twice to Salgados Palm Village in the Algarve - lots of similar things to your list and although not as hot, we got shorter flights and helpful departures times plus a two bed apartment with a living area at a reasonable rate (although this was outside school hols). Just in case it helps!

Ps - we booked via First Choice, not direct.

We went to Tui Family life Islantilla which is on the Costa de la luz this year.
We couldn't fault the service. As its name suggests its totally geared up to pleasing the whole family so no onsite waterpark but wonderful accommodation and staff. Its worth a look.

I stayed at the one in Majorca a coup,e of years ago with our four kids.
It was awful. People got up at 6 to get a sun bed you had no chance after 8am. There was music blaring out continually (from 8am) lots of smokers and people getting very drunk. I saw a man really lose it with his son and drag him out of a restaurant really roughly (and I mean roughly) lots of sweaty families and just horrible.
We payed £6,000 for it. We were gutted I actually cried on the rep.

Sweary not sweaty!

@AutoFilled I've messaged you about something - I hope you don't mind....

@holycityzoo that sounds awful. I will have a look at the suggested hotels as both Algarve and Andalusia sounds interesting.

KatyMac, np, have replied

Thanks - I appreciate it

Autofilled it wasn't one of our better holidays!
On a more positive note we went to Antalya in Turkey in May to an AI which was really good. It was the Aska Lara it had its own water park and a small fairground. It was reasonably priced and nice food. The kids loved it.
Not really much to do out of resort but if you want an easy beach/pool holiday for the kids it was good.
Another one of that's been recommended to us by a friend who has very high standards Is the Barut (sp?) Lara in Antalya. We are thinking of trying it next year.

We're currently at HV Kos and have done Tenerife and Cyprus. For us, it's the kids club and activities that set it apart. There are 4 club sessions a day, so you can dip in and out, they are usually active. High ropes courses, daily pool inflatables, family quizzes and games, evening family entertainment such as game shows involving the children ... so much more than your mini disco and local cabaret. The HV entertainment staff are around the hotel throughout the day, chatting to the kids. If you like peace and quiet, they are hell on earth, but if you like having things to entertain your family on tap, they absolutely are the best out there.

We've also done TUI Magic Life - hotel was lovely, but kids and family entertainment was non-existent (it's more sporty).

There does seem to be a higher-than-average proportion of smokers/heavy drinkers, but not sure if that's European all inclusive in general as we don't have a comparison point!

By daily pool inflatables, I mean zorbs, water walkers, assault courses .. not your lilos and doughnuts!

In light of recent posts I must say I didn't see any drunkenness (although people were drinking) nor were there many smokers in Islantilla.
The sunbeds were open all night so it was first come first served. No mad scramble. However if you didn't occupy your bed they did remove the towels.

Thank you everyone will have a look at your recommendations!

Hopefully flights will be better. We're not confident travellers and as it's the first time with children too it needs to be spot on. I get flappy before a UK holiday, let alone abroad!

I can't imagine much worse than getting us all up at 3am for a flight, I feel like it would stress me right out. DS (5) would prob be ok, but I'm not doing it with a 10mo!

@CremeDeSudo see I find leaving at 3am quite easy. DP and I get up, quickly get washed and pack last bits (charger/toothbrush etc) get dressed then we get Dd out of her cot just as we leave and chuck her in carseat, throw a blanket on and off we go. We get her dressed and have breakfast at the airport. We've done that when she was 1,2 and doing it again tomorrow (she's now 3). We have flights home around 10am so have an early breakfast at the hotel then straight to the transfer bus. Much prefer that to clock watching all day. However, I only have one child! We also find the flights tend to have less children on compared to when DP and I use to travel in the afternoon /evening so they're a bit quieter.

@donajimena we really wanted to go to the Islatilla FL but it was sold out for the dates we wanted. It looks great (plus we really wanted to do a day trip to Seville).

The FL we are staying at this week keeps the pool closed until 9 so there's no point getting up at 6 to bagsie a sunbed as you can't access them(!). TripAdvisor is good for assessing the sunbed situation. That said, we prefer the beach so aren't too concerned about this.

IME the hoards of badly behaved english families, drinking too much, swearing and being generally obnoxious. We went to a particular holiday village twice when the DC were younger. The first time we went out of season and out of school holidays. It was a nice hotel good facilities nice fairly low key entertainment for the children. The next time we went was a year later (same resort). It was school holidays. It was horrendous. I have never been so embarrassed to be British. I would actively avoid holiday villages now.

We then went to a Magic Life hotel the following year which was much nicer and calmer.

Past those sorts of holidays now (they were easy with small children).

I forgot to say there is a part of me which would like a flight where we arrive at the hotel around 8pmish as on one hand I think going straight to dinner then bed and starting the holiday the next day would be good. However, I find that the return flight is then quite late and I hate hanging around the hotel clock watching on the last day plus once we couldn't get a late check out or access the amenity room which sucked!!

Oh I’m glad I found this as I’m contemplating booking a HV for next year. All the kids stuff appeals but I’m terrified it will be loud and very much a drinking culture. I want to be able to sit by the pool and not have music blaring in my ears. Dh is worried he’ll feel ashamed to be British.