Family friendly chic resorts – an urban myth?

these are my feet. Really.

OK, I know holiday reviews of places that you are unlikely to go are fairly annoying. (Ooh ooh, look at me and my awesome holiday – whatEVER). But last year we went on a family holiday which had some serious advantages, so I thought I would highlight some of them as I think they are worth looking out for in any family venue.

I should start by saying that a ‘family resort’ is my idea of hell. Visions of  snotty nosed screaming children running amok, primary coloured laminex surfaces and heinous buffet meals. But last year we were seriously in need of some time off and wanted the lowest fuss holiday ever.  We got it in the form of the Sani Resort in Greece. If you aren’t able to kick it sans kids in St Barts (our next holiday. Probably. Well, depends if you ask me or the Captain), then this kind of place is a good way to do it in style with the little tackers.

• Can I recommend TripAdvisoras a seriously awesome place to research accommodation? It’s based on reviews from actual guests – sometimes hundreds or even thousands of them and I have used it a dozen times now, and have been satisfied each time.
• Rooms – ideally you want a separate bedroom to living room. This makes a big difference so you can have kids falling asleep in bedroom and then wheel them out to the living room in cots or roll out beds when you retire. A DVD player with a huge selection of kids DVDs to borrow is a bonus.
• Food- personally for me very very good quality food is up there with pool as key to holiday. I have been known to move restaurants several times to ensure we’re doing the best possible – I blame my mother for this personality trait. So does the Captain. Sani had a lovely fresh, constantly restocked buffet breakfast, with additional option of ordering eggs, pancakes etc all fresh, which was all included with our half board option. Oh the buffet – always my downfall. Highchairs and booster seats at every restaurant were great, plus kids meals (and baby mush meals) at all restaurants, and on the room service menu. Even better would have been if they had bibs and kids cutlery/crockery – there were some deft yoga like moves by parents catching white china at some meals. Lots of the restaurants had a separate long children’s table with toys, crayons etc, so when the kids were bored sitting with their parents, they could join the supervised kid’s table. Have you ever heard of anything more genius?? Cue some very relaxed looking parents on their post-dinner glasses of wine. There were about a dozen restaurants to choose from at the resort, the vast majority kid friendly, with a couple of spots recommended for adults – and it was delightful to have a few child free drinking eating locations. 
• Getting around - the resort had all manner of kid type transport for rent during your stay – single prams, double prams, scooters, bikes, trikes. So no need even to bring your own which was a terrific idea. Always good to check out how you get around a big resort – little legs get tired and the golf buggies they had at the resort were a big hit with the little legs. And also for my son.
• Water - we are in Europe where apparently everyone is allergic to sand, so the beach is covered in beds and umbrellas which you could reserve in advance – which meant no getting up at 4am to beat the Germans to the sunbeds. Sorry to our German readership. But the best thing about the beach and pool was that they had toys, buckets, rubber float things, frisbees, balls etc everywhere for kids to just play with and then discard – our son thought he had died and gone to some sort of football related heaven to be surrounded by balls everywhere he looked. The second best thing was the adults only pools. Essential. And the third best thing was ‘Babewatch’. Much to my husband’s disappointment this was actually a babysitting service offered on the beach for the little kids – a big mat under a massive umbrella with heaps of toys and a few nanny types to watch them, free for half an hour. Bliss. 
• Babysitting – it’s always good to always good to check out the kids clubs/creches/babysitting services thoroughly in advance. Who runs them, qualifications, number of kids per minder, types of activities for the older kids, do the minders speak the right language etc. Oh, and make sure you book into the kids club/creche before you get there if necessary and book up babysitting as soon as you arrive – there were some very sad and tired looking parents who had failed to think ahead at our resort…. 
• Staff- I guess staff always make the holiday extra special – these were incredible and actually seemed to like children, making everything as easy as possible – all the airport transfers arrived with the correct car seats, bags were whisked away, drinks provided for everyone by the pool over check-in and you were even taken right to the airport gate when leaving – someone has thought this through well!

I know of a few other similarly high quality family resorts dotted around Europe, and of course there are the ubiquitous Club Meds. There are also websites dedicated to kid friendly travel destinations – for example Baby Friendly Boltholes is BRILLIANT for recommendations, especially for smaller villas and B&Bs. If there is a similar Australian version, let me know. Regardless, get to researching – you definitely NEED a holiday, I can tell.

Like

Unlike