I had NO IDEA that package holidays were such a nightmare to book!

[GarageFlower123]

I feel extremely lucky - I have £5K to spend on a holiday for my family...I've had it with camping and self catering, and fancy going somewhere nice and warm where someone will cook for me, and I will give them some money in exchange.

I've narrowed it down to the Canaries for easter, but all I can find are hotels with "family rooms"....effectively one room with a bed and a sofa bed. I've got a 12 and a 9 year old....who don't sleep well together anyway...but this would be hell! Why on earth would I part with my cash to go and live in worse conditions than I have at home? Does anyone else have this problem? Have you found any way around it?

I've thought about apartments, but I don't want to go self catering. Because, like I said....I want a holiday. So bl**dy frustrating.

It’s not that many hotels don’t have room options for adjoining rooms or little suites with separate bedrooms though.

The problem is that online booking systems are shit and it’s really hard to specify that you want something like that. Which is bizarre because I’m pretty sure that ‘we want to not have to all sleep in the same room but still to be together in a designed space’ is a fairly standard thing that families are looking for.

So often with older kids, the booking system decides that you’ll be happy with two rooms (and an adult in each). With no guarantee they’ll have an adjoining door even. When actually you want it to be a bigger space with separate sleeping spaces (with walls and doors!) within it.

Thank you so much for all the responses...I was feeling so frustrated, and you've given me some really good options to look at. I'm really glad that it's not just me, I thought I was doing something wrong! For context, I spent a lot of time in my 20s travelling around and the whole concept of booking something in advance is a bit alien to me...I was even a travel agent for a time at STA Travel, but package holidays never came up....in fact, one of my colleagues once sent a lovely Japanese boy who spoke no english to Tel Aviv instead of Tenerife - he had no idea until he got on the plane. That was an interesting phone call....

@secretrugbyfan

.....or you could just buy each family member a pair of Balenciaga trainers and be the coolest family in your street...... :-)

This might be worth considering 😆

@secretrugbyfan

.....or you could just buy each family member a pair of Balenciaga trainers and be the coolest family in your street...... :-)

Try TUI Family Life / First Choice Holiday Village. We’ve been on plenty of package holidays and we’ve never all been in the same room. No way! That’s not a holiday.

Does it have to be the Canaries? Turkey is stunning and very cheap to eat out. The food is beautiful too

This is us! Thirteen yr old DD who is as tall as me, & ten year old DS are not happy sharing a double bed but a sofa bed is totally out as they are so small.
We booked MarBella hotel in Corfu and paid a lot extra for a family room with two single sofa beds in the sitting room area, with doors that pull closed at night. I think this will be a good step before processing to two separate rooms so fingers crossed.

You have my sympathies!! By the time we had the ££ to have our first ever package holiday though, Covid had other ideas. Which is actually quite lucky, as the DCs are now old enough (we consider) to sleep in a separate room. But it was so so hard and stressful to find somewhere that catered for older DCs.

Will your 12 yr old be double jabbed by Easter?

Yep it is a pain trying to find two bedroom options within a hotel. I am always looking for this as we are all light sleepers and sharing a room with my DC would not be a holiday!

Here are some in the Canaries that definitely have two bedrooms and have hotel facilities. Some have 3 bedroom options I think.

Roca Nivaria
Baobab Suites
Hotel Suites Villa Maria
Royal Hideaway Corales Suites
Las Terrazes de Abama
Princesa Yaiza (might be bunk beds though so maybe better for little kids)

Other hotels may be able to offer interconnecting rooms but this information is really tucked away and you often can’t search for availability of interconnecting rooms. Travel agents might be more able to get this information easily.

Go for a resort with suites and villas option, eg Dunas in Maspalomas, Gran Canaria.

We always holiday self catering but the majority of our meals we eat out. Will get some basics from the supermarket for breakfast and the odd meal in . We don't book as a package though - we book an apartment through VRBO or similar (like Air B&B) so we can get a really comfortable apartment like home from home, plenty of space, aircon. Washing machine, dishwasher , Netflix etc .

