Evening everyone, I’m looking for someone who can suggest a holiday destination for me. It’s traditionally been my wife’s ‘job’ to sort the Summer hol., as I give up when she regularly knocks back my own suggestions!
However, I’m putting my foot down this year as she’s outdone herself this time around and picked just another bang average hotel in a bang average resort with pokey rooms, overcrowded pool area and not even something nice to look at out of the window!
So, I figured someone here must have done something nice in recent years that is a near match for us and could give me a suggestion based on their own experience and I’d very much welcome your thoughts.
Here’s the list:
Somewhere in Europe that’s warm, with a pool and not stupidly hot.
Four adults, one age 21 , another 18.
10 days in early September
Spacious hotel rooms/pool
Not far from a nice beach would be nice. So a coastal resort or city.
Something nice to look at from hotel and room.
Pretty and photogenic
Interesting things for my son and I to do while my wife and daughter sit by the pool as it drives us nuts
Something to do in the evening
Budget £5-6K
No driving, little in the way of touring, someone else to do the cookimg.
That’s about it. All suggestions very welcome.
I would look at Dalyan. Whilst the beach is a boat ride away or a Dolmus (minibus) ride, it is fabulous. You can get a hotel right on the riverbank. Lots of good restaurants. Plenty of walks if you feel energetic. Ancient ruins across the river. Lots of trips to be had. I first went in 2002 and have been back many times. You have a choice of quiet bars and some more lively ones if that is what you want. September is a good time as it usually starts to get a bit cooler then.
Amalfi coast ticks most of those boxes, absolutely stunning there. Opportunity for day trips to Positano, Pompeii and island of Capri. This was the view from our hotel room balcony when we were there a few years ago, looking out over the bay of Naples with Vesuvius across the water
The Canary islands like Tenerife, Madeira etc are relatively expensive from October onwards as they are warmer. In September they are in fierce competition with the rest of Spain, Portugal and Greece, and are worth looking at. I cannot recommend……a quick look at trip advisor, one mans 5 star is another’s 2 or 3 star.
We stayed at the Ritz Carlton Abama in Tenerife, stayed there before…….but had changed too much in a couple of years. Part of the holiday for us us the planning🤞🏽
Wishing you the best.
This summer we are driving down to Mandlieu-La-Napoule on the Côte d’Azur, a couple of km west of Cannes. Mrs HH, chief holiday organiser chose it. The great thing about the area, other than the climate and great food, is the ability to trundle along the coast on the train. No hotels for us, we are staying in a cabin on a campsite. It’s a push cabin with aircon and so on. As a holiday with children the ages of yours it’s a great option, as there is lots for them to do, much more than in a hotel. Our boys loved campsites when they were teens.
Ibiza?
The young 21 and 18 should like.
Beach, wonderful areas, nice food, first class hotels but without excessive snobbery as in Côte d’Azur in France.
Yes, indeed it’s one on my start list. Many years since I’ve been. Any resort/hotel suggestion?
My mother lives in Beziers, kind of an inverted snobbery that side of the south coast, they dislike pretty much everyone apart from Northern Europeans. Except the Germans.
We’ve stayed in Nice a couple of times and everyone was lovely. No snobbery at all. Maybe we just don’t go to snobby places. Mandlieu-la-Napoule doesn’t look remotely snobby. We’ve never found Paris snobby either. Maybe because we are not Americans who shout loudly in English and expect people to respond well.
When I was 19 I went for the first time with my friends on holiday to the Côte d’Azur and I concluded that I should have payed more attention to my French lessons when I got a real bouillabaisse served to me.
Algarve, Portugal - September should take away the stupidly hot, but it tends not to be as hot there as Spain or Italy. France sometimes has cool damp weather in September.
We have been there several times, avoiding the prime tourist sites. First was with two children of maybe 5 or 6 and 9 or 10, in school summer holidays, a villa with pool just outside the inland village of Lagoa. We hired a car so got to visit other places. We had such a good time that we had several other holidays nearby.
Another time, with one son plus a niece, we stayed in a villa with pool about 3/4 of a mile from the middle of Carvoeiro on the coast south coast. Late June 2012. Again we had a hire car. All of us had a great time.
Another occasion we had our family of 4, plus 4 other family members, and had a villa with pool a couple of miles inland from Lagos, with two hire cars. Late August 2014. A slightly different holiday because of the numbers, and sometimes two groups doing different things, Again very enjoyable.
Finally my wife and I with a neice and her boyfriend, stayed about 8 miles inland from Portimao, near Monchique, though that was in a hotel (hire car again). Not sure when. Lovely peaceful countryside location.
I have email records of the second and third of the bookings if of interest, possibly the other two but didn’t immediately appear in quick search.
