Summer holiday with older teens

[confusedmomofteens]

Hi, looking for somewhere to go with 18 & 14 year old teens. Would Lake Garda be too quiet for those ages. They like water parks/amusement parks. We are also looking at Salou but can only seem to get family rooms within our budget. Would sharing a room with 2 older teens be torture 🙈 thanks

Only you can answer your second question as it completely depends on the teens and your relationship with them. Personally, I think it would be more torturous for them to share with each other and their parents, than it would be for you to share with them, iykwim!
The first question about whether Lake Garda would be too quiet… again it depends on the person they are. My niece would be content with a pool, some ice cream shops and some good books, so would be quite happy at Lake Garda. My DS wouldn’t mind it as long as he could go cycling on his own and do watersports.

I have teens of a similar age and I think the days of sharing a family room are long gone - not least because they spend HOURS in the sodding bathroom and no way would I want to share one with them on holiday! Also, they are extremely untidy and they live on a different schedule to adults - awake on their phones half the night and sleeping late - so I also wouldn't want to have to live too closely with that. We get apartments or two rooms and it works much better.

But to your first question, Lake Garda has watersports, Gardaland, water parks, all the usual stuff that would appeal to teens. The towns are pretty, but very busy in summer so choose your base wisely. Salou has a younger vibe, I think, so could you afford a nice apartment in a complex with a pool, rather than a hotel? I know a lot of people don't like to SC on holiday, but we've often done it and you don't need to eat in much. I tend to just get breakfast stuff and bread, cheese, ham, beer, wine, soft drinks and we always eat dinner out. PortAventura looks amazing, it was always on my list, but we haven't been yet.

I did Italy last year on my own with my 2 teen boys (13 and 19). We stayed in central Milan and did the usual touristy things there, including San Siro Tour. We then used the train to do day trips to Lake Como, Lake Garda and Bergamo.
Honestly we have had holidays all over the world, Orlando, New York and Dubai and both of them said this was the best holiday they’d ever had. As beautiful as the lakes were, I’m not sure I could have spent a week there let alone the boys but this felt a good mix of shopping, touristy things and sight seeing. I also managed to get a hotel in Milan with a pool (very unusual!) so we had a couple of mornings laying by the pool too.

Oh and we got 2 hotel rooms, they shared (both very sensible!) and I had my own room! Their room was literally full of shopping bags at the end of the week. It helps that despite a nearly 6 year age gap and DS1 now being at Uni they are really good friends.

We are going to salou for the third year running in June. Portaventura is fab! My kids are only 8 and 10 just now but my nephew is coming along in June aswell and he is 16 and looking forward to it! There is also Aquapolis that we are going to do this year.

We travelled into Barcelona two years ago and done the stadium tour it was a fantastic day! This year we are jumping a train up to Madrid for the day and doing the stadium there too 😊

We did Lake Garda last summer. Teenager loved it. We stayed in a site beside Peschiera. Gardaland and a water park were nearby. We did pedalos one day, took out a speedboat another day. Jumped into lake lots and went for lake swims. You can get the ferry to visit different towns on the lake. Beautiful place and loads to do. We are going back this summer. We stay in a mobile home so everyone has their own room.