Mark Warner vs Neilsen Holidays

FL

Hi,
I am travelling to Europe this summer with 2 young children and was wondering if someone could give me some advise on which of these holiday companies give best value for money. Or any other helpful information on them really.

Chelinda

Hi FL

I'm afraid that I can't compare Mark Warner with Neilson, as I've never been on a MW holiday, but I have been with Neilson 3 times, and have just booked my 4th holiday with them. As you might have guessed from that, I am a big fan of Neilson, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.

Their "Active" holidays include full tuition every day in windsurfing and sailing (plus guided bike rides), but these tend to be B&B in fairly basic hotels - the idea being that this appeals to the slightly more hardcore waterports enthusiast, for whom kit is the most important factor. We recently moved over to their "Beachplus" type holiday which has occasional tuition / clinics in sailing and windsurfing (rather than a full tuition programme, so is better if you can already sail / windsurf), and guided bike rides, but has the added bonus of waterskiing, tennis, fitness classes, club board (all breakfasts and lunches, plus 4 evening meals per week) and more luxurious hotels.

On our numerous holidays we've met loads of people who have been with Neilson time and time again, and plenty of people with kids (we don't have any) who have been very happy with the kids clubs etc.

In terms of prices etc, Neilson rarely have offers and reductions, but if you book through them and they later reduce the holiday price, they will refund you the difference. You could post a message on the neilson chat boards asking people for their thoughts on Neilson vs Mark Warner. I'm sure you would get some useful replies. The beachplus one is here: http://www.neilson.co.uk/BeachPlus/Forum.asp and the active one is here: http://www.neilson.co.uk/active/Forum.asp

HTH

Chelinda

Counting_Pennies_2

It depends why you are going, if it is for childcare look at this link which gives you feedback on different holiday resorts with childcare.

I have used it for choosing mine. It was recommended by someone else on this site. Hope that helps


http://www.mumsnet.com/rev/summersun/

FL

Hi,
Thanks for the information. I actually recommended the link suggested but wanted to see if anyone else had any advice. I would say that I am a novice at all water sports so did fancy some tuition - but I don't want to spend every minute doing it. I wanted to try out a few new things and at least I can say I've tried it.

Children and accommodation are also important. I did think Mark Warner accommodation looked basic from the brochure. I have also discovered Sunsail since I wrote the orginal message and they seem to offer a similar package at a similar price.

Very difficult to decide but need to get the right place.