Holiday Help!

[LazyDoll]

Hi,

Myself and my family (husband and 3 children aged 7/9/11) have holidayed exclusively in the U.K. since the children were born bar one trip earlier this year to explore the Artic circle area for a snowy adventure.

We're keen to get exploring more as a family but are finding cost prohibitive.

We've thought a week away in the Easter holidays or May half term may be cheaper.

The children are very keen to go in a sea without wetsuits and that's their only requirement!!

We'd like somewhere with some water sports options, maybe a water park, nice beach and not too touristy/bit off the beaten track. Our idea of holiday hell would be all inclusive and not leaving the hotel complex to give you more info.

Open to advice re accommodation. Always do glamping/holiday cottages in U.K.

Just don't really know where to start!!

Any help gratefully received.

Costa Brava can be quite cheap - fly to Barcelona and get transfers to the resort. Look at Easyjet holiday packages

Maybe warmer sea in October half term after the summer heat.

In my experience flights in July or August to Spain are actually cheaper than May half-term.

I've swum in the Med in late May and it's pretty chilly. Pools are often not heated.

Just consider it gets dark really quite early in Cyprus at October half term.

Thanks for all your help. I'm now looking at summer holidays for water temperature and October is just too late in the year to go. Too long a wait!! Looking between 1 week EasyJet package holiday to Croatia and 2 weeks on a Yelloh campsite in south of France!!

You will most certainly need shoes in Croatia. Went on a sailing holiday years ago and most beaches were very rocky.
In summer you have far more options for beautiful spots warm enough to swim. I would go to Greece, South of Crete is stunning and there are no resorts, just hotel and nice restaurants. Elafonisi is one of the most beautiful beach I have been to.
Other options:
Sicily
Puglia
Mallorca
...... Croatia is nice-wish but food is rubbish

Nice-ish

France is lovely. Where are you going to? Are you staying at a hotel or in a house? Croatia is a good family friendly destination but walking shoes are not optional. Preferably good quality ones. Hopefully you’ll have a good time there. We traveled to Greece two summers ago for two weeks. The weather was hot (it was late May when we were there) and we spent one day lounging around the pool doing nothing at all the whole day.

We’re going to Sicily in October half term. There are four of us and that is costing a bit under £2K for flights, a small apartment in the mountains and car hire. Obviously would cost more with the additional child, but we booked through Tui in January and there were quite a few similar options.

Eqimum I hope you enjoy Sicily. I'm just back from a long weekend there and it was simply incredible. We stayed just outside of Palermo. The food was simply delicious. The weather was a perfect 27° and it was simply stunning (piles of rubbish aside!).

KingIrving. Rubbish food is a No No for me!! I was already leaning heavily towards France. France it is!!!

April2020 final destination still unestablished. South West likely. Any advice welcome!

Portugal. But as someone said, the sea will be cold. I would go north and avoid the tourist trap that is the Algarve. Around Lisbon/Sintra, maybe even further north to Gerês or the Douro/Porto. Rent a car and enjoy an adventure.

Croatia is nice-wish but food is rubbish
Have to utterly disagree
on Hvar we ate really really well - different restaurant every night

"Croatia is nice-wish but food is rubbish"

I have to utterly disagree as well. You must have just eaten in some rubbish restaurants.

At the first place we ate at we just asked the waiter to recommend the local specialities. He brought out a big platter of local cured meats, cheeses, olives etc with some bread and some salad. I think we won him over because, although we ate elsewhere, we ate at this particular restaurant several times, and were extremely well looked after to the point of getting free drinks as the holiday progressed.

Mallorca in october or even sometimes in the summer can be relatively cheap. The sea is gorgeous there!

Have you thought about doing a Eurocamp style holiday in Spain north or. South of Barcelona. The accommodation can be amazing and there is so much freedom for the kids. Tends to have a more continental feel due to lots of different nationalities and a lot of locals come on the weekends. Villanova, torre del sol. Cypsela are a few to mention!

I'd definitely look at camping in France/Spain if you can go 2 weeks in summer holidays and drive.

Also Lake Garda May interest you.

Tenerife is lovely , especially the Northern end , much less touristy .
Hope you find your dream holiday x

Croatia is nice-ish but food is rubbish

Err what?! We ate so well in Croatia and it was cheap - had some amazing lamb dishes and great fish and seafood. It’s Mediterranean food and we found plenty of places that did it really well.

We loved Vis island for somewhere quieter, and preferred Split to Dubrovnik.

I was also going to recommend Montenegro. It’s beautiful, and much cheaper and less touristy than Croatia.

We did Crete (Chania) for Easter a few years ago. It was brilliant except that the sea and the villa pool were both still pretty cold! Girls did go in with normal swimwear but after several Augusts jumping into the sea at Polzeath etc they're pretty hardy creatures. We've done various Greek islands in late September/early October - we've just got back from Rhodes - water is like warm milk but dear god the mosquitoes!!! I forgot to cover myself in repellent one evening until it was too late and I am still itching now.

Eurocamp offer great deals if you book around Jan/Feb time (we got I think 40% off), it's more like glamping, it was something like £150 for a week in Switzerland in August, they have lots near beaches in many countries and we got cheap flights for about on Sky Scanner (highly recommended!) for about £40 return, if even that.

We went to Majorca at Easter. We stayed in a villa and we paid extra for the pool to be heated and thank god we did. We swam every day, it was like a bath. Weahter was so so but if you have a car there is so much to see and do. We all loved it.

We went to Serignan Plage Yelloh village twice and its lovely.

Thank you for all your help! 10 days now booked in August in South West France staying at a Canvas site in a safari tent with direct access to the sea (probably won't be as warm as I'd like but the kids are hardy and it won't be as old as the UK!!) and close to a lake and adventure park...and all within budget too