Holidaying with children in non-self catering accomodation - what do you do in the evenings?

[spicemonster]

I'm contemplating going away for the first time this year with my DS who's 2. I've been looking at going on holiday with a company which specialises in holidays with children - week in a hotel, half-board. I just asked whether the hotel offered baby-listening services. No, but you can bring a baby monitor or they offer baby sitting at £10 an hour.

Obviously a baby monitor is going to be utterly useless in a big hotel and I'm not so wealthy that I can afford to use a babysitter more than once. So that's not really a solution.

So what do you do in the evenings?! This deal involves us sharing a room so do I just sit there silently reading a book by a torch in the evenings?

What do you all do? Is there some very simple solution that simply hasn't occurred to me?

(ps I'd be grateful if we could avoid mentioning the McCanns on this thread. Ta)

Don't do it! Staying in a hotel with a 2 year old is no holiday imo. I would always go self catering, but a good compromise might be serviced apartments or an aparthotel so you can eat in the restaurant, but still prepare a snack for ds if you want to. Never mind the evenings - what do you do if ds needs a nap in the day, wakes at crack of dawn - you can't do alternate lie-ins in a single hotel room.

If we didn't book the babysitting service and we wanted to go out, we'd go out for dinner and our ds would come out with us and just fall sleep in his pram (we had a light travel Maclaren that reclined and he was generally always good when we went out, thank goodness!). Otherwise we'd stay in quietly and get an early night for a change!

It doesn't seem like the company you booked with is really that child-friendly, though...

Take a bottle opener, wine and glasses!

Eat out fairly early, and then retire to your room with a bottle of wine and a good book.

this is why we only got to CP tsk...though we did go to America and just snuck back into the room (from the bathroom) when ds was asleep and very quietly surfed on the lap top. It wasnt that much fun though tbh.

So either a) don't go or b) drink

Louise2004 - that's what I thought. I was a bit disappointed to be honest. They had to ask the hotel specially as well. I find it a bit weird that I'm the first person to have asked. LilianGish - that is a very good point re daytime naps. My DS does nap in the day and while he's happy to sleep in his buggy some of the time, I would like him to get a 'proper' nap at other times.

Hmm ... perhaps we'll have a rethink

We've always gone half board in hotel with our DS (first hol at 9months - he's 4 now). Never really been a problem us all being in one room. Of an evening he would quite happily sleep in his buggy whilst we had a walk, few quiet drinks, etc, till we went back to the room - then we would transfer him to cot and sit out on balcony - with a pack of cards or a book and a glass of wine. Roll on holidays!!!

ownersdirect are very good for villa rental and because you can go during the termtime you'll get some good deals...

we went to italy last year for 850euros for a 3bed villa with a pool and then just got BA flights for 120 each...it was fab...

oh and that price was in august so height of the season...

Thanks all. I'm a single parent so going out for strolls/nice meals in the evening isn't really top of my agenda. I think now we might go and stay on a farm that rents out a couple of cottages. Then I can hang out in the cottage in the evening, he can sleep in his own room, we've got flexibility and hopefully there'll be some other kids for him to play with

I think thats a great idea. some of them have play areas and pools as well.