Great Diving-Top Quality Childcare-Sunshine-5 Star Paradise-Short Haul. Possible?

[Mamii]

I've been looking on the internet for 4 or 5 star all inclusive family diving holiday's that aren't long haul. I'm not having any luck - does any one know of anywhere?

DD is 4 (just) and starts school in September. DS is 2. We're looking for somewhere that has good quality childcare too (included) as DD has an anaphylactic food allergy (milk) so I have to feel confident I'm leaving her in good hands.

Last Summer we went to St Lucia, which was fab - but the long flight with the kids was a pain. I will do the long flight again if I have to, I know they're a year older and easier to entertain - but I'd really prefer to skip the pain this year and just get on with having fun. )

Any tips would be brill!

I think most holidays in Europe are going to be expensive this year because the Euro is so strong.

I know long-haul flying is a pin but you might be better thinking about maybe Mauritius or the Seychelles. A friend of mine is going to Mauritius for 2 weeks in August flying Business Class for less than she would have spent with Mark Warner in Greece.

Or have you considered Oman or Dubai (although I personally hate Dubai, I know some people love it).

I'm not very good on all-inclusive or diving which is why I'm not recommending specific resorts, but hope this helps.

Mark Warner in Egypt might just about manage all that, but its still a 5hr flight.

If you've got lots of dosh Powder Byrne does 4/5 Star Hotels and fantastic, personal childcare, not sure what resorts they do that diving is possible but Jordan is one of their locations.

Maybe if you can tell me where you can go diving thats short haul from the UK I could think of more suggestions? The diving areas that I'm familiar with are Belize, the Great Barrier Reef off Australia and Fiji which are rather far from the UK!

These are great tips, thanks for taking the time to reply. I really appreciate it.
I'm gonna check out Mauritius & Seychelles! Business Class would certainly take the sting out of the flight... DH's eye lit up when I read out the post!

DH and I don't get paid for holiday or sick leave. So we're only looking to go for 10-14 days. (that's also why we look for 5 star - if it's gonna cost us to take the time off work, we may as well make it worth while iyswim). Otherwise Australia & Fiji would be top on our list.

I must admit, DH and I have been spoilt in the past with our diving - GBR & Osprey Reef Australia - Maldives - Caribean... Trouble is, I'm certainly not up for diving in cold, low visibility where the highlight of the dive is a fossil shark tooth (big whoop!)

Egypt has world class diving too - but (call me a sissy) I do worry taking the kids there.
What are your experiences of taking small children to Eygpt? I'd love to dive the Thistlegorm. What an experience!

My sis took her two (when they were 7 and 2) to Sharm El Sheik and had a great time. I know lots of other people who've been there too - but, again, can't comment on the diving.

My friend who's going to Mauritius booked with Scott Dunn I think.

Thanks for the heads-up. We'd never heard of Scott Dunn before and it's a cracking site!

Four Seasons in Sharm has good childcare.

How about this here?

We are going here.Can't see All inclusive,but maybe the one in St Julians does this,otherwise there is Half Board.

My DH went to Malta for the Diving/Scuba etc.

Difficult one as you've dived in some of the best sites in the world which are hard to beat.
I've dived GBR, Maldives and Carribean too which were fabulous.
I've also dived in Malta which was ok and Hurghada which was very good and also not too far. Think there are some pretty good hotels in the Hurghada area too which have got kids clubs from age 4. We have been looking into going there this Nov/Dec and are still researching it.
The old diving club that I used to belong to when in the UK had regular trips to Egypt, not only Hurghada but another place called El Gouna? which apparently was very good so worth having a look at.

Malta and Gozo are good but you really need to go at the right time of year (June onwards, I think) to get the sites at their best. IIRC Gozo has the better diving but is very quiet so most people split time between the two islands. I'm not sure about all-inclusive luxury, though; when we've been it was pre-children and we were only looking for clean and comfortable.

Have you thought about Cozumel?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cozumel

The Occidental and Presendite aresupposed to be great. We stayed at the Iberostar and the food wasn't great. But if you want a great dive location look no further!

Thanks for your advice guys...
We're finding it really hard to find somewhere with childcare for under 5's.

I'd never considered Malta, has anyone had any experience diving around Malta?

We just back from the Maldives, stayed at a resort called Bandos which has onsite childcare included for babies (I think 8months) up to 12 years. We didnt use it as DD refused to stay.

It is a long flight to the Maldives, but SriLanka Air fly non-stop there and are very child friendly.

I didnt get a chance to dive, but DP did and said that the div school were quite well organised.

The place that we stayed wasnt AI, it was eiher FB or HB, so we did end up spending a lot more on top, ecp. with diving. Also, by the end of the holiday you did feel like a prisoner!

With regard to Malta - we went in the Summer and hired a farm house in Gozo.

Didnt get a chance to dive. But the accom that we had was nice, and we cooked ourselves. I think that there is only 1 supermarket in Gozo!

I hear the diving is really good there.

We did dive in Gozo and Malta pre-DCs. There are some very good sites, but particularly in Gozo some times of year are better than others. We went with Gozo Aqua Sports in Gozo and someone else in Malta, doing a couple of dives a day.

babyOcho, we've been to Bandos 3 times now which is a first for us as we normally only to to places once. We love it as the diving is fab and myself and my two eldest DC go diving and leave the younger one with DH who doesn't dive. Works for us. We went there for my 40th last year and stayed in one of the two water villas. VERY expensive but fabulous. Have a new baby now and thinking of going again as soon as he is 8 months old and can go in nursery there.

someone suggested powder bryrne resort in jordan - not been to the resort, but been to Jordan - it's amazing. Diving in Aqaba is pretty good - mostly shore dives, with a v unusual tank dive (Jordan's King is a keen diver, and had a tank sunk as an alternative to wrecks..plus day trip to Wadi Rum desert or Petra possible - which are truly, truly astonishing)

Just noticed the above when looking for diving holidays and childcare - have you taken a look at a company called Family Diving - they do holidays to Gozo and Sharm with their own qualified childcare and loads of other places - www.familydiving.co.uk

I've never tried Family Diving but have corresponded with them when we were considering a holiday with them in Egypt and they seemed to offer an excellent product, their customer service was very good. I wouldn't worry about taking the children to Egypt as long as you stay somewhere nice.

What was the diving like in St Lucia? We're moving there for a few years in the summer. Used to live in Jamaica, where the diving was ok but certainly not up to the standard of other places I've dived (Belize, Thailand, Malaysia, New Zealand, Egypt).