Best holidays for kids and ages

[lking679]

What were your best holidays for kids and ages. I have two aged 3 and 1. Have booked a cruise and center parcs next year. Can’t imagine flying with 1 year old as she won’t sit still and it’d stress me out (never mind passport control!).

Also what age was your youngest when you managed a semi normal city break? I.e nap and meltdown free?!

We never stopped our holidays and trips away, we started Cruises when the kids where 3 & 4 never looked back.
We did Pontons it was a dirty dump but they loved it, loads of Haven type places but as they got bigger we did a Cruise and Caravan holidays some busy sites some quiet.
You do have to alter a few things when they are small but its worth the effort, they both now have the travel and camping bug

We went to Europe resorts, Centre Parcs, haven, until my youngest started school and then started long haul holidays. We started cruising when they were 8 and 10 and city breaks around the young teenage years. We’ve always done some sightseeing on our holidays and not had any meltdowns. Keep the days short and the places family friendly or places we’d like to go and the add on a park etc.

We go on ski holidays, camping/caravan park holidays and once went to Disney land.

Our ideal holiday is one where we don't have to sleep in the same room as the children. We tried a hotel break when they were little and it was hell because of this.

To add our best holidays we’re Cape Town when DC were 11 and 13 and a Disney cruise around the Med the following year. Twin Centre Caribbean holidays when they were aged between 6 and 9 were also good. Also we’ve never had a bad cruise and have been in 11 with our DC. We usually add on a hotel stay before or after, this works well for us as either chill at the resort or make a mini break of it, such as three nights in Rome before getting on the ship.

Definitely make the most of the next year or two - being able to go away outside of school holidays makes a huge difference (not least to cost!).

We book Airbnb’s a lot (UK and abroad) - we’ve stayed in some really interesting places, often real home-from-home experiences very well set up for kids. I’ve never stayed more than one night at a time in a hotel with DC - being stuck in your room once they’re in bed is rubbish.

I actually found the ‘buggy years’ quite good for city breaks. We had a brilliant city break in Stockholm when ours were 4 and 2. Being able to use a buggy and buggy board meant we could do lots of walking around without tiring out little legs. Stockholm is so child friendly, we loved it.

Costa Brava in late September- villa with a pool for less than the price of a caravan in the school holidays, beautiful quiet beaches and weather was just perfect for young DC.

Mostly we’ve been in the UK though. Camping is really fun now they’re 5 and 7 and we can let them run off a bit on the campsite and climb trees and make friends. We’ve started to enjoy hiking as a family too - nothing too ambitious but they love climbing a “mountain” (reality - a small hill) and can be motivated by a flask of hot chocolate and lots of snacks.