The Old-Fashioned Way to Crimea
Companies providing holiday organization services paid considerable attention to school-age children this summer. Mainly, as they say at one travel agency, loving parents with average incomes sent their schoolchildren to domestic camps. First of all, this is Crimea with all its abundance of health resorts and recreational camps. Travel agency managers say that this year "Artek" was traditionally in demand, as were children's "republics" in Yevpatoria, Yalta, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions. According to representatives of the company "Astra-travel", children's health camps in Bulgaria, Crimea and Pushcha-Vodytsia also enjoyed unquestionable success. The quality of recreation there is excellent, experts say, and almost everyone who took advantage of the summer offers was satisfied. Moreover, this past summer a greater number of children vacationed on the sea coast than last year. Parents tried to send children aged six to 16 with brothers, sisters or friends - it is both more fun and safer that way.
Slovakia for the Young
Most interlocutors note between the lines that one does not have to deal exclusively with children's recreation. But there are plenty of related offers. Firstly, this summer self-respecting companies that respect their clients offered discounts to adults if they went on holiday with children. Secondly, almost all tour operators guarantee very interesting programs for both adults and children. For example, at "Gamalia" they said that among those wishing to place their children, "Artek", the "Kristall" camp in Alushta, and wonderful health resorts in Slovakia were invariably in demand. Organizing recreation through a well-known operator is, to be honest, not cheap, but their offers cannot be compared to "an average decent holiday". According to a specialist from "Gamalia", the children in the above-mentioned facilities are looked after by good and experienced teachers and organizers, not "irresponsible senior students who care more about their own holiday than about the children".
"Serious" Crimea, like Slovakia, was respected this year - most of the camps "that are responsible for quality" were full. Tour operators offering the above-mentioned places created all the conditions to make children's recreation truly high-quality - varied excursions, trips by sea and land, visits to museums and interesting places. In short, a child has no reason, and even no time, to complain.
Bulgarian Fairy Tale
According to representatives of the travel company "Orbita", families who vacationed with their children spoke very favorably about Bulgaria. It is there that one can find both what the Slavic soul is accustomed to and novelties we had never seen before. Tourists adore the soft golden sands and gentle coastal waves, the mild climate, and excursions that take one's breath away. Moreover, a holiday in Bulgaria can often cost the same as in our native Crimea, but the service that delights our compatriots who decide to bask at the hospitable Bulgarian resorts cannot be compared with the Ukrainian one.
A separate word should be said about the islands. Such a holiday, even taking discounts into account, is not affordable for everyone, they note at "Yana". But you can easily identify in a crowd families, particularly children, who vacationed, say, in the Balearics or the Maldives, because they did not just learn about a fairy tale but visited it themselves.
On Roses and Grapes
The most interesting offer of the past summer was the opportunity to combine recreation and study. As the manager of the well-known firm "Sam" reported, the new item of the summer season was tours to Malta - schoolchildren from well-off families were offered to combine business with pleasure - to study the now popular English language amid the beauty of Malta. To the great joy of the innovators, there were no shortage of takers, which means the innovation will continue further (possibly even with an expansion of the language range and countries).
Recreation in Turkey was pleasant and useful this year - tourism specialists from the company "Sam" claim that it is this country that received the palm of primacy in the number of those wishing to find summer shelter there. Good service, pleasant climate, a completely different culture and hospitable attitude - that is what the country of the star and crescent delighted compatriots with. True, note that we are talking about luxury-class recreation. It is this that provides a special offer for families - they go on holiday together but spend their time separately. In starred hotels, there is often "a marked attitude towards children"; they are offered entertainment and educational programs in different languages, games, and a very rich excursion program. The above applies primarily to Antalya, because other cities "are not yet ready to receive tourists of this level".
Among family and children's recreation, Montenegro and Croatia should be singled out (here, at the client's request, both recreation and study were included). The interest of children and their parents did not wane in Egypt, Italy, and Spain either, but Bulgaria for the first time in the last five years lost a little ground.
From Summer to Autumn
Despite the fact that the main wave of vacationers is behind us, companies do not tire of luring compatriots who have not had time to rest with various offers. Some actively offer discounts, although the main reduction in prices for tours (and, accordingly, interest in them) is expected closer to winter. Meanwhile, operators are very reluctant to talk about what they will delight Ukrainian parents, or rather schoolchildren, with for the autumn season - it is too early, they say, competitors might take advantage of the information. Still, presumably, almost all of Europe will be used first (multi-day bus excursion tours), possibly vacations for schoolchildren in Poland, Hungary, and, of course, Turkey and Egypt.
Closer to winter, as the Orbita manager shared a secret, clients will be offered the Arab Emirates, Thailand, while not giving up Egypt, which is popular in the cold season. In addition, several educational and entertainment offers are expected.
This season, according to experts, young people and schoolchildren are more interested in educational programs; "pure" recreation is chosen either by businessmen or children from very wealthy families. Often parents manage to send their child abroad not through an operator, but through school or other educational programs. Students are not upset by this - they just want to rest. And if there is also a "language supplement" - that's just a fairy tale.