Having 3 aged 4 and under, you can imagine how daunting it is going on holiday abroad. The travelling, airports, flights and heat are all thing that kept creeping up in my mind but I shouldn't have been so stressed over it!
Although the 4 hour drive to London Stansted wasn't a fun one, we managed with one short break in the middle. Once we arrived at the airport, the hardest part was maneuvering 2 single prams, 3 suitcases, 2 trunki's and a small holdall around with three children until we could check our bags in. There was a waiting time at the airport as we had arrived with plenty of time which meant the standard Burger King airport lunch (that may I add, cost a small fortune). We finally checked our bags in and through duty free we went.
All was going well.
Well, that was until our flight was delayed by nearly an hour. We originally were due to fly at 7.55pm, the board was showing 8.50pm. Ouch! This meant that we would arrive at the hotel at approximately 2am Ibiza time. Long story short, kids don't often sleep on planes... even if it is WAY past their bedtimes!
Finally, we arrived! Club Sirenis Aura.
The Hotel
(This picture was taken the day after, when we arrived it was dark outside, however still warm)
We had read plenty of good reviews about the hotel online regarding staff, entertainment, cleanliness and food. All of which I was pleasantly surprised with.
The Room
We had booked a one bedroomed family suite which was made up of three rooms. One large bedroom which had a cot made up, a good sized living room with a single sofa bed and another cot made up and the bathroom which had a lovely sized sink and vanity area, a bath/shower, toilet and bidet.
T (the 4 year old), had never seen a bidet before this holiday and her first response when she saw it was "how do you turn on the kids sink?"
We spent our first day getting to know the hotel, finding our feet. After all, we were going to be staying here for the following 14 nights!
The Pools
We had been warned prior to the holiday that the outdoor pools weren't heated which meant they were quite cold. I swear my toes turned blue when I dipped them in the pool. Honestly though, the water felt like ice however once I took the plunge, soon warmed up.
The hotel itself has six pools including a shallow pool, an indoor pool (which is heated in peak season) and an infinity pool which is situated away from the main pools so is much quieter and relaxing.
The Food
Per week, the hotel let you book into their 2 specialty restaurants. A Japanese restaurant called Tapanyaki and a tapas restaurant called La Taverna. During our stay, we visited both restaurants twice and thoroughly enjoyed the food in each (more so in the Japanese).
However, along side these 2 restaurants, the hotel has a large selection themed buffet which although, it wasn't always the warmest of food, was what I would describe as a typical feed 1000 4* all you can eat buffet.
Breakfast most mornings consisted of either a full English breakfast or oatmeal and fruit. They also offered a selection of deli meats and cheese, cereal, pastries and even a gluten free selection.
Lunch had offerings of jacket potatoes, hot dogs, burgers, salad, fruit, ice cream, cake, jelly as well as various other meals and deserts. They also serve food at the bar near the main pool which had pizza, burgers and sometimes even freshly cooked paella which was lovely.
The Water Park
We were allowed to use the water park in the neighboring hotel as part of our holiday package. The water park consisted of a small splash area with small slides, a pirate ship with some bigger slides and some separate larger slides. Oh, and small splash fountains.
The kids enjoyed these thoroughly, although weren't tall enough to go on the large slides (Mummy and Daddy had fun with them though).
The Entertainment
The girls loved getting dressed up for the evenings entertainment. It meant they could wear their beautiful frilly dresses get get all glammed up.
The entertainment started at 7pm with Bamse (their kids mascot) cartoons which were in Swedish, followed by Thomson the Dog giving out Thomson Diner certificates*, a clown act, some competitive dancing called Download and then the main entertainment which was a mix of local acts, English acts and acts performed by the in house entertainers - which may I add were brilliant!
*Thomson Diner cards are a rewards card for children in which they can get a sticker from any TUI rep after each meal as long as they have eaten something healthy or tried something new.
The Kids Clubs
There were a couple of kids clubs available too which was brilliant. Bamse club was the one that T went to as it was aimed at ages 3-5 however they also had one for older children called @611.
In Bamse club, they had themed days with different activities. T coloured in a hand puppet one day and took part in a Princess/ Prince Fantasy day in which she received a certificate.
Soft Play
They did have a baby group however this cost money to take part so we never used this service. They did have a soft play area in the hotel which was brilliant as it gave us something to door with the girls indoors and out of the sun.
Overall, the hotel is a brilliant choice if you're wanting to go abroad with children. A varied choice of food, multiple water activities including pools and splash park, brilliant kids entertainment and less than 5 minute walk from the beach!
To end this post, here are a few other pictures of our holiday!
Enjoy!
It sounds like you had a wonderful time. It's not somewhere I have ever considered being a family holiday sort of place, but it really does sound lovely. I like the sound of the infinity pool and the water park looks cool too!
ReplyDeleteI would never have thought of Ibiza as a family holiday either but I highly recommend it! We had so much fun and the weather in May was perfect for a young family.
DeleteFab post, loved reading about this hotel as we stayed at the Holiday Village next door a couple of weeks ago!! x
ReplyDeleteOh wow! We walked through a couple of times to get to the water park and it looked lovely. We could hear the evening entertainment from next door from where our apartment was.
DeleteHope you had fun!
I want to applaud you for managing abroad with three smalls, we've just done it with two and totally agree that the hardest part is with luggage etc and trying to keep an eye on the children - it's so tricky!!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had a fantastic time, tepanyaki restaurants are always my favourite as it's like an experience too. I love that they encouraged healthy eating that's amazing!!
Haha! I couldn't have done it on my own! The airport was definitely NOT my favourite part of the holiday!
DeleteThe Teppanyaki was amazing! Especially loved it when he lit a flame on the plancha.
The girls loved that they got lanyards full of stickers and a certificate to take home!
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