Holy grail of holidays

[CasaMundi]

I need some help to work out what to do for our holiday. I'd like to go away for a week in October. We'll have a 5 year old and an 18 month old by that point. We don't like it very hot but would like to be warm, maybe 19°-24°? We're not great fans of pool side holidays - happy to pootle on a beach making sandcastles and rockpooling, but not lying on a sun lounger. Pre-kids we mostly did city breaks or exploring different cultures trips but we obviously need to accommodate the little ones now. We're shattered with a poor sleeper and don't enormously fancy a family room in a hotel where we'd likely get even less sleep but I'd so love to chill with all-inclusive 😂. So basically I want somewhere I can have villa style accommodation but all inclusive, not a pool side holiday and not too hot. Does this exist? I don't have a massive budget either!

At that time of year the Canaries, Costa del Sol or Cyprus are still warm enough.

I put what you'd said in the Jet2holidays search engine and it came up with a long list of places, most of which would need further tweaking to see if they have 2 bedroom places but this one came up with AI in a 2 bed bungalow including childrens pool and play area - you can obviously tweak the airports and dates etc. Also, Jet2holidays sell via Hayes Travel and other high street travel agents, so you could go in and ask for help finding suitable accommodation if you don't want to do the legwork yourself.

But Lanzarote is a good shout anyway as there are lots of bungalow complexes, some of which do AI, good weather, you can go out to the beach, visit the marinas, volcano park, vineyards, markets, caves or even a couple of places dedicated to Cesar Manrique, a notable local artist.

https://www.jet2holidays.com/beach/canary-islands/lanzarote/playa-blanca/hl-club-playa-blanca?duration=7&airport=118&date=04-10-2024&occupancy=r2c1_5&board=5&oflight=1085405&iflight=1085408&rooms=20624&gtmsearchtype=Smart%20Search&smartsearchid=68364a5f-3e3d-49ae-94c1-7eaa0f2b757a

But I don't understand what you mean by a 'pool side holiday'. Just about all hotels are near the beach and there's towns and places of interest to go visit, so you just go out and see them, you're not forced to stay next to the pool if you don't want to

Thanks so much! That's really helpful. Yes, you are of course right about my 'pool side holiday' comment. I suppose I was thinking back to family holidays as a kid/teenager when we'd spend every day in the hotel by the pool, partly because it was too hot to want to do anything else. As an adult I don't think I've ever been to a hotel with a swimming pool so I'm completely unfamiliar with package style holidays. So far we've not taken the kids overseas except to visit relatives.

Are we talking October half term or earlier in the month?

You could do with being in a resort that's also near to cities and towns with stuff to explore. The Algarve might suit, if you make sure you base yourselves near Lagos, Albufeira old town area or Tavira. Southern Greek islands too. Lots of history and culture in Crete, Rhodes or Kos. Algarve is likely to be a fair bit cooler than the eastern end of the Med, especially at the end of October.

I don't know if you're going to find a villa in a resort, and it probably will need to be a resort setup if you want all inclusive. But lots have one or two bedroom apartments where there's a sleeping area with a door that can be closed and a separate sitting area.