Ideas for villa holiday with family.

[Subbaxeo]

I’m having a big birthday next year. I’d like to rent a house and invite my children and my husband’s children-it’s our second marriage and we have 4 young adults plus their SOs (23-27) between us. I’d like it to be in Europe but am a bit lacking ideas for where. Ideally, I’d like min 4-5 bedrooms, a private pool and also walking distance into town. I’m struggling to be honest as a lot of villas seem to be in the countryside but not all the kids drive and anyway, car hire is expensive.Has anyone stayed somewhere similar? I like France, green parts of Spain and Italy. We did stay in Tuscany a couple of years back-lovely but needed a car. We loved Lake Garda-easily walkable into town but that was in hotels. I was thinking of maybe Albufeira in Portugal? I’ve never been but have heard it’s really lovely. Id like to stay in a pretty, historic town if possible. Please give me your ideas!

We went to Crete for Easter. Was 17 of us in a really nice villa. Each of the rooms had its on en-suite. Pool, sauna, jacuzzi, cinema room and gym.

like you we wanted to be walking distance of bars/resturants/beach/shops etc as with there being 17 of us constantly going in cars would have been a faff plus meant the non drivers could go off by themselves if needed.
the village we were in wasn’t huge but lots of nice tavarnas etc. The nearby towns were built by ventians so had gorgeous little alleys etc and a fort.

qe stayed here www.vrbo.com/en-gb/p10890165?adultsCount=2&arrival=2023-08-19&childrenCount=3&departure=2023-09-02

Have you checked James Villas or Villa Plus ? I think they have a filter to say if car is essential or not.
I'm thinking maybe Puerto Pollensa in Majorca might work. There are villas within walking distance of the town which is quite pretty, or possibly Palma but you'd need to get the bus to the beach.

Tavira in Portugal is nice - it has a train station, is not far from Faro for the airport and has an amazing beach that you travel to via a taxi boat. Enough bars/restaurants so you don't have to drive anywhere and it's not as commercialised as Albufiera. I also like Alvor in Portugal.

Portugal for us. Good range of large villas. We had a lovely holiday near Obidos

We always stay in los mojones area of puerto del carmen, lanzarote. Not far from airport, walking distance into town (hill coming back but taxi cheap as chips if you are tired).

We go to Kas in Turkey with our adult (20’s) children. Villas are relatively inexpensive. We fly to Dalaman and get a taxi transfer which Villa company arranged. Although it’s not walking distance from villas to the town there is a very good and reliable local minibus which runs every half hour.

Kas is very pretty and there’s quite a lot to do in terms of history and excursions of boat trips.

I can recommend a couple of Villa companies if you’re interested.

Totally recomend Menorca -calan porter. We booked through villa plus who were great. You can get 3,4 &5 beds with pools. Bbq, and loads of amenities. Mostly all the villas were on the same street with lovely bars/shops/restaurants on the next street down, a market and the beautiful beach about 10 mins walk. Bus stop to explore the island on doorstep, fab ride to the capital Mahon for approx £3. Where there is a gin factory who insist u try their samples!!

@BrieAndChilli Oh My! What a place. You mustn’t have wanted to come back! Too big for us and £££ but lovely!
Will take a look at James Villas and also the fact that Tavira has a station is attractive. And Turkey-had never thought of that. Thank you for your ideas-am going to have a lovely couple of weeks planning where to go!

@Moversnotshakers That sounds just what I want. And somewhere with transport to decent cities is a plus for the young ones.

We didn’t pay anywhere near the top season price! We paid a 1/3 of the august price and 17 of us went so actually wasn’t much more expensive than if we all rented caravans down Tenby!

A big group of us went to Croatia recently. We stayed in a beautiful villa along the coast from Split which is a fantastic small city with vibrant nightlife. There was a very good bus service between the resorts and the town all day and late into the evening. The beaches were lovely and the views out to sea, islands and along to the city from our balcony were magical.

All the villas kinda stretch out along the coast road (bus route) so you are never far from either the beach bars nor the transport.