The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Find the perfect holiday kids’ club, whatever the age of your children
What do families need to keep everyone happy on holiday, and which hotels get it right? Sara Sherwood picks the best
There is a particular parental state of bliss, when you know that your child is having a wonderful time while you relax. You have dodged the “Muuum, I’m bored” bullet, at least for the next half an hour – and there is finally a good chance of reading a book, going for a run, or pursuing an uninterrupted conversation with another adult.
As a child, there is a not unrelated state of bliss in which you are removed from the churn of classrooms, assessments, times tables, school dinners and utterly predictable everything, and find yourself instead in an anything-within-reason-goes fun park.
My family and I have found this happy state everywhere from a tiny island in the Indian Ocean (at Constance Halaveli) to the top of a mountain in Switzerland (at Bad Ragaz) and also in the flat East Anglian fields surrounding The Ickworth. The essential ingredient in each case: a well-run kids’ club.
There is no set formula for a successful club: they may be included in the price of your room (typical with all-inclusive hotels) or they may come with a charge. They could stretch across a 12-hour span of the day, or run only for very specific hours, or exclusively during the school holidays.
There are some kids’ clubs that operate on what I think of as a Baby Dior model: the architecture is flawless, they are exquisite to look at; they are entirely impractical and not suited to the small humans I have met. This sort of club promotes beautiful things such as growing vegetables (sorry, how long are we staying? Are we harvesting these?), or playing with pretty, minimalist wooden toys (great for photo shoots but not for any kids I have met). Another genre of underwhelming club offers video games rooms (how boring), or is hidden in a corner of the resort in what looks like a grim hospital play space.
It is a sad reality that kids’ clubs are designed to be one-size-fits-all, and they do not tend to cater to children with special needs. Many specify, for example, that children must be toilet trained and that they should be able to socialise. Do ring ahead to discuss any special needs your child may have.
The very best kids’ clubs make the most of their location, and also make sure that kids can range freely and take chances on new experiences. In earlier years, the primary goal is safe and stimulating childcare. Hotels such as Woolley Grange, in Wiltshire, and Moar Gut, near Salzburg in Austria, do a wonderful job of getting children out into nature, but they are also great at supervising children while parents have an adult meal in an elegant and peaceful dining room (thanks to baby monitors in the first case, and a dancing mascot and evening activities in the second). If I were a grandparent in search of an extravagant gift, a night or three at such a place would be a real treat for new parents.
The golden age of kids’ clubs is when your child is between three and 11 years old. The sheer volume of activities on offer make this an opportunity to enhance your child’s education and confidence. This may come from learning about marine life in the Maldives or flying through the air like a circus performer. When children are nearing the end of their primary school years, they are ready to take a few more risks with activities, whether that involves learning to sail or windsurf at a Mark Warner club, or facing a hardball for the first time in a cricket programme.
Kids’ clubs with excellent, trained staff offer something else: they facilitate the forging of new friendships. Great club leaders know that a shared love for waterplay, board games, dance parties or football can bridge any language barriers you may encounter. They are worth their weight in gold.
So how do you go about finding the right kids’ club for your family? It is often a process of trial and error – so we have put together a comprehensive list of the hotels and resorts that get it right (and how) to help eliminate the guesswork and set you on the course for a successful, relaxing family holiday.
Confidence comes from learning about marine life in the Maldives or flying through the air like a circus performer
BEST FOR THE UNDER-THREES Beachside babysitting
Sani Resort, Greece
The on-beach “babewatch” service (30 minutes included in the price of your room) is a real liberator for parents at this high-end Greek complex, which includes five hotels lined with babyfriendly facilities, as well as 18 restaurants. The crèche meets Ofsted standards, takes children from six months to four years old (from €32/£28 for two hours), while the complimentary Mini Club hosts children aged four to 11, with excursions, beach days, football and tennis academies. You can even arrange to have a private nanny.
Room for two adults and one child from £318 per night, with a minimum stay of five nights (sani-resort.com)
Hassle-free villa living
Martinhal Sagres, Portugal
Set above a 765-yard-long beach by a national park on the eastern tip of Portugal’s Algarve, Martinhal Sagres boasts an award-winning kids’ club, five pools, three restaurants and lots of on-site activities, including mountain biking and surfing. The stylish houses and villas have all the clobber you will need, and older children will be thrilled with the watersports centre on the beach, offering wind surfing, kiteboarding, and kayaking, and by the crazy golf. The kids’ clubs entertain young people from the age of six months.
Self-catering rooms from £186 per night (martinhal.com)
Staycation, relaxation
Woolley Grange, UK
The subject of a million whispered conversations in soft play venues around the UK, the Luxury Family Hotels group had new parents at “dinner without my kids” (its baby listening monitors allow children to sleep while parents enjoy a leisurely meal). Go to the company’s Woolley Grange, a 17th-century country manor near Bradford-on-Avon, and children (aged three months to eight years) get 90 minutes of kids’ club included each day, with special activities laid on during school holidays, including scavenger hunts, archery, football matches, arts and crafts, dressing up, toys and outdoor games.
Rooms for two parents and one child from £162 per night (luxuryfamilyhotels.co.uk)
BEST FOR AGES THREE TO EIGHT Free range
Family Resort Moar Gut, Austria
It is all fun and games from 9am to 9pm daily for children from the age of 30 months. Facilities include a 20ft-high trampoline room and an on-site farm filled with patient, friendly animals, while pony rides and excellent swimming lessons are among the activities. A new spa for the very youngest guests (opening this summer) will offer baby floating and yoga, while parents get their own sleek spa, plus superb locally sourced food.
