any holiday ideas with a toddler?

[little h]

Hello

we want to go on holiday over the summer with our son - he's now 15 months. We can only go, unfortunately in peak holiday season and want to go somewhere nice preferably where we can get a baby sitter or creche for some of the time. Lovely as our boy is it would be nice to have a bit of mummy and daddy time too!

any ideas? we went to south of france last year and it was just too hot for him.

thanks

H

[melbourne groover]

He will probably cope a lot better with heat this year. Once they can walk/paddle/etc they get on with the heat better.

Have a look at simply travel, sometimes they have some good deals? Often though the really creche places get booked up early.

[alieh]

My friend just sent me this yesterday: http://www.childfriendly.co.uk/. A new site that someone she knows has set up. It is new, so fairly light on content but there is a section on child friendly hotels and holidays. Might be something on there.

[alieh]

Also, I did some looking into Marrakesh and there seemed to be lots of great accomodation options in small riads, where the rooms were all around a central courtyard so that you could have dinner in the evening virtually right beside your room. Some of them had pools. Doesn't solve the creche/babysitting problem, but at least means you can enjoy dinner and drinks in the evening. Not sure if the heat would be unbearable in the summer though - I was looking at May.

[Claire29]

We went to Majorca a couple years ago and booked through Thompson www.thomson.co.uk a self catering resort Bonnaire - in Cala Bona. It was really good for people with young kids, they had a air conditioned room near the pool which had toys and soft play area so that if heat got too much you could take the little ones inside. It also had a creche, which you could use for little ones under 2 for a couple of hours morning or afternoon (have to pay) it was near the beach, and was a really nice resort it had quite a few restaurants but no clubs/discos etc so it was a real family resort.

Also Portugal is really nice, we went in August last year with 4 year old and 16 month old and both coped fine with the heat, which was hot (28/29c) but not excessive.

[Smiler]

With respect to childcare, it might be tricky to leave them in a creche or whatever, depending on how your little one gets on when left.

We went on an all-inclusive Club Med holiday in Portugal early last September, which was expensive but fantastic. We didn't use the childcare (only available in the daytime), though it looked good, but a lot of parents we met who had planned to use it (and had paid for it in advance) found that their toddlers (even those who had a nursery/childminder at home) got upset and wouldn't settle, so they couldn't actually make the most of the childcare.

This year I reckon that going away in the UK with mates/relatives, ideally with no kids themselves, who are willing to babysit a bit is a good plan (for us at least, maybe not so good for them)!

[missd]

check this out

http://www.babyfriendlyboltholes.co.uk/

[little h]

Thanks for all your ideas folks

Helen

[Maki]

We are going here in May (Provence). We are going there primarily for a friends wedding but I did SO much research as it will also be our summer holiday. We chose it because lots of grounds for our 15 month old daughter to explore and a pool, but mainly because they do food (Michellin trained chef) in the evenings, so you don't have to be stuck in a hotel room watching your baby sleep or cook for yourself. Plus it has outstanding reviews on tripadvisor. I can't wait!! I found all the specifically baby friendly holidays to be crazy expensive and I think this place is a lot cheaper.

http://www.lescarmes.com/