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.

Holiday village Majorca has two rooms (double sofa bed in lounge) and 3 single beds in bedroom (or two single beds if you only have 2 kids)
Other holiday villages have a king size in the bedroom and we have squeezed all 3 kids into that up to the age of around 10.
Trouble is in some of the cheaper holiday villages the sofa beds have been awful. In one in particular there was only 1 door (the main room door to the corridor) separating you from people coming back and shouting etc at 1am / 2am. Woke up at all hours awful. But I do like an AI
It’s really tricky and I have no idea why more 2 bedroom apartments arnt available!

I would suggest booking a villa with private pool, more space, separate bedrooms, eat out or in. Much better than a hotel.

[quote ecceromani]@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![/quote]
Might be worth a try! Thanks for the tip 😊

Look at Magic Terra Nauta - all inclusive has water park and zoo included

Swimming pools close to the airport and a bus ride to benidorm - I’m not recommending benidorm but this park is so clean and lovely!! Each place is detached and spacious.

You need ot try and find aparthotels - there aren't a huge number but they are out there! We're staying at Viva Blue & Spa aparthotel in Majorca in May (rescheduled from September 2020!), in a 2-bed apartment. It's a full-on resort with pools, kids club, restaurants and a spa.

You can book self catering, b&b, half board or all-inclusive - we've booked half board but there are lots of restaurants nearby as its on a busy strip. We'll probably still eat out some of the time, but with a 3.5 year old DD it will be easier to know we only have to find lunch and top up with drinks if necessary.

We booked accommodation and flights separately but I've just had a quick google and you can book through Jet2 and Tui etc.

@StepBackPlease

You need ot try and find aparthotels - there aren't a huge number but they are out there! We're staying at Viva Blue & Spa aparthotel in Majorca in May (rescheduled from September 2020!), in a 2-bed apartment. It's a full-on resort with pools, kids club, restaurants and a spa.

You can book self catering, b&b, half board or all-inclusive - we've booked half board but there are lots of restaurants nearby as its on a busy strip. We'll probably still eat out some of the time, but with a 3.5 year old DD it will be easier to know we only have to find lunch and top up with drinks if necessary.

We booked accommodation and flights separately but I've just had a quick google and you can book through Jet2 and Tui etc.

Good advice - I'd love to go to Majorca, but think April is a bit of a gamble with the weather....it's the only reason I've narrowed it down to the Canaries. I might just wait until the summer and go then - we might have more options 🙄

Try pierre et vacances - they have an ai option but they have 2 bed lodges. Many hotels have interconnecting doors alternatively

I can recommend TUI magic life for that age group, they definitely have interconnected rooms and lots of sports for the kids, 4 restaurants included on bus route and TUI made everything really easy despite covid

What about an Airbnb - you’d probably get a house for what you’d pay for a hotel

Having exactly the same issue :(

We've stayed at this hotel on the Costa de la Luz in the past and had 2 interconnecting hotel rooms on a HB basis - the kids slept in a twin room and the interconnecting doors were left unlocked with the keys to self lock should you prefer. They loved it - pretty luxurious for the price

We bought our flights & car hire from the airport separately though so not a package. (Pre pandemic)

Most hotels will be open to selling you 2 hotel rooms next to one another - possibly with interconnecting doors and will be open to a negotiated discount on the room rate of the second room especially if it's not summer and they have availability.

Link would help!

It was the 2 bed family room option at the bottom of the page.

Agree with the 'self cater and eat out option'. Also stock up on drinks, snacks, ice creams etc.

There's 4 people going, all of whom are capable of stacking a dishwasher and getting their own drinks/snacks etc, so you don't need to be running around after anyone.

We stayed here in Lanzarote.

2/3 bed villa with a small private pool, BBQ, dishwasher, washing machine. Large convenience store and bakery a couple of minutes walk away and not much further to the beach and marina with a wide selection of restaurants. Also waterpark, volcano, watersports etc accessible on island.

We've done villa holidays and it is nice but cooking and stacking the dishwasher isn't my idea of a holiday really. It's too expensive to eat out for every meal (for us anyway). I think both types of holidays have their pros and cons though. It was definitely better having our own pool and no other people around!

[quote ecceromani]@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![/quote]
This is what we do too, we book two rooms each for 1 adult and 1 child then once there we just stick the kids in their own room, they are teens though so may not work so well for younger kids.

I’d recommend looking at club med and booking interconnecting rooms. Da Balaia in Portugal is very good in the summer. Not sure what it would be like at Easter but they have other options eg Greece and Turkey. It is very french but that didn’t bother us.

On Jet2 just put two rooms in the search , 1 adult in each.

Or select 2 bed apartment if that's an option.

I find their App and customer service extremely helpful. I would caution against booking elements separately in these uncertain times unless you have excellent travel insurance.

With Tui you find the holiday and then upgrade the room to a 2 bedroom (which means the price increases obviously- not sure if there's a way to set the search from the start)

Oh god, this thread gave me so much worry about our own canaries holiday, we’re changing it today!! We’d booked a family room so that we’d have space with the 3 DCs, but the hotel looks quite poor, so swapping to just twin rooms (plus a pull out) in a nicer hotel. Ah ghad the stress!

We have an 8 and an 11 year old. We usually book suites so there is a separate area for the kids to sleep. We have booked the Royal Hideaway Corales in Tenerife for this summer. 2 bed suite with a private pool.

I’m having the exact same issue, have a 17 year old DD and a 13 year old DS , they will not share a room, and hardly any accommodation seems to have 2 bedrooms, and I want all inclusive and not self catering, as we self cater for our summer holidays and I want a break from it! I’ve been looking at Malta so if anyone has any suggestions for AL inclusive hotels with 2 bedrooms options then please fire them at me.!

There are all inclusive hotels that have self catering accommodation - so three bed apartments but with the added bonus of all inclusive.

The Magic Terra Natura I mentioned ha 3/4 bedrooms and is more centre parks abroad and worth considering

We found SC apartments in Salou in Spain all inclusive 4* hotel