Summer vacation with a small child

Me & my wife are considering the idea of going for summer vacation with our 2.5-years old child. We don't want to spend the whole vacation entertaining the kid, so we are looking for an hotel or resort that could take care of the small children for a few hours a day.

Anyone knows any resorts that are geared towards families with small children? Any pointers?

Like, could you be more vague? I spent a good two months searching for a vacation where I could AVOID children - there are, unfortunately, not many of those.

Go to a travel agent and let the search begin. They all speak English so that shouldn't be a problem.

Croatia and Greece pop to mind.

I believe Club Med resorts offer ways of taking care of kiddies. Try this website: http://www.clubmed.de

edit: or better still, a direct link to the baby sitting

in most places you'll find tons of those resorts - especially popular holiday destinations...kitkat's comment re travel agents is definitely the best starting point!

I'd give the Algarve a miss.

Open any catalog from the various travel companies (LTU, Neckermann, RTU, etc) and you will find certain resorts labeled 'Kid Friendly'. They have activities for kids for all different ages. Kids Clubs, babysitting, baby pools, entertainment, etc, etc, etc.

Really, for the childless people out there, it is really a bit of a pain to find someplace to take a quiet, relaxing vacation without loads of screaming kids running around.

Seems that we have completely different problems on our hands - no wonder that I sound vague to you

The problem is that virtually all hotels offer services for children aged 4 and above, but I haven't seen many hotels that could deal with toddlers. So far the pointer to ClubMed offered by Owain Glyndwr seems to be the most promising.

Some friends of ours gave top marks to Parco San Marco a few years back. It seems that their Club Bambini is for children aged 4-12, but they do have baby-sitting services as well.

As already mentioned, some ClubMed resorts have activities/childcare services for very young children, even for babies.

We have been to Club Cala Pada on Ibiza 8 times over last 9 years. People either like it or hate it. Pure German-speaking. Lots sports, excellent evening shows.
They look after young children but I'm thinking 2.5 years may be too young. Go there when the child is a few years older.

We are going this year again after missing a year - our 18 yr old son is coming with us - at his insistence. Curiously older teenagers love the place.

Just checked their website - they now claim "Kostenlose Kleinkindbetreuung ab 2 Jahre im Juni & September".
Probably just those two months...

Club Med is rather pricy - I admit it was 19 years ago that we went there (Majorca, club since closed; we were both earning at that time & no kids).

Google is your friend, try "kinderhotel(s)"... will give you www.kinderhotels.co.uk and more :-)

I looked through some catalogs last month and thought "better wait until our son is 3 and up for this kind of thing". There just wasn't a lot available for the 2 and 2.5 crowd. You could always find a hotel that offers evening babysitting and while your little one sleeps (assuming he/she is a good sleeper) you and your spouse could hit the hotel restaurant and/or bar. My husband and I did this recently and it worked out well - namely because the babysitter was super nice and we trusted her.