Europe Easter holiday for the clueless

[TweeBee]

Hi all,
we are currently on a UK break, as all but one of our family holidays have been. Of course we are very lucky to be able to get away but I’m yearning for a holiday abroad like colleagues have - mainly to not have to clean or cook!
DH and I both come from families that couldn’t afford regular holidays and certainly not trips abroad. We’ve only managed one big trip abroad and that was using a windfall.
But I’m thinking that renting a cottage isn’t cheap and then there’s the cost of days out and food on top. So maybe it wouldn’t cost much more to go abroad? We have some savings and I would be prepared to use a small amount of them to cover the additional expense.
it would need to be in school holidays and not too hot (DH and I were both ginger once upon a time and don’t fare well in heat!) but ideally still able to splash in the sea and use an outdoor pool (if there is one).
Due to lack of experience we would both be nervous abroad so if English is commonly spoken that would be ideal, but we would like a bit of local culture too!
Could anyone recommend somewhere?
Thank you.

Any idea of budget?

For your first trip I'd suggest you book a package through TUI, Easyjet or Jet2 for example. If you're very nervous or unsure, go into a travel agent and ask them to do it for you. Packages are straightforward, your flight and accommodation is sorted, your transfers are generally included, if you go all inclusive even your food and drink is sorted. If anything goes wrong the provider has a responsibility to refund you or sort an alternative flight etc. You don't really have to worry about anything, you'll have a rep or online customer service contact to sort any issues.

You'll need to give more of a temperature range, your 'too hot' won't be everyone's 'too hot'. Also an idea of when your school holidays are would help, you don't say where in the UK you're from so it could be anything from mid-June to mid-September for summer which would make a difference. Easter is quite early to get warm seas.

As a basic recommendation, I'd suggest you look at Majorca and the Algarve. Suitable for most budgets, not too hot, and very popular with British tourists so not intimidating for a first-timer as lots of people will speak English.

If you're thinking about the Med, I'd always rather go in October than in the March/April Easter hols. Or would the May half term work?

Reason being is that the sea would be warmer after the summer than before it. We were in Corfu end of May and while the weather was okay, the sea was freezing. Pool too. Been in October too where the pool was icy but the sea was fine.

We're definitely not fans of the summer temps in the Med so always go either side.

You can get by almost everywhere in English, I wouldn't worry about that.

Thanks for your help.
We live in England. But could do October or May half term if that’s better than Easter, thanks.
I’d say mid 20s would be ok, it’s 30 degrees here today and too hot. But I’d also think about the UV index and how often we’d all have to be reapplying sun cream - obviously we’d apply regularly, before and after swimming etc but we are all so pale that we burn easily and worrying about sun cream stresses me out!
Budget wouldn’t be much - this might be terrible - maybe £2500 - £3000 say for a week. But if going for half term maybe 4 nights or so might be enough?

For that sort of budget would you consider a cruise? You can book now for 2026-2027 and pay a crisis and then the rest in instalment by direct debit. Free kids clubs, lots of restaurants included etc and plenty of entertainment. Multiple pools and hot tubs depending on the line and the ship you choose. Norwegian fjords at Easter is truly beautiful. Plus it’s a really easy way to “tick off” various countries. Kids in my family really enjoyed MSC and P&O.

3k for how many people? That's possibly enough for a week, depending on how many kids you have, what board basis you want, how nice a hotel you want etc.

Look here for average weather in locations by month Weather in Majorca in April | TUI.co.uk

If you go abroad for a sun holiday, you'll be applying SPF frequently regardless and should avoid sitting in direct sun at the hottest part of the day as much as possible. Look at UV suits or rash vests.

I don't mean to sound like a dick, but you won't find a sun holiday location with warm weather, comfortable water temperature, and no need for SPF for pale skin.

TUI search for 2 adults, 2 kids, random date in October:
TUI Holidays | Live Happy | tui.co.uk

We have two DC but one’s a teenager so might not count as a child.
Yes obviously I would be sun creaming regularly but I’d like to feel it’s manageable rather than constantly having to keep doing everyone - I watch DC to make sure it’s done properly and the older one needs a lot of nagging. I know it will obviously be sunny but would like some time in between applying it for me and DC and having to redo it again if you see what I mean. I do find it stressful! That’s why I thought it might be best to avoid summer.

So it’s not that I want no need for suncream, but just not going when the sun is at its strongest.
We do have rash vests etc for the UK. It’s just the drama of them moaning about it and me worrying they’ll burn! I was wondering if there was anywhere it would be a little bit less stressful.

Either you'll need them to wear rash vests or you'll have to reapply the suncream regularly
No getting around that . This wouldn't be a deciding factor in a holiday for us though!

Spain would be great. It's not hot at Easter and many festivals are on to see.

I’m obviously not explaining it well. I am happy to reapply the sun cream regularly, of course. It’s our prize in the genetic lottery!
I just wanted to know, is there a time of year when it would be warm and sunny but not so sunny that I’d have to reapply more often than hourly and we would feel uncomfortably hot? Just so I could have a short rest in between reapplying!

