City/cultural destination but with resort for kids?

[Richtea67]

Hi, I wasn't sure how to word this. The last couple of years we've done beach/resort holidays. My primary aged children absolutely love the pool/kids club etc and particularly enjoy making new friends (we must be boring!). We were thinking of more of a city holiday, or a destination with more history culture next year. It doesn't necessarily have to be near a beach....but the kids would really still love the 'resort experience'. I've had a look at Seville and Cadiz or Barcelona, but all the accommodation tends to be more 'adult' type hotels, not really geared towards children. Either that or self contained apartments. Does anyone have any recommendations? Thank you.

Not really, they don’t go hand in hand. You could do a split centre though?

Valamar Lacroma is just 6km from Dubrovnik and the facilities for kids are some of the best we’ve seen.

Rome Cavalieri https://romecavalieri.com/kids-club/

Paphos? It's more of a town than a city but there's some historic things to see and do locally and they drive on our side of the road if you wanted to hire a car for day or two.

Malta is great for this kind of holiday

Thank you for the suggestions, the place in Rome and Dubrovnik look amazing but out of our budget sadly. Will have a look at Malta and Paphos.

Eurocamp! We're driving to one in Holland this summer and are planning to do a lot of sight seeing around Holland as it's small and has plenty of things to see and do.

The one we're going to is De Twee Bruggen but there are plenty of others. It has pools with slides, kids club etc but also gives the opportunity to do city/cultural sights.

Also very budget-friendly.

Costa Brava. If you stay in Begur for example there are gorgeous beaches and loads of day trips to Roman ruins, old towns, Dali Museum etc. Or stay nearer Sitges and you can get the train into Barcelona with the DC for a day. Catalonia is a wonderful area in Spain for history.

Or yes Dubrovnik, plenty of hotels nearby so you can do a day trip there.

Disagree about this. You can do this near several Spanish cities including Palma Mallorca as well as Malaga, Barcelona, Alicante etc. Lanzarote has lots of interesting non beachy activities like the Volcano park, caves, Cesar Marique arty stuff.

Agree with Spain and Croatia recommendations - consider Valencia and Samay if you wanted Eurocamp or chalet style resort close by. Or Split and stay on one of the islands

The Valamar resort in Dubrovnik has a couple of hotels for different budgets. Sunny Valamar might suit?

@Richtea67 what about a campsite in Italy? Pools, slides & activities for the kids but near cities so you can explore. Don’t need a car either if you’re happy to catch trains/use taxis.
Check out Bella Italia in Lake Grada, Union Lido Mare near Venice or Camping Village Fabulous near Rome.

Majorca? The island is small enough to do plenty of sightseeing and still have time for the beach/pool.
We always rent a car but it's also doable with public transport, the busses are good.

I love Malta but it doesn't have the typical beach feeling, it's more small coves.

Also a bit out there, but Athens has sandy beaches and obviously an incredible amount of history - might be a good combination?

I second Malta.

it’s a great place to see, and lots to do.

Very good weather all year round, lots of historical places to visit (consider a boat trip to Gozo). Transports v good if you’re okay with using buses, if not rent a car.

There are loads of places you can do this.

Greece has lots to offer in terms of history. Every island has something ancient. Crete could be a good. I don’t have any resort recommendations as we always do a villa.

Rhodes is also amazing for history and great beach resorts. We stayed at the Cyprotel in Faleraki and it was amazing with great pools and waterpark, but also so so much to see.

In my experience if you’re in a resort that the kids love, then getting them to go out and do ‘cultural’ stuff during the day is even harder. We usually do a few days in a city first to satisfy my need for a more ‘grown up’ holiday, and then a week in a holiday park or airBNB with a big pool for the kids. We’ve done this in Mallorca twice (Palma and then Port de Soller or Port de Pollensa), Greece ((Athens and then a resort just down the coast), Croatia (Zadar and then a holiday park), Spain (Barcelona and then holiday park up the coast near llafranc) Italy (Venice and then a holiday park in Caore). Is that an option for you?

Try split. You can stay on an island like Brac - supetar has TUI suneo supetar which is a fab spot and family friendly. But 10 mins walk and you can get the ferry into split or over to other islands

Thank you for the suggestions all....a lot for me to go away and research! I love the idea of Athens or Malta.

Oh god don’t do Athens it’s a shithole

^ This. For Couples it’s fine but I wouldn’t take my child there.

You would enjoy doing one of the islands far more.

Puzzled by Athens being a "shithole". I was there with my daughter last summer and we loved it 🤷‍♀️ So much to see

My family loved this type of holiday when the DC were younger (we still do actually). Cape Town, Doha, Athens, Sardinia, camping near Venice were particular favourites.