I can’t quite believe that we’ve been back at school nearly four weeks and that the summer holidays seem like a whole world away.
We’ve had a brilliant summer and the kids have definitely been easier this summer than any summer before. This year our annual family holiday took us to the sunny shores of Sardinia in Italy. Like many years previous (we are creatures of habit!) we chose to travel with one of the top family travel company’s Mark Warner who have continued to tick all the boxes that we want ticked when we look for a family holiday.
We booked our summer 2018 holiday in the autumn the previous year when the prices had been released and we also received a discount in exchange for sharing our views. Whilst some people like to book last minute I am the type of person who likes to book early, pay it off in chunks and also it gives me something to look forward to. There are also some benefits to booking early with Mark Warner as you can access more cost effective room rate and occasionally free child places too.
This year having traveled to Turkey and Greece previously we set our sights on the Italian island of Sardnia. Their Perdepera Resort was a resort that our close friends (with whom we were travelling with) had stayed at the resort twice before and given it was the most affordable resort when booking this sealed the deal for us.
We departed from London Heathrow on a scheduled British Airways flight (Mark Warner charter a flight so it’s only the resort guests on that flight). FYI Heathrow T5 have a dedicated family check in zone in zone A so head straight there if you are travelling with kids and avoid the LONG queues that can be inevitable in the busy holidays.
The flight itself was short at just over 2 hours and you can purchase M&S food on board. Upon arrival at Cagliari airport we as per normal were greeted by the friendly MW staff who ushered us onto various buses destined for Perdepera Resort. Now the big negative of this resort is that the transfer time is 2.5 hours but the buses are air conditioned and bottled water is available.
We arrived late to resort – it was gone 8pm and went straight to dinner. This was our first indicator that gave us the impression that the food at this resort would not be like other resorts we had visited. The main restaurant is a buffet affair where all of our meals would be – there is a beach restaurant open two times a week which you had to pay out of pocket for which we didn’t want to do as we weren’t sure whether it was worth it and we weren’t willing to take the risk.
Whilst we are on the subject of dinner I might as well touch on my thoughts on food overall now. The food in a whole was ok but definitely the worst out of the other MW resorts we had been to, we highlighted this to management and they took our comments on board. It’s worth noting that the restaurant closes at 9pm which we thought was really early for a European resort and we started to notice that unless you had eaten by 8.15pm that a lot of the buffet was gone and wasn’t being replenished. Being a greedy piglet like I am I love a dessert and the desserts were very disappointing – only ice-cream is served at lunch twice a week (included in your meal) and the other selection tended to have mini deserts covered in nuts (not ideal when are a nut allergy). There wasn’t the selection of pizzas that our friends had previously raved about – think stone baked with lots of topings, but the pizza served when we were there was more of a cakey focaccia style which we soon got fed up of. Now, the food had been an issue previously and this was highlighted in various Trip Advisor reports but we were assured by management that the issue was being addressed.
We have made no lie of the main reason why we go on Mark Warner holidays - it's the childcare for us and the water sports are just a bonus for Webbo. We love the British childcare staff and to this day have never personally had any issue with them and this year was no different. We opted for the first time to have both kids in all day childcare (Hector is an added cost as you get half a day included and Charlie was free). The ability of having them in childcare all day meant they had the flexibility to pick and choose what they did in terms of activities and we were not banking on those precious 3 hours in the afternoon - this worked really well for us. At Perdepera the childcare was headed up by Roddy and he was excellent so any resort that has him is likely to have a seriously high level of childcare.
The rooms at Perdepera are large and very clean - the daily clean was excellent but the downside of the bungalow style rooms was not bath, fine for us but something to consider with younger children. They provided bed guards for Hector and the beds are spacious and very comfy.
The water sports at Mark Warner are amazing and Webbo spent most of his afternoons sailing the seas! I loved trying my hand at paddle boarding and Charlie loved getting a chance to sail, windsurf and paddle board - there is something for even the most nervous water sportser! The fact that ALL THE WATER SPORTS are included really is a massive bonus which means you can try your hand at every sport even if it's only for ten minutes!
This particular MW resort had an excellent range of evening entertainment something that Lakatira lacked the year before. One thing they did this year was the amazing staff "Pop Icons" show which quite frankly I'd have paid good money for and this was a highlight of our trip - so good in fact we saw it twice!!
Our two weeks drew to a close and we are left wondering whether we would do another MW next year - the long and short of it is probably not. We love the concept and it works well for our family but unfortunately with the Euro the way it is it''s simply not working out affordable for us as a family, BUT if we were able to travel outside the holidays then we would definitely look at it but given it's looking at being £7,000 plus for two weeks next year we've decided on travelling further afield next summer for better value.
We look back on all of our MW holidays with sheer fondness and happy memories and would like to extend our thanks to Roddy, Collete and the childcare and water sports teams for another wonderful holiday.
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