Holidays for 'family of 5'

loobylou2 · 2 July 2008 at 8:51AM

Chunters_a_lot wrote: »

We are a family of 5 too and have experienced the same problems when looking for a hotel holiday.

In general I have found hotels (usually A/I) in Turkey and Egypt catered for larger families without too many penalties. I think we will have all found finding a cheaper holiday is thwarted because the hotel room charges for 5 or 6 adults even if you are 2 adults and 3 kids.

I’ve never really found a ‘cheap’ holiday but the places we have been as a family of 5 are:
Lykia World, Olu Denis, Turkey
Sultan Gardens Resort, Sharm El Sheik, Egypt
Crazy Reindeer Hotel, Levi, Finland (we went in winter for the santa experience)

I found this website, I don’t think it is updated very often but it was a great place for me to start!

http://www.over5s.com/

Thanks a lot for this. The website will be useful as I"m already trying to plan ahead and possibly book for 2009. Think the trick is to book as far in advance as you can so you can benefit from free child places, online discounts etc etc.... A quick note as well we went to Denmark by car in 2004, sailing from Harwich to Esjberg and then stayed at the Funen holiday park. DFDS do holidays which have accomodation in Danish,Dutch and German holiday parks and can accomodate larger families. It was reasonably cheap. Think it cost 1,000 for 9 days and the kids enjoyed it as they were able to visit "The real Legoland".

bollywood_rani · 2 July 2008 at 9:47AM

don9999 wrote: »

Amberviolet - we went to Euro disney last December. We took TWO rooms in the Santa Fe. But only used one! It was still cheaper than any other option.

Personally I'd recommend visiting Eurodisney in December (I've done it three times now), so long as it is (a) during 'our' school holidays, (b) is during the week, and (c) is NOT when the Paris children are on holiday. I've managed it three times in the last 4 or 5 years. Parks are busy, but queuing times are no longer than 5-10 minutes, we often stayed on rides over and over again without getting off. In comparison, Saturday was a waste of time (which I assume the Sumemr holidays are too) as the parks are completely packed, and queuing times are 1-1.5 hours minmum.

OK, December is cold! So you need to wrap up. But the kids love the Christmas atmosphere etc.... I'd highly recommend it!

Hi

I'm new to this board, but just thought I'd let you know that my family and I (2 adults and 3 children) stayed at the Explorers Hotel when we visited Disneyland Paris a couple of years ago (2006, the children then were 10, 7, 5). It offers crew rooms which can accomodate upto 6 people. The rooms have 1 main sleeping area with 2 double beds and then and additional bunk bed area (which we used as our luggage store !!!!!). But there is enough room for everyone, and basically as there is so much to do at the parks themselves, all you do is sleep at hote. The hotel has a pool and play area for the kids, so when they've had enough of the Disney parks, or just a way to refresh themselves before bed, a dip in the pool was great ! Also the hotel runs a regular shuttle bus into the themeparks (it only takes 7-10 minutes from hotel to get to parks and the shuttle bus runs every 10 - 15 minutes). We had a great holiday (apart from BA losing our luggage), and would recommend this. We booked via Expedia and found this reasonable.

Last year we went to Dubai, that was our best holiday ever ! It was not cheap, but as the kids were all under 12 then, we found it cheaper to get a family suite at the Hilton Dubai Jumeriah, than get 2 seperate rooms. Also as we had a suite we could use the Executive lounge, for breakfast, and drinks/snacks all day, which was just great. So sometimes its worth paying a little more for a suite, as the benefits are better.

This year the children are now older (12, 9, 7) and we are finding even harder to find a summer holiday for 5 of us. As the eldest is 12, this is regarded as an 'adult' and hence we are now looking for somewhere that would accomodate 3 adults and 2 children. We prefer hotels to apartments and was wondering if anyone has been to Turkey or Egypt with children of similar ages. We're looking for somewhere with a good waterpark nearby or onsite as my children are like fish, they just love the water. We're hoping to travel in August (I know we've left it really late to book), but would be grateful if anyone could provide us with some tips/pointers on places they've stayed and enjoyed.

Thanks !

