where have you had your best family holidays?

[happynewgoatlegs]

and what was it about the holiday that made it so great?
Who did you go with?
what family friendly facilities did you have?

I am in the process of trying to decide on a destination for this summer, and since its so damn expensive to go anywhere in august, we'd like to get something fabulous and family friendly
all suggestions welcome

a yurt in cornwall. twas lovely
just me, dp and the boys. ds1 was just 3 and ds2 was 5 months.
the only facilities we had were a self composting toilet and a wood-burning shower :D

loved it

thanks thisisyesterday. dh has vetoed the yurt immediately (after I explained what they are!)

Last year we had our first foreign holiday since I was pregnant with with dd1, who is now 13. We had two weeks in Greece and had a fabulous time. It was expensive though; we were lucky to get a free child place for dd2. The only "family friendly facility" other than the fantastic beach was a pool at the apartment complex.

Prior to that our best holiday was a sort of outward bounds one in Devon. We stayed in a room with two bunk beds (I had the top bunk/ dp had the bottom!) and had organised activities like pond dipping, river wading, badger watching etc with a guide - about six families in all. It was something utterly unlike anything I had ever done before and we absolutely loved it. This cost about £800 for the week iirc. The whole holiday was geered around families, so river wading was followed by an afternoon on the beach; pond dipping was followed by shelter building and making nettle soup on a camping stove etc. I think the girls were 10 and 7 when we did this.

Both holidays were in August.

anyone else?

campng in switzerland last year and this - great scenery, very relaxing for the DSs to be abel to go off and play with freiends they made on site..

most relaxing holiday in years!

i'd neverthought about switzerland. what time of year did you go? what was the weather like?

In a very bery basic farmhouse in the countryside just outside Pollensa town on Mallorca. Naked children running in lemon groves and a all of us swimming in a fresh water swimming pool. And barbecuing every night.

Small children on the back of our bikes on the Ile de Re - lots of fresh air and lovely sea food.

Various cottages and villas in various bits of France with and without pools and near and not near the coast.

And then children get to the age where they want to have fun too and the house in the middle of nowhere no longer works unless you go with a crowd.

Now I am almost too ashamed to admit it, but really the most enjoyable and relaxing and fun (for everybody) holidays we have had in recent years have been at Mark Warner. It's lovely observing your children learning to sail and the triumph the first time they take a a small dinghy out to sea alone. We play lots of tennis. We go for massages. We canoe. We play Waterpolo. We play on the beach. We eat every meal together. We swim. We all get time together and time apart in the knowledge that the little ones and the big ones and the adults are truly having a brilliant time.

But of course, were it not for the children I would far rather go to India.

How old are your children?

they will be 4 and 6 this summer.

Go to San Luciano (Corsica) with Mark Warner. You will all have a great time.

we went to switzerland in july last year and august this,

both times had great sunny weather (tshirt/shirts hot) and a couple of heavy thunderstorms - but still warm. the campsite was in the jungfrau region - so lovely mountain walks and cablecars up to fantasic scenery with snow capped mountains - bliss!

In a gite in Normandy last year owned by lovely British couple with children. The DC's could safely play in garden with swings, trampoline, basketball, swingball etc and could go and see the goats, chickens and ponies. They got a ride in a little cart pulled by one of the ponies.

There was a barn attached to the back with pool table, darts and lots of toys like stilts, pogo stick, giant jenga which they thought was great. Driving very relaxing as roads so quiet and lots of places to visit.

Not that expensive in the scheme of things, a week in August was £750 including ferry. The Poole Cherbourg ferry was nearly as much as the gite. All went home relaxed after a hideously stressful few months.

I have high hopes that a farm in Germany will be as good this summer. Has riding,swimming, go karts, play grounds , bikes and other stuff. Cheaper than last year at £375 for week in August including Ferry.

Camping in North Norfolk every summer. Good weather (usually), open space, pretty scenery, peace, great for kids. Perfect.

I also went on lots of holidays abroad but my best memories are of camping.

Cornwall
Corsica
France- Laguedoc

Corsica is absolutely fab but too expensive for us now...sob...

who did you travel to corsica with plumandolive?

We've been a few times- Corsican places first, then we did it independantly because we knew where we wanted to be, and it works out quite a bit cheaper.
There was a thread a while back where I posted some links.
Have to get the children now, but i#ll comme back with them later

What sort of place are you looking for?
We stayed in a shared pool residence a couple of times, by the sea. Gorgeous. Very unspoilt. Lovely food.

Also had a villa - but actually- the children enjoyed meeting other children at a shared pool, as long as it's a smallish place.

We,ve been t the end of the season- last two weeks in August, and had beaches to ourselves.....

