Clueless and need holiday abroad ideas for family of 5!

[britespark1]

DH and I want to take our three DSs abroad as we have only ever done UK holidays with them and I need some ideas please. They will be 13/12/11 next year.

Full disclosure, 1) I am terrible with the heat (!) but will suck it up to an extent. 2) I don't want super long flights or transfers as they just aren't used to it and middle DS has ASD so unsure how he will be. 3) We are limited to the school holidays but understand temperature wise May-Oct might be better than the main summer weeks. 4) I don't think AI is for me as I like my own space and just don't fancy that if I'm being honest.

Does anyone have some starting points for an inexperienced traveller please?

I think the best place to start is budget as that will be a huge factor. Have you got an idea in mind of what you want to spend?

I think the Balearic Islands are a great place for a first holidays - short flight times and generally short transfers because the islands are small. There’s lots of choice of accomodation and flight options from most airports in the UK.

I have 5k as a rough figure but honestly don't know if that is even doable these days Thank you.

Have a look at Pra del Torri in North Italy. There’s loads to do onsite for teens and tweens

I think Majorca ticks a lot of boxes. There’s more to see than beaches. You can visit Palma, hilltop villages and explore the less visited areas away from the resorts. Plenty of choice of accommodation.

We enjoyed holidays in Britney. Self catering. Easy shopping and lots to see. We like historical places and some of the towns are fantastic. Some good beaches too. You can get a ferry with your own car and you would probably be in budget.

They might like a city. Paris on the train is great. However if they want water and a beach, your choices are really Spain for a very short flight. I would also look at somewhere like Corfu for May but the sea might be a bit chilly.

I think that’s a decent budget, especially if you’re happy doing a bit of self catering.

Do you think your DC would like to be somewhere with some teen facilities / where they can meet other kids of a similar age or would they not be bothered?

Fab ideas to look into thank you. Mine are not interested in other tweens I don’t think. They are happy in each others company (and a bit antisocial like me 😂)

What about a Eurocamp self catering type holiday via the ferry/tunnel? We have also done one involving a flight to Italy but that also involved the hassle of hiring a car.
Depending on where you live a lot of France, Belgium, The Netherlands are in fairly easy reach by car and not too hot if you stay north of Paris/Nantes, also with that budget you would have plenty of spending money and a higher end caravan.
What sort of things do you enjoy seeing/doing on holiday?

We live in the Midlands. The boys like playing on the beach and swimming in the sea mainly. Our UK hols are fairly chilled to be honest. They would probably enjoy water parks and a few activities now they are older.

Look at Salou. Short flights and transfer times, lots to do, water parks theme parks etc. There are lots of deals at the minute for 2024 for a family your size at less than 5K.

Thank you!

Durinell in The Netherlands is a holiday park with a huge water park, there is a ferry from Harwich. You’d be near to Efteling as well which is my favourite place in the whole world, you could combine the two (Bosrijk is their woodland accommodation and highly recommended)

Or overnight ferry from Portsmouth to France?

I think you should focus looking at: Majorca, Menorca, Costa Dorada

Specific resort recommendations:

Majorca - Cala D’Or, Cala Bona, Puerto de Pollensa
Menorca - Son Bou, Santo Tomas, Arenal
Costa Dorada - Salou, Le Pineda, Cambrils

If you want to go August you could consider West Coast of France as will be less warm

If sea swimming is important, I would be checking sea temperatures for May. I’ve been in Majorca in May before and it’s not quite been warm enough to comfortably swim in the sea.

Thank you all very much! It's nice to have somewhere to actually start!

Something like this would leave you with a decent amount of money for food / activities in your budget:

https://www.jet2holidays.com/beach/spain/costa-dorada/la-pineda/pineda-park-apartments-and-aquopolis-waterpark?duration=7&airport=118&date=24-07-2024&occupancy=r2c11_12_13&board=4&oflight=1085244&iflight=1085247&rooms=74165&gtmsearchtype=Smart%20Search&smartsearchid=2fca7197-1668-4cfa-a1a5-07babea9ba71

Just back from Lake Garda and would really recommend you take a look. We got the train from Bergamo airport but it's very accessible from Milan and also Verona. Wonderful lake swimming, SUPing, watersports, boat trips, beautiful scenery, great food, water park/theme park, day trips to the mountains, Venice and back in a day on the train. We just lazed by the lake and pool most days but there's so much to do.

The boys would definitely enjoy that! The only thing with Spain is we would be better going outside the main summer holidays because of the heat, but does everything shut down then?

Somewhere like La Pineda you’re probably best going between the end of May and the end of September for most things to be open - that’s the case for most tourist resorts in Spain. Some will go on until after half term in October, but it’s certainly not guaranteed.

Thanks, we could do the school holiday at the end of May.

It’s worth checking what facilities will be open at any hotels you’re looking at, and if you decide on a particular resort there is usually good information available on online forums about wider opening at different times of the year

I definitely will. Thank you for the pointers, really appreciate it.

We've just come back from a canvas holiday in France. It was fantastic! Air conditioned static home which slept 6. A big site but wasn't noisy or busy. The swimming pool had 5 huge waterslides, it was right on the beach which stretched for miles where you could hire surfboards, horse ride, drink sangria. Hire bikes to get around the campsite https://www.tohapi.co.uk/aquitaine/campsite-atlantic-club-montalivet.php

I can't fault both canvas holidays and Yelloh! Village holidays in France - we've done a fair few!

Based on this I would 100% recommend where we stayed in Menorca this year. Holiday & flights with Jet2Holidays or Tui from East Mids / Birmingham or Stansted. 2 hours ish. Less than an hour transfer the other end.
Apartment with a living / dining room / kitchen. You can get 2 or 3 bedrooms so you all have space and not sleeping in the same rooms. Half board so breakfast and dinner, but also cheap enough that if you skip dinner and go somewhere else it doesn't matter.
2 story white washed apartment blocks so no big skyscraper hotel feels. Gardens etc around the pools. 2 mins walk to the beach which is beautiful with crystal clear water and water sports / pedalo boats / hire boats with slides etc if you wanted it.
Not in a big city, a small village, very little noise. Touristy but doesn't feel that bad (locals come and swim there).
Evening entertainment if you want it in an area where the restaurant is which is completely separate to the sleeping accommodation (across a small road). Family of 4 we paid just under 3k for 12 nights this June.
If you don't want too hot then I'd go May or Oct, but sea will still be warm to swim.
Place is St Tomas in Menorca at the Seth Mestrel and Llbeig hotel.

We are just back from a short break in Denmark, staying at Lalandia Billund. My starting point was visiting the Lego House (for my ds), and I planned it from there, but the stay was really lovely. We had a 4 bedroom very spacious self catering cabin, on a holiday park (think Center Parcs, but much, MUCH nicer) with loads of things to do - water park with big slides, a winter activity centre (ski slope, toboggan run, skating), bowling/golf, outdoor activities - all available. Lovely restaurants too.

bonus (for us) is that it was literally across the road from legoland Billund, and the queues there were so much easier than legoland (or any theme park) here. Longest queue was 30 minutes, day before yesterday.

we also had some lovely days out not centred on Lego!

think cabin cost around £1700 for 6 days, then usual meals/tickets/entertainment costs on top of that. Flights were cheap too - I paid £315 return for all 5 of us, and was under 2 hours on the plane. We did hire a car, because we wanted to go further afield, but if you wanted to stay local to Billund it really wouldn’t be necessary - the airport was 10/15 minutes walk away from Lalandia, and then central Billund was 15/20 minutes walk from Lalandia.