Miss_Cinnabon · 2 July 2008 at 9:57AM

we are a family of 5, and have had holidays in the uk in lodges which give us great room, dont like hotels that much as being stuck in a room with hubby and 3 kids is not much fun!

i like my space:D

camping would be an option but some people dont like that, mobile homes, lodges, cottage hols etc

only been abroad to florida and got a villa out there, loads of room, havent been anywhere else abroad to comment on that really

there is a good place in france think its called https://www.toddlerholiday.com, good for people travelling with under 5's, they also have a playroom on the site

MammaBint · 2 July 2008 at 2:38PM

Hi, we also have the same problem with finding a holiday for our family, my boys are 18, 14, 3 and 1! We also have been very happy with Thomson holidays but now have our latest addition to the family and cannot find a hotel to accomodate us all without paying almost as much as much as double.
Camping with our baby would not work as he wakes up (and everyone else) as soon as it is light, self catering is an option but with a family as large as ours, it would certaintly not be a holiday for me!
Anyone with helpful suggestions please help as it's now very late to be booking and I've been trying for months now with no joy.

sarahathomas · 2 July 2008 at 3:10PM

Hi Don, we're also a family of 5, with 3 boys aged 7, 6 and 4 and have had exactly the same problems for the last few years. This year we wanted to book a package holiday, but with prices starting at just under 3k for self-catering it just wasn't feasible. Instead I booked flights with travel republic to Dalaman in Turkey for £1250. I then started looking for accommodation with a kids club and good evening entertainment. If we wanted self catering there are an abundance of self-catering apartments in Icmeler, our chosen resort, however we wanted a hotel and there was limited availability or rediculous prices.I finally tried the sky travel website (sky.com/travel) and tried searching again for Icmeler. This time we struck lucky because on their website it only asked for children aged between 6 and 16. This meant our 4 year is classed as an infant and we are able to stay in a 4 bedded room. They will provide either a roll away bed or cot for our 4 year old. As the room has a king size bed and 2 singles, we'll stick the 3 kids in together. We're staying at The Marmaris Palace, which is 5* for £1995 instead of £3300 which everyone else has quoted. We rang sky travel twice to confirm this was correct and they verified it. I definitely recommend their website.Hope this helps and good luck.

tubbee2 · 2 July 2008 at 3:14PM

baloo wrote: »

OK - I know that money is relative and all that BUT I just had a look at the Club Med website. £7700 for 2 wks in Portugal with NO TRANSPORT!!! And that's a "last minute" price for next week!!!:eek:

You're right that's astounding - have a look at these from the cheapflight email

rom £399 pp Club Med's fantastic summer offers
Stylish accommodation, sports & activities, fine food... everything's included and paid in advance at our 64 worldwide resorts. Club Med has always been fantastic value and this year, that's more important than ever.
London to Metaponto £449.00 pp
London to Nabeul £399.00 pp London to Beldi £499.00 pp
London to Kamarina £539.00 pp London to Kemer £549.00 pp
London to Gregolimano £559.00 pp Includes: Luxury accommodation in stunning settings, over 60 sports with qualified instructors, childcare from 4 to 17 years, all your meals at a choice of fine food restaurants, free open bar and snacks day and night, holiday insurance, all flights and transport.
Source: Club Med

lois621836 · 2 July 2008 at 3:53PM

Hi, we are a family of five and I found the best way to book holidays when the kids were younger (they are now old enough to be in a separate room) was to book direct with hotels as they will guarantee adjoining rooms whereas I found that travel agents can only 'request' this and have had a nightmare where one year we ended up with two rooms, not adjoining and on different floors....

We have been to Majorca a lot and also used a local booking agent www.prima-travel.com who were very helpful with the family rooms. We have stayed in 2 of the acorn group hotels which were excellent, sumba bornea and also pinoero. The prices were excellent and as you arent tied to travelling on saturdays or a set number of nights you can take advatage of the low air fares. I have also emailed a variety of hotels in an area I wanted to stay in and asked for last minute availability or if they would be willing to put an extra bed in the room - not perfect but got some great prices.

Finally a lot of timeshare companies do the give away weeks if you can put up with sitting through the presentation, or if you have friends with timeshare possibly they can do a 'recommend a friend' week then you only have to pay for flights.

