Resort/ AI holidays with interesting things to do nearby

[Twittwhoo]

Have you visited any resorts - half board or AI - where you've especially rated the interesting things to do/ excursions nearby?

Our favoured holidays pre kids were pretty 'on the move'/ exploratory - we liked road trips, city breaks, that kind of thing. Post kids (now aged 4.5 and 3) we've done more villa/ holiday cottage type things, plus a bit of camping.

We've just come back from a villa week in which our kids absolutely loved being by/ in the pool all day and the most exotic/ far-flung excursions we managed were half hour drives to pretty towns for lunch/ ice cream. And then we stayed in a hotel for the final night and the laid-on breakfast/ no cleaning was blissful!

So, having never done a resort/ AI holiday either pre or post-kids, we're wondering if now is the time to try it.

Maybe stupidly, we both feel a bit antsy at the idea of feeling 'trapped' within a resort. Our ideal, we think, would be to be able to walk or otherwise easily reach interesting places to see/ things to do (and ideally without feeling like the only option is to sit on an organised coach like a school trip).

Any suggestions?

This would be for the week immediately following the August bank holiday, so the first week in September. Don't mind where. Can fly from any London airport. Could even drive if there's somewhere you'd recommend in northern France/ Netherlands etc.

Xcaret Occidental in Mexico, loads of great day trips to places like Coba, Tulum, cenotes, etc.

Eco caracole in Mexico, if you like wildlife.

Azores are nice for that age - we stayed at Octant Furnas which has spa pools but there are lots of nice hotels and things like dolphin boat trips, hot springs, beautiful gardens etc.

Costa Rica was also great but maybe a bit young for longhaul

Lake Garda. Lots of beautiful towns to visit by boat or short car journey

Mallorca. Plenty to do and see and easy to go around by car or - depending where your base is - public transport.

Rhodes!!!! Amazing AI hotels with waterparks and so much to see and do

We recently stayed in medulin croatia, very much a family friendly holiday town but only 15 mins by taxi, bus was a but longer, to Pula, castle, underground tunnels, colloseum and we'll worth a visit.
We were AI but adults only hotel but there were lots of others.
There's also an enormous camp site, which had RV parking, apartments, cabins with aircon, pool, parks. It looked great

I like AI but also want to be able to walk to restaurants etc so always check the location information as like you don't want to feel trapped

Rhodes and other larger Greek islands (e.g. Crete) have lots of things to do. Depends on your definition of things to do though - we like historic and cultural sites, nature etc rather than theme parks. Rhodes had some interesting things to do for us recently; we loved Rhodes old town. I've also been to Majorca (but not all inclusive) and that had interesting things to see and do, plus a very good local bus network so it was easy to get about. Some places are better than others for stuff to do e.g. there are a lot of AI hotels near Halkidiki in Greece but not much to do there.

Also there is a middle ground where you stay somewhere self catering but eat out a lot (if budget permits). Still not as easy as AI but AI food isn't great in my experience (and I've been to some of the top rated ones). For this we have enjoyed Mousses villas in Lefkada with our kids, there's not a lot to do in Lefkada but definitely enough to keep things interesting (we have discovered enough there over 3 years anyway).

Lanzarote. The whole island only takes an hour to drive from top to bottom and there's the volcano park, Cesar Manrique artist houses, cactus garden, viewpoints, inland towns, all sorts. I went to see most of these on a coach trip but obviously you could also hire a car.

Playa Blanca is a nice coastal resort with lots of AI hotels as well as two marinas, restaurants, beach, watersports. The Princessa Yaiza is the MN favoured one, but there's loads of others to fit a variety of budgets.

You could have a similar experience in Tenerife or Gran Canaria. Also Mallorca, Santa Eularia in Ibiza, lots of places. It seems like quite an odd question to me because while we usually stay self catering or B&B we always make sure we're walking distance from the beach, restaurants, supermarket and access to larger towns without driving and there's always lots of AI hotels in the same area so I don't understand why people think you're trapped in the middle of nowhere if you stay in one, surely that would only be if you've chosen to be?

Not sure if this will tick the OPs boxes unless she likes Brits abroad type resorts. Just back from Playa Blanca and tbh found the plethora of British restaurants/curry houses quite upsetting.
There are loads of good restaurants if you are prepared to drive to other more rural towns and villages but having had children of a similar age this is not always what you want to do.