I appreciate you don't have the same level of security with cancellations , although so far we've been OK when we've needed to cancel over the last couple of years . You can filter so you have property you can cancel up until two weeks before travel, and we've found Jet2 very helpful on flights

I use a local travel agent (I can send you the details, I promise it’s not me personally). She books all my holidays, SC or hotels. Uk or abroad
I just tell her what I want and she finds it and organises the whole thing. It’s the same price as the brochure as the holiday co pay her commission not me.
She really looks after us, I have been away and seen loads of people having visa problems or not being sure of entry requirements etc while we are fine because the Travel Agent has sorted it all out for us. It’s like having a Proper grown up arrange your holiday for you!

And also if there are cancellations or changes she organises all that too instead of you having to try and get through to anyone.
When Covid first hit she worked 24/7 to get all her clients home

How about a holiday billiard or apart hotel where you can still get part boar or AI but have your own self contained apartment. Unlikely to be 3 bedroomed though- maybe 2 but one of you could use the lounge. Alternatively a villa near amenities

Holiday Village have a good set up with two almost separate rooms and twin beds for the kids. We've been to a few.

How much time are you going to spend in the room on a sun holiday? You'll be a lot over 5k if you book two separate rooms and do you really not want the kids interconnected?

To add to my post - if you are booking an individual apartment from their owner there is also far more choice where to go - you can look on google maps for the exact siting of your apartment complex in the resort and how far you need to walk to beach, shops, restaurants etc

Hoppinggreen she sounds good!

I’ve tried using travel agents but haven’t been impressed with their range tbh. I tell them my requirements, they send 3 options of which one is outside budget and two don’t fit the bill… I then google and find 5 options that would work fine! I think many just send you wherever they have an affiliation unfortunately.

Jet 2 holidays are quite good as you can see the type of accommodation on the front page. Make sure 12 year old is double jabbed by Easter, or indeed can be as prerequisite for Spain currently.

In Tenerife there is Regency Country Club with 1 and 2 bed apartments although check that the activities and shuttle bus is back or as someone has said Hotel Isabel also has apartments. There are some more as well.

@minipie

Hoppinggreen she sounds good!

I’ve tried using travel agents but haven’t been impressed with their range tbh. I tell them my requirements, they send 3 options of which one is outside budget and two don’t fit the bill… I then google and find 5 options that would work fine! I think many just send you wherever they have an affiliation unfortunately.

No, she’s completely independent and bloody wonderful. I remember arriving in Cape Verde (her suggestion, never would have considered it) and most of the plane joined a Q to get a visa while we went straight through as she had sorted it. Also in Greece the Rep didn’t come to resort and I was stressing about checking in for the return flight so I messaged her and she said she had already checked us in. She knows the best places to sit on planes, the best hotel rooms to book and everything AND IT COSTS NO MORE than going direct.

@GarageFlower123
When you're booking a package most hotel rooms need to have an over 18 in them so that's why they're putting you all one one room.
We got over this by changing the requirement to 2 rooms with 1 adult and child per room. And requesting they are next to each other
Once there, the hotel don't care who you put in each room!

Placemarking because searching for multi room suites in hotels is the bane of my life. At least now my DC are older we can throw money at the problem and they can go in separate rooms, but when they were younger it was a nightmare. Who wants to spend two weeks sharing a single room with a six and an eight year old?

Agree witb tui family life or holiday village. Weve had 2 bedroom places in playa blanca and all inclusive

Cordial Mogan Playa and Radisson Blu Mogan both have family rooms that are two separate hotel rooms and two bathrooms, but with one external door.

Yeah this is why we hire a great big fuck off villa in europe and then just eat out/only make sandwiches and salads/breakfast in the villa.

I want separate bedrooms and separate bathrooms. I only compromise when I have to - like if we are at Universal/Disney or in US National parks etc.