First (school-dictated) summer holiday - need ideas!

[boymum1989]

This is the first our summer holiday will be dictated by school holiday dates - not only finding it much more expensive, but we have no experience of travelling in Europe in August and I'm curious how busy package-type holidays and family-friendly hotels will actually be! So I have a few questions...

About us - we have 2 boys (5 and 3). Typically (pre-Covid, anyway) we did a big holiday every year to SE Asia, where we have family we can stay with, then we'd do a side trip to Thailand/Indonesiaa, where food/nice accomodation is so much cheaper than in Europe.

At this point, we just want to get a few ideas to get the ball rolling so we can book a week away in Aug.

Package holidays - do they actually work out cheaper? And once there, are the holidays that are targeted at families (all-inclusive, water slides, kids club, etc.) super busy? i.e. have to fight for a sun lounger, long lines at the buffet, etc. That's always been my expectation - happy to be proved different!

Ireland - flights are much cheaper, so we're also thinking about travelling around Ireland a little bit. Any good family hotels with pool/beach nearby to recommend? It looks to be slim pickings on booking.com - maybe we're already too late!?

Any recommendations for smaller, family-friendly resorts close to both a town and a beach? We are flexible and open to travelling anywhere in Europe within about 3 hours.

Basically, we're a bit lost :D

I found AI resorts good when DD was around 7-10, she was happy to be in KidsClubs on her own, was independent, slept better (notorious early riser, 6am was the norm until she was 7) and was ok to be up in the evening.

They are useful if you stay in the resort and don't mind having them eating ice cream and drinks all day long. We often went out during the day on trips so overpaid for the easyness to not think about paying for each drink. But yes, in August you will have full buffet restaurants in the resorts and it's busy to find a lounger in the shade if you leave it too late.

When DD was younger we prefered SC in small complex, with a pool and sorting out food ourselves and could stick with her routine which was for us more worth than being in a hotel.

May Half Term will be cheaper & fairly hot in southern Europe. This is what we did when our DC were primary aged.

Schools in Denmark go back in August, so we did a summer holiday to Billund when our dc were a similar age to your dc. We stayed at Lalandia and spent 2 days at Legoland nearby. It was one of our favourite holidays.

It’s a bit cheaper to go right at the end, or even the second part of August as European schools go back then.

San Sebastián and the surrounding coast is lovely, so is Biarritz if you don’t want a traditional package holiday.

how much do you want to spend?

Yes we’re thinking last week of august, v beginning of September since my younger son has nursery holidays then!

We don’t a budget per say, but having never booked to go away in school holidays, we don’t have a set budget - but definitely not stretching to any Pine Cliffs/Ikos type place. Ideally £1-1.5k for accommodation or could stretch if all inclusive. Fights are the hardest pill to swallow now youngest is no longer a lap infant too! Have seen cheaper flights to France vs Spain/Portugal so will definitely look at Biarritz!

Oh this sounds lovely actually! And not as hot

I think we’ll do that in future!