Help..Travel advice sought for adult w/two teenagers

Ronan Raver77

My son was meant to head away with his mother next week and well thats all off now:eek: don't ask!!
Haven't been on holidays myself in years and looking to head off 6th/7th August to spain or portugal for a week. Myself and two teenagers (lets call them Kevin & Perry) My son and his mate.

Anybody can give me some suggestions on places to go that are lively enough for them? More or less this was landed on me yesterday so im not prepared at all. near a beach inc pool lively strip..

rossie1977

Portugal places like Lagos and Albufeira will be extremely lively this time of year.

Spain you probably would want to head to the islands. I don't know anything about the Baleric islands but Canary's has places like Playa de las Americas in Tenerife or Playa del Ingles in Gran Canaria are all geared to the type of holiday you describe.

Ronan Raver77

Ronan Raver77 wrote: »

My son was meant to head away with his mother next week and well thats all off now:eek: don't ask!!
Haven't been on holidays myself in years and looking to head off 6th/7th August to spain or portugal for a week. Myself and two teenagers (lets call them Kevin & Perry) My son and his mate.

Anybody can give me some suggestions on places to go that are lively enough for them? More or less this was landed on me yesterday so im not prepared at all. near a beach inc pool lively strip..

I always think the Canaries might tend to best suit an adult with teenagers. For one thing the climate is pretty even there, so tends not to get extremely hot and not interrupted by thunderstorms either. There’s lots of water-based activities from swimming, boating, parascending, submarine trips, dolphin & whale watching, scuba diving trial courses, banana boat rides etc etc. there’s land based fun with jeep trips up into the hills, adventure parks, camel rides, exciting natural parks, etc. Aerial fun for a very special treat like exciting helicopter and light aircraft trips. Lots of sports too like golf, tennis etc, and cultural stuff if you want it with city museums, pretty historic towns and ethnic parks. My favourite all round Canary Island is Tenerife with visits to nearby La Gomera Island, a nice capital, a sunny southside and shadier north shore, and great 12000 peek to venture up to. But the other main holiday islands of Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura all equally worth looking at for offers.

Likes of Click&Go or Gophop.ie might be a good choice to look at hotels or apartments. The half board hotel breaks tend to more relaxing for an adult taking the teenagers away, not having to bother with cooking, as the buffets are usually acceptable to all. All-inclusive means drinks are all-in, and ironically you are not any more likely to drink more when it’s all there for the taking, at least not in my experience. Self catering is invariably cheaper, at least from brochure price, but eating out is very affordable and supermarket food even more so.

I would go with whatever deal stands out to you and not sweat too much between choosing this or that so long as you avoid being stuck up a mountainside. Having google maps out handy is not a bad idea when booking-I always do that and check that shops, restaurants and beach are within walking distance. Lanzarote & Fuerteventura tend to be the flatter in terms of possible uphill walks back to apartment. Booking via an online travel agent, such as I mentioned above, is most definitely wiser than booking hotel and flights separately simply because you have more comeback if the airline or hotel let’s you down in some way. On an occasion when the airline decided to change flight times one of the online agencies phoned me up and said they were insisting on getting me a route and time home more suitable than that offered as an alternative by the airline. They had the clout to do it even though it was more costly for the airline to give me the sweeter routing. In Canary Islands transfer to accommodation from airports are usually very easy and you should be able to do this at time of booking.

Medical services are excellent in Canaries and Spain, but you must have insurance as ambulances plying the resorts will invariably take you to a private hospital, but make sure also to have EHIC card as serious/specialised treatments are often carried out by transferring you to a public hospital. Teenagers have a habit of suffering broken bones during holidays, so be warned. Watch out for the young lads attempting to diving into pools which are too shallow, biggest cause of broken neck and I known somebody it happened to.

As regards transport, local public transport is usually reasonably good on the islands. If you want to look up bus timetables online google “Guaguas” as that is the Canadian term for bus!

Sundew

Good old Santa Ponsa in Mallorca might be worth a look at. Personally not my cup of tea but would probably consider there when my own one is older. I have visited there when driving around Mallorca. Palma would only be a short spin on the bus for a bit of “ culture” and is a nice safe city to spend the day in!

Lex Luthor

what ages are the teenagers

Ronan Raver77

Thanks for the responses everyone.. both aged 16 and 17 so no doubt they will try to ditch me at some stage!! :pac:

Jambalaya

What about Salou? You could do a trip to portaventura theme park and water park while there.