Liz Bird
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From Times Online
January 17, 2008
10 top family holidays
Here's some cracking ideas to keep the kids interested and you relaxed on holiday this year
TUSCANY
Faster pasta
Children can learn how to make classic Italian dishes such as pasta and tiramisu on a half-day cookery course on a Tuscan estate near Siena. After a walk in the gardens to gather fruit, vegetables and herbs, the young cooks will roll up their sleeves and master the basics of Italian food before laying the table and serving the meal to their parents (who can also do a similar half or full day's course). Self-catering properties are dotted around the Montestigliano estate, which has two pools, a restaurant, farm shop, river and often stages summer concerts.
A farmhouse sleeping four costs £1,284 a week in July and August with Invitation to Tuscany (0845 8387421, www.invitationtotuscany.com). The half-day children's cookery course costs £35, with a 10 per cent discount for a second child. BA (0870 8509850, www.ba.com) has flights from Gatwick to Pisa from £146 in August.
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DEVON
Sail away
A Dartmouth-based course offers families the chance to achieve a Royal Yacht Association Competent Crew qualification by the end of the week or just have a more relaxed potter around the West Country visiting popular spots such as Salcombe, Fowey and Falmouth. The boats have canoes on board, so families can explore the upper reaches of rivers. Rest days for sightseeing can be included.
A seven-night trip with Nonstop Sail (01803 833399, www.nonstopsail.com) costs £2,850 based on a family of up to five, onboard stays, breakfast, lunch and five evening meals.
MADEIRA
Sand and sun
Madeira has a smaller sister that's soon to be put on the tourist map. Weekly flights from Gatwick to the tiny island of Porto Santo begin on May 5. Previously visitors had to take a two-hour ferry ride from Madeira or a 15-minute flight to reach this unspoilt island where Christopher Columbus once lived. Porto Santo has a 9km white sand beach where a five-star family-friendly hotel, the Pestana, opens in March. Facilities include four pools, a spa, tennis court and children's club.
A week's B&B at the Hotel Pestana costs from £499 per adult and from £299 per child during May with Holiday Options (0844 4770452, www.holidayoptions.co.uk), including flights and transfers.
TURKEY
Gulet cruise
The Turkey specialist Exclusive Escapes (020-8605 3500, www.exclusive escapes.co.uk) is introducing qualified nannies and supervised high tea (while the parents enjoy a sundowner) at several child-friendly boutique hotels. Organised activities such as beach barbecues, games and fishing trips will also be available in the summer holidays.
The Piynar Villa Hotel in Turunc, ten two-bedroom villas with private pools and sea views, is one of the hotels featuring the new family-friendly programme.
A two-bed villa sleeping four costs £2,650 including flights from Heathrow, Gatwick or Manchester on July 19, transfers and a one-day gulet cruise.
PEMBROKESHIRE
Car-free resort
A new eco-friendly, car-free resort that sounds similar to Center Parcs opens this July in 200ha of forest in the Pembrokeshire National Park. Self-catering ranges from studio apartments in the village to log cabins sleeping up to six. Bluestone Wales (01834 869900, www.bluestonewales.com has a waterpark, adventure playground, freshwater lake, spa, pub, restaurants and shops. Guests can travel around the resort by bike or electric bus. Activities include nature trails, tennis, dance classes, aerobics, painting and photography.
Prices start from £1,291 for a week in a two-bedroom Caldey lodge in August or £2,234 for the most luxurious Skomer Lodge. Activities cost extra.
CRETE
Be independent
Simply Travel (0870 1664988, www.simplytravel.co.uk) has come up with the perfect relaxed family holiday: your own self-catering accommodation with an on-site crèche and children's club. This summer the company is expanding the concept with the addition of the Alianthos Apartments in Crete, with tennis court and pool in landscaped gardens.
A week's self catering in a two-bed apartment in May costs £949 for a family of four, including return flights and car hire or £2,190 in August. Children's club maximum age is 10.
BRITTANY
Stay in a treehouse
It must be every child's dream to stay in a treehouse. Keycamp (0844 8441000, www.keycamp.co.uk) has them at three of its most popular French sites and the holidays are selling fast. The accommodation, 5m high up in the tree canopy, isn't primitive. Each tree house has proper beds - four singles and a double - under a thatched pitched roof, a large decked terrace with table and chairs and toilets.
A spiral staircase leads down to a fully equipped tent, should you crave a night under canvas. Keycamp's Carnac site has sold out, but there is still availability for selected weeks at the Paris and Northern Brittany site, Dol de Bretagne. The latter is set in the grounds of a château in 100ha of parkland near the medieval town of Dinan and Mont Saint-Michel. As well as free children's clubs for toddlers to teens, there's a four-lane waterslide and new indoor pool complex, an 18-hole golf course and a lake.
A week's stay from June 22 costs £570 based on six sharing and including Dover-to-Calais ferry crossings.
CORSICA
Adventure island
Adrenaline junkies will love a new eight-day trip with Explore (0844 4990901, www.explore.co.uk that includes canyoning and climbing a rock face via a series of ladders and ropes before descending on a string of zip wires. Go pony trekking in the old mountain capital of Corte, where you can take a picnic hike to Giant's Plunge Pool. Staying in three hotels across the island, the trip ends with kayaking around the coast.
Prices start from £1,069 per adult or child (minimum age 8), including flights from Gatwick, B&B and some meals. Departures on July 27 or August 17.
FLORIDA
Take the plunge
A new waterpark opens in Orlando this March. Aquatica has every kind of water adventure, including wave pools, two “lazy rivers” and a ride that zooms passengers into geysers and rapids - and the Dolphin Plunge: two enclosed tube slides send you speeding underwater through a lagoon filled with dolphins. There's also a huge water play area for younger kids and a white sandy “beach”.
Virgin Holidays (0844 5573875, www.virginholidays.com) offers seven nights at the Renaissance Orlando Resort from £989 per adult and £2555 per child in May to £979 and £465 in August. Return flights from Gatwick, room-only accommodation and car hire are included. More information: www.aquaticabyseaworld.com
EGYPT
Desert thrills
Mark Warner now has a Middle East outpost at the Abu Soma Beach Resort near Hurghada. As well as watersports, you can try a desert safari or day trip to the Valley of the Kings. Younger children will love face painting, singing and games on the beach while older ones can master sailing, snorkelling or windsurfing - or enjoy a game of beach volleyball. Four tennis courts along with expert tuition have been added this year.
A week's stay with Mark Warner (0871 7033887, www.markwarner.co.uk) during August costs £3,120 for two adults and two children (2 to 11). Includes flights, transfers, childcare and half-board accommodation.
