While resort kids’ clubs and endless buffets of chips have their perks, when you’re booking for a family holiday, often a villa can be everything you need.
Privacy (aka no-one caring if your child wakes up screaming at 2am, 3am and 4am), communal living areas (aka places to go and play with toys when it becomes clear 4am is actually wake-up time) kitchens (aka somewhere to make endless coffee and cater to whatever your toddler’s current food whim is) and separate bedrooms (meaning no hiding in the bathroom once your kids have gone to sleep) means there’s a lot to be said for seeking out a villa stay.
More perks? You can squeeze in extra family members/babysitters. You can have several families nearby who all have their own space. And (is it just us that loves this?) you get to go a foreign supermarket to peruse the snack aisle. We know it’s controversial too, but often with a washing machine, you get to return home with clean clothes too (or leave that washing machine to gather dust, it’s your holiday…)
TUI’s villas page is dedicated to holiday villas and holiday apartments with flights in a range of great destinations from Florida to Cyprus.
Here’s our pick of some of the best on offer…
These amazing homes are located just a 15 minute drive from Walt Disney World Resort and 20 minutes from Universal Studios, within a gated community that features a lazy river, a movie theatre and an 18-hole golf course. Surrounded by lawns, lakes and palm trees, you can choose from condos that range from two to nine bedrooms – oh and most come with a pool too. Dreamy. Additional bonus: getting to food shop in a giant American food store. Just us?
We love the look of this stylish hideaway on a hilltop outside Puerto del Carmen. In 15 minutes you can be strolling downhill to the stylish Old Town Harbour, driving five minutes to Playa Los Fariones beach or enjoying your private pool terrace. If you spend the day closer to home, enjoy wandering the grounds to find an a la carte restaurant, a pool snack bar, luxe Bali beds and a Turkish hammam. The villas are equipped with everything you need (including a washing machine) and can include a barbecue.
Boasting a five-star rating from TripAdvisor is one thing as a resort, but as a villa, written up by people who’ve lived in the space, it hits different. So consider these villas which can sleep between four and six people depending on which you choose. Just a few minutes from a pebbled beach sounds blissful, and there’s a handful of supermarkets, bars and restaurants within easy range too. Enjoy yourself on elegant sunloungers, and if you can face the exertion, pop to the communal bar that offer breakfast, lunch and dinner.
This is the one for beach bums looking for a Portuguese break. These villas are just a five minute walk from a Blue Flag beach, with golden sands stretching for miles. Once you’ve soaked up sand and sea, return to your modern, spacious villa and look out onto your own al fresco pool area. Dreamy. And if you can tear yourself away, there’s a nature reserve just a 10 minute walk away too. Sign. Us. Up.
More than 1,500 people have stayed in and reviewed this villa, all agreed a rating of 4.5/5, so colour us intrigued. Set in a quiet hillside setting it’s just five minutes from lively Hisaronu and when it comes to beaches, you’re only another 10 minutes into Olu Deniz, home to the famous Blue Lagoon. Enjoy an open-plan diner-lounge and three bedrooms all including an en suite as well as a private pool and a tiled terrace.
We love that you get the best of both worlds in this collection of villas- the privacy and perks of your own villa, while the pros of an upmarket resort are only a stone’s throw away, including a health spar, tennis and football academies, horse riding, a golf course and bars and restaurants. But while you’re at home, you will love the private pools and sun terraces, which overlook the greens of a PGA National Cyrus golf course (if that’s your thing). There are villas from two, to four rooms, meaning several families could travel together.
These villas look straight out of a picture book, or a Netflix romcom… the gorgeous villas are built on the ruins of the owner’s family mansion and feature original stonework. The 16 villas are position in rolling farmland, olive groves and eucalyptus trees near the tiny hamlet, Agios Dimitrios, with their own private pool and sun terrace. A restaurant bar on site serves up traditional dishes if you can’t face cooking yourself while you’re on holiday.