Italy

[misspollysdolly]

I have never been to Italy, but the cold horrid weather is making me yearn for travel to a hot (european) place in the summer! We have 3 children - aged 10, 5 and 2. We are not averse to city breaks, but is there a nice beachy area of Italy that would suit us all....?! I'm thinking manageable food, nice enough weather, a bit of warmth and ease of travel/getting around. Any recommendations of cities, areas, accommodation or activities would all be gratefully received! Ta!

Oh!I love Italy. I've been in my youth and would love to return with DH & DS but the prices are scary. I slept on trains & Youth hostels can't do that with a 5 year old. So Hope you gets some answers. In the meantime I might pop into Thomas Cook I read in the paper they might have something! We have to go in the school hols. If I find anything I'll come back to you

Just posted this in the other Italy thread..

Last year we went to the Eurocamp Ca'Savio site with Eurocamp. Allyour children would love it! There were two pool complexes with different leisure pools,all the usual stuff like bike hire/mini golf/parkand other activities on site. They have kidsclub sessions which your older two could do and then they did family sessions which you could take the 2 year old to (you have to join in as well).

City break wise, you are a stones throw from the Venician lagoon so just get on a waterbus and you are in an amazing city and there are the other islands to visit (we did an organised tour as it was the cheaper way to visit the three main islands and Venice for a family of 5) plus smaller towns and villages on the mainland.

Food wise, we self catered but there is a 'canteen' style restaurant and a pizzeria on site and where we were was a ten minute walk to a small town with restaurants/cafes etc.

We also went to Aqualandia for the day which was amazing and all my kids had a great day out,my youngest was 2.4 at the time.

Cannot recommend it highly enough! Like I said on the other thread, check out Meditteraneo and Union Lido sites also.

I've been to Union Lido and had a fab time. We also stayed on the Italian Riviera a couple of times - once near the Cinque Terre which is gorgeous, and once in Ceriale. Loano on that part of the coast has a lovely long seafront/beach with an old town behind - lots of restaurants. The train runs along the whole coast and there were good bus services, so getting about is easy. Must go back!

This year we are going to Parc Albatros in Tuscany with Canvas, and driving home via Lake Como/Lake Lugano.

Try the Lido on Venice (a big island in the bay). Actually there are two Lidos, one like a holiday resort, lido de jesolo, and one where the film festival is etc.

Its amazing getting on & off the boat busses and the Lidos both have beaches as well!

There's so much to see at Venice its amazing.

Portofino Saw you on the other thread & posted reply. I might come back for more on this thread so info can be shared.
Saggy I think you might have hit the jackpot for me. I went to Thomas Cook yesterday & basically Italy in the brochures she showed me was out of my price range. Might end up going to Spain but really, really wanted to go to Italy while Little Bear is still a little kid. The Italians are lovely. Why I'm not married to one I don't know (should have looked harder!)
PreRaf Where did you stay? Did it have a kids club? I went on Holiday to Lido de Jesolo with a boyfriend Italy & Venice great boyfriend rubbish. Venice lovely. First time in Venice was in 198?! so long a go. Lovely & romantic, that boyfriend good (for a while) Italians better! if I go again that will be with a third man

Thought I'd copy this over from the holiday with babies thread:

We stayed http://www.residenceoliveto.it/eng/index.asp here on the Italian riviera when dd was 7 months old. We got a cheap flight to Nice then took the train to Ceriale. The train runs along the coast and there is a good bus service so it was dead easy to get out and about.

Bakers and supermarket nearby. 5 mins walk to the town centre/beach. We had a 2 room apartment with a cot in the bedroom. There is a jacuzzi and a baby pool in addition to the enormous pool in the photos. We went in September and had the pool practically to ourselves.

here even.

And as I'm on a roll, we also stayed here in Deiva Marina for a week pre-dd. Flight to Genoa and train along the coast. Station was walking distance.

Deiva is not that exciting (though DH and I STILL talk about the food in one of the restaurants on the seafront), but it was a really good, cheap starting point to get the the Cinque Terre - 5 villages tumbling down the hillside into the sea. Trains stop at all (and run very late), as well as Santa Margherita and Rapallo where you can get a boat to Portofino! The sunset over the sea at Vernazza was to die for! And the food was all gorgeous.

Thank you Portofino DH says we are going to book something on Saturday so must do my research this week yippe! back to Devon next year.

We've been to Ravello (amalfi coast) and tuscany with dc's.

Both lovely - ravello particularly fab but also expensive.

We did villa in tuscany and easyjet flights but still not much change from £2,500 for a week in term time as ds1 was pre-school then.

Think we'll do france this year as seems a lot cheaper. Do love italy though.

tracey There is the rub expensive.

Hi

Not sure if your interested but if you would like a really nice cheapish holiday in italy (depending on dates) then please contact me as I own my own caravan holiday home over in Venice, the caravan is sited in Union Lido which is a fantastic holiday parc, especially for children.

You can contact me at [email protected]

Thanks

Joanne

I love Sardinia. The beaches are beautiful, there are some gorgeous towns and it is reasonably cheap (for Italy) as long as you stay out of the tourist hells in the North. The last time I was there (seven years ago) we rented motorbikes and went from agritourismo to agritourismo, gorging on insanely fattening food, before taking a six day hike - the Selvaggio Blue - along the gorgeous east coast. Loved it. Sicily is also lovely but I'd avoid Tuscanny and Venice - they're heavily touristed and quite expensive.

Easyjet does cheap flights into Olbia, Sardinia.

Venice is nice and they have a lovely Beach called Lido.. I am taking my 9 yr old there in July. It will be very hot though !!!!

here is fab! I'm always on about it!!