Water sports holiday October half term

[VenusClapTrap]

In Europe. Any recommendations? Kids 15 and 13. They want to do sailing and wakeboarding. I’d like a nice beach (sand!) and Dh would like cycling opportunities. We’re not keen on AI type food but realise we’ll probably need to stay in a resort type place for the watersports, so would like there to be good local eateries nearby that we could escape to.

Thinking about Greece, Majorca, Sardinia, but open to suggestions.

Thanks!

We’ve done a Neilson holiday before, which I can thoroughly recommend, even though it was AI (and I would never usually choose AI). There was one night that dinner wasn’t included, so we borrowed mountain bikes from the hotel and rode out to a restaurant.

Thanks. I’ve looked at Neilson and it looks ok but a bit uninspiring! I guess it’s a trade off between going somewhere ‘nice’ or somewhere with the watersports for the kids. Wakeboarding seems to be particularly limiting as it’s just not available in many places. Not in Europe anyway, and Dh is drawing the line at longhaul.

Almyros has wakeboarding and cycling www.almyrosbeach.com/sports-and-leisure/

I'd also recommend Neilsons for that mix of activities. The food is ok, plenty of variety and massive salad bar. Both times (different resorts) we had 2 nights that weren't included in our meal plan so we walked into the nearby village for dinner.

Thanks, this looks good

If you're thinking of Majorca then look at Puerto Pollensa. It's on a bay that gets decent waves and there are several sailing/boarding schools along the road south of the town. Plus it's a cycling centre (the whole island is cycling mad) as it's the start point for the run out to Cap Formentor and also at one end of the bonkers challenging Ma-10 mountain road. There are fewer AI hotels than in many other seaside town on the island and plenty of places for a meal or drink by the harbour. The beach is probably not in most people's top 5 (it's quite narrow in places) but it's perfectly fine too.

Hmm October half term is borderline for weather and sea temperatures in a lot of Europe. I’d look for something in Cyprus, southern Turkey or maybe Rhodes/Kos. Depends how hardy you all are I guess!

We are pretty hardy, but I am trying to find somewhere as warm as possible! I’ve ruled out the more northern Greek islands for this reason, and Croatia - which is a shame because there are some good water sport resorts there.

Looks like there’s lots of watersports centres including wakeboarding along the S coast of Cyprus - Pissouri, Limassol, Larnaca areas - so I’d target there probably

If you are after 5* then there’s a lovely hotel Columbia Beach on Pissouri bay and I think I can see a watersports centre there offering wakeboarding on google maps

Thanks Minipie. The Columbia Beach looks lovely, and does have wakeboarding (which seems to be the hardest thing to include!). The beach itself is a bit meh though. I’m very much a soft sand person.

The sea in the western Mediterranean keeps quite a lot of its summer warmth well into late October (but the pools do get quite a bit cooler). Have a look at seatemperature.net, where you can get historical data as well (scroll down).

TBH soft sand is hard to come by in lots of places… good luck!

Yes it is usually the thing I end up compromising on!