Holiday ideas for homesick 8 year olds

[Fluffnutter]

Just been away on a European city/theme park break. It was all great in terms of weather, accommodation and the places we visited were all child centered things. However, DS 8 felt quite homesick which obviously affected his enjoyment of it all. He said he liked where we went, but wanted to be at home. I think he missed playing football and playing with friends. In contrast, his younger sibling (5) had a great holiday.

This has shaken my confidence a bit in planning holidays. Next time I think we need to go somewhere like a campsite where he can play football and meet other English speaking kids.

Can anyone recommend suitable places? Last year we went to a French campsite but there were very few other Brits there. In an ideal world my preference would be to go somewhere that isn't too big or loud, but accept it might be difficult to find something that meets all requirements.

@Fluffnutter You might not like this idea, but cruise ships have loads of other dc on them. My DC loved DC company. These holidays were not entirely to my taste but we swallowed our needs for a bit! No football though!

We also did a Mark Warner which was awful! Dc liked it though. As DC got a bit older we became adventurous and went with Families worldwide. You will have other Dc on these holidays. (They might not be to your liking though!) We went on several adventurous holidays with boys who were bored stiff as they wanted to run around and play football! I just think DC have to understand there’s a bigger picture with holidays. In the end ours enjoyed India, Peru, various safaris and the Caribbean without other dc. They were girls though. We just kept busy! They loved the rainforest in Peru and Ecuador. The boys in other families, not so much!

Are there football camps at home so he can be more accepting of no football on holiday? One DC’s views should not overrule everyone else, I think. You cannot please everyone all of the time!!

@TizerorFizz thanks for your advice. I don't think we would do a cruise, truthfully speaking, but would be willing to do a campsite or something where we could have a day-on day-off type situation, or go out for the morning and give kids time to relax in the afternoon. I think that's what I'm hoping for - so that we can satisfy everyone at least to some extent.

I get your point about not letting one person dominate everything about the holiday, and also that DC need to open up to new experiences. That makes me feel less guilty about everyone not enjoying everything all the time! Equally I probably need to make sure that holidays don't become a negative experience for DS.

From my kids' point of view, the most fun holidays we ever did were the camping-in-a-field-in-Devon kind of ones - where they ran feral with all the other kids until after dark. No entertainments, just trees to climb and copses to explore.

Thanks @MrsLiam , I think that's the type of thing I had in mind really. However I don't want to restricted to the UK only. Are there places like this in Europe which would have plenty of other English-speaking kids?

There are many more campsites in Europe than there are here - but you can't guarantee other English folk there, in my experience, not campsites in fields. Maybe up in Brittany or north France you'd get more English people, but in general there are a lot of Germans and Dutch on continental campsites.

Have you looked at Duinrell in the Netherlands? It’s really good. There is stuff to do and there were quite a few other English speaking families when we were there. There’s also a Facebook group so you could ask prior to going for other kids similar ages and they could meet up to play?

@Fluffnutter DH and me are not cruisers either!

I think Brittany is a better bet for Brits. I would research clubs for DC at the various places. We camped in Brittany a few times and DC found that good for them. Mix of activities and going out with us. I can see Dc want a good holiday but I would also look at sports camps before you go so he has his sport fix here!

Austrian kinderhotel?

They are often in the mountains or near lakes. Some have small farms. Swimming pool. Space to kick a ball around. Lots of others children

We just did a long multi location trip with our son. He also seemed to get a bit homesick after a while. A few things that seems to help: take own pillow case for familiarity, plus teddy/ toys. Let them chill with favourite show or film at some point each day so they see something normal. Not to have busy day every day, but alternate with something low key

https://www.kinderhotels.com/

Also falkensteiner do kinderhotels

https://www.falkensteiner.com/en/inspiration/family

You could find one with football camp for example

How about Centreparcs in Holland it is half the price of the U.K. ones and lots to do. When we went there were a lot of English speaking children around. A lot can depend on the kids though our youngest best friend on our last holiday was French and didn't speak a word of English, they played together for a full week

I was also going to say center parcs netherlands - they have lots of Brits there.

We do cottage stays-usually Scotland! When ds(8) was younger he got homesick.. We started taking his own duvet and pillow. Seems having his own bedding made a huge difference!

Look at the big campsites in northern Italy - full of kids from all over Europe and football coaching, tournaments etc were daily. Lots of space for pick up games too. Dd was playing with kids from 8 different countries, they couldn't talk to each other but they could play!

Thanks all, some good ideas here. Taking a duvet and pillow is a great idea, and having some rest time each day is definitely along the lines I was thinking too. I will look into the different places you suggested.