Recommendations please for active holidays your 13yo enjoyed

[Secondguess]

13yo enjoys swimming, water sports, walking etc. I'd like him to be able to meet other teens on holiday and socialise too.
A holiday with activities included onsite sounds ideal. If you've any recommendations please let me know.

I believe PGL do family holidays in the summer. I've never been, but it might suit.

I was going to suggest the Lake District for an activity type holiday - mountain biking, kayaking, paddle boarding etc but I'm not sure about meeting other teens unless you got him on lots of day courses.

Thanks. I think there are companies who specialist in this type of holiday (Mark Warner, Nielsen...) and world appreciate recommendations of companies, resorts etc that people have enjoyed. I'm happy with a swimming pool or beach, we both like kayaking, my son is a bit more adventurous than me and would try most things.

If you are happy to be in the UK- the Lake District would be great for those types of activities.

White Cross Bay has static caravan/lodges you can stay in, and being on a site might help him meet others.

From there (or anywhere near by) there is ample access to walks/water sports.

If you want to go abroad - Austrian or French Alps would be good activity wise. We did the Austrian alps last year and we are going again next week. Can't advise on companies which would allow him to meet other teens as we stayed in a relatively small (but wonderful!) hotel and our son is only 10.
Activity wise it would be perfect though!

Hello Pumpkin . We ski in Austria but have never been in summer . Hoping to go next year with all the teens . Have you recommendations for areas ? Activities ? You must have enjoyed it to be going back !
Thank you !

Centre parcs has all of that.

Definitely Neilson- mine loved it

The other company is Scott Dunn, they have amazing kids clubs and a specific schedule for teens.

I always used them when DD was younger as I'm a lone parent and wanted some downtime whilst she wanted activities.

The alps. Lots to do in the summer for "active" families

@FoodieToo We went (and are going back) to Zell am See. We stay in a hotel buy there are also self catering apartments in town.

It's brilliant in summer. You get a summer card which gives you free or discounted cable cars, bus travel and other activities (Google zell am see summer card).

Loads to do if you are an active family - walking on mountains, swimming, gorges, waterfalls, can go on the glacier and toboggan.

We absolutely loved it!

Ikos + football escapes: a football course headed up by an ex-premier league player every morning followed by watersports / biking / tennis in the afternoon. Pricey though.

St Avis Loisirs in the Dordogne with Eurocamp or similar. Loads to do onsite and my dd loved the area - kayaking on the river, castles, caves, dinosaurs.

Or Les Peneyrals is also very nice.

Thanks, this sounds ideal

Thanks, this sounds wonderful

Thanks everyone for the ideas. I'm going to look into:
Neilson
Scott Dunn
Ikos+
St Avis Loisirs/Les Peneyrals

Sounds fab, thank you !! We know Zell am See quite well from skiing .

Hotels we are considering are ValSaa Alinresort in Saalbach and also Sporthotel Alpenblick in Zell am See.

Any hotel recommendations ?

Mark Warner. We all loved our holidays there

And Neilson although never been to the latter

Mark Warner organised brilliant activities for all age ranges

Your DS will have an absolutely fabulous unforgettable time on these types of holidays

As will you no doubt

We’re going to Costa Rica with Scott Dunn next year, DDs will be 13 & 15. Full of zip wires, nature tours etc, we can’t wait!

I'm another Nielsen fan - we went most summers when dd was secondary age.
We all like watersports - varying combinations of sailing , windsurfing, kayaking and paddle boarding. There were land-based activities such as tennis and cycling but imo that's madness in hot weather when there's watersports available! The clubs for kids and teens were good, they can join adult classes if they want when they're 13 or 14 too.

We belonged to a sailing/watersports club as well, that ran clubs for the youngsters on Saturdays all through the season which were sociable too.

Sunsail is another company worth considering.

Also Mark Warner.

With Scouts mine go away for a week every summer including overseas.

Plus lots of weekends throughout the year.

I thought they just did flotillas nowadays, which probably rules them out unless you can already sail a yacht?

Neilson was great. The Croatia one.

Cruise kids had a better time than we did. Avoid P&O, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean both cater well for kids