European AI with beds for bigger kids...

[IGotBigKidsAndICannotLie]

I'm looking to book an AI in Europe for ten nights next summer. We want a decent hotel, good food, sun, swimming pools, ideally football pitches and other sports for the kids.

My problem is that it's so hard to find rooms with proper, separate single beds for the kids. You put their ages (will be 14 and 11) into the search, and the results seem to be exclusively rooms with one double bed and one double sofa bed for the kids to share. That ain't happening..the one who's now 13 is already nearly 6 feet tall, and the 10yo is going the same way.

Am I missing something on my searches, or do I need to go into a travel agent and make them do the legwork for me (which is what I've done in the past?)

Many thanks for any advice!

Interconnecting rooms?

I assumed that would bump the cost right up - is that not necessarily the case?

It might, but you probably pay adult price for elder dc anyway.

Yeah we definitely can't get a free child place for him anywhere (which is fair, given how much he eats...) and even though the Jet2 search (for instance) says he's a child until he's 17, when you go through to individual search results they often seem to say child stops at 12 or 13 in that hotel.

Thanks, I'll try searching for multiple rooms and see if I get on any better!

Aeolos Beach in Corfu.
Two single beds in a room separated from the parents room by a sliding door

I know what you mean - we stayed at the Occidental Menorca which had a 2 bedroom family room (with interconnecting door). I suspect the hotel is better for younger kids though.I don't think it was more expensive than the standard rooms for 4 with sofa beds, but I guess you don't get the 'living room' space either.

I always wonder this which is why I just look for self catering apartments. Do families all stay together in one room for a week or 2 for all inclusive?

Not bothered about living room space - we don't tend to be in the accommodation for long except to sleep. I refuse to go self catering as it's not a holiday if I have to think about providing food 😁

We do prefer vaguely separate sleeping area for us and the kids, especially as they're getting older, but if we really need some private adult time we give them some money and send them to the arcade...

Have a look at Grecotel Marine Palace. It’s got various room combinations. We stayed in a Marin Bay family bungalow, which sounds a lot bigger than it was, but basically it had two separate sleeping areas and proper beds for everyone.

At that age my DC were both adult size. We just booked two rooms.
Even with younger children I wouldn't want us all in the same room. When DC were little we used to book a 2 bedroom apartment. Lots of AI resorts do them.

We stayed at Lyttos Beach in Crete last year and it was perfect. It was a family room sliding door garden room - basically two separate bedrooms with proper sliding doors and a bathroom between them. The kids had full size single beds and the main bedroom had a king size and another single bed in, with sliding patio doors onto the balcony. It was a great AI, huge number of pools, including 50m pool for our swimmers, water park, loads of loungers, including on the sandy beach, multiple AI restaurants and bars. We’d happily go back and the set up was perfect for teens.