Why A Villa Holiday Is Great For Families With Teens

Its time to start thinking about booking our summer holidays and plan where to spend our precious family time this year. As the boys get older it is becoming harder decision to make as we now have 4 opinions to consider. When they were younger we chose destinations and they fit in, that worked really well, but as they are getting older it is apparent they too have boxes on their wish list that we need to tick.

Image courtesy of  VillaPlus

We haven’t spent a holiday in a vacation home for a couple of years but villa holidays are consistently cropping up in conversations as a preferred option. I thought it may help to explore the benefits of staying in a house with a teen and tween and have worked together with Villa Plus to identify why  this type of holiday is perfect for this age group.

The first benefit has to be having a private pool, have you ever had to scour a pool for loungers with a teen? It is painful; it seems to Jack that not finding a spot where he would like to sit around a pool is life changing, I know! But that this is a major thing for him.

Jack is not an early riser; in fact all the Christie men like a lie in on holiday. I often find myself eating breakfast alone at the side of the pool enjoying the early morning peace. Staying in a villa would be wonderful, they would know exactly where to find me when they choose to rise from their beds, and there is no pressure for me to keep one eye out for them all the time.

Whilst we are discussing the pool, Joe would spend all day in the pool. This can be quite stressful when there are loads of kids, it is sometimes like looking for a needle in a haystack, and we can never quite relax. Oh the joy of having one eye on a book and one on the pool and knowing he is safe. And we can go for lunch without losing our space.

You can choose a villa to suit your needs, a villa with Wi-Fi a pool table and table tennis or football would keep the boys happy during those “I am bored times”. They literally would have everything they need to be happy, food, pool, Internet and sport. This leaves me to watch them enjoying all the facilities, read a book, maybe sip a glass of wine whilst enjoying the hot Algarve sun.

For us the perfect location would be either a short taxi ride or walk to town, we love Vilamoura Marina and could spend hours people watching and watching the boats in the marina over a long drawn out family dinner. There would be days we would choose to dine in our villa. I love finding a local supermarket and cooking fresh food on a bbq, and not having the pressure of getting dressed up for dinner. But its great to know that if your fancy a walk out for lunch or dinner then that is also an option

Of course you can’t visit the Algarve without spending a day on the beach, the last beach holiday we had the boys spent hours dipping in and out of the water, they love the beach, I also know it would be easier to drag them away if they were retreating to a their own villa with a private pool.

And if you want to get out and about Zoo Marine promises to be a great family day out, it is not somewhere we have visited yet but I just know we would love the varied activities it has to offer including the opportunity to swim with dolphins and learn about conservation, a lazy river and water rides, and an aquarium.

For us as a family a villa holiday would be a fantastic option, the chance to chill and spend time together when we are generally all so busy, and activities to suit us all in a chilled out environment, it sounds perfect.