There now follows a review of private villas in Menorca and in particular those villas in Binibeca. For cheap holidays to Menorca, including Menorca villas with pool try James Villas’ .
Since our daughter M was born we have always opted for the easy option of holidays in the UK. We’d pack half the house in the car and be safe in the knowledge that we had all we could possibly need.
This summer we decided to be a bit more adventurous and try out a European Villa Holiday. We had quite a long list of requirements though:
- Flight not too long
- Villa with private pool
- Separate room for M
- Not too hot in June
- Walking distance to the beach
- Walking distance to bars/restaurants
- Not too far from airport
- Child friendly
- Cots and car seats available
- Not too expensive
The main problem was the last one. Most places that come up when you search on child friendly holidays are ridiculously expensive, and I was starting to think that we wouldn’t find anywhere. Then I discovered Bininuria, a Binibeca Villa in Menorca and amazingly it fulfilled all our requirements.
Villas in Binibeca
The villas in Binibeca are private villas in Menorca that are only a 20 minute transfer away. Our Binibeca villa had 3 beds, a private pool, only a 15 minute walk to the beach and a 10 minute walk to the bars/restaurants. What’s more it was 27 degrees in June and very reasonably priced – perfect!
We booked through James Villas’ – they have hundreds of places to choose from, flights, car hire, car seats, cots and many more options are all available at the click of a button during the booking process. We were sent detailed information on our holiday and directions to the villas in Binibeca from the airport – everything we needed.
The first thing that you notice when you arrive at Mahon airport is that it’s so calm and peaceful, it also looks brand new, clean and welcoming. We were soon out in the glorious evening weather, collecting our hire car, another easy process. 20 minutes later and we were exploring our gorgeous little villa Bininuria. We headed straight out to the pool area and were delighted to discover we could also see the sea in the distance from our terrace (as well as two of the three bedroom windows).
Private villas in Menorca
The Binibeca had everything we needed, 3 bedrooms (one with a cot provided), 2 bathrooms, a kitchen and a lounge leading out onto a covered terrace and the garden and pool area.
We were soon out exploring the local area, a 10 minute walk away was Binibeca village where you can find bars. restaurants and gift shops surrounding the picturesque harbour. With small boats moored in the turquoise blue sea it looks quite idyllic.
The very pretty beach was a 15 minute walk in the other direction and has a bar that claims to be the only one on the island where you can have a drink whilst dangling your feet in the sea.
Family holidays in Menorca
We had a very relaxing, peaceful holiday and M had the time of her life swimming in the pool everyday. My top tips would be to buy your food in the supermarket on the way from the airport instead of in the village as it is much cheaper. Go to the beach in the early evening, there are less people and the temperature is much more pleasant.
Finally, if you are eating out go to Binibca restaurant on the hill overlooking the harbour. It looks as though it will be very expensive but it is actually the cheapest and best food out of all the restaurants we found and it has the most stunning views – what more could you want?
Centre Parcs is great – there I’ve said it! A few short words, that a few short years ago – when my holidays were spent on backpacking adventures, bungy jumping, canyoning and sledging – would never have passed my lips. They were the pre M days of course, because there is a caveat to my opening statement – Centre Parcs is great… when you’ve got kids.
We arrived on the Monday with grandparents in tow, we had managed to get a very reasonably priced 4 bed woodland lodge, on one of the many special offers you can find during the year, during term time. Perfect for parents with toddlers and babies.
I love to ride my tricycle!
Our first stop was to collect the bikes, J and I had been looking forward to this – seeing the oldies on bikes and trikes turned out to be as amusing as we had hoped it would be. A few wobbles though and they were off, recapturing their youth with every turn of the wheel.
Unfortunately, our amusement soon turned to frustration when our little madam refused to get in the trailer we had got for her. We tried bribery, we tried pleading and eventually we tried force – which resulted in a monumental tantrum (her and me) and then we gave up.
As we grumpily set off walking back to our villa, we started to point out the other kids in their trailers hoping that this would persuade her that she was missing something truly exciting. That is until we realised that most of them were screaming their heads off too, they just hadn’t managed to escape before their parents had ridden off.
As M gave us a smug grin, we felt slightly comforted in the knowledge that we weren’t the only ones who had a stubborn child. That’s the beauty of CentreParks, no matter how bad you think your little monster is behaving, there’s a worse one just around the corner.
Our woodland lodge was lovely, well decorated, with everything that you could possibly need and M’s room was far enough way from the living area, that noise wouldn’t be an issue after she had gone to bed. We all settled in quite nicely.
