Best beach holiday with a 6 month old baby - Europe?

It will have to be the Canaries for a European pool holiday in February. I’ve heard good things about the beach and general town at Puerto Morgan in Gran Canaria. I haven’t been to Lanzarote but the beaches in Tenerife weren’t that impressive although there are plenty of good hotels. Fuerteventura is very windy so can be a bit cool in Feb.

If you can wait until June when the weather is warmer you could go anywhere and have a lovely holiday.

Agreed that Canarias are the only option in February. I’m on Gran Canaria right now—it was 28° today and not a cloud in the sky. Windy, though.

I'll be in Estepona next month, the 2nd week, and it should be in the low 20's and sunny (which always makes it feel warmer) however whilst the resort we stay in is on the beach the sea will be far too cool. Pool wise, Spanish law forbids outdoor pools to be heated by anything other than solar power which you'd think that most pools on the Costa Del Sol would be but they're not. If you can find a place that does have a heated pool then that might be a pleasant option.

I've been to Mallorca in February and it's similar to Estepona/Marbella/Malaga and with the same pool heating laws.

Much of Greece will be cold or cool.

Relaxing on beaches in the eveningsis going to be a chilly affair.

As others have stated, the Canaries offer the best in terms of warmth.

Sorry, this is why people take Feb vacations in South Florida.

cala nailed it. However, you are already in Europe, I suppose staying in Europe makes sense, but the weather in February is not going to be great.

We did a two week trip to Egypt last year in January and it actually got chilly there. They actually had snow in northern Egypt.

Perhaps the Canary Islands will work, the Canaries have interesting plant life. and it is scenic there.

Last year I went to Rome/Naples/Salerno between mid-Feb and mid-Mar. I think the temperature got at least as high as the averages (mid-50s F) every day of the trip. There was certainly nothing to complain about on that score. What surprised me (because I hadn't looked carefully at the temperature graphs on timeanddate.com) was that it didn't usually reach 40 F until about noon, or even later. The daily peak temperature didn't last long at all.

Southern Spain and the Canaries should be warmer than Rome; I just wanted to point out that, for nearly all hours of the day, you will be dealing with something considerably cooler than the day's high temperature.

Not certain that "private pool time" means a smaller pool for the exclusive use of your family?

We stayed a few nights at the Ritz Carlton Abama (Tenerife) a few year ago. That was 21-24 November, and it was often cool and windy, but some hot times. This ticks most of your boxes as stated. But your criteria may overlook that the two beaches that serve the Ritz Carlton (small but nice beaches) are nominally ... gasp! ... public. (I forget, could one be sand and one pebble?) And Tenerife is a massive island, with long distances between hotels and airport, and between attractions. Huge parking lots at the remote Ritz Carlton. The island also has a lot of, er, wilderness, I mean steep slope hiking trails with some danger, that kind of thing. The island also has All-Inclusives that attract lager-louts and other undesirables for your criteria. Not at the Ritz Carlton, of course.

As a big fan of the Caribbean, I'll note that we often met small numbers of Europeans at our high-end, "Old Caribbean" resorts. Including, as I pointed out to my wife, German grandmothers in bikinis. But, "Old Caribbean" means no children under 15 in high season. Alas, that rule is fading, due to income/business maintenance pressure, especially from the Masters of the Universe.

Thanks all for the replies and insights. I agree Caribbean or Florida would be ideal but we wanted to do a short 4 day get-away thing and since we are in Europe that would not be feasible (travelling itself will eat up 2 days I suppose).

Canary islands or Cyprus was our only bet (like pointed out by many) but we couldn't fit it in in due to weird flight timings and days in February (not tourist season so..) and flexibility wasn't our strongest suit this time around in terms of days unfortunately.

We did do a beach trip beginning of Feb of 2016 to Lanzarote and had loved it back then.

Wow it is difficult to have a beach holiday in Europe in Jan-Feb - noted ;) Flexibility is key!

Check out Portugal - either Algarve coast or around Lisbon.

so is this for the first week of February 2025? Cause 2024 been and gone...

I've just spent two weeks on the Costa Del Sol and it was wonderful. With the exception of one day when storm Karlotta swept in and a couple of overcast days it was warm and sunny, plenty of people sunbathing and some even swimming in the sea although they were American so I suspect they just wanted to experience a swim in the Med. The second week was half term so plenty of kids.

This has pretty much been my experience when I've been to southern Spain in February so there's no need to fork out on expensive long haul flights to Florida or the Caribbean.

It was for Feb 2024, but ended up cancelling since only the Canary islands or Cyprus seemed warm enough but the flights we were looking at in Feb were not entirely suitable - with the dates and times did not match or the price was very steep for a 4-5 day holiday.

We ended up postponing the trip and book Egypt instead for March - mix of history and beach time.

KD, that is why I said South Florida-there's no way I would go to the Gulf Coast(or the SC Coast) in Feb hoping to lie on the beach and/or swim.

It's still summer in Cape Town.