If the shorter days and chilly weather of winter are getting you down or even if you just feel like you need a holiday with the family or were unable to take all of your holidays, a winter sun family holiday may be just the thing.
There are lots of long haul options for family friendly holidays but they do mean a longer flight and are generally more expensive to travel to. Egypt, Dubai and South Africa are growing in popularity as emerging winter family holiday options. We are working on our long haul section including our Caribbean and USA family travel sections at the moment and would love to hear from parents on the forum if they have any pointers or secret gems that they only want other parents to know about.
There are however still some great family holiday options here in Europe for a winter sun and sea family holiday including Cyprus, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Madeira and many more if you do not want to tavel too far. The Costa del Sol and the Algarve provide a chance of better weather as well although they can be somewhat unreliable and best in the shoulder periods in Spring and Autumn if you want a good chance of good weather.
School holiday calender for planning your winter holiday
Trying to schedule the family winter holiday can be pretty difficult as there are limited weeks that the children are off school and the prices seem to sky rocket in response to high demand.The early bird usually catches the worm so do try to plan ahead as much as you can. In many cases the popular family destinations and flights will be booked months in advance and as soon as the dates are confirmed by the school. If your children are not yet in school try to avoid these. dates.
We have set out here our understanding of the school holiday calendar in Ireland based on information from the Irish Department of Education to help you plan your family holiday. This is a guideline only and we are not responsible for any variations on this.As always check with your own school as there may be holidays at mid terms, in service days, discretion days and variations depending on where your child’s own school is located. Where possible try to travel off peak for best value and have a look at some of our tips for saving money here.
October 2008 mid term break
All schools will close from 27th to 31st October 2008 inclusive
Christmas 2008
All schools will close on 23rd December 2008 which will be the final day of the school term. All schools will re-open on 7th January 2009.
February 2009 mid-term break
Post-Primary schools will close from 16th to 20th February 2009 inclusive. Primary schools will close from 16th to 17th February 2009 inclusive or 19th to 20th inclusive. (Primary schools may use 3 discretionary days to extend this break to an alternative option of a 5 day break).
Easter 2009
All schools will close on 3rd April 2009 which will be the final day of the school term. All schools will re-open on 20th April 2009.
UK school holidays2008/2009 and France school holidays 2008/2009
England school holidays
Christmas 22nd December to 2nd/5th or 6th January 2009
Midterm break 16th to 20th February 2009 and standardised like us
Easter 6th April to 20th April
France school holidays
Christmas 20th December to 4th January 2009
Midterm 7 February - 9 March and they are zoned taking two weeks each. The Parisian holidays which are the real ones to avoid will be 14 February to 1st March so this also overlaps with the Irish midterm.
All in the key is to get booking now.
You will find lots of family friendly travel tips and advice in our research and advice section to help you book the right family holiday. Check out also the experiences of other parents and travellers in our parents forum and add your own experiences as we are a great believer in real parent's experiences as the best measure of whether somewhere will suit you for your family holiday.
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