Rhodes, Greece - 5* all inclusive trip with a toddler

Sara Gouthwaite
May 24, 2016
4 min read

Updated: Jan 22, 2021

After our trip around Asia earlier in the year, we thought we would have a nice european break....somewhere we could do more relaxing and less exploring for a change! We planned on booking something with a 4hr or less flight, but ended up with a 14hr door to door trip instead!

We wanted to book a package holiday this time, it's nice to occasionally have everything done for you and everything done in one payment! We booked through first choice, there were 2 identical holidays advertised but from different airports, we could've flown from gatwick (a 30min drive)...for £1900 or belfast for £1290...we chose to fly from Belfast as we arranged connecting ryanair flights (return for all 3 of us for £50!), we also had a hotel on the way back for £80 and transfer to gatwick for less than £15..so flying from belfast saved us £500! A handy tip, and a very quick flight but we added a good 6 hours onto our journey with changeover and airport waiting times....recommended for money saving but not if you want a quick simple trip..we are use to change over and long journeys so it wasn't too painful for us.

We had a 2hr transfer, a little longer than we expected, and arrived around 11pm. We stayed at the TUI magic life resort in Rhodes, very newly built and immaculate...not very close to anything at all but you would not need to leave, We spent £80 between us the entire time! We usually hire a car to explore but Win had forgotten his licence! We got a little fidgety during our stay, as we are never in one place for more than a few days, but there was a LOT to do, and with 24hr all inclusive it worked out to be very cost effective. There was a little shop, but Win brought cigarettes and we brought a few bits and bobs.

Part of the reason we chose this resort is because here was a nursery for 6months+ most other hotels offer age 3+ so this as a unique selling point. We dropped Cass off a few times after breakfast 9-12, would have lunch then he would go back to the nursery from 2-5...to be honest we felt a little lost without him and didn't really know what to do with ourselves...We even wondered what we used to do on trips without him! He had a great time with the other kids, the nursery was well equipped and brand new, the 6m-3yrs area had cots and young baby areas, they would take a trip to the water area outside, the staff were absolutely lovely, and very accommodating since he was still having toilet accidents! We would take him in at 2pm for a nap he would usually sleep most of the time. The nursery was included in the cost.

While cassius was at nursery we would got for a swim, go to the greek cafe for an ice cream and snacks, go to the beach and read a book, pop into the coffee shop...pretty much a starbucks, everything really was catered for and not your average all inclusive everything was top quality.

There is also a mini water park, with a kids area and an adults/older kids area, absolutely fantastic and yet another string in this hotel's bow!

One afternoon we hired a boat for about £40, we were given a phone number in case we got lost! we were fine but me and cass did not enjoy the wind and turbulence! Win thoroughly enjoyed sailing being the adventurer he is...on the shore there is a great company who hires out jet skis, watersports and boats, this is part of the hotel and the only other thing you can actually spend money on!

After nursery we would take Cass to the farm, a good size, lots of horses and ponies, goats and rabbits, ducks, all very well looked after, not busy a lovely little place and a great feature to a resort. There were tennis and football courts and shows in the evening, there was a stadium for the shows, high quality entertainment.

One evening they had an 'underground rave' in the underground car park..this was family friendly, on the way in you would be given glow in the dark paints, glasses, glitters, everything was covered in glow in the dark props, everything was free, it looked like great fun, but because cass was so little we didn't stay long, there were lots of kids enjoying themselves and dancing however.

Every evening there was a mini disco, cass absolutely loved thi and all the kids joined in with dancing and singing for half an hour, some evenings he would have a sleep and we could have a few drinks, as it was a completely safe environment.

On the last day we left in the afternoon so grabbed a few sandwiches from the sandwich bar for the coach. We flew to Belfast and stayed at the Maldron hotel at belfast airport for the night, to break the trip up. A Fantastic little break and I wouldn't rule out the package holiday completely, I just wouldn't solely do this, variety is the spice of life as they say!