help - best place for two young children 6 &8 not disney.
 

please can we have any ideas for next years holiday, two young children 6 &8 boys, done disney paris and florida. would like to go somewhere with childrens activiites, football, water parks, places to take them of interest, they love swimming, really loved swimming with rays and the dohphins in florida, amazing, thought maybe carribean or mexico however we are open to ideas. like sandy beaches too and snorkelling. Preferbly a villa with a pool. We stayed Cyprus last year with a villa and pool which was amazing and florida this year walt disney which was the opposite as it was all go go go and no swimming and too busy. We like to holiday without the tourists and away from the english(no offence, just a break away from home so we know we are on holiday) however obviously a safe place with two young children.
Any ideas would be welcome. thanks

Sure I think Mexico has what you are requesting. You might look at the stretch of the Mayan Riviera (Caribbean side). Although I'm not sure you will find "water parks" and "swimming with rays" and also "without the tourists" because those things kind of go together. -suze

You might want to check Great Wolf Lodges - they were featured on Sunday on "Undercover Boss". I don't know anything about them, but it looked like a nice place for families. They are in different parts of the US.

www.greatwolf.com

Australia.

Seriously, I went with my kids when they had just turned 6 & 8 and they loved, loved it. We all did. It was all about the beach and the cool animals. There are water parks, great aquariums, snorkeling, crocs and all kinds of wildlife parks and experiences.

It was a long flight, but they knew that in advance. They got to each carry a small roll on with new toys and books. They still ask if we can go back, and that was five years ago.

Sorry, reread your post about non-English. Would you accept English with an accent?!

I think maybe they meant "British"?

(when they said 'away from the english')

If you can handle the flight I would suggest Hawaii. Swimming, snorkeling, hiking, cultural events are all there. Depending when you go you could see whales, dolphins, turtles.

Suze (above) has great advise on Hawaii and her posts helped us plan a couple of wonderful vacations with kids.

thank you so much everyone for your advice. I think the kids would like a little less hours on the plane this time last time was 9 1/2 hours for us to florida and 3 hours at the airport so a little less would be better although understand if you want to go afar for tropical beach/weather. Australia sounds amazing just too far at present.
Tropical shores like Barbados and Antiqua my husband is also looking at, we would like a villa but not sure how safe these are and whether hotel is 'safer'? we are looking for somewhere to go july or august.

Have you thought about South Africa? tons of swimming there, lots of animals. my daughter at that age loved science museums and music and dance. Hawaii was wonderful - I think she would have loved South Africa.
When she was 10 I took her to Italy and we stayed in the Amalfi coast region of Italy, took the trains thruout Italy to Roma and such. We went to Capri and did the Blue Grotto, she was fascinated by that. She loved the stairs to the sea in Positano, God knows I had a hard time with them - but kids don't! she also loved Venezia. However - August is vacation time in Italy so there will be many tourists. Good luck!

gee thanks trvlgirlmq! (just saw your nice comments above)

aloha!

sea island is a wonderful place for the family. Not much sight seeing if you dont want but bigger cities such as savhanna and jacksonville only 1 hr away.
beautiful place, they have camps and activities for the kids