Bali/Lombok with very young children and maybe two teens.

Hoping for some advice for my first holiday in a very long time.

We will be taking our 6month old, 2 and 4 year old children, and maybe our 2 teenagers, depending on their study commitments. They will fit in with what ever we do.

We like the look of the hotel Novotel Lombok in the south of LOMBOK(!!). We like the traditional style of it, the lagoon, but worry about the remoteness, and if our 2 and 4 years old would have children to meet. My husband likes the look of Sanur in the brochures...

With 3 very small children, it won%26#39;t be a proper holiday for me without some help! We would want a nanny for part of everyday and some evenings to help watch the children with us or to babysit while we have dinner, or explore by ourselves (a little only). We need interconnecting rooms, or a 2 brm villa. NOT a family room.

We don%26#39;t want to shop, unless it%26#39;s wandering around a local market, or party; just play in and around the pool and beach, snorkel, eat well, drink tropical things, sleep when the kids do and explore the local community and some sights...

Hoping for some sound advice

Thanks

Bali/Lombok with very young children and maybe two teens.

the novotel lombok is great. you may not know, but lombok requires malaria tablets so you may want to consult your doctor before you plan any further for lombok considering the age of your children. you will need to consider getting there as well. even though it is excellent, i would recommend staying in bali considering your number and age of children.

a lot of large hotels have child minding services. i%26#39;ve never used them but some posts have commented negatively on them. even though the balinese are great with kids i still wouldn%26#39;t have wanted mind out of sight when they were younger. sanur is quieter than the rest of the south so it may suit your needs

you can get family rooms which will accomodate for four/five or two interconnecting rooms but they will be pretty tight for seven. so a villa may be a good option.

Bali/Lombok with very young children and maybe two teens.

You may find the Novatel to be remote and an idea would be to consider spending part of your stay in Lombok at Sengiggi.

Thanks for your info Rockterrigal. I%26#39;ll still be feeding the littlest, so dealing with Malaria is probably more than we need this time.

I%26#39;ll research Sanur some more, but would appreciate recommendations on lovely, not too small or too quiet, places to stay. We are a happy family hoping for a friendly place the kids can meet some playmates, and spend loads of time around a great pool and beach. Some of our time will be split while one of us is in the room/villa with a napping child, so the more there is to do on site or immediately around, the better.

Our budget is a flexible $200 per night, not including a room for the teens. I%26#39;ll pay more for the right place. We need 2 generous interconnecting rooms or a villa. NOT A FAMILY ROOM. My teens (18 %26amp; 16 yo boys), will stay in their own room - probably away from us - if they come too, so I really only need to work out the best place for us and the young ones at this stage.

Recommendations for a lovely, trustworthy babysitter for the whole two weeks would be appreciated too. She will help supervise during the day, with us there too.

Thanks again

Not too small or not too quiet in Sanur - either the Griya Santrian or the Hyatt if you can find a good deal.

Can%26#39;t help with the babysitter sorry, I usually occupy myself with a colouring book and some crayons.

my knowledge on sanur is limited but snookytravellerstips knows heaps on sanur. if she doesn%26#39;t reply to this post send her a private message.

to do this look for her name on a previous post and click the name. then click %26#39;send a message%26#39;.

no problems with interconnecting with five. i use to stay at the jayakarta in legian with our two kids in an interconnecting room near gardens. that was okay. heaps of people around from all over the world depending on time of travel. eg oz school holidays u will meet more aussies. though there isn%26#39;t snorkelling there.

to get into the local community and snorkel you need to be on the east coast. padangbai and candidasa (towns on east coast) are quieter but have both of these points as well as good food and hotels. but staying in sanur you can do day trips further up the coast to these places.

Lombok so far from everything