Best European summer holiday you have been on with young kids

[eachbeach]

Looking for inspiration. Kids will be 6, 4 and nearly two in the summer.

Looking for somewhere with good pools, great play areas, possibility of day trips (were happy to rent a car).

Nice restaurants (but happy to also have villa accommodation.

For family reasons we've been to Florida for the last three years, including Disney so we're used to very busy holidays with lots to do ! I just can't face the jet lag this year !

I'm looking for somewhere different this year, but what about Corfu?
We have been going there with our DS from when he was a toddler. Flight is under four hours so will feel like a short step for you compared to long haul.

We have stayed in Kassiopi on the NE coast. Lots of villas, apartments and hotels with nice pools. The beaches are a bit pebbly in immediate locality but there are sandy ones within walking distance, plus we liked to hire a car and drive to other beaches nearby with wide stretches of sand and warm, clean shallow sea (see pic, the beach sloped so gently down under the sea that it it's very shallow for a long way out). There are always lots of cafes by the beach where you can buy drinks and snack foods like toasties, and vans selling fresh fruit turn up every so often. There are also water parks like Aqualand which are worth going to for the day and cater for all ages, including your littlest one.

Loads of lovely restaurants - we always go self catering so look for nice places doing food all day as well as lovely dinners at night. Friendly atmosphere, locals adore children. Lots of opportunities for day trips, lots of boat trips (we hired a boat in the harbour for the first time last year, was amazing but I don't think we would have done it when DS was tiny!) either around the island or to neighbouring islands. You can do water sports, hire pedalos, horseriding, visit the donkey sanctuary...

It would be a lot quieter and less busy than Disney, but it's so relaxing and DS has always loved it. You can use any hotel pool and sunbeds as long as you buy drinks, accommodation will have WiFi, loads of lovely supermarkets and shops selling useful stuff...

Anyway. Hope this is useful springboard towards finding somewhere that suits. I need to start thinking about our summer holiday, best of luck planning yours OP

Our best holidays have been on campsites using eurocamp or similar. So many of the sites have water parks as well as a lake or next to the beach. There's nearly always at least one play Park, shop, restaurants, take aways etc. It means there's no need to rush around but lots of space for children to run round and use scooters or bikes.

Have a look at carvoeiro in the algarve. Lots of apartment and villa accommodation, large choice of restaurants, bars, cafes, very family friendly and plenty of places for day trips, water parks etc. I live here and used to be involved in holiday rentals - happy to answer any questions

I’d say no to all 3 of the above- did them all and didn’t like them!

Corfu- pebbly beaches are horrible for dcs- hard to walk on and make the water inaccessible

Algarve- water gets very deep very quickly (Atlantic) and is cold so not safe for young dcs.

Euro camp- only if you drive and can take everything you need with you inc toilet roll! The camps are expensive for stuff on site so you will waste holiday time going round supermarkets for essentials.

Some camps are huge so ‘on site’ pool is still a 30 min walk away in the heat carrying all your stuff!

I would totally disagree. I've been on cruises,Florida, Las Vegas, majorca, algarve to name just a few and best holiday I was ever on was cambrils park resort. Booked an apartment. Booked direct with website not through eurocamp. It is amazing. Apartments have everything.

Cyprus. Cypriots love kids. I know they’re rightly getting a tonne of awful press at the moment, but for a family holiday for the ages you mention it’s great.

Duinrell in Holland - eurocamp in an amusement park
Puerto Pollenca in Mallorca
Carvoeiro

Lake Garda

Look at Simpson travel for villas in Greece with communal pools and kids clubs.

Corfu is absolutely our favourite European holiday. So much to do and lots of different options for accommodation. Kassiopi mentioned earlier is a great option for families but we prefer Kalami which is 10 mins drive away- a bit quieter but beautiful. Just make sure you book somewhere right on Kalami beach because the steep walks down from the surrounding areas are a nightmare!

Agree about Duinrell in Holland - it's brilliant. We've been twice.

Definitely Eurocamp style holidays - France when DC were younger and didnt want the heat as much but so many lovely sites in Spain, Portugal and Italy too.

F

A cruise for us, different place nearly every day

I had a great holiday with our toddler last year to Rhodes with Tui

Efteling in The Netherlands - think Disney but less expensive, less brash, less busy and much more magical! The accommodation in the woodland village is beautiful.

We also loved Lake Garda but my children are older

Lake Garda. We went last year, plan to go back in a couple of years when kids are a bit older (currently 4 & 1). But it was beautiful, lots to do in the area and the resorts are really family friendly.

And to add, we stayed at a Eurocamp type place (Bella Italia) but booked as a package with Jet2 and we stayed in an apartment so no need to worry about taking your own toilet roll!

@usernotfound0000 I've heard great things about Bella italia

NCTDN I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. The only downsides we found were the scramble for sunbeds on a morning and there wasn't very many English there, this doesn't really bother me that much but DD kept trying to play with other kids but they didn't speak English. It was great though, we had a wonderful time.

Cyprus was 50 degrees for a full week when I went years ago.
Mallorca is good, plenty to see but easy to get around too. We stayed in a villa, rural location and the dogs barking all night and then chickens at dawn drove me mad. Zero sleep, something to bear in mind!

Louis hotel Zante - fab beaches (militantly protected as turtles nest there) and great food and park and pools for kids - went there when mine were that age (although was 15 years ago - trip adviser would be wise)

Martinal resort in Sagees, Portugal. Fab childcare, Terence Conran designed houses, amazing pools and child friendly restaurants on site as well as gorgeous sandy beach. My DC were 3 and 7 when we went. Both had a fab time as did DH and I. It is expensive but small and beautiful