Holidays that are a bit 'different' (kids will be 7.5 and 4)

[ruminatorB]

As it begins to turn properly autumnal, I'm thinking ahead to next year's holidays (February half term, Easter hols, summer or Oct half term). We would be limited to school holidays.

I'm wondering about a holiday that would work for us as a family then and interested to hear different itineraries , holiday types and destinations that you've done and loved and that I may not have thought of, UK, short haul or long haul.

So far we've done all inclusive package holidays to the Canaries & Balearics, beach / sailing / active package holidays to Greece & France, family friendly, self catering holiday parks in Wales & Cornwall (e.g. Bluestone), and city breaks to London and Paris which worked really well too.

My kids love swimming and waterslides, they like having other kids around to play with, they are good 'travellers'. DH & I like the option of a kids club / babysitting (not essential though), we all like having lots to do (activities on site and places to visit nearby).

Now the kids are getting a bit older I wonder about going a bit more long haul, to somewhere very 'different' but also wonder if it would be lost on them still at this age and maybe better to wait.

DH and I loved the mountain, both summer (hiking and biking) and winter (skiing) pre-kids. Not sure when is a good age to take them to that kind of resort. Is Club Med any good?

Not interested in Dubai, and not convinced about Disneyland anything, but realise the kids might love it..

Would love your suggestions!

Oh, and I forgot our Normandy Eurocamp holiday which we also all loved.

Disneyland is great at this age as if you leave it for when they get older the magic disappears slightly.

Mauritius
Cape town - Stay in a bnb and drive yourself around, just be sensible,
Driving holidays in the US.
Friends spent 2 weeks in Sardinia this summer and loved it.

4 is probably a bit young to keep great memories, but can have a blast while there. The 7.5 is at a great age!

I know you said no Dubai, but have you looked at Oman? Split the holiday between a nature bit (mountains and wadis) and Muscat. Doesn't meet the waterpark/other kids/babysitting unless you went for one of the big hotels in Muscat that can offer those things.

My 7 yr old (and his big brother) had a fabulous time in Australia - again, multi centre, nature and city hybrid. The travel was significantly less for us tho - we lived 12 hrs closer, so it was one long flight, not 2 long flights. I'm not sure we would have done it from the UK.

I know people who have had fabulous holidays in SE Asia.

We went to Beekse Bergen in the Netherlands for our family holiday last year with Eurocamp. It's the one that has the Safari park on site, and also Speelland (theme/water/play park). We chose to fly to Amsterdam and get the train, which was fantastic. It did limit our options once we got to the other side as it was tricky to pop into the closest town, but to be honest, we didn't need to. We finished our holiday with a day exploring Amsterdam and a hotel in the city so that we could be near the airport.

It was perfect for this age (mine were just 5 and almost 7 when we went).

The train added to the adventure. They have double decker trains! That thrilled us all.

Ours loved Boston and Cape Cod at that age. Boston is great for kids and Cape Cod is fun with great beaches.

They still insist ( and we've travelled lots) that their best holiday was to a village in The Netherlands where we stayed in a cabin on the inselsee and visited towns by train ( or just hung about the village with the Dutch kids).

As soon as ours could both swim, we went canal boating and all loved it.

We skied last year for the first time with 6&4. That's it now. Hooked. Literally the best holiday ever. Loved loved loved it. I was worried they'd be too small but they were in heaven.

We took the train to Italy. Stayed at a Eurocamp on Lake Idro. Stopped overnight in Paris. Day trip to Venice. It was magical! May half term. We had a 3 and a 1yo. Let me know if you want more info.

Check out Slovenia. We had a great adventure and sightseeing holiday there this year. Lots of hiking and bike riding, plus lakes to swim in, paddle boarding and plenty of other kids to play with.

west canada driving from vancouver to calgary over a 3 week period.
oregon - but best left until older teens
Florida keys
BELIZE - fabulous holiday of a lifetime
Disney world florida - yes I know what you said but go and you will be surprised plus there is lots of other stuff to do like kennedy space centre other than spending all day with the mouse
What we tend to do is book somewhere like Cyprus and then stay in something unusual/ a bit different and search out unusual activities to do that are off the beaten track.

also very much enjoy city breaks - Dublin, rome, athens, amalfi coast etc.

OP you seem to have had many adventures, what was your favourite one?

Eagerly following for lots of suggestions, these sound great. We've never travelled out of Britain/Ireland with them though but we have similar ages and I hope 2020 is the start of our adventures.

We are looking at these type of holidays for next year. Can anyone recommend somewhere in Slovenia? Do you air b&bs or eurocamp style? Also love the idea of the Paris-venice- camp.
Any recommendations? Kids are 12 & 11

Mine was 8 and 4 in the summer and we drove to the Netherlands to stay in a Center Parcs and Efteling. I would really recommend Efteling. We stayed in an apartment on site and it’s brilliant. We also went to their evening show. For Center Parcs, it’s very different to the UK and you can cycle offsite easily. We hired three bikes with the 4 year old in a bike seat. (She can’t handle the hired bikes. They are very heavy). You can get to towns nearby on completely safe off road well paved paths.

We stayed a couple of days on the way to and back in Ghent and Bruges. So there are options to add some city breaks too.

That's a great age for Lapland in the winter with husky and reindeer safaris santa etc once youngest is over 5. Mine loved it.

We did skiing breaks around that age.

Finland in the summer - brown bears in the wild, summer toboggan, whitewater rafting, kayaking end July. Mine are closer in age and around 6 and 8. Also done Norway and sweden, alpaca farm, moose safari, rafting, Viking museum, fjords, speedboat etc.

Did longhaul from around 10/9.

I would second winter Lapland, it's brilliant. Also Iceland has loads to see. New York is a great city with iconic sites and lots of beaches. We did a road trip around France at a similar age, Paris, Mediterranean, Alps then down through the eastern border into Luxembourg and Belgium, that was great.

Marrakech - fab winter sun option and definitely exotic without the long haul and jetlag.
Efteling is on my list - perhaps combined with Rotterdam, Brussels or a Dutch Center Parcs.
Crete - plenty to do and see.
I have friends who love Montenegro.

Japan is incredible. Easy to travel around once you're there and some magnificent parks, trains and food that suits all ages.

Lots of Aussie families go to Vietnam and it seems to be a hut with all ages as long as kids aren't super fussy with food.