Sunny, warm holiday in Feb/March (term time)

[ladyruskin]

Our son starts school in September, so I want to make the most of term-time holidays whilst we still can. We're not good at lounging around in the sun for a whole week, but would like the opportunity to make the most of kids clubs too. Are there any good family resorts with interesting excursions nearby? A lot of the family-friendly resorts in Turkey don't seem to open until May.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[bonaome]

If you're not bothered about the sun, I believe Centreparcs is very popular. I can't speak about it myself as never been / would never go as I do like the sun to be a part of a holiday.

If it's warmth you want, depending on what you mean by 'warmth' by late March the Algarve might be warm enough or Greece.

The canaries have a very consistent climate year round. So Lanzarote might be a good place to look at. Try the Princess Yaiza through Sovereign. Or book yourself of course. Lots of flights to choose from. Easy to get to, temps should be around 20something in Feb. Yaiza has a great kids club. It's a fair sized resort so there's lots of (good) eating opportunities and nice bars. It's a very family orientated resort - don't tend to get loads of people who've gone just to get drunk.

Also in the Canaries the Gran Hotel Bahia del Duque on Teneriffe is wonderful and has an amazing kids' club. Worth looking at as out of school hols time you might get a great deal (it's normally very dear, but it is very good!).

The Canaries tend to be more expensive than Sharm-El-Sheik which is another place I can recommend. Na'ama Bay is where all the nice family orientated hotels are. It's reliably warm, 20-odd again, possibly a bit warmer in Feb and certainly by March. The resort town is a fair size with loads of restaurants and bars. There's probably a bit more to do than in the Canaries - depending on what exactly floats your boat, but there's scuba diving, snorkelling, camel treks into the desert, dune buggy riding and if you want to get up really early you can do the pyramids in a day trip.

Sharm's is cheap as chips at the moment so well worth a look. And it's very quiet I understand as the Russians aren't going (all staying at home, because of the economy etc) and lot's of people scared off by recent general political situation in Egypt. Not sure I would actually go to Cairo for the pyramids but Sharm is hundreds and hundreds of miles away across nothing but desert. That said, there have been threats to tourists in that are. Hope it is actually OK as we're going Feb half term! Check tripadvisor thoroughly for recent reviews. A good hotel I know is the Stella Di Mare - it's not on the strip but it's good, has it's own pontoon for snorkelling and runs a free shuttle into the resort at reasonable times (especially if you have a little one).

Hope you find something you enjoy!