So when you go away on holiday (with 5-12s rather than tinies), what do you actually DO all day?

[roisin]

Often when I look at photos of hotels and resorts and read their descriptions, it just makes me shudder.

I think I just don't like people, let alone crowds. And when on holiday I make the most of the idea of getting away from everything/everybody.

So, when you go away for your main summer holiday, what do you actually do whilst away? What is a typical day for you?

a few day trips, rockpooling 9at least one evening trip- lovely), exploring, just general relaxation. Oh and they still like sandcastles etc, although it gets mroe competitive!

And swimming too

We stick within this country though

We swim, sail, snorkle, dh might do a bit of beach volleyball. Also play in the pool/sea with the dds and dig/build in the sand. If the dds go to kids club we will probably bask in the sun and read aswell. I also like to do puzzles. Interspersed with this are plenty of eating and drinking. . In the evenings we will have a quiet drink and maybe watch any entertainment that's going on, like steel bands, limbo dancing, fire eaters.

What about other people? Do you see other people (strangers I mean)? Do you talk to them? Spend much time with them?

Try & avoid other people tbh. However, sometimes we get chatting to other people with similar aged dcs and if we get on OK then we'll socialise with them in the evenings.

Something that has worked for us in the past is to offer to take the other family's dcs in to dinner with us, so that the other couple can have a romantic dinner elsewhere a deux. Then the other couple will reciprocate and we get our nice couply meal together whilst the dds go to dinner with them.

We then meet up afterwards for post-dinner drinks. Very civilised.

Usually someone we'lls ay hi to or chat for a few mnutes but not really holiday friends- like space and to be together (bleurrghh)

Not if we can help it!

Up until this year we have gone to West Cork where we quite often have the beach pretty much to ourselves.... Seem to end up at the beach most days, regardless of weather, have the occasional lunch out, take the kids to a local playground, etc (I still have a preschooler though).

This year we are going on a Keycamp type thing in France - the kids will probably love it as there should be other kids to play with (dd is 10 and probably finds it boring spending too much time with just her younger brothers...)

I have to say I am having mixed feelings about it - wondering if we will feel obliged to be more sociable with families around us, but at the same time might find the kids entertain themselves more so might be more relaxing for us...

Thankfully I have 3 dds aged 9 - 15 who adore the beach. My eldest will still go rockpooling for 8 hours at a stretch and only return for food. The others will surf and dig the sand all day then skim stones all evening. I just read most of the time and dp surfs and organises rounders games.

We usually do two or three trips to zoos/museums and fill in the rest of the time with walking coastal paths, beachcombing and cycling.

We usually end up in Devon or Cornwall. This Easter we had a fantastic time on the Isle of Wight.

I don't like crowds or lots of people either roisin.

We get up lateish as children can entertain themselves first thing, so we'll come down about 8-9 ish

Then it depends, quite often we'll have breakfast together, like eggs or something they can't cook themselves

Laze around
watch a film
go and have lunch somewhere
mooch on a beach
walk somewhere to see what's around

maybe play all together, i.e. cluedo, board games in the evening (we did this with ds once dd was asleep last yr)

No, we don't talk to other people, I don't want to tbh. Unless friends have come with us.

And we NEVER socialise.

I have just come back from holiday with daughter (2.9) but also stepsons (12, 10) and children's boy cousins (7, 5). So the activities were very much geared around boys - even more so because there were two adult men (my partner and his cousin) and only one adult woman (me).

We went to places where there weren't many people. We hired a tiny car and crammed all eight of us in it to go to the beach, which the children thought was amazing fun. The children took themselves off for breakfast in the village in the morning leaving the adults to lie in [smile). We played/swam in the hotel pool. We explored the village and tried lots of restaurants. My partner taught his elder son (12) to drive in a parking lot where there were both cars and donkeys parked. The five year old fell in love with my daughter and spent a lot of time taking her up to his bedroom.

All very tame stuff that you can only do a long way from urban civilisation

Oh yes, the boys played loads of chess and Uno. And draughts. Etc.

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Depends on the type of holiday. We've been in very remote cottages in Northern Scotland and hardly seen a soul. In Winter we ski which sometimes can be beautifully remote if no one else is around but they're good holidays as you're all in the open day all day long but not under each other's feet all day.

We've been on holidays where we've been in a resort or in a villa on site and the children have been in the kid's club until 3 or 4 and then we've all had fun for 5 or 6 hours after that. Lots of different types of holidays. Last summer we visited some native tribes and various fairly exciting things like that in Central America and visited my island which was very different again. It's nice not to get stuck in a rut.

My stepsons much prefer going on holiday with another family. Obviously there are loads of potential pitfalls in this (you have to find families that like similar holidays, with a similar budget, with children who get on with yours - and you have to like the parents), but the last two big holidays we have done have involved another family - ski-ing at Easter and beach/island holiday we've just returned from - and were both a big success. The children are amused by "living" with other children they don't usually live with, and there is safety in numbers when they go off on their own for meals, exploring etc.

I like holidays in remote houses/cottages with large numbers of friends. in whihc case we bum around, go in the pool, eat under a tree, and in the early evening might play hide and seek or rounders then eat more; have also been on our own in a remote cottage whihch was a semi - met two other families with kids for ours to play with, had a beer or two with the parents, all very pleasant really; this year went "camping" - kids ran around in a ferral pack, we went in teh pool, walked, went on the beach, went to the market.

we eat out a lot, go exploring/visiting local places. Go to the beach and find stuff, build sandcastles etc

Sounds lovely, hatwoman

I'm wondering whether to dare put three families together (ie our plus two others) for our next holiday... or even four. The two families we have been on holiday with this year (who in any case are related - brother and sister - and distant cousins of my partner's) and my sister's family (lots of votes from my stepsons for my nephews). Do you think this is too many? Would be three families of two adults and three children and one family of one adult and two children, ie 18 people in all?

have never been away with "others" do you think its necessary to have kids of similar ages for this to work?