Hi Folks! Need your experiences and recommendations please.

To maximise holiday fun, and family time and keep all parties happy, my and my bruv-in-law’s family are looking to do a holiday that combines all the above elements. Late July/early Aug.

Enticing wives and kids to Alps is not going to cut it next year (too big a gamble with weather for a family hol with 5 kids from 3-10 yrs, and busy wives who want to relax), so I am looking to see if we can do something different.

Any experiences from you folks? Tennerife? Ibiza?

Thanks, look forward to reading.

Kev

Tenerife – every box and more ticked.

Cyprus?

Issue 89 Sneak Peek: Ibiza – It’s like enduro….or something.

Finale Ligure?
Sicily?

Thanks already! Yes, all places mentioned are options.

What I was hoping you good folks might be able to contribute are more specifics (hence moon on stick nature of request). Specific Towns, maybe even hotels, that you know are good for biking and kids clubs respectively.

Thanks all,
Kev

For kids clubs – look at First Choice/Thomas Cook.
All inclusives are the norm.
Lavatrax has been mentioned or just throw the bike on a bus and head up 😉
Costa Adeje, Playa de Las Americas will give you the largest range of options.

Fuengirola, Spain

What sort of mtbing?

Neilson Beach clubs.

They have kids clubs, beaches, bikes and all sorts of other stuff. Some locations are better than others for mountain biking so have a search through the destinations and pick the one that sounds like it gives the best balance for your BiL’s needs.

Fuengirola, Spain is a dump

Fixed it for you.

French or Italian riviera would be my choice or Italian lakes. They might not be cheap if you are looking for a hotel, but plenty of impressive Eurocamp type options.

+1 muppetwrangler which was where I was heading with my previous question as it’s definitely more trail/XC than enduro/DH.

Brilliant holidays if you can find one at a reasonable price (either a long time in advance or nearer the time though they do tend to sell out).

Another very strong +1 for Neilson from me.

I thought THIS place might be hell-on-earth, but was pleasantly suprised. Brilliant kids club, Turkish bath / Spa thing that the mrs loved, & surrounded by what looked like loads of potential riding. Saw a couple of MTB groups in the local town, heading out. We did a couple of jeep “safaris”, & the terrain was a mixed bag, with some savage descents but enticing looking trails heading off at lower levels. Hotel is massive, but its spread out over quite an area. Most of the apartments overlook smaller private pools shared between half a dozen apartments, or theres the main pools/water slides etc. Food was very good.
**As I said, I was expecting hell on earth, its just not what we would normally go for, but the Mrs & kids absolutley loved the place. We went in May, & it was about as perfect weather as you could hope for. Reckoned to be scorching hot in July/Aug.

Check these guys out: http://themountainbikeadventure.com/

They’re flexible so if you wanted to check into a resort for the kids club/wives etc you can still join on their rides. Or get your own villa.

Bryceland’s stuff on here is on their trails…

[video]http://vimeo.com/91402963[/video]

Ditto Ride Ibiza: http://rideibiza.com/

Stay in Santa Eularia – tonnes of hotels & resorts and pick a few days to ride with the guys out there. I went out this year and due to circumstances (was there for a wedding) didn’t actually to ride with Ash, but he seemed really sound and gave me some good advice on where to ride even though I wasn’t a paying guest. From what I did ride, the trails are well worth a week or two of your time!

Good point about type of mtb’ing – I think “Enduro-mince” would be closest description – happy to ride up if long, fun, flowy and a wee bit techy on the way down. Not XC slogging.

Replacing a boys only alps holiday to give you some frame of reference.

Great ideas so far, thanks hugely for the specific recommendations. Keep-em coming if you have-em!

I wouldn’t got for Neilson then – at least not on the mtb front as IME while I’ve enjoyed the riding, it’s more XC than Enduro-mince 🙂 Of course there are multiple locations and it is possible that some I haven’t been to offer more of that but it’s not really what they cater for and as such you’d have to find the trails yourself which may be difficult (as mapping’s not great in those places).

Just a note of caution on the Neilson option, take what they say about excellent MTB resorts with a large pinch of salt.
We went to Vassiliki for a week in September about 4 years ago, based on the rave reviews of the MTBing. The missus and I went out with the guide on day one and did a few good hours with him. She then went back and I did a further couple of loops which were ok. When I asked him what was next he said we’d pretty much done all the good biking there was to do in the area ?.
We were really going for it, and indeed I did attend another couple of rides later in the week that went elsewhere, but in general it was nothing like at good as they made out in the brochures.

Also bear in mind that the bikes can be shit quality. We did a ‘mtb’ ride to the top of the island, which involved height gain of around 1300m. The plan was to do some off road on the descent but my front axle seized completely about half way back, and the front wheel would only turn if the whole axle, QR and all, rotated. So that was the end of that ‘mtb’ ride.

When we returned to the Hotel, I asked the guide if he’d managed to fix the bike and he replied that he’d just stuck the wheel back on and left it at the back of the pile. It was nearly the end of the season and it would be someone else’s problem then.

Neilson mtbing is not for ‘serious’ mtbing holidays so it is excellent for their target market but not what most of us here would consider that. As I’ve said though I have enjoyed it but only as part of the whole holiday rather than going there for the mtbing.

As to the bikes it does sound like you were unlucky. IIRC I’ve now done 8 Neilson holidays and never had or seen any significant issues with the bikes despite the way they’re treated by the guests. They’re usually £800ish hardtails which IMO isn’t shit, just not what we’d be used to. I haven’t been to Vass, mind.