Lake at Centre Parcs
Over the next couple of days we made excellent use of the many facilities. The sub-tropical swimming paradise caters for all tastes, from toddler and larger pools, to rapids and slides, to jacuzzies – so everyone was happy. M in particular loved it and would have happily stayed there all day if we had let her.
She also had a great time on the little sandy beach, next to the lake at Elveden Forest. Little boats were stacked up along the beach and M was soon climbing into them and asking us to push her into the water. Encouraged by her enthusiasm we decided to take a rowing boat out and make the most of the sun that was peeping through the clouds.
M also spent a lot of time in the many indoor play areas and the outdoor toddler swing park, all of which she enjoyed immensely. J and I decided that we would try to get a taste of our usual holiday adrenalin rush, by taking on the aerial adventure. We got our harnesses on and tackled the Postman’s Walk and Burma Bridge, and then got to the spider’s web.
The Spider Web
As M looked up laughing hysterically, I smiled back through gritted teeth wondering why on earth I was 40ft up a tree clinging on to a bit of rope. I pushed on through the Hanging Platforms and Indiana Bridge and was rewarded with the rush of the zip wire at the end and of course a big kiss from my little girl.
Our days were packed with fun and our evenings were filled with good food from restaurants that had indoor soft play areas – what more could a toddler want? We all took away good memories of a happy family holiday and the desire to go out and buy a bike…
We are always on the look out for toddler friendly holidays; it is amazing how hard it is to find something that is reasonably priced, which caters for small children and babies. So I was rather surprised when I received details of a special offer at Gurnard Pines, in the Isle of Wight: 3 nights in a 3 bedroom lodge for only £119.
With a crèche, soft play area, indoor and outdoor pools, and claiming to be family friendly it seemed to tick all the boxes and it would cost less for 3 nights than some of the family friendly hotels cost for one night. I was sold. I booked the holiday there and then, on a moment of impulse, which is not very me at all.
A couple of weeks later, we set off down to Southampton on a beautiful Friday morning, with M, my two year old daughter, chattering in the back of the car about going on a big boat. No traffic jams, no tantrums, the sun shining in the sky, we were definitely off to a good start. The ferry crossing was smooth and M loved being on the top deck getting blown about by the wind.
Cowes - Isle of Wight
We arrived at Cowes and went straight to Gurnard Pines. The lodges looked quite pretty, ours was one of a few set around a little pond. It was quite big inside, with a nice lounge area and a small kitchen, with everything you need for a short break. I am not sure how old they are, but it was a bit tired inside, certainly not to the standard of Centre Parcs say, but then it was about a third of the price. All in all, it was certainly toddler friendly and good value for money! We unpacked our stuff and went off to explore Cowes.
Cowes is such a pretty place, famous for Cowes Week of course, with lots of nice shops and pubs and bars. After a pleasant afternoon, we went back to our little lodge and had fish and chips and talked about what we would do for the next couple of days. The tourist information centre hadn’t been open, so we would just have to wing it. We had a map and knew where everything was, from childhood holidays many moons ago, so we were sure we would be fine.
We were up bright and early, we had been blessed with another lovely day, so we set off on our Isle of Wight adventure. First stop was the Robin Hill Park, it doesn’t take very long to get anywhere on the island so we were soon arriving at the long drive, only to discover it was shut for the Winter Season. We were a bit disappointed but we still had other places in mind, so we set off for Black Gang Chine, to see the dinosaurs – and it was shut. Colemans Farm Park – shut. We finally found something called Amazon World, it wasn’t shut, but as we find out after about 15 mins, instead it was just sh*t.
It was soon apparent that the Isle of Wight was in effect was closed for the winter. Now I am someone who usually plans everything to the nth degree, but this last minute holiday had been so last minute and the truth was we had come unprepared. Trying not to be too disheartened we went on to our last destination – the needles, Alum Bay, where I had particularly fond childhood memories filling little glass ornaments with coloured sands. I had told M all about this and she was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, this too was shut!
Pebbles on the Beach
At least the beach was open! Now although it was a bright sunny day, it was a bright sunny day in February, so it was still pretty cold. Undeterred, in true British style, we wrapped our coats around us, sat on the pebbles and had our lunch. We showed M the beautifully coloured sands and looked out at the needles and played ’skimsies’ with the flat pebbles scattered about the beach. It turned out to be a fantastic afternoon, not exactly what we had planned (or failed to plan for that matter), but still a beautiful family day out.
