First holiday abroad, but where??

[TheOtherMaryPoppinsDiets]

We've never been able to afford to take our children away abroad but are now in the position that we can, but have no idea where to go!

I know that we want to do all inclusive, and that there must be lots of activities and somehwere warm with lots to see and do out of any complex, but other than that, we are stuck.

We don't want to go long haul, Europe is fine.

Ideas?

What time of year are you thinking? If it is in the Summer then there are loads of places ranging from Tenerife to Turkey.

we took our first one abroad with the children (4 & 6 at the time)

we went to Alcudia and stayed in hotel alcudia

half board, nice room, beach about a 10 minute walk away, food was reasonable

but to be honest we wouldn't have been in the hotel around lunchtime so all inclusive didn't suit us

would recommend using travel republic as we did last time which was faultless and about £1000 cheaper than using a package

although on my other thread Aimsmum is using expedia (I think !!!) so try a couple

Ah we've been looking at Alucida today I'll go and have a squizz at those sites, thanks.

We will be looking at the expensive popular {hmm} end of July/mid August.

First place that sprung to mind was Majorca!

Reus, Porto adventura in Spain (universal studios) is awesome!!!!!!!! We have been there 4 times cos we love it so much. You have Barcelona by train only a hour away, beaches, everything. Do not stay in Salou in the summer as it is filled with youngsters clubbing, but all around is great fun! You can do package through many companies or Ryanair go there to and the airport is not that far from the main area. Porto adventura is a theme park with also a water park. Take a look on www.portaventura.co.uk . In the area are othere water parks and dolphin displays. The park is for all ages and is great fun. You dont have to stay there but there is the option. We stayed in La pinada which was great, but many other options for various budgets. We booked through thompsons and the internet has many deals at the mo. If you find a good deal look for voucher codes /discount sites to get further discounts, spesh in Jan! good luck!

just checked back on my prices last year and we paid:

insurance: 23.69
private taxi to and from airport: 137.46
flights including all taxes etc: 918.00
hotel - half board: 477.30
total cost £1556.45

all booked through travel republic, including the private taxi, and we went the second week in August, that was for four of us.

There is also a waterpark at Alcudia, which if you do go I'd highly recommend.

we had to ring the day before coming home to confirm our taxi pick up, and I kept thinking it was a dead line, it wasn't it was just a different ring tone.

The beach is lovely there, and it is really hot in August, I'm fair skinned and had factor 50 on, and I still burned.

Thanks, Port Aventura looks very cool We are now looking at Bulgaria as an option too, trawling the web too although I am very wary of any site that I've not heard of, I don't want to be on next year's Watchdog

try southern france. not a long flight, well under 2 hours, lovely and hot, and very beautiful.

we are looking at croatia and bulgaria as it seems loads cheaper and not in eurozone

Last summer we had a lovely week in Calas de Majorca (all inclusive), got it last minute quite cheap. At the time we made a mental note to recommend it to anyone with children. The food was great and activites for kids spot on - very well organised eg. pool tournments, tennis, shooting, kids disco, kids club, face painting etc (all free). All drinks were included as well as as much ice cream as you wanted!

It was a 2 hr flight and short transfer from airport.

The only negative is that our room didn't have air conditioning so we hired a fan from reception for about 20 euros.

club cala romani

What about Greece? It's absolutely gorgeous and definitely lots to see and do? if you stay off the main popular islands it can be relatively inexpensive.

bump

Can recommend Puerto Pollensa, Majorca. Beautiful resort. Very family friendly, plenty to do. We cant wait to return. Check out puertopollensadotcom