Shorthall holiday park (Spain probably) with water park on site

[sugarbum]

I wonder if I could have some recommendations for places like this.

I have a few on my list (marjal - costablanca, la marina - alicante) and was also looking at staying somewhere near the siam park in Tenerife, but I'm floundering a bit. I was also looking at Magic Natura but the water park itself looks like it has so many restrictions its put me off.

On my list are:

We want to fly from Luton/Stansted/East Midlands.

We want to go late August but it has to fall in the school holidays. I mean we'd go any time in the summer hols, but late August into beginning of September looks cheaper.

We have a 12 year old and a 9 year old. We really want a great water park and pools on site if possible. So at least a few decent slides (just big ones, not necessarily scary/fast ones)

We don't care about entertainment although a games area for the kids would be great.

We need (ok want) wifi.
I want lovely weather
I want an apartment or at least a bungalow type thing. Not a really cramped mobile home which we've done before and didn't much enjoy. With at least 2 bedrooms.

We are also not beach people but it would be nice to have that option nearish by.
We always hire a car because I like to get out and about to see 'things' like old castles and beautiful towns and markets. DH likes a car because he has a thing for shopping centres and large air conditioned supermarkets :) So somewhere that has these things near by.

We don't have a shed load of funds. (Actually we don't have any, but I do have a credit card...)
We don't need to be all inclusive, although I would consider it. Self Catering is fine but would be looking nearer the 1k. I don't want to pay more than £2k for the holiday itself. (excluding flights)

thank you for getting this far! Any suggestions would be great.

bump

Cyprus is about 4.5hours Louis Pathanon may suit you has slides

I think you maybe struggling with this budget for what you want. Are slides really essential? Slides usually tend to come with AI and push the price up but I would say the cost is likely to be over 3K. Could you not stay somewhere near a water park? Jet2 had some offers on last year whereby certain hotels offered 3 trips to water parks but people who had booked this usually only went to the actual water park once.

Los Patos Park in Benalmadena - 2 ish hour flight, then 20 minutes from Malaga airport. Has slides but not massive ones. My children are the same age as yours and they loved staying here. Very close to the beach, good food and lots of other things to do locally - marina, cable car, great park with free-roaming animals etc etc.

Hotel has a pool that the slides go into, with some space roped off for swimming, a large pool with a pirate ship for little ones and another pool just for swimming.

Sorry, there are no apartments or bungalows at Los Patos Park, I missed that bit in your post.

Benalmadena Pueblo just up the hill is absolutely beautiful - a gorgeous old Spanish village with whitewashed housed.

I've just booked a week at la Marina in Alicante. Well I've reserved it. I await news that i actually have a booking. It was just over 2k (but it's full board - we aren't big drinkers so AI was not necessary)

Car and Flights can do for 1k.

Now DH is saying he wants to go away for two weeks, which was not even vaguely in the budget. Apparently is not a proper holiday if its just a week(!) So I think first week will have to be a villa/apartment, with a pool, for about £600. I've seen some on the homeaway type sites. Now how can I make some extra cash...? :)

Benalmadena Pueblo looks beautiful, and I have friends in that area, but we will be flying into Alicante now that I've booked that holiday park, so its a bit far to drive for us.

Great news that you've booked something! It's always lovely to have a holiday to look forward to.

It often doesn't cost very much more than full board to book AI, if you book it in advance. Although you're not big drinkers, AI usually includes unlimited soft drinks and ice creams during the daytime - both of which are great when it's hot.

Land0r thanks - we didn't have the option for full AI for this particular site, so I just booked what was available. I shall just have to stock the freezer with lollies ;)