Early May European Break - somewhere hot enough to swim in an outdoor pool.

[Winglessvulture]

Morning everyone,

We are looking to book a holiday for one of the first couple of weeks in May. We are really struggling to find anywhere that suits our criteria, so thought I would ask the collective wisdom of Mumsnet for some help.

We have a three year old with relatively low needs autism. She has never been on a plane but loves transport generally, so we want to try and stay around 3 hour flight time maximum (London/SE airport). She loves swimming and being outside, so ideally want somewhere hot enough for her to be able to swim in an outdoor pool. We were looking at booking Salou in Spain, but then I read reviews that suggested the pool would still be too cool at this time.

We were thinking all inclusive, as our daughter likes routine and familiarity, and this is a little easier to achieve when you eat in the same place each day. Happy to go for 4 - 7 nights (7 if the flight is 3 hours or a little over). Budget of about £1500 all in.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

It's difficult as lots of hotels stop heating the pools but it's not hot enough to swim in an unheated on.

Saying that Spain may still be not hot enough anyway, friends had low twenties last year.

Can you stretch to the Canaries? And get a wetsuit? We went end of May to Majorca and DD had a short wetsuit and was really warm in an unheated pool while DH was freezing.
It was warmer to swim in the sea than the pool.

Clicked on this because that would be eldorado.
Nowhere in Europe is warm enough in May IMO. You would need a proper heated pool.
Many hotels say they have a heated pool but I've never found one that actually felt warm.
I was in Mallorca in August anf the pool wasn't very warm (the sea was much warmer).
I'm happy with a cold pool because all I do is swim up and down a few times. I'll swim in the sea in January in the Canaries. But children want to play in there all day and tha's different
I think @reluctantbrit is spot on. Canaries and wetsuit.

I've opted to go to cyprus, too far flight wise for you (5hrs) but it seemed to tick alot of my boxes.

I looked at Rhodes but was worried about pool temp and also general temp and wind.

Cyprus was a couple of degrees warmer (average of 27 in may according to tui)
I've got the kids wetsuits to wear just incase it is too cold in the pools but I think they will be OK.

Take the extra hour on the plane and go to the Canaries. Nowhere in the Mediterranean will be warm enough by then unless the pool is heated, and those are rare. I know of a few high-ish-end hotels in Majorca that claim to heat their pools "in May and October", but I doubt that you would get a full refund of the entire holiday including flights if for some reason they weren't doing that when you were there.

I’ve been to Spain and Majorca at the end of May and both times it was roasting hot around 32-36 every day and fine in the pools as long as they arnt in the shade permanently so if you can try to go mid to late May and I reckon you’ll be fine

Thanks everyone, it sounds like early May will be too cool in the areas that meet our other requirements. Will need to have a think about some other options.

My vote also Cyprus but too far for you. I wouldn't trust anywhere nearer tbh. Maybe research some of the eurocamp pools.