I'm in a lovely situation and need your help to plan a holiday!

[sneezyweasel]

We are in the lovely, enviable situation of having the opportunity to choose a holiday with little regard for budget!

Some very dear friends of ours have won the lottery and would like to take us on holiday with them.

We can only go at the end of March for a week due to work commitments between us all and want sun, sand and plenty to do for the children (6 between us ranging in age from 3-11).

Requirements are:

sun
beach v.nearby
fairly luxurious
good kids clubs
pool(s)
flight time no more than 8 hours or so

Given the time of year we can go we have started looking at the Caribbean, Mexico and Cuba but if any of you have any ideas or suggestions of particular areas/islands/resorts/hotels/villas I'd be grateful

(PS Have namechanged to protect my friends as some RL people know my usual username!)

Congratulations.

At that time of the year the weather is much more reliable in the caribbean than europe so it is a good choice. If money is not really an issue I would upgrade the flight to make the travelling much easier. Does'nt have to be first class but premium makes it easier to deal with the time differences as you are more rested on arrival.

Mexico is fantastic and great for kids. I would steer clear of Cancun though as it is aimed at adults rather than families.

Cuba is amazing and the beaches in Varadero are shallow for ages so ideal for the smaller kids. There are plenty of excursions that the family can do if you wanted to. We stayed at Breezes and the service was really good. The staff remembered little details such as ice preference and it made you feel like an individual.

Barbados is wonderful. Stay near the gap at the south of the island for plenty of activities for kids. It can get pretty stuffy there though as the weather is very tropical and humid so depends on the kids.

Florida is nice I was not thinking Orlando but you could go down to the keys. Hire a house with a private beach. Loads of choice.

I love planning holidays (can you tell?!) Good luck.

Thanks allstars, you have mentioned a lot of the places we looked at!

I love the look of Cuba (Varadero), also it's somewhere none of us have been so quite novel. The beaches look lovely.

Mexico I'm quite keen on but don't know enough about the resorts - thanks for the tip re Cancun, I didn't know that.

Barbados I like the look of, so we have pencilled that on our increasingly long list!

We have also looked at villas on the Gulf Coast of Florida (avoiding Disney area as they are going there later on in the year!), it looks lovely. Not sure which area is the best though.

So far we have the following on our list so if anyone can comment or recommend resorts/hotels feel free to post

Antigua
Barbados
Cuba
Mexico
Florida (Gulf Coast)

Bump for the evening crowd

I just returned yesterday from Mexico, we stayed at the Gran Bahia Principe TULUM (and the Tulum bit is very important, the other two hotels on site are further from the sea and not as nice IMO). It's about an hour south of Cancun (we had private transport from airport rather than hang about on the coach).
I can't recommend it highly enough. The hotel is fab, the food was lovely, the weather...oh, the weather!!! We swam in the pool then popped into the sea 30 seconds away then back into the pool, then to poolside bar for Margaritas and Mickey Mouses for the kids. My sister is something of an all-inclusive anorak and she really rated the place.
No tummy upsets & the resort has state of the art water treatment. No bugs in the rooms. Gardens magnificent. It is a big resort and has its own transportation system which sounds complicated but it's great.
Resort entertainment/kids clubs/activities really good and there are quite a few excursions (wildlife/water parks/ruins if you like that) very easily arranged. However, we only left the resort once!
I don't work for the Gran Bahia group - but just had a brilliant time there.
And having just checked the prices for a return trip, it's really quite reasonable.

Oh bugger bugger bugger I HATE being back in South London.

Barbados

Thanks for your recommendation springlamb, I shall be off to check it out now! Bet it's awful being back in cold snowy England after that!

Thanks Creme, would you recommend any particular resort/hotel in Barbados?

Another thing pops into my mind.
If you haven't done a long haul flight before, and you have kids with you, and you are only going for a week please bear this in mind.
If you leave your resort on the Saturday afternoon, you will arrive in the UK on the Sunday morning, and you and the kids will definitely want a lazy Monday. You keep going on adrenalin for most of Sunday then the kids crash out. My 15 year old slept for 16 hours, and my 8 yr old slept for 17, not waking up till 1pm on Monday.
Any plans to get some quality sleep on the plane will not come to fruition, don't have any plans for the Monday!

Luckily I don't work Mondays and we will be returning to the Easter school holidays so a lazy Monday is likely!

We have flown with the girls to Australia before, so I am hoping an 8 hour flight will seem like a quick hop

Wow what a lovley position to be in - so envious!!!

SpringLamb - dare I ask how much it may cost to get there? I wanto to take DS (4) longhaul and fancied Mexico but no idead of price ranges. I do realise he will be classed as adult price. I have seen a holiday with Thomas Cook to Cuba where they have a single parent offer which I was quiet impressed with but not sure if I an getting sucked in with the marketing!!!

