If you liked Disney when the kids were little, what was good when they got older?

[wonderstuff]

Mine are 14 &16, and I'm after some inspiration. Our best holidays were Florida I think. When they were very little we liked a villa in France with friends, we've had some lovely Welsh holiday park holidays. We don't really do beaches, dd doesn't like swimming, dh doesn't like sand.. We did Tenerife the last couple of years and that was nice, but feel like if we went back we'd be stuck for things to do. Sunshine is very important to me. We absolutely do not want to go on a cruise, dd gets travel sick on the dover-calais ferry and dh and I really just never fancied the idea anyway.

So just after ideas for next year really. We did Tenerife earlier in the year. I teach so we are stuck with school holidays. Wondering about New York maybe, but US seems to be so expensive at the moment, and we would need 2 rooms I guess (why is accomodation so rarely suitable for families). Not sure on budget. Is there enough to do on the Balearics? Often in Europe Easter is too cold and Summer is too hot..

Can recommend The Netherlands.

Canada

Where would you recommend? We have done Efteling and loved it. I don't really know much about the rest of the country. I love the idea of being able to get the train or drive there though. Would be warm in August right?

Is it super expensive though? Which side would you do? I do have a friend currently living in Vancouver so it would be nice to drop in on them..

New York is fab! Tbh after Disney we got older and swapped to Universal 😂

Universal!!

We did Vancouver and Vancouver island and whistler in summer 22……and another time did Calgary/Canmore/Banff/Jasper/Toronto …… we used westjet and air transat…..thought they were very reasonable ….did multi stops flights…..compared with going to Australia this last Christmas ….I thought it was really good value

Sharm el sheikh?
Hurghada?

Can do snorkelling, do you or anyone else dive? Boat trips. Hurghada has trips to the valley of the kings.

At similar ages we did trips to Morocco - Marrakesh is interesting. Turkey also good.

Greece or Crete? My teens didn't like Crete in the summer - too hot - but Greece went down quite well.

We have done Universal, and I would love to go back but DD16 doesn't want to do theme parks 🙁I am planning a trip once she's gone off to uni (or maybe after she's left depending how much that costs me).

DH has said he fancies Greece - I worry it will be too hot (dd gets grumpy at about 26 degrees, in FL obviously lots of air con, I imagine less so in Greece?)

I have done Morocco a few times and really like it, but the one time I went with DH I was ignored everywhere, all conversations were directed at him, I feel like Egypt would be the same? It bugged me.

Will look at Canada too..

Egypt was definitely the same imo - if not worse! Probably wouldn't be taking a teenage girl there, I felt uncomfortable in my 20s.

Greece is lovely, but we found outside of massive hotels the aircon wasn't flowing 😂

Italy could be lovely though, if you plan around the hot summer temperatures? Or Canada as PP suggested, it's a stunning place!

You could do Greece at Easter or in May or October half term as the weather at those times is very pleasant (we’re currently in Greece and there weather is glorious, low to mid 20s and sunny everyday, although I admittedly its a bit of a gamble at this time of year). We’ve also done May half term and October and each time it’s been really lovely (have also done august but it’s just too hot for us).

You could also look at the Amalfi coast and combine it with a visit to Pompeii (again probably too hot in august though).

I’m not sure of your budget but somewhere we’d absolutely love to go as a family is Costa Rica.

Morocco, Egypt and Greece will all be BOILING in the summer holidays. If your DD doesn't like temps over 26 that really rules out southern Europe and north Africa, which will be in the 30s and possibly higher (last summer it was over 40°C for weeks).

I'd look at Portugal, if you don't want to do the Canaries again, but stick to the coastal areas as inland it will be hot. My family is the same btw - can't stand really hot weather - so we struggle to find places in July/Aug that aren't too hot. Basically, you're looking at Iceland, UK, Scandinavia, Belgium, Holland, northern France and Germany, northern Spain, the Alps and Pyrenees, Madeira, the Canaries and coastal Portugal - anywhere else is very likely to be too hot.

Other than Florida, Rome was my teenager’s favourite holiday.

California and Japan are on our teens' lists.

Europark in Germany. Biggest theme park in Europe, it’s great.

I know you said you don't fancy a cruise, but our teens absolutely LOVED this - their favourite holidays by far, way better than the Orlando theme parks in their opinion. There are plenty of options to combat seasickness.

Second favourite for our teens was New York, but it's true to say that it is expensive. You can keep costs down by sticking to free activities where possible, and eating thing like pizza by the slice. Hotels can be expensive, but you might get away with one room, as many have two large beds and sleep four. We are a family of 5, so needed a suite, so we've stayed a couple of times in Jersey City, in a hotel, with 2 double beds and a soft in the separate lounge - this worked well, and was cheaper than staying in Manhattan. Also, it's much cheaper to eat out in the evening there. Very simple to get the PATH train across into Manhattan.

How about the Far East - Thailand or similar? Quite expensive to get there, but very cheap once there.

soft in the separate lounge - sofa bed in the separate lounge!

Our kids still enjoy Disney as older teens and the joy of being able to send them off to so their thing while we do ours is great. They were whatsapping photos of themselves in a queue last time while we watched a show and had a drink!

They also really enjoy a cruise

Italy? It’s obviously warm, but you said heat was important to you, so could be a good bet. You could do a multi stop tour. There is so much to see, we went to several cities and then chilled and did a bit of sightseeing in Sorrento.

Have you considered Parc Asterix north of Paris. Easy on public transport from the UK if you stay onsite