Neilson holidays - sport and food

[PenelopeChipShop]

Hello, just looking for thoughts on Neilson activity holidays. Are they good even if you’re just averagely sporty? I find it quite boring just laying around pools on holiday but equally I don’t want to iron man type training!! Would happily do yoga, tennis, paddle boards, kayaks, possibly not scary things like caves.

Family is just me and DS (he’ll be 14 by summer) and DD (10). DD is autistic and quite clingy to me so she won’t want to do ‘kids clubs’ but would do activities we could do together like paddle boarding.

My main questions are: can we do things together as a family or will we have to divide up into age groups and do things separately?

And what is the food like? Again my DD in particular is fussy and lives on pizza, plain pasta etc! Do these places do the standard sort of buffet with bland kids food?

thanks for any thoughts x

Fantastic for people of differing activity levels and your daughter can hang out with you or join group activities. Good sailing and windsurfing tuition - all included if you want to learn that. There are no rules as to who does what.

The food is very good, can be as plain as you like, loads of choice, some freshly made options and some buffet options.

It isn’t cheap in school holidays though!

We loved Neilson holidays when our daughters were younger, the kids clubs are amazing and they had great fun. I did much less than everyone else and spent many days just swimming and lying on the sunbed with my book. You can literally be active all day or do very little.
Food is pretty good and I had no complaints.
A couple of years ago we went to an adult only holiday at Bucca and that was great too.

You can sign up for the kids clubs when booking, and then drop in and out, or just stay out, if the activities don’t appeal.

there is lots of freedom to do what you like. Everything on is listed on the app. You can do stuff as a family or not.

The food has great variety, everything from plain pasta to freshly made local produce.

It sounds ideal for what you are after.

We did them every year for 15 years with our dds.
They are fantastic but ..your 10 yr old won't be able to go to activities that are taught with you.
The sailing, tennis etc that you can join in a group for your ability and learn through the week will be adults and I think it's 14 upwards.
They didn't used to let or encourage younger children to go to the fitness classes either.
It's fair enough the kids groups are amazing and do all those activities anyway, and most parents choose neilson because they want to do some sports stuff without looking after the kids at same time.
If you can already sail then nothing stops you taking your 10 yr old out sailing etc.
But lots of the kit and the tennis courts etc are used by groups being taught by instructors during the day.
The kids loved it ...they have amazing activities and all hung out together often playing games in the evening etc.
So apart from the two mornings a week when the kids activities don't run you rarely saw a child in the pool or around with parents.
The pools definitely were quiet and had adults reading books round them during the day.
It may not be a good fit for a child who won't join in or go do stuff with other kids.
You can call them and discuss it...they can provide 1:1 staff for kids who need extra support to enjoy the activities/ clubs.
One yr my very active social 8 yr old was recovering from surgery and was a bit self conscious about not being able to do everything.. neilson gave her a 1:1 nanny who was with her all the time during kids club and just helped her / made sure she didn't over do it etc.
Can't rate them highly enough.

Ah thank you all for your feedback! From what I can see online they look great and sort of ‘easy’ in terms of all transfers, all included etc. Perhaps I’d better check with them if it will definitely suit us. I had visions of being able to perhaps kayak in the morning (together) then chill round the pool in the afternoon (or do a different activity some days) but I was wondering if it’s more that the kids go off with their groups and I have to chill by myself or do an adults only activity. We all know how to paddle board but other things we’d need a lesson in. I’d rather do stuff as a family than all separate but not quite sure if that’s the structure or not.

They're excellent, you really can do as much or as little as you want. Some things like group classes need to be booked but things like kayaks and paddle boards you just turn up and sign them out. Same with bikes, never had an issue with availability and they usually have routes available you can follow on your on your own. I think most kids go with the kids clubs because they're so good but it's not obligatory if they want to do things with you. Some of the fitness classes are adults only or minimum age.
The food is all buffet style and there's usually pizza or pasta at most meals and from memory the pasta tends to be separate from the sauce.

Ah sounds so nice thank you, I think I’m on the verge of booking their Sardina site for this summer. It’s so positive to hear that people go back again and again.

Honestly they are very much geared up for adults doing adult things in adult groups while the kids do kids things in kids groups. Same for Mark Warner. I don’t think DD would be allowed to sign up for an adult watersports course or vice versa.

You can borrow paddleboards together or kayaks but you could do that in lots of resorts without paying the Neilson premium for all the childcare you won’t be using!

If you want a holiday where you do activities together then an Alpine holiday could work really well. Or take a look at Beyond Beach which I think is like a smaller Neilsons but doesn’t have kids clubs. So more geared up for you doing stuff together.

Ah thats interesting minipie, thank you. Yes we are more into doing things together really, especially bc of DD’s anxiety.

I haven’t done loads of trips with them but in the Jet2 resort we went to last year for example, the hotel was lovely but I did get a bit fed up with having to reserve a sunbed at the crack of dawn to be able to even attend the swimming pool and then just endlessly play bat the beachball! Fist world problems I know! But I’d like us all to get a chance to do a bit more than that but also have quality time together. I’ll look into Alpine and Beyond Beach.

Definitely you can do kayak and paddle boarding but you can't just join in one session of something and definitely not with a 10 yr old in tow.
Chilling by pool definitely happens but there won't be other kids ...kids on neilson literally disappear off in a big gang...and reappear at 5 pm to then play noisyly in pool in same big gang !
Your 14 yr old would probably love it...
My dd now aged 27 smiles fondly remembering her first teenage kiss on the beach on a neilson holiday.
Lots of people do choose them because of the ability for each family member to do their own thing, have a break but still have some family time .
An anxious 10 yr old who needs to stay with a parent won't get much out of it , plus you might find you feel you've been short changed as you won't be able to do most of the activities, so even if you fancy yoga or the tennis or sailing...

Thanks theredjellybean I think it isn’t going to be right for us in that case. It gets so much harder as they get older to please everyone! and bc of the nature of our family (so used to doing everything together as it’s just us) and then DD being rather anti-social I’m probably better off just booking a nice-ish hotel near a beach where you can do SUP and kayaking!!

Have a look at Green World holidays like this one. All the activities are done as a family, in a big group with other Uk families. When you book you can ask what ages are already booked on for which weeks & locations so you can try to pick one where the other kids roughly match your kids. Your DD would be on the young end but sounds like it’s DS who wants to be more social anyway?

You do have to be happy to hang out in a big group a lot of the time though… we went expecting it to be joint morning activities and family/quiet afternoons, but of course very quickly there was a WhatsApp group and the kids wanted to meet the others for the pm …