This is my first post so hope it helps
regards Lois

lois621836 · 2 July 2008 at 4:05PM

bollywood_rani wrote: »

Hi

I'm new to this board, but just thought I'd let you know that my family and I (2 adults and 3 children) stayed at the Explorers Hotel when we visited Disneyland Paris a couple of years ago (2006, the children then were 10, 7, 5). It offers crew rooms which can accomodate upto 6 people. The rooms have 1 main sleeping area with 2 double beds and then and additional bunk bed area (which we used as our luggage store !!!!!). But there is enough room for everyone, and basically as there is so much to do at the parks themselves, all you do is sleep at hote. The hotel has a pool and play area for the kids, so when they've had enough of the Disney parks, or just a way to refresh themselves before bed, a dip in the pool was great ! Also the hotel runs a regular shuttle bus into the themeparks (it only takes 7-10 minutes from hotel to get to parks and the shuttle bus runs every 10 - 15 minutes). We had a great holiday (apart from BA losing our luggage), and would recommend this. We booked via Expedia and found this reasonable.

Last year we went to Dubai, that was our best holiday ever ! It was not cheap, but as the kids were all under 12 then, we found it cheaper to get a family suite at the Hilton Dubai Jumeriah, than get 2 seperate rooms. Also as we had a suite we could use the Executive lounge, for breakfast, and drinks/snacks all day, which was just great. So sometimes its worth paying a little more for a suite, as the benefits are better.

This year the children are now older (12, 9, 7) and we are finding even harder to find a summer holiday for 5 of us. As the eldest is 12, this is regarded as an 'adult' and hence we are now looking for somewhere that would accomodate 3 adults and 2 children. We prefer hotels to apartments and was wondering if anyone has been to Turkey or Egypt with children of similar ages. We're looking for somewhere with a good waterpark nearby or onsite as my children are like fish, they just love the water. We're hoping to travel in August (I know we've left it really late to book), but would be grateful if anyone could provide us with some tips/pointers on places they've stayed and enjoyed.

Thanks !

We went to Turkey in May with 4 children aged 17, 14,13 and 8 we stayed in Oludeniz in the Karbel Hotel. I was a bit apprehensive about going but it was fabulous one of the best holidays weve had. We went using tesco vouchers but you can book direct with the hotel or www.travelrepublic.com had been used by quite a few other people we spoke to over there. If your kids love the water its fantastic there are a couple of water parks but also the lagoon, the beach and the hotel pool so something to please everyone. We also went on a boat trip which stopped at 6 beaches and included lunch and swimming off the boat which cost just £3 each. Every where was VERY clean and the people were lovely. A great resort for families, all the hotels looked nice, lots to do. I booked because of the good reviews on trip advisor.

Regards
Lois

mumx3 · 2 July 2008 at 4:55PM

WE are a family of 5 and always had the same problem finding a holiday, we done a package to Majorica once and were put into 2 separate rooms which was awful, me in with girls age 4&8 and Dad in with son age 6, dreadful hotel and very basic room.
We done a Keycamp in Spain which was good and booked last minute so was not too expensive.

But after finding it so hard and so costly we brought into timeshare, best thing ever, now we go and always get a 2 bed 4/5* accomadation, quite expensive to start with but have had great holidays and I think it has been well worth it.

shumicat · 2 July 2008 at 5:22PM

We have 3 children (14, 11 and 9) and for the last 5 years we have used timeshare apartments to get round the problem of holiday accommodation ( I can hear the gasps of horror from here!). We own 2 weeks of Seasons Holidays peak red weeks in the UK. We bought them 2nd hand from World Wide Timeshare very cheaply. We pay about £370 annual maintenance charges for each week. We also joined Interval International to swap for apartments abroad.
We have been to Florida, Spain, Portugal, Dominican Republic and 3 times Austria for skiing and stayed in spacious apartments that would have cost far more than £450 a week in peak times (£100 for II exchange fee). This January we found Ryanair flights for £179 for ALL of us to Salzburg and stayed in Maria Alm which was deserted and no queues for the chairlift.
Bit late for this summer I expect but might suit some of you out there. Many offer kids clubs and evening entertainment but we've never really participated.
We chose Seasons because it's UK based and that gives you some protection. Expensive to buy from them but can be good value 2nd hand and if airtravel becomes too expensive we can always holiday at their resorts in the UK and not pay the II exchange fee.

Holidays for 'family of 5'

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