Sorry just got back to this.
Two weeks in the summer with First Choice is coming up at about £1500. I took $1000 dollars spending money and if we hadn't had a rather expensive day at Xcaret (paying for lots of extras such as dolphin swims) I really think I would only have spent about $250. So the extra you pay for the holiday itself results in you needing less spending money. I came back with $400 dollars.
If your DS is 4 he won't pay full adult price. The kids club is great - each day has a different theme, ie Monday is Arts & Crafts, Wednesday Sports, they swim and play pool games every day and rest/watch a film after lunch. We watched them playing their pool games one day there were 16 children and 4 staff which is quite a good ratio.
I would choose Mexico over Cuba - a few friends have had rotten tummy experiences staying in the Varadera area and none of us had the slightest tummy problem.
I would be back like a shot only I already have commitments for the summer (Alaska...hmm).

Wow lucky lucky you. In the Caribbean Tobago and St Lucia are lovely. Haven't been since DC but I know both islands have larger hotels with kids clubs as well as smaller ones. Also caribbean food is lovely!

What lovely friends you have sharing their good fortune with you!

As you are only going for a week have you thought about going somewhere closer, but really go mad on the accommodation ie Spain/Portugal/Morocco.

Or what about South Africa? Long flight but hardly any time difference so not so much jet lag.

Have never been but Beaches seem to fit the bill.

Now if it was me I'd go here Biras Creek but there's no kids club. The Bitter End is also near by.

Mexico is a long way for a week-how about the Four Seasons in Sharm-fantastic hotel,not cheap but great kids club.

I stayed in Mexico for my honeymoon and it was the best holiday ever.

We were in a resort near Cancun- play del carmen and the hotel was called Riu Tequila.

It was all inclusive and you could use restaurants/facilities at 3 hotels and they shared the GORGEOUS beach- shallow, warm water and loads of sun loungers etc.

The food at the hotel was amazing- especially breakfasts where there was anything you could possibly dream of...
any kind of fresh fruit
any kind of freshly mad fruit juice
meats, cheeses, cereals, mueslis, yogurts, pastries, breads
freshly mad doughnuts
freshly made waffles
freshly made pancakes
any kind of syrup- maple, chocolate, fruity, coconut
cooked breakfast- bacon, sausages, eggs (poached, scrambled, fried, omlette) mushrooms, tomatoes, beans...
tea, coffee, milk, hot chocolate

WOW and I even lost weight!! Not sure how- must have been all the swimming.

I don't know how great it would be for kids but the pool was great and they organised water volleyball etc. No slides though.

The beach was 2-3 mins walk and there was a little bus thingy you could get on if you wanted too.

We went to Xel-Ha which you should google because it was amazing and you would all love it.

Only thing was we went in October and in the evening it was too hot to go out so after our meal we just lay in our room under the fan!

I think potplants idea of S Africa is very sound, given you only have a week.

Thanks again for all your suggestions.

We can't go to some places due to miltary travel restrictions - have to check but we think N.Africa is out.

Having grown up in the middle east I don't really fancy Egypt, and the lengthy flight time has now ruled out Mexico and S.Africa.

potplant we have ruled out the Med as we want pretty guaranteed sunshine!

I think we have narrowed it down to the Caribbean, so just need to narrow it further to which island! Honeymooned in St Lucia which was lovely, not keen on Jamaica so maybe Barbados or Antigua.

I am spending many happy hours Googling all these beautiful resorts! I know we are incredibly lucky

Carlisle Bay in Antigua is fantastic. Owned by same people as One Aldwych. I went when DD was 2. Staff cannot do enough for you, lots to do for children and adults.

Well if budget isn't a concern-Sandy Lane in Barbados is great.Best beach in Barbados,great kids club,fantastic service.Can be a bit "glitzy" at Xmas but other times it is more relaxed-very expensive though....

The Almond beach village in Barbados is excellent and not as expensive as Sandy Lane. It's brilliant for families with great kids clubs and plenty of activiies.
Am soooooo jealous

What about trying an activity holiday with someone like Mark Warner or Nielson?

Nielson have a new resort in Kenya and as well as the watersports you can go on safari.

Think the time difference is not too bad as well.

If you go to Barbados, which I really recommend for adults and kids, great beaches with calm waters on the west coast (Sandy Lane area) or crashing fun body boarding waves on the East Coast, fantastic restaurants and bars, nice friendly people, good infrastructure and great weather.

If you go I would recommend spending a few nights at the Crane while you are there - nothing to do there except a great beach (quite rough so not for little kids) but it has about 9 swimming pools now which would be great for kids.

I am looking for a hol at the moment and am having to force myself to go somewhere else as we've been to Barbados twice already.

HTH!

And wow - I wish your friends were my friends now!

Have a look at windjammer landing in St Lucia.

We went there last year and it was just wonderful, we all had a great time