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

We also take disposable plates and cups for the kids endless snacking and no dishes.
Most will have a dishwasher though

We just came back from our first proper villa experience in Cyprus. We did have to hire a car but the driving was easy as it's the same side as the UK! There were three beautiful restaurants walking distance. We did a big shop when we got there (supermarket 5 mins drive away). Own pool. Gorgeous villa. It was bliss. We went for two weeks and after a week the property manager came and changed our towels and bed linen. We had to remove all rubbish and keep it clean at the end but it was fine! My DC same ages as yours. We did go to a few water parks again all very close by. I would highly recommend it!

I much prefer a Villa holiday as I like my space and privacy and for me a truly relaxing holiday is not being around other people!
There’s also the safety factor for me as my child has SN so much easier to relax and watch him in our own pool.
We’ve stayed in villages and towns with no car hire and just eaten out or done barbecues as one of our favourite things to do as a family is exploring the local markets for different veg, meats and sea food to cook.

We’ve also hired a car to sightsee and do a supermarket shop although like others we only really get a few lunch and breakfast things. We’ve found some supermarkets even offer delivery and some you can book a shop online for when you arrive.
We really rate villa plus as I think the villas offer great value and often have table tennis or pool table which we always use in the evenings.
We’re off to the south of France next week to a lovely villa in the mountains and even factoring in overnight stops for the drive, petrol, food, etc it still comes in at a really reasonable price for 9 days.

We found that we didn't spend more in total for the holiday than AI would have been. But we are not big drinkers, unlikely to have 3 course meals, so that makes a difference. We found Lanzarote really cheap for eating out last year.

Could you not look at a hotel with villas within the complex? We went to Morocco and that's what we did. We had a 3 bed villa, with 4 bathrooms, a large living room, a dining room and kitchen. The balcony was huge and we had a large garden with a private pool and 6 sun beds. We did hire a car as our resort wasn't on the beach. I cooked one night but we had a dishwasher and of course housekeeping would come. We had breakfast booked at the hotel and visited the hotel restaurants sometimes but more often went out for meals. Having the villa meant I had privacy by the pool and we could get some chilled family time when we wanted it and then visited the main pool sometimes. This way you still have all the amenities of a hotel so we used the kids club, entertainment on occasion but our own privacy too

The AI resort we went to this year had villas but they’re 13K for 10 days! Our budget is now unset that and if it was we’d probably do a very different type of holiday.

Ours was £2222 for 7 days with breakfast. You need to shop around.

We paid between 80 and 120 euros per evening meal this year. Lower end was the more traditional taverna and higher end were the more modern trendy restaurants. This is 3 adults with some alcohol. Roughly spent 1k for the week on all spends on food, snacks and drinks.

We've done AI once and it didn't suit us, so have always self catered. Sometimes uk holiday cottage, sometimes camping (France or uk) sometimes caravan and 2 years ago, a villa.

When my kids were a similar age we stayed in a caravan/mobile home (ours was v basic but there were some much nicer ones) on a French campsite that had a great pool with several waterslides, there were numerous beaches within walking/cycling distance and the town was about 10 min drive. The site had a restaurant and pizza bar and small shop for croissants etc.
That was 7 years ago and both kids and me still rate it as one of our favourite holidays. We did a villa holiday 2 years ago and we're going again this year (villa plus). I filter the results to make sure it's walkable to a beach/restaurants/shops etc.

We have hired villas. Privacy and full use of sunbeds and your own pool. We even had one in a resort in Portugal- Martinhal, Sagres.
This year a villa in Port de Soller in Mallorca. A mini bus took 10 of us from the airport. We arranged a big food shop delivery. Beach, restaurants and transport to other towns were within 6- 10 mins walk.

@Mere1 food shop delivery sounds ideal. Which supermarket did you use for this? Was it easy to organise? I’ll definitely look into this. Thanks

Eroski, Soller.
The largest supermarket in Port de Soller, near the Es Port hotel. will deliver after you have shopped, if you arrange in advance-or so our villa owners said. We just went there for milk and breakfast pastries.

We come to La Manga club in Spain. Villas and apartments with a shared pool. Far less busy that an AI hotel , much cheaper than a private villa but you get plenty of space in the accommodation, restaurants and activities within walking distance and some other kids around to play with. Beach is a cheap taxi away.
We do bread cheese ham and salad for lunch - all very easy . Option to cook if you want or eat out if you want.

I would do villa over hotel every time because I want quiet and space

@olympicsrock do you still get sun bed wars or can you just go down to the pool at anytime and find beds and sun shades?

It’s your pool. Only your family is there.

Just to add (in case someone already hasn’t) you don’t get the same sun bed issue with self catered apartments as people leave the complex! In AI people stay by the pool all day as their food and drink is paid for so they have no desire to go out (in the main). The type of people going self catered are going to go out to explore and to eat. Sun beds around the pool are not the number 1 priority.

@Helpel
I’m currently at self catered apartments in the Canaries and its just like that. Some have sun loungers on our balconies but the ones by the pool are free most of the day as people come and go (families tend to head to the beaches).
It’s nice not to clean or worry about the property. We have lots of bits to eat if peckish ( so like being AI) but enjoy the novelty’s of eating out in different places everyday. Alcohol is cheap as chips here so no advantage over AI.

Makes sense that people would be out and about more SC than AI.

@Letsummercommence I think that’s the thing , people think they are getting a bargain on AI when very often they aren’t and are ‘often ‘ crammed into 1 room if a family . I do think a lot of it comes down to how fussy you are as eaters/drinkers too - we would never get our value as will only drink decent quality wine etc . I think the other thing is on the 2 AIs I’ve ever been on is for many not to go very far because ‘I’ve paid for it’ - I can genuinely see it suits some, especially if you have quite a few kids and your happy to hang around a hotel all day every day , need kids clubs or are on a really tight budget but for many others I think it would actually work out the same not to go AI and get more space and more variety -

That's a really good point which I had never thought of.
I am not bothered about a sunbed, happy on a chair reading my book but DD loves a sunbed and I get obsessed about it and read reviews to see if people mention sunbeds being available 😂

Sounds fantastic. Can you share any good villas you have used.

Do you book villa or flights first?

We spend a lot of time by the pool on our summer holiday so sun beds are important to us.

I would hate a villa. Main reason - tiny pool, too small for proper swimming and water would be too warm. Beach a long way away. Also, know people who do villa hols and they always have to have a car and are very isolated. You can get some very nice hotels - either half board or AI - that don't have the problems you mention. Can recommend Rethymna Beach in Crete or Palladium, Arenal d'en Castell, Menorca. Or you could book an appartment somewhere central. We had a lovely one in Nice, on the Promenade des Anglais, with a rooftop pool. Pool shared with other appartments in building but never busy and a reasonable size.

Not all villas have tiny pools,
also remoteness is often what people want. I hate being overlooked, hearing other people’s noise or being in crowded places.

Don’t book somewhere with a pool less than 10 m in length.

We always make sure we get a villa with a big pool, a lot of too small for us but there are a good few with decent pools. You're also not sharing with any other swimmers! Our last two villas have also been walking distance to the beach and shops so no need for a car. Obviously if you don't like villas that's fine but I'm not sure why you would assume all villas are remote? Takes a little more research but they're out there!