Hotels vs villages/villas for toddlers

[dillydallydollydaydream7]

I'm wondering if any of you lovely Mumsnetters can help. Eventually at some point, maybe next year, we're hopefully going to look at going abroad. I'm guessing it'll either be Spain or Cyprus.

By next summer, DD1 will be 3 and DD2 will be 18 months. I was wondering what people generally find easier for children of that age in terms of where to stay? When I think of hotels the cons I have is that I don't want to have to run like a mad woman to the pool every morning to reserve loungers, I'm not a confident swimmer but I think the kids would enjoy the water so I'd like pool access without spending the day with my heart in my mouth with how busy it'll be. Pros would be not having to cook if we went all inclusive.

Has anyone any experience of staying in villas? Or holiday villages?

Pre-kids DH and I would go to Benidorm and the hotel we stayed in had an adults only floor, so bigger rooms and adult only pool on the rooftop.. obviously that won't be happening again for years now 😂

We tried one hotel holiday when ourz were toddlers then went back to camping. Spending more than two nights living in one room together was too stressful.

A separate kids bedroom or outdoor space you can use at night is essential in our opinion...

I've stayed with a toddler at a hotel but it was relatively small, we went outside of UK school holidays, and we had a 2 bedroom room mini apartment with a patio (or balcony if you were upstairs) so the small one went to bed early and we could sit outside with drinks. The prospect of all being camped out in one bedroom didn't seem like much of a holiday! The advantage of a resort / hotel is that the kids tend to find friends to play with.