Holiday with 11 yo ds only child

[hghs]

Ds is very sociable and makes friends easily. Also likes spending time with us but now holidays are harder as he needs children to play with. Don't have family to holiday with and also no friends we know well enough yet so it's the 3 of us. Don't want a big hotel with a kids club as want to be able to see him and dh and I don't like massive hotels.

Have had some success with Hoseasons in the past where we chilled out and he made some friends.

Quite fancy going abroad too- any ideas?

Campsite holidays abroad are great for making friends. You can upgrade your accommodation if your not up for a mobile home. There is a campsite for everyone - fancy ones, big loud ones, small low key ones.

My children have gone to kids club there but my eldest was 11 last year and had aged out, there were still some organised activities & she made friends at the pool.

I have a just turned 12 year old only child and we found in the last couple of years he doesn't really want kids clubs etc., so we've focused more on going to places with loads to do. We've had some success with cruises as at that age they can dip in and out of clubs when there's something going on they're interested in. Eurocamp is ok too but again tends to be club based.

Last year we tried a Holiday Village which I wasn't sure about but actually it was great - he went on high ropes, did Archery and lots of other things where he made friends.
We've also loved city breaks and theme park holidays where age hasn't really mattered as it's been so busy!

Our next holiday is a small group tour of Thailand with other families (that we don't know) so hoping that will be a hit!

If you have the budget I recommend Scott Dunn, their kids clubs are the best. I've been lone parenting for years and this has always been a great solution so I get some downtime too and she had a blast.

I think you have to get over your dislike of big hotels and do it for your DS so he can make friends and have company. It’s prob only for another 5/6 years then you can do what you like again.

We found that we either needed a resort with plenty of activities like water sport as the teen clubs only seem to offer video games or we did sightseeing holidays with other activities thrown in.

DD found it more tricky making friends if other children have siblings with them, they don't seem to "need" other people.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far

Interested to hear others experiences thanks

My DC have always made friends on Eurocamp holidays. Duinrell in The Netherlands was the best. They like just hanging out rather than kids clubs.