Toddlers to teens: How to make family holidays fun

Before you go: It doesn’t take much to get younger children excited and they will be delighted to be spending more time with their grown-ups. Manage the excitement levels with a holiday countdown sticker chart, so they can see for themselves how long until the holiday adventure begins. They could be your packing helper, picking out their favourite clothes and comforters to take. You can also get them interested by talking about the beaches, the warm sea and all the fun activities you’ll be trying as a family.

When you get there: Head to the beach for exciting pirate adventures. Collect shells and make beach art with them. See how big a hole you can dig and build sandcastles – the bigger the better! The beach is an endless source of entertainment and if heading to the Med, nice and warm too. Away from the beach, little ones will be able to play in the pool and if going to kids’ club will be so busy with activities and having so much fun they won’t want to leave. Pre-schoolers on a Neilson Beachclub holiday will enjoy amongst other things arts and crafts, face and body painting, sailing, tennis and kayaking.

Before you go: Get to know your holiday destination together. Dig out an Atlas, or look up where you’re heading to online, kids love to see where they are going and to learn more about their forthcoming adventure. Guidebooks with lots of photos are also a great idea – a picture paints a thousand words.

Talking about the activities they can try on holiday will also get then into the holiday spirit, whether it’s something new or a favourite activity they only get to do on holiday. Reminisce about past trips and all the exciting things you did as a family and how soon enough you’ll be having fun again or even throwing yourself head first into new activities and sports.

When you get there: You’ve arrived on holiday and that’s when the fun really starts. Personally speaking, my son can’t wait to have a nosey around his room and the resort, before heading off to the swimming pool and then the beach.

There’s loads to do together too, head off to explore the local area and the nearest village, (remember to make time to stop for ice creams). If your children have been learning some local lingo, now’s the time to put it into practise, it really helps to get into the spirit of things. If travelling on a Neilson Beachclub holiday you’ll discover all the games and activities included in the action-packed kids’ clubs for all ages including dingy sailing, tennis and kayaking.

Before you go: Packing is a great way to get the kids involved and looking forward to the start of the holiday. If you’re going on an activity holiday, there’s usually specific clothing that they’ll want to bring – favourite swimsuit or board shorts for example. Help them draw up a packing list and let them get on with it. Do remember to check what has and what hasn’t made it into the suitcase though!

You could also create a travel diary or journal. Start the journal before you leave for the holiday, do a bit of research together about where you are going and add ideas of what the children may want to see and do. Once on holiday they can add thoughts about the trip, messages from new friends, postcards, achievement certificates from the kids’ clubs and generally doodle on the pages about their holiday – it’s a great way to get your tweens involved and a fantastic way of capturing holiday memories.

When you get there: There’s so much for your tween to do on holiday, especially if you choose an activity holiday, where they can get stuck into a whole range of water sports. Take turns as a family choosing an activity to try and get the everybody involved. Who will come out on top? Who will be the best sailor or tennis player? There’s nothing wrong with a bit of healthy competition between the children and grown-ups!

It can sometimes be difficult to get kids out of their comfort zone and to try new foods, so when you head to the quaint Greek taverna for an early supper, hand the menu to the kids and let them make the food choices for the evening – you may be pleasantly surprised. 

Before you go: Parents are not the ideal travelling companions for most teenagers. It can be a bit of a difficult balancing act and choosing the right holiday is filled with pitfalls. So how do you get your teens excited about your upcoming holiday plans? Start by including them in the planning, listen to their input on the destination and choice of resort, show them that you value their input.

Plan a pre-holiday shopping trip, so they can bag a new outfit or two that they can show off to their new friends. Find out if there is anything they would really like to do or achieve on holiday and get them to start planning around this, they could even plan something for the whole family to do together.

When you get there: How do you keep teenagers happy on holiday? Giving the teens space to so their own thing, whist still having time together as a family can be tricky.

An activity holiday with loads of people their own age to hang out with could be just the thing you’ve been looking for. Whether chilling around the pool, playing tennis or wakeboarding you’ll be giving them space to enjoy themselves and the freedom to spend the day as they please. They’ll be having such a blast it might be a good idea to plan a family afternoon, so you get sometime together – you could head off and explore the local area or enjoy a competitive afternoon on the tennis courts or on the water.