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Holidays

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

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Original poster

Serenequeen - are you back from Langstone Cliff yet?

45 replies

BearintheBigBlueHouse · 07/09/2004 22:46

Can you fill us in? And is it you that knows about Fairfields - or does anyone else have recent expreience of these two hotels? It's urgent we're looking for somewhere for next week.

This is a squel to the "Moonfleet vs...." thread. The fudge is still up for grabs.

Thanks, Bear

OP posts:

Batters · 22/09/2004 10:07

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Marina · 22/09/2004 10:16

Oh, BITBBH, I'm really sorry to hear about your horrible "holiday". I sometimes yearn wistfully after luxury family hotels (we do budget-o self-catering) but when I hear about how you were treated, it makes me realise that they are not always all they are cracked up to. What rotten luck, I do hope you get a better break soon.
My top tip for hotel holidays would be France, frankly. Whenever we've done even overnighters in very modestly-priced Logis places, the welcome and food have always been smashing.

serenequeen · 22/09/2004 12:23

oh no, that sounds awful

i hope your dw is feeling better now.

enid · 22/09/2004 12:30

Go Self catering!!! and pref in France as the cafes are so welcoming to children. I hate the idea of any child-friendly hotels, I always imagine them to be just as BINTBBH described. Babington House is nice though if you've got the cash.

codswallop · 22/09/2004 12:31

thast what I sadi

Original poster

BearintheBigBlueHouse · 22/09/2004 14:26

I know other holidays are available, but we really wanted to be looked after on this one. Which is why I tried as hard as possible to find the place least likely to let us down - check out the other thread. We were trying to get back on an even keel after my mother?s funeral 10 days before, so R?n?R for both children and parents was required.

S/C is, after all, just job relocation for SAHs - same dishes, different view from the sink. France is, I?m sure, a very nice place, but last summer in the middle of the heat-wave that killed all the old people and stopped DD from sleeping for 12 nights out of 14, I swore that I would never darken its shores again, or at least until the DCs had well and truly grown up.

DW is better thanks and made the best of the rest of the week at home with lots of quality time with DS and DD.

OP posts:

bettys · 22/09/2004 14:30

So sorry to hear your break was so crappy. Sounds like you need a night out together in a gourmet restaurant to make up for it being such a let-down.
And before people get so holier than thou about self-catering (which we do too), just what is so wrong with a bit of luxury now and then?

Marina · 22/09/2004 14:32

Eek, forgot about the heat south of the Loire in France most summers. Of all the timings to be let down by a holiday though BITBBH, so very sorry about your mum. Glad you and dw salvaged some pleasant times together at the end of the week.

CountessDracula · 22/09/2004 16:03

Oh no

Another one that sounds awful! I tell you I am never going to one of these places!

Suggestion: Hire a nice cottage somewhere within striking distance of your house and a nanny to come with you!

Bagpuss30 · 22/09/2004 18:53

Bear, sorry to read about your dreadful experience. Was interested in this ourselves a few months back but settled in the end for a self catering hol in North Wales which was very very nice. Cottage was superb (and even had wine in the fridge ) although kids were hideously hard work, but you can't have it all. At least you managed to salvage some of your hol back home though .

CD, that's also my SIL's tip only she takes her mother instead.

serenequeen · 22/09/2004 19:39

bear, i'm with you on the s/c front - it's not that we wouldn't do it or haven't done it, but it can be just the same old household chores in a different and less convenient environment. i didn't like being smacked on the wrist earlier in this thread for apparently not having had a good enough time!

Issymum · 22/09/2004 20:22

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This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at OP's request

WideWebWitch · 22/09/2004 22:01

Oh god Bear, it sounds like hell, so sorry. What tossers they were for insisting you paid, they should have been bending over backwards to placate you imo. Especially as none of us will ever go there now. I'm with you and sq on s/c being same chores, less convenient, somewhere else (guess who had shitty time in sc welsh cottage this year with baby who also didn't sleep? I sooo sympathise), issymum's idea, now THAT sounds like a holiday.

elliott · 23/09/2004 10:10

oh dear, sorry you had such an awful time. And these places are sooo expensive, you would think they could manage decent (at least safe) food! I keep on toying with going to one of these places but the journey would be so long and the cost so much I couldn't bear to be disappointed by it....

Marina, I keep wondering about 'ordinary' hotels in France - we had a fantastic hotel holiday there pre-kids. I don't need luxury or swankiness (in fact would be put off by them) but would like to be cooked for, and they do seem to know how to do that in France! The questions I have are - can you get interconnecting rooms? Can you get early tea for kids or even the whole family (I know the culture is for late meals all together there and don't think that would work for us)? how did it work for you?

I agree that s/c is hard work away from home. We tend to go with friends which makes it more bearable and you can share the cooking, but I've yet to find a holiday which is worthy of the name with kids - maybe just better accept that that's how it is with little ones!

Marina · 23/09/2004 10:49

elliott, we resigned ourselves to sharing a room with the nippers (both still pretty small and one is a night wanderer) and found we could cope by keeping their meals on "English time" - ie, 7pm sitting in France equated to 6pm in the UK when we normally eat with them anyway.
I think you can get interconnecting rooms, especially in Logis hotels. We had a super experience at Chateau de Tourelles in Le Wast near Boulogne where ds had his own sweet little room off a shared bathroom for no extra cost!
Start here but my tip would be to approach any Logis hotel in your chosen location because some excellent ones don't even think to designate themselves as "family-friendly", they just ARE.

Cam · 23/09/2004 11:08

elliott, yes we have done similar to Marina for last 8 years, with our one dd sharing a room which she loves to do on holiday, luckily she's very good about going to sleep. She has always come down to dinner with us, initially asleep in puschair when a few months old but now aged 7 eating the full 3 course. What I like is that dd always tries out new foods and has really taken to oysters in the last couple of years! The thought of going to an English "luxury-family" hotel has always left me cold.

ks · 23/09/2004 11:10

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ks · 23/09/2004 11:19

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Cam · 23/09/2004 11:20

ks I tried to post to you here but for some unknown reason it appeared on the Brighton meet-up thread - maybe you want to look over there and come to the meet up as well!

elliott · 23/09/2004 11:31

marina, cam, thanks for the info. 7pm tea might work for us too (tho I guess we might be the only ones in the restaurant) but my bottom line is no room sharing with the kids (though I suppose tent sharing isn't much different and wasn't so bad - if only ds1 had stayed asleep in the night!). Better swot up on the French for 'interconnecting'!

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