Sun Holiday

jt69er

Thinking about sun holiday next year,have'nt had one for 5 yrs.What are your views on full board/half board v's self catering for 2 adults & 2 kids (6 & 12 yrs)?

Leper

First Sun Holiday in five years - 2 adults + 2 children - You've got to get it right in one and now is a good time to start planning for 2013. Your budget is probably a concern also. All-In where your hotel accommodation + all meals + soft drinks + some local alcohol is a good option. However, be prepared for food prepared on an assembly line and mass production. The alcohol will be the cheaper stuff too. But, you will not have cares re budget as you will already have paid. Therefore, half board might be a good option and eat out at night in local restaurants to experience some well prepared food and quality alcohol along with some local entertainer.

Self Catering or Hotel - whatever suits. Self Catering:- you clean up every day yourself, but at least you dont have to vacate to let in the hotel workers. Hotels provide fairly limited-in-size accommodation, a race for the sunbeds, free icecream and soft drinks for all-inclusive people.

Privately booked accommodation:- Probably your best option regarding overall cost, freedom, washing-machine, television, own sunbeds and parasols etc. Have your own breakfast on a sunny private terrace bought in the local decent supermarket (not a hotel shop or worse again a shop in high-rise apartments where everything is dearer than in Ireland). No delay in acquiring sunbeds and a swimming pool that is not overcrowded. You will need to do much research (probably best left to your wife) and ask the right questions.

jt_dublin

Hi JT,

Here are 2 recommendations for you.

1. Self Catering in Tenerife.

Parque Santiago 3. There are 5 Parque Santiago complexes but number 3 is the best in my opinion. I've been about 5 times and have never found fault with it. I usually get a flight with Aer Lingus or Ryanair and then take a 20 minute 20 euro taxi to the place.

I recommended it to friends of mine with 2 kids about 6 years ago. They would be particular about where they go and would expect a very good standard. They love it some much that they have gone back there every year since and are there right now! They usually look for a ground floor apartment as they have gardens instead of balconies but are usually more expensive.

Renting directly from private owners is usually cheaper than booking those owned by the hotel itself. Great location, on the beach, lovely upmarket feel to the area, not a club 18-30 area, plenty of reasonable restaurants around, bars with pints for 1.50, great promenade for long walks in both directions. This will give you an idea of the place.

http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/parque-santiago-3/

OR

2. All inclusive in Ibiza

The same friends of mine that I mentioned above went all-inclusive to this hotel in May this year. They got a fantastic price of 750 euro for the 4 of them for 1 week all-inclusvie and then got some cheap ryanair flights for 120 quid each. They were very impressed with the standard of accomodation, food, drink & entertainment. All for about 100 quid a day for 4 people!

They booked through this company.

http://www.ibiza-spotlight.com/clubtarida/

Here are some reviews on tripadvisor.

http://www.tripadvisor.ie/Hotel_Review-g1068677-d587008-Reviews-Insotel_Tarida_Beach_Resort-Cala_Tarida_Ibiza_Balearic_Islands.html


Hopefully this gives you some food for thought. I dont have kids and love eating out, so I usually go self-catering so that I can try different restaurants each night. But with kids, there is a lot to be said for all-inclusive as you have no cooking to do and can spend all that time enjoying the facilities. And with everything included in the price, you know that your budget wont be totally shot either.

All the best
JT (the other one!)

jt69er

Thanks for your info,will keep all in mind!

BenEadir

Any more suggestions from all the travellers on here?

I'm looking for something similar (2 adults + 2 kids aged 8 and 12) and would really appreciate some links to high quality places which offer the following:-

• High quality/Modern accomodation and facilities
• Lot's of activities for the kids to do
• Good quality food and plenty of variety
• Evening entertainment
• Gym/Fitness room onsite - a couple of treadmills would suffice!

Ideally I'd like to be able to book it direct and for whatever arrival and departure days I want similar to a regular hotel e.g. arrive on a Thursday and depart on Saturday.

Direct flights with Aer Lingus/Ryan Air/AN Other from Dublin is a must.

Can anyone help?

There seems to be little in the way of contribution on all inclusive family holidays on here so maybe this thread could act a s single source of info for same??

Ben