Holidays in Europe?

[Flik]

Id like to family holidays that are a bit different. I was thinking France or Italy or round that way. Recomendations welcome. Need to be suitable for dd's whi will be 5 and 2 by the time we go.

Do lakes and mountains appeal ? - You could go with a specialist operator such as Sun Esprit who run kids clubs and activities, a mainstream operator such as Thomson or Crystal who run excursions and activities, or either book a hotel or rent an apartment in a resort and go independently. Most resorts have websites which would give you a flavour of what goes on during the summer season and accommodation.

We did Chamonix with Esprit in Summer 2003 with ds and dd, then 5 and 22 months. But have also been to Lake Lugano (Italian/swiss border) and various Swiss mountain resorts independently, mainly for long weekends. We enjoy the mix of cablecar rides, walking, bike riding around a lake and so on.

Further south, Lake Garda is also nice and Gardaland park comes highly recommended although the kids may be too young to fully appreciate it.

hth

depends what you are looking for really. We had a great holiday this year in the Loire, just rented a cottage that was quite isolated and had a big garden for ds1 to play in (he was 2.5) and for BBQs, a wood near for excellent walks, but was only a 15 minute walk to the village to get bread / wine etc. We went out most days to different towns and cities, to cave dwellings, zoo's etc. Ds2 was only 8 months so would have been fine anywhere.
It was as far away from a beach / entertainment as possible, but thats exactly what we wanted.