I agree that Corsica is fabulous. We went last year (DD1 was four and I was seven months preg with DD2) with Simply Travel - flights, car-hire and villa all included in the price (and v good discount for DD).

Simply Travel are very good at helping you find somewhere that ticks all the right boxes, if you explain to them what you're looking for.

Corsica is beautiful - great beaches, mountain scenery, fab food, and mostly pretty unspoilt. We all loved it. I'm dying to go back...

Wispa- me too- we've been four times... but have to cut back this year, what with the exchange rate etc... and older kids..

We stayed here
which I'd recommend and booked it ourselves with flight to Figari separately. Figari is a tiny airport, and quite close.

this place is really nice- we swam in the lagoon alone quite a few times- it's really like that...
The accomodation in these places is comparitively basic, compared say to Portugese villas etc.
But I think you pay for the unspoilt beauty, lack of crowds, cafes right on the sea etc etc..
It depends what you're after.

The hills are gorgeous in Corsica too.
One of my favourite ever towns is Sartene, don't know why, just loved it.

We went to Laguedoc last year and stayed here It was lovely. Very rural, and completely unspoilt. But not much "tourist" stuff.
Uzes, a town quite near, has to be one of the lovliest too- stunning.

But it wasn't that much cheaper than Corsica though.

Puerto Pollensa Majorca. Went for the first time last year and loved it. Our children are 2 and 5 and loved it. Warm seas, shallow clear water, very pretty and lots nice places to eat/drink.

Look at puertopollensa.com, will give you a feel of what it is like.

Ruthie- really agree- the old town of Pollensa proper is gorgeous too; does it get quite crowded in season?

loved it here so much last year we've booked it for this year! really family friendly and TOO easy!! Found it hard to motivate ourselves to go to Venice for the day!!!

Alos had many fabulous family holidays 'camping' in France (brittany and Vendee) both as a child and as a mum! When I say camping, I mean in a mobile home with ALL facilities!

Nice n cheap, outdoors lifestyle, we all make friends and have fab fun while chiling out big time! take no posh clothes unless you really want to!!

Plumandolive... we went out of peak season last year as eldest not school age.. I expect it would be fairly busy.

This year he is... so decided to holiday in Wales this year and save some money for Pollensa next year!

thanks for all your feedback so far. I am still really stuumped as there is so much choice, I am having trouble even narrowing it down. I am looking for somewhere with plenty to do for the kids, some sun and some nice places to eat. not bothered about late nightlife as dd will not stay up past 8 pm! previously we have done a few eurocamp holidays in france and last year we did one in Italy, Disney, CenterParcs, lochside Scotland. I liked elements of all the hols but I am so easily bored (rest of family far more content than I.) I was originally considering a family friendly cruise but the dates are all sold out or extortionate room upgrades.
i am wary of majorca/Canaries/Greek Island hols as it just seems so run of the mill. I am not a lazing by the pool person, i want to be going places. dh is (obviously) far wiser than me and thinks we should just book somewhere in Canaries/Balearics but I refuse to pay £3 grand so my kids can sleep on fold out camp beds for a week. I am looking into peurto pollensa, thanks Ruthie

Ruthie- we went in April. It was gorgeous, warm enough to sit on beach but not swim obviously, although our children dipped in and out of the pool at our villa, it was arctic!
We loved the feel of the place, and the little cafes on the beach at the far end of the pine walk, where it got more and more simple.
Also loved Pollensa itself, as opposed to the port.
While we were there, they celebrated e
Easter, with parades of people in those poiny coloured head things. it was terribly Spanish and dramatic.
On other occasions we just sat in the square at a cafe with some sangria, while the children ran around. it was lovely.
I also was amazed by Palma- I thought it was stunning.
I think Mallorca is very under rated isn't it?
My brother and family had a lovely holiday near Cala D'Or too, which may be worth investigating.

Plumandolive.....I agree that Mallorca is underrated. I had never really fancied it, just felt the island would all be like Magaluf!! (sorry Magaluf lovers)

But two friends of mine raved about Puerto Pollensa so we tried it last year. Absolutely loved it. Had a day trip to Palma which was lovely. Took the kids to Palma Aquarium, a huge new building costing millions. It was fab.

Can't wait to return. We didnt actually get to Pollensa, next time!!

Hi. we just love love love Cornwall! I had actually booked to Puerto pollensa for July two weeks (we had a day trip there when in majorca three years ago and it was very nice) but the boys (14, 9,6) moaned like billy-o that they want to go to St Ives again, so i've cancelled it! they love surfing, skim boards, rock climbing, rock pooling and the caostal walks. It is simply beautiful, and we have been every year for years! We stay in the same cottage. I always cry when we leave. But i have booked olu Deniz in Turkey for a week in Oct half term, have heard great reviews as it is protected coast.