Hi, I will by staying at the holiday village near Playa Blanca next year with 5 yr old and 9 month old baby. Wanted to ask people if they've visited with baby or noticed the availability of good brand baby foods/ fresh veg and fruit and fresh milk to buy, nappies ... anything really so I know what to take. We are going in June - ages away but can't wait first time there. Any advice or tips gratefully received. Many thanks everyone.

Whereabouts are you staying? I'm not sure where you mean by holiday village. Anyway, Playa Blanca is a fully functioning town, with several supermarkets, the best of which is the Hiperdino in the centre (not the Hiperdino Expresses which are like Tesco Expresses). The Spanish brand of disposable nappy is Dodot, which is similar to UK brands, and Nestle etc baby foods etc are readily available because Spanish women have babies too Similarly fresh fruit veg and meat are readily available from supermarkets, and the fruit and veg in the fruterias are very good.

You can get fresh milk, but it doesn't stay fresh like it does in UK so we residents buy cartons of UHT. After the first day, you won't notice the difference.

The chemists (famacias) in town are excellent and modern, with staff who speak excellent English. I assume that you and your families have EHICs (used to be E111s) to give you emergency 24 hour health care in the local Centro de Salud - the state -run health centre. They will treat you free with an EHIC and passport (although you'll have to pay for prescriptions) unlike a private doctor who will charge you what could be a big bill. Monday mornings are always busy in doctors, with visitors saving up problems over the weekend!

Do consider using plenty of sun protection, especially for your children, because the sun here is much fiercer than in the Mediterranean, even if there is solid cloud. You could bring it from home, but it is readily available in supermarkets and famacias. It shouldn't feel too hot, because there is a always a cooling breeze - but again, don't let that fool you into thinking you won't burn - you will unless you take precautions.

Thankyou, that is really helpful. We are staying with first choice at flamingo beach, but won't just sit there all day, want to explore a bit! You have put my mind at rest, I'm not going to take loads of nappies and food with me now, just some. I intend to be very careful in the sun, hoping for some nice weather in June, been to Majorca same time of year and weather a bit disappointing.

Like I said before, any tips or advice really useful, like to do my research. Useful info about health centre, hopefully won't need it but good to know, hopefully rep will know where it is.

Flamingo Beach is fine and a nice place for young families. It's about 20 minutes down the prom from the town centre, or you can use car, taxis or local bus. The health centre is easy to find. You enter PB after driving through open country, and the first thing you hit is a roundabout with a filling station on it. You'll then go downhill along a dual carriageway where a right turn takes you along past the back of the built up area (and the rear of the big Hiperdino) towards the harbour. The health centre is a big modern two story white cube set halfway between the roundabouts on the right, nextto the Bocayna restaurant. They are on their own in open ground, so easy to see.

We took our 4 month old out last year and was fine! She slept most of the time on the flight. Best to have a couple of bottles made up for the flight so try to delay the feed until takes off so she/he is sucking on something during take off and landing.

Dodots are Pampers - exactly the same.

Milk - we were on aptimil powder - which they have in the big hiperdino - its a slightly diff coloured box. We took one out with us too.

The local milk tends to go off and can't guarantee will have any so you'll have to experiment with UHT - but we found at 9 months she was drinking and eating everything.
We were still sterilising bottles back then - found the tablets we easiest - just bought a brand new bucket and filled with water and the sterilising tablet.
We are back out soon with a much more bouncy 14 month old - the flight will be interesting!

I totally agree with the previous posts, you can get everything you need for babies here but one word of warning - nappies are very expensive compared with the offers you get in the supermarkets back home. If you can fit them in your luggage I would certainly bring them with you! Hope you have a lovely holiday