Inspire me

With our brand new ‘Select’ Mar Menor Beachclub set to launch this July, we spoke to former Neilson water sports instructor Tez Plavenieks about his time on the waves of Europe’s biggest saltwater lagoon.

Now founding editor of Windsurfing UK and Stand Up Paddle Mag UK, Tez takes a trip down memory lane to his season working at the previous incarnation of our Neilson Mar Menor Beachclub back in 2001. It was to be the place that cemented his love of windsurfing and introduced him to lifelong friends, including his wife!

Take a peek at his insider secrets to this unique part of Spain:

Our Beach Clubs have a great choice of inclusive activities for you to dip in and out of. But what if there’s a particular sport you love or have always wanted to try? Whilst our Beach Clubs offer a wide range of options, some are better suited to indulging your passion than others.

Whether it's cycling, windsurfing or tennis, if you want to spend your holiday focusing on your favourite sport, you’ll need to know which Beach Club does it best. Luckily, we’ve got the lowdown right here,

Located in the beautiful region of Murcia in sun-drenched Spain, Mar Menor Beach Club became a real favourite among the Neilson family.

With a unique setting on the shores of Europe’s biggest saltwater lagoon, Mar Menor offers everything from perfect conditions for water sports to great riding in the surrounding hills. And that’s just the start of it…

We're not taking bookings to Mar Menor at the moment. Why not try one of our other Beach Club destinations?

Whether you’re travelling solo, enjoying a romantic break or spending some quality time with friends, hotels that are great for adults have an altogether different vibe than those geared up to entertain the whole family.

Picture this: no noisy pool games (unless you start them) and no unexpected early-morning wake-upcalls. Just time spent recharging your batteries, revelling in the peace and looking after number one. Because whether you’re a parent or not, everyone deserves some time out.

You hear lots of well-meaning – but contrasting – advice during pregnancy. From the foods you should avoid to the dangers of riding your bike, the onslaught of warnings from well-meaning friends and relatives can be overwhelming.

Of course, you want to do the right thing as a mum, but there’s also no need to give up all the things you enjoy. If you’re a healthy mum-to-be, there’s no reason why you can’t continue to enjoy exercise and sports during pregnancy. In fact, there’s every reason you should!

Exercising boosts your fitness, energy, strength and mood. And that’s great preparation for everything that lies ahead. It’s all about adapting your workouts to suit your changing body. (If you have any health issues or pregnancy complications, always ask your doctor or midwife which exercises are safe to do.)

Here are some of our favourite ways to stay active during pregnancy, one trimester at a time…

We’re really very passionate about all of our sports, and of course, the kit we rely on every day. We love the latest gadgets and gear just like most people. This summer, we’ve been helping people do their thing for 40 years. That’s right, it’s our birthday, and as part of our celebrations, we’ve been looking back at the evolution of the kit we rely on every day.

In the 1980s, when we sent our first guests away, sailors were only just cottoning on to the notion of apparent wind, mountain bikes were fairly new, and shock absorption was giving skiers a new lease of life.We’ve always strived to be at the forefront of sports technology, from being the first to own a commercial 505 fleet, in the 90s, to working with Mark Petchey in 2015. So the aim of these guides is really to celebrate how far our sports have developed.

We wouldn’t have been able to offer the holidays we do without our brilliant sports brands. We’re hugely grateful to all of our partner brands, but here are just a few comments on the evolution of sports from Topper, TREK, and Salomon. We’ve also got videos to show how far each sport has come.

In recent years the popularity of taking a holiday that includes an active element such as cycling, hiking or watersports has been growing. Online searches for terms such as ‘activity holidays’ and ‘sport holidays’ are on the increase but what is behind this growth in popularity?

Our new research shows that it’s predominantly a younger audience who are driving this trend.We asked 2,000 people in the UK whether they would choose a relaxed ‘tried and tested’ holiday with minimum activities or an active holiday with lots of activities – one in three millennials (aged 16-34) said they would choose an active holiday compared to less than one in ten (7.9%) baby boomers (aged 55+)

Search data available from Google supports our survey findings. 40% of all searches for activity holiday-related terms are performed by those aged under 35 whilst 18-24 year olds are 41% more likely than the average person to be searching for activity holidays online.

Why though are millennials so drawn to active holidays?We asked Pip Tyler, our Overseas Director who has over 30 years’ experience in the travel industry to explain.

Without a doubt, having a baby transforms your world and your family’s day-to-day life. However, it’s still possible to enjoy an active lifestyle and nothing beats the rush of adrenalin when you try something new, even when you’ve just had a baby. And on a Neilson holiday, we’ll help you create the time and space to do just that!

On a Neilson beachclub holiday, there’s a broad range of inclusive activities to dive into, whenever the mood takes you (or whenever you’ve caught up on a little sleep if you’ve been up through the night with your new bundle of wonder!).And the best thing of all is that you can enjoy guilt-free time to yourself because your little one(s) will enjoying an endless supply of care and fun with their Neilson nannies!

Whether old or young we all get the same thrill from trying something new or doing more of the things we love. Life though, has a habit of getting in the way so a holiday with a huge amount of activities included within the price is the perfect opportunity for you and your family to get together and do more activities in a week than some people would manage in a lifetime. Even better, on a Neilson Beach Club holiday, those activities are included in the price. Energy permitting, there's no limit to how many of the inclusive activities you can try and cram into your one or two-week holiday.

If it's been a while since you tried something new, you could consider learning a new activity on holiday. Holidays are the perfect time to try new things, you may even find your new favourite thing. And it's not only that, trying something new has been shown to be good for the brain as well as the body.

Work and a busy home life can take a lot out of you and make it difficult to find time for yourself. In fact the average UK adult hasn’t learnt or tried a new active hobby in the last five and a half years. Thankfully, a beachclub holiday is the perfect time to try new things. It’s a great way to slow down, recharge the batteries, spend time with loved ones and do things you wouldn’t normally have time to do.

There’s a whole host of benefits to be gained from trying new things. Throwing yourself into a new activity has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety whilst boosting your sense of wellbeing. Whatever your age, you experience the same feelings of pride, confidence and excitement when you try new things – it’s that childlike ‘I did it!’ feeling all over again.