Pros and cons of a villa holiday

[DanceMumTaxi]

Just thinking ahead to next year and we’re considering hiring a villa. For a good while now we’re done big AI resorts in Turkey, usually 10 days. We’ve always had a great time (including this year) but more and more we’re noticing that we’re not really making much used of all that AI offers. DC are 12 and 9 neither are bothered by kids clubs and we don’t watch the entertainment. They like the water slides but went less as the holiday went on. We’ll have a drink but certainly not big drinkers. This year we felt like the room was a bit on the small side, and we got fed up with the buffet even though the food was good. Sick of hearing kids iPads, crying children, people smoking outside, the queues. Also fed up with getting up at the crack of dawn to get a sunbed. This is one of our main reasons for getting a villa. One family secured 7 beds on the first day and left all their stuff on overnight for their whole holiday. This was by a quieter pool not the main activity pool so no staff moved them. Next year we’re considering renting a villa, but the main thing putting me off is that we don’t want to be driving and they all seem quite far away from amenities. I’m also a bit concerned about having to food shop, clean, cook etc. I do want a break, which AI provides. We would eat out but definitely not all the time. We’d be happy to use Taxis to/from a town but I’m a bit concerned that this might be tricky to organise? We wouldn’t want a big lively resort. Also not sure if we’d afford it. Budget is around 6.5K for everything (including spending money). Also considered SC apartment but then that doesn’t solve the sun bed situation. Happy to hear any thoughts or experiences anyone has. Thanks

@DanceMumTaxi if you're nervous about driving abroad, try Cyprus as they drive on the left, same as in the UK. It definitely makes a difference.

Regarding when the budget airlines release flights, Ryan Air released their's a while ago (at least for where we are going next year) and Easy Jet released their's more recently.

The point someone made upthread about having a washing machine is a good one. We brought just a tiny bag of dirty washing home this year as had done the washing throughout the holiday and things dry incredibly quickly in the heat. Even got beach towels washed and dried during our last day at the villa.

This place looks amazing but appears to have zero availability even for next year which is odd!

I went on my first ever AI holiday a couple of years ago after years of villa holidays. For 2 years running we went to Turkey. The hotels were very nice but the cost is eye watering, even with great food it gets a bit boring and I just can't stand being so close to so many other people by the pool, in the restaurants, everywhere...
So we went back to a villa holiday this year with our teens and I don't think we'll do AI/hotel again for a beach holiday. The sheer relaxation of so much personal space for whatever you want to do - whether it's swimming, sun bathing, sitting indoors in the aircon!

Give it a try. You may love it. Even if you don't love it as much as a hotel, you'll still have a good holiday and can go back to what you prefer the year after.

https://www.villaplus.com/destinations/villas-in-spain/villas-in-balearic-islands/menorca/santo-tomas/villa-santo-grande

@Ladedahlia a suggestion above - here’s another
https://www.villaplus.com/destinations/villas-in-spain/villas-in-balearic-islands/menorca/punta-prima/villa-caballero

@Ladedahlia and another - checked them all for 19th to 26th June and in budget - villasplus is your friend here as you can filter on no car needed and lots seem to have table tennis tables- kassiopi is a very lovely resort in Corfu too - and I’m fussy!! Santa Tomas too has a great beach if that matters a lot .

Not sure why?? It’s for 10 nights in Aug 26

Thank you!

We had a great place from here - https://www.cyprus-villa-retreats.com/

It was on the bus line but we rented a car as we had our inlaws with us. Loads of beautiful holiday homes and they were really easy to deal with

Get a villa with a pool and hire a car you will got though more food and drinks than you can imagine

I think he just hasn’t released dates for next summer yet

We do Air BnB and villas, Booking.com etc.. We normally look at the price of flights to a few destinations and put together a short list and check that you can fly on the dates I am looking at. Then I look for the accomodation and book it and then book flights. Normally for Air BnB you can cancel up to a few weeks beforehand so the flights are what really ties us to those dates. Generally we fly Easyjet or RyanAir which is cheaper but feels it.

