Ideas on a postcard please.

[helenatroy]

Spent a fantastic two weeks in Sitges, gerona and Palafrugell. Was wonderful in every way but spent so much time hiding from the sun 42 degrees a couple of days. Followed it up with a week in Ireland where it rained from morning till night (EVERY DAY). Both were great fun don’t get me wrong. But I can’t help thinking there is a perfect holiday destination, that I just haven’t thought of. We are two adults and a child of 7

i want to do something else next year, France maybe? I am a PITA, so don’t want camping, all inclusive, anything too rural, long hall or too commercial. Love the idea of a gitte, would love to be able to have access to a pool and be close to a town or village so I’m not chained to the kitchen all the time.

Any ideas you lovely lot?.

The French coast from Le Touquet going South through Normandy is a good family area. History, water sports, towns etc. We had some great holidays there with our DCs when they were young.

Villa in the Balearics. Ibiza is our favourite.

Love France and gites. Good ones in recent years for us have been places not necessarily with pools but with direct or nearly direct river access.

The Huttopia site in Beaulieu sur Dordogne has lovely wooden lodges and direct river access for swimming. It is beautifully quiet rather than having noisy disco "entertainment" and it right in the village with great butcher, pattiseries, market etc and even walking distance from the supermarket ( though walk is long enough that children complain).

It can of course get very hot there though unless it a heatwave it is pretty "normal" hot.

We've been in the Ardeche this year. It was a heatwave so was up to 38C but we had a gite in St Martin D'Ardeche right in the central square which had aircon and which was literally 3 min walk to the river access for swimming plus also in the village so pattiseries etc.

Advantage of both Ardeche and Dordogne in summer is both have lots of caves to visit which are nice and cool! Admittedly this is easier if you have a geology and paleontology mad child.

Atlantic coast also well worth looking at, usually cooler and lots and lots of places with good amenities and close to the beach. I love Maubuisson. Small and touristy yes but has the amenities and is on the lake for swimming and water sports and shaded by pine forest then a short hop on bikes to the ocean for huge waves and more fun.

The Atlantic islands are good too,a bit cooler and interesting beaches. Re is probably the most touristy. Noirmoutier has excellent food and still quite geared towards tourists but has a decent all year population so isn't all tourist shops. Can cycle round it easily. Not many brits apart from near the bigger camp sites. Oleron is the most rural/least touristy. Also has cycle paths etc.

The islands and Maubuisson you can spend the whole week and not get in your car if you don't want to.

Polidor Resort in north Croatia

Baltic coast?

We are currently in a 2 bedroom gite in a picturesque village in Alsace. We are paying 110 Eur per night and the weather is mostly 26 to 30 degrees and sunny. It’s cool enough to sleep at night and we have had only a few days of random weather - one day that was 37 (!) and the next day was 23 . No pool on site but we are on the Main Street of the village so we fall out of the gite onto a road full of wonderful shops and restaurants. So no need to cook - we just pop out to the patisserie for croissants and hot chocolate for breakfast, and finding something delicious for lunch is easy. Not too expensive either - we bought a huge vanilla ice cream cone for 2 eur earlier.

We are 5 mins walk from a really lovely playground with a sandpit and a big wooden castle to play on, and also a municipal pool with an open air section and slides. There are medieval castles to visit and we also spent a couple of days in EuropaPark and Rulantica (50 mins away just inside Germany) which was beyond fantastic - so many rides and shows, basically perfect for kids. Hardly any Brits around here so you really feel you have travelled!

You can drive here toll-free through and stop in Belgium or Luxembourg or Strasbourg.

I have been really pleasantly surprised by how lovely it is here, and how easy it has been to entertain the kids.

Carcassonne in France lovely gites. Search for Le Trabet and the site should come up. 5 min drive to nearest village. They can pre-stock fridge with essentials. 20 mins from airport and Carcassonne medieval citie which is a unesco site. Lovely shared pool, bikes.