My Greek island family holiday with the world’s best kids club, one-of-a-kind restaurants and Ibiza-style beach clubs
THE most I usually come back from holiday with is a naff souvenir, great memories and a bit of extra weight around the middle.
But last summer I learned tennis and played in a tournament, my partner mastered how to sail, our five-year-old nailed the breaststroke — and we’d only been away a week.
We were on the east coast of the Greek island of Rhodes on a Neilson holiday — that glossy travel brand where the “all- inclusive” part is the activities.
All your breakfasts and lunches are included, as are four evening meals, while you pay for all alcohol and soft drinks.
Sports lessons and activities are all free — and there are so many. I started each morning with a beach-front yoga class, followed by a group sea swim.
After a family breakfast, where we loaded up on fruit, pancakes, cereal, eggs and cheese, I dropped my son off at the kids’ club and my partner headed off for his daily sailing class of two and a half hours.
Then I had my daily beginners’ tennis class, before we all met for lunch — huge salads for me and my partner, and pizza, pasta and fish for our child.
The afternoon brought a lull in activity for most, because exercising in the August 38C heat would be unbearable, but there was always the opportunity to explore the island by bike, grab a paddleboard, waterski or test out a padel court.
I liked to visit the sports pool, where I never once had to share a lane or take a siesta out of the sun.
Our bedroom was huge, with plenty of storage and a bed big enough to fit the three of us comfortably.
But my son also had his own room, separated off by a sliding door.
The bathroom was a decent size and the balcony very large with views over the adults-only pool.
And after an afternoon nap, some pool or beach time was followed by one of the many fitness classes — which for me meant sunset yoga or Pilates.
Of course, none of these activities would have been possible without childcare.
I’m not generally a fan of kids’ clubs on holiday, as they can be a bit depressing and poorly attended. But this couldn’t have been further from the truth here.
After his first session, my son was keen to go back every day.
They split the kids into very specific age groups — my son was with other four and five-year-olds in Sea Badgers, with its own club room, leaders and daily activity schedule.
He enjoyed everything from sailing and paddleboarding to tennis and swimming lessons with his group.
Such is Neilson’s allure that a friend texted halfway through: “Is Neilson living up to the rep? There’s something to do every hour of the day, right?”
The short answer is yes. Even into the evening, the kids’ club still operates for two days a week so that parents can book in a date night.
But if you want the more traditional type of evening entertainment, that’s not what Neilson is about.
Once we’d had dinner on the standard club board — four of your seven weekly evening meals are included — we usually went back to the room at around 9.30pm.
The evening meal was another decent mix of hot and cold buffet food, but they mixed it up with a gyros station that served up Greek delicacies.
In fact, a huge amount of attention was paid to getting Greek food on the menu.
Beach club
But the hotel made it pretty easy to get out and explore too, despite its semi-remote location.
It was a 20-minute walk to the nearest town of Kolymbia, where among the large hotels, tourist shops and sports bars, we found a wonderful family-owned taverna called To Horiatiko.
Here we gorged on their Cheese Balls — enormous gyros and fluffy pittas dipped in olive oil made from their own olive trees.
The hotel made it pretty easy to get out and explore too, despite its semi-remote location
A plate of grapes grown in their garden accompanied the meal, which came to under €60 despite two carafes of wine — and huge portions of food.
We also ventured farther afield by hiring a car from the hotel for the day, and visited the Ibiza-style Oasis Beach club up the coast in Kallithea.
Its position on a rocky outcrop was the perfect spot for snorkelling, as my son only had to swim out a couple of metres before he could start spotting life below the surface.
It was a handy 20-minute drive from there to Rhodes Town and an unmissable restaurant called To Steno, in the garden of a grandmother’s terraced house.
On a quiet street outside the walled city, it was full of locals enjoying an evening meal, with a simple mezze menu of feta-stuffed courgette flowers, salted cod, more cheese balls and the best tomatoes I’ve had in years.
We didn’t hold back but the bill came to just over €55.
From there, it was a 20-minute walk to the Old Town, where at 9pm it was finally cool enough for us to be able to explore the Unesco World Heritage site.
For our final day we hired a little motor boat for the day, as dropping anchor off several quaint Greek bays was the perfect way for us to see Rhodes’ stunning rocky coastline.
The Neilson activities had been so brilliant that we had all had our own individual holiday — as well as one together.
GO: RHODES
GETTING/STAYING THERE: A seven-night Neilson getaway at Levante Beach Club is from £1,762pp including flights from Stansted on May 24.
Holiday includes breakfast and lunch every day and four evening meals weekly, as well as coach transfer.
Activities include windsurfing, dinghy sailing, waterskiing, wakeboarding, kayaking, paddleboarding, swim coaching, tennis with coaching, padel tennis, and guided mountain biking and road cycling.
See neilson.co.uk.