We have done Madeira this summer. Private Villa, pool, hot tub, outdoor kitchen, sea views, lovely gardens, 3 bedrooms. Total cost for accomodation £1.3k. Flights for 4 with bags, seat reservations and airport parking (Ryanair) £1.5k.

There is no email address or phone number that I can see for the companies no reviews of the villas.
Or am I missing something?

@Ladedahlia if you scroll to the very bottom of the page on the villa plus site it has all their details and contact details - very old company with good reputation - trust pilot great reviews . They are based in St Albans . Yep they don’t have individual customer reviews like AirBNB but to be fair have some much nicer and better priced hand picked places - if you want reviews though, they may not be for you - however they probably have better customer service if you have an issue than the big online resellers!!

That’s really helpful to know. Thanks.

We mostly stay in villas, as someone else has said after staying in one you won’t want to go to a hotel again. Having your own pool is great and most have washing machines too so you come home with no washing to do. I NEVER cook on holiday so we get cereals or toast for breakfast then if we are staying in and around the pool for some of the day. We’ll pick up lovely crusty bread from the local bakers with pate, cheeses and proper ham for lunch then out for dinner. You get to try lots of different restaurants. Being able to make a cuppa or having different juices in the fridge or beer /wine etc. I find it gives you so much more freedom and it’s definitely more relaxing.

Were you the only adult on these trips? Why did it fall on you to go to supermarkets and cook every night? Surely these tasks should be divided up among the group?!

Starting to really like the idea of a villa from what everyone has said, but just looking at flights I’m not sure we’ll get it within budget. Flights to somewhere like Lanzarote are coming in at around 2K. We would if we went for just a week, but that doesn’t seem long enough. We only go away once a year and really like 10 or 11 days. Some are only weekly too, but we definitely couldn’t afford 14 nights. I’m going to keep looking.

Villa Plus has been around for years, too.

You could fly to Cyprus, Barcelona, Malaga, etc for much cheaper (probably).

I paid just over £1k for our Menorca flights with Easyjet back in June (I think) and we're going next week. We're flying on a Wednesday which is cheaper than the weekend. Our villa is approx £3k (but only for a week - and I agree, it's not quite long enough) and our car - medium sized automatic - is about £250 for the week. So all in it's costing about £4.5k for the week and I've budgeted about £1k when we're there - but we'll probably spend a bit less depending on how often we eat out.

I've booked through this company https://www.3villas.com/ which are a local Menorca specialist. Although I've just looked and their pricing for next summer seems to be a bit crazy - can't tell if they are correct or if there's been an error as where we're staying is well over double the cost compared to this year!!

I have emetophobia so haven’t used hotels since I’ve had kids. Thirty years ago all inclusive was much cleaner and food wasn’t laying around with flies on. These days I don’t think hotels are so great (so I’ve read and heard)

We used to to Eurocamps when our kids were little (up to 2019) and drive all over Europe.

Villas are great as we’ve always ended up in a residential areas which are so quiet.

Have our own pool, eat and drink when we like. Hire a car and go out and about all the time and as much as we want.

It’s fun using local shops but we also go out for an evening meal when we want.

I would just add that Villa holidays whilst lovely and my first choice, are now always cheaper and have got especially expensive in the last 4 or 5 years (since Covid?) We rented a huge 6 bed place in Portugal for 3 families 2 week in the summer holidays multiple times and last went 2019 cost was £6k. Looked again in 2024 so 5 years on and it was £11k almost fully booked and didn’t look like anything had changed. A modest 3 bed with pool in a half decent location is going to be upwards of £2.5k week in peak summer (£4K+ for something a bit smarter, £6k+ for more noticeably higher quality)

Yes totally agree with this. It used to be a lot more affordable.

Because we are the ones who rented the hire car and the only ones who drove. We invited our children. Only one had a driving licences and had never driven abroad before.