Tell me about your BEST family of 5 holidays with 3 teens!!

[LazyDoll77]

Just that!!

I’m after ideas for Summer 2025 and need to pick some collective brains!!

I have 3 outdoorsy, sporty boys and we’re an active family and I am trying to find our perfect next holiday!

Alps

Our best holiday with 3 teens was 2 days in Miami, 7 day Carribean cruise, 4 nights in the Keys, then 3 nights in New York. It wasn't cheap, but it also wasn't stupidly expensive, as we all shared one room in hotels/on the ship. Hotels were suite hotels, with separate lounge/sofa bed, but the cabin on the ship was small for 5! If we could have stretched the budget, two cabins would have been preferable, but we're very used to all squashing in together on camping holidays, so we managed fine. It was an amazing holiday.

Tour of Italy (Verona, Lake Garda, Venice, Florence, Tuscany, Rome and Sorrento). Mixture of trains and driving

Las Vegas followed by drive from Calgary to Vancouver and Alaska Cruise

Tour of Jordan with a day trip to Jerusulum

I had a good holiday in Duinrell on my own with 4 teens aged between 18-13. 7 nights.

They were still young enough to enjoy dipping into the little theme park, the pool has decent waterslides and the older ones got the bus & train independently to Leiden and Amsterdam for day trips. Takeaway pizza was available on site and the teens did cook a couple of meals.

We rented one of the modern 4 bedroom luxury lodges with plenty of room and hired bikes and it wasn't massively expensive. Taxi to and from the airport so no need for a car.

You can also cycle to Leiden fairly easily from Duinrell if you're reasonably fit, although Amsterdam is a bit far on a bike.

I'd be looking at camping in south of France (ardeche area) or lake Garda.

Somewhere with plenty of swimming and watersports that also has a laid back environment.

We camped is Bias for years when we were a family of 5.

Chalet near morzine in Switzerland. Cheap flights to Geneva, hired a car, stayed in cheap lovely chalet with hot tub in a village with a couple of shops/restaurants five minutes drive from Morzine.
swimming and paddle boarding in lakes, easy to hire mountain bikes and go up on the ski lifts then bike down (I didn’t do this. I took the ski lift up and had lovely hikes in the wildflowers).
moraine has a very sporty vibe, good fun in the evening, often biking or paragliding competitions.

Have you got any budget or flight lengths?
Holidays with teens boys that everyone enjoyed were Thailand and Montenegro.

Thanks All.

These sound amazing.

We usually ferry and drive and camp in France but after 3 European breakdowns meaning we’ve had to come home as foot passengers I’m in the lookout for something that doesn’t involve driving those distances anymore.

However those holidays were perfect budget wise and it appears anything else may not be!! We now have a new vehicle so may be time to brave it again after a year off!!

2 breakdowns not 3 (even we’re not THAT unlucky!)

Twoshoesnewahoes this definitely sounds very ‘us’

It was great - day trips to the Mont Blanc glacier was brill

@Almostwelsh How much is it roughly for that accommodation a week in summer school holidays out of interest? (If that’s when you went?)

@PoliteOtter I can't remember, as it was 2 years ago, but you can get a 3 bed superior lodge for about 3k euros for 7 nights last week of July for 2025.

There are also cheaper lodges available. And all the swimming and theme park is free if you stay on site.

This will be my second visit to the bear Grylls gone wild festival next week. I have two teens and last year we had an amazing time - so much so we are going back again. Lots of activities, quad biking, sniper shooting, rock climbing, coasteering to name a few.. we camp there with a stop off on route and stop off at a lodge with a hot tub on the way back 😆 we most definitely need by then last year!! They also have evening entertainment-looking forward to Sam Ryder this year!

Austria - white water rafting, swimming in lakes etc
California - we all loved it! So much to do and see.

Neilsons or Club La Santa

Who did you book this through? Sounds amazing!

We did it independently, booked flights, hotels, cruise separately. We went over Christmas and New Year a few years ago, and it was wonderful.

We'll definitely get looking at this @Budgiegirlbob !

I've been on several sailing holidays in the Med with my teens. They all love it. Small flotilla rather than a big Neilson type holiday. I think it's really good - they can learn to sail, there's loads of swimming, snorkelling, cliff diving, caving, sup-riding etc, visit a different port every night and make friends with people in the other boats. We also take games for the evenings, which they loved. My children are older now, and after the girls progressed to flirting with boys in the ports and drinking, I decided they've outgrown it.

That aside, my kids' absolute favourite holiday is skiing.

Mark Warner worked really well for us with 2 mid teens. I guess Neilsons would be similar

Thank you!

Club La Santa - it’s amazing value for money given the activities.