Absolutely, just pick a place in the Med either before or after the hot summer 🌞

Who can say for sure, OP? Would you have thought it would be 30 degrees during your UK break?

I can't tell you if you'll feel uncomfortably hot, or sweat off your sun cream every 30 minutes. I can't tell you how often your specific skin needs sun cream reapplication. I can advise you of a few locations that might suit, and I've given you a few resources to look at different locations and their average temperatures at different times of the year.

You do need to do some research yourself to get something that will suit you. Perhaps you're looking for ChatGPT and not MN.

Where are you flying from OP?

Yes, sorry, thanks for your help. I just wanted to hear from real people, really.
Thanks to everyone for the help and advice, I’ll do some research!

Don’t apologise. That poster was very rude. It’s the holiday board!

If you’d like to go away at Easter I’d recommend the canaries for closer to home. The weather should be decent enough then. Otherwise a beach and sightseeing holiday so that you’re not reliant on the sun. Somewhere like Santorini or Barcelona.

If you go away during May half term most places in the med will be warming up well but the pools may still be cool.

October half term can be a risk for the weather. You’re back to the canaries or a beach/sightseeing destination. We went to Lindos on Rhodes one October. The pool was freezing but we had a car and did a bit of exploring. You might be better booking flights and accommodation separately if you’re comfortable doing that.

We went to Tenerife in April, cool mornings and evenings but swimsuit weather during the day.

I burnt on an overcast day though.

But - good areas with reliable weather aren't cheap so it really depends if you have to do the pool holiday.
I know you said no cooking but how about a city break in Spain or Italy (doesn't have to be Rome over Easter) where it will be warmer but not boiling.

One of my colleagues has a flat in Majorca but the earliest he goes for good weather is May, he does go earlier in Spring but it's just not reliable enough.

When ours were teens, we did a few half term foreign holidays, mainly because of the heat at other times. Tenerife and Cyprus were quite warm, but expensive and Turkey and Mallorca were cheaper. The years we were really hard up, I booked flights from Newcastle (different holidays to Scotland, but still close enough for travelling) and half board Spanish hotels (we were often the only British people staying). We had some great holidays in October.

I would look at majorca. menorca, ibiza, the canaries, portugal, malta or spain. I have been in Oct - Feb time and the weather has been nice (occasionally really hot), and cooler at night.

I would recommend Cyprus, Greece or Turkey in April. Especially if the Orthodox Easter isn't at the same time as the rest of the Christian world (which it often isn't).

We went to Paphos in Cyprus in April 2018 and are going to Antalya in Turkey next April. In April 2022 we went to Spain near Barcelona and it wasn't hot enough tbh. We like it around 25 degrees max.

Majorca in May is perfect for me with pale skin. Plenty to do, see and relax for all ages

We went here last May HT https://www.yellohvillage.co.uk/camping/les_grands_pins
Our 11yo loved the pools.

Have a look at Sardinia. It’s very hot in August but I think still sunny at Easter or half term. Again the sea temp might be cold at Easter. It’s easy and cheap ish if kids are happy with pizza and pasta. Wine only 4€ in supermarkets. Direct flights with EJ and Ryanair.
I don’t know about packages holidays as all those other people and quantity over quality food puts me off.
it’s really easy to do flights and hotel/villa on booking dot com etc.
i e heard Turkey is expensive at the moment due to exchange rates.

We have similar wish list to you and loved Lanzarote this Easter. Temperatures in 20s with a breeze. Nice mix of pool, beach and stuff to see (eg volcanic landcape, unusual architecture by local artist Cesar Manrique) (we hired a car for 3 days to help with that, but loads of coach trips, reasonable taxis and buses if you would rather not). Loads of English spoken. Would recommend! Paid around 2.5k for 4 all inclusive with Jet2 and it was very relaxed, all cooking done, easy transfers from airport, rep was helpful when there was an issue with our room. That price was with shopping around and not being too fussy though! We chose Canaries because a lot of Europe looked like the weather could be touch and go at that time if year and some places not yet 'opened up' for the package tourists by then. There's more choice of good weather location in May half term.

2 warnings if you do go for canary islands at Easter though:
A heated pool would be better as we had one of each at the hotel and 10yo struggled to stay in the non heated one for long. In fact I'd say most days it wasn't really pool and sunbathing weather until lunchtime but that was fine by us as we wanted to get out as well.
Also, The UV is high there, so people warned us they had burnt because they were given a false sense of security by the breeze / clouds. We didn't apply suncream more than a few times a day though, just made sure we used water resistant factor 50 and got shade / covered shoulders / wore hats at hottest times etc. We probably aren't quite as pale though!

We went to Santorini at Easter - it was absolutely amazing, but definitely not beach weather.

If you want beach at Easter then most reliable but not guaranteed is the Canaries - but even then an unheated pool will almost certainly be too cold and the sea may well be too cold depending on how sensitive you are.

May is much better time to go, October can still be really nice in a lot of places too - although it was 29 degrees for a few days when we were in Cyprus at that time one year!