Holiday suggestion

[Unicorncupcake46]

I am looking for holiday ideas for after your children turn 12. The price of a regular Al inclusive holiday shoots up significantly after children hit 12 years old.

we have a 7-9k budget for family holidays a year we are a family of 4 with 13 and 8 year old.

Any suggestions how to get more for our money?

Thanks

I think once they're teens they aren't as keen on AI holidays and prefer a villa, or city breaks. You could fit in a week in the dun plus a couple of city breaks for your budget?

We did a lot of Eurocamp and gite holidays. Dd's favourite holidays were to the Dordogne where there is loads to do for all ages - caves, castles, canoeing etc. Alternated pool time with days out. She completely went off the idea of kids clubs by 12. When she hit the teenage years, Interrailing was very successful.

Maybe look at one of the big sites e.g. Italian Riviera, like Union Lido, where there are non-mobile home options and loads going on.

Mine way preferred the AI when they were older. They loved being able to sort their own food and drinks with no effort.

I would look on some where like TUI for a free child price and look at locations from that.

Actually AI came into it's own with older children, especially teens. More freedom and food and drink on tap. We never bothered with AI when they were little and don't now we are adult only.
Mine never liked city breaks until they were late teens.

If you like big resort hotels to keep costs down look at the same kind of resort hotels you usually use but half board. AI adds a massive premium to take account of adults who do it for the alcohol and kids mainlining cola.

My teens always liked AI, they usually found other teens to hang out with and being able to sort their own food/drinks was a huge pull.

I finally got to read a book on holiday!

Ok I'll be the first - a cruise? Pretty good value AI as drinks aren't included ( although adults can but packages).
Loads for their age group and they can run off round the ship with their friends. Good to see places that might be useful for school too.

We love AI and so do my teens. It's becoming almost impossible us to get something within our budget for next year as eldest DS will be 16, youngest 12. They want us to put ds 16 in a separate room (we usually have suite so still separate rooms but within the same apartment layout).

Up until now we've not had any issue though, with Jet2. That's a very healthy budget!

Try landmar Costa los gigantes in Tenerife, Fergus hotels (with a Magnus upgrade), Lopesan hotels or Zafiro. These a nice family orientated chains but not top end luxury.

Try jet2holidays, they count under 17s as children for flights at least and you can get a free child place.

You could also look at booking separately for flexibility and it's often cheaper to upgrade from HB to AI direct with the hotel. Although a family of 5 brings its own limitations with accommodation, I think if you call them or go into a Hays Travel they might be able to help you search.

Road trips, most hotels have family rooms up to 16. We went to so many interesting places and not a beach in sight (I don’t like beaches)

My dc loved club med in their teens. Great activities, teen club and freedom to eat what they wanted. As a lot of guests are French it helps with GCSE language skills but everything is said in English too. Da Balaia in Portugal is a good one.
My two also love skiing and you can reduce the cost significantly by going self drive and self catered at Easter. That would take up quite a bit of your budget but you could go back to the alps to an apartment complex with a pool in the summer for well under £2000 all in eg with Peak Retreats who are also a ski tour operator

Oh and look at Brittany ferried to Spain, not cheap but it’s an interesting addition to a holiday, we had a whale expert on board and you could help with spotting, then take you car along the Atlantic coast, mountains, small resorts and historic sites

Our 2 (15 and 13) like AI however they also like doing stuff/exploring. Also AI in Europe is becoming too expensive for us.
This year we went to Florida and next year we are going for 10 days to New York. With good planning we keep the costs down.