A minimum stay of seven nights is required in July and August; single nights in September or October cost from £900 per night for two adults and a child, all-inclusive (moargut.com)
Spa for all
Grand Resort Bad Ragaz, Switzerland
Come here for a masterclass in wellbeing. The Children’s Villa offers play, fun and entertainment (with qualified carers) for children of three years and up. A daily rotation of games, handicrafts and cooking projects is balanced with ample outdoor play, as well as a climbing wall, table tennis and the ubiquitous Playstation/Wii setup. The elaborate Heidi-themed children’s pool complex (for ages 12 and under) hosts mermaid-swimming lessons, and has both slides and adventure showers.
From £569 per night, B&B, for two adults and one child (resortragaz.ch)
Sophisticated charm
Château Capitoul, France
If you like the idea of having your children entertained, but don’t fancy a big resort, try this boutique 19th-century château, rising out of the vineyards just outside the city of Narbonne in the south of France. This restored vineyard features tasteful family-friendly self-catering options (some with their own pool), and plenty of space for kids to cycle or stroll through the rolling French countryside. The Monday-Friday bilingual kids’ club offers a programme focused on nature, art, sports and exploration. The hotel’s concierge can also arrange for kids to join local beach clubs and sailing schools, or to hire paddle boards, windsurfs and catamarans in nearby Gruissan.
Rooms from £187 per night (chateaucapitoul.com)
Tropical playground
Constance Halaveli, Maldives
Pretty much all Maldivian hotels that accept children offer childcare options of some sort, but these can be remarkably uninspired. Between 9am and 9pm each day, Constance Halaveli’s qualified and long-serving team lead children aged four to 11 through hands-on exploration of the natural world around them. Activities are designed to cultivate interest in sustainability without missing out on the action, which ranges from aqua gym classes in the main pool and water sports on the ocean, to film nights, cookery classes, mini discos and crab races. The leaders also deftly work to foster friendships among children of a similar age, allowing them to come and go as they, or their parents, wish.
Water villas from £555 per night, based on two adults and one child sharing on a B&B basis (constancehotels.com). Alternatively, Turquoise Holidays (turquoiseholidays.co.uk) offers seven nights in a water villa from £2,897 per adult (based on two adults sharing), including flights, seaplane transfers, Maldivian tax and half board costs. A child under 12 can share the room free of charge, so the only extra costs are international and local flights (£100 for children under two; £859 for older family members).
Beach party
Scott Dunn at Daios Cove, Greece
Scott Dunn offers age-targeted activities at its Explorers Kids’ Clubs, which it operates at hotels around the Med, Indian Ocean, United Arab Emirates and the Alps. Daios Cove, set on a cliff backing a gently sloping beach in Crete, is particularly ideal for babies and primary-aged children. The club makes the most of its stunning location, requiring trips down the funicular to the beach, and on Tuesday and Friday evenings there is a children’s Stargazers Club – a delightful opportunity for playtime with their friends, while their parents have a peaceful, romantic meal.
Rooms from £268 per night, including half board for two adults and one child (daioscovecrete.com). Daios Cove has a separate complimentary kids’ club for children aged four to 12; book your holiday through scottdunn.com to gain access to its special activities.
BEST FOR AGES EIGHT TO 11 Non-stop party
Club Med Magna Marbella, Spain
Whether beach-side or on the slopes, Club Med offers some of the most comprehensive and well-staffed all-inclusive kids’ clubs going. Activities include sports such as Padel tennis, archery, and the spectacular flying trapeze, plus there is an onsite playground, water park (complete with slides and water games), mini golf course and zip line. Club Med also caters to a broader age range than most: included in nightly rates is a club for ages two to 17 years (though do bear in mind that childcare for babies aged from four to 23 months comes at an additional charge).
Interconnecting superior rooms (which sleep families of four) cost from £595 per night, or from £5,557 per week, including return flights from London.
Sports resort
Forte Village, Italy
With its swish campus – featuring Barbieland, a giant aquapark, and a teenag
ers’ hangout zone – plus stunning white-sand beach on the southern end of Sardinia, Forte Village is an idyllic place to fly and flop. Stop there, however, and you will miss out on its extraordinary non-stop sports programmes, which include academies run by major legends from the world of professional sport. These are open to children from as young as five years old, and cover football, rugby, rowing, netball, fencing, tennis and hockey. Check the website (fortevillageresort.com/academies) to see if your child’s favourite star is on the roster this summer or May half-term.
Room and half board from £771 per night ( fortevillageresort.com)
TEENAGE KICKS HOLIDAYS FOR OLDER CHILDREN
Holidays with tweens and teens can be somewhat fraught: these young people are highly focused on their friends and are starting to push parents away. We older folks, meanwhile, are in the midst of peak Sandwich Generation angst: our jobs are too draining, we are probably worrying about our elderly parents, and we just want to spend quality time with the kids.
It feels like a bit of a mismatch – and science backs this up. Research from the late Arizona State University Professor
Suniya Luthar, an expert on clinical and developmental psychology and resilience, found that parents – and in particular, mothers – typically find these middle years of parenthood harder than the very early years.
So what does this mean for holidays? It is time to change your game. The same routines that soothed the children when they were younger now cramp their style, and have institutionalised echoes of school. Still, one of the biggest complaints from teenagers is the risk of having nothing to do, so woe betide the parent who books a holiday without a smorgasbord of entertainment prepared.
Steer away from kids’ clubs with set hours at this stage, and towards specialist activities. If your child is sporty, hotels such as Forte Village, in Sardinia, or Parklane, in Cyprus, offer bootcamps in football, netball and other team sports to help children work on their skills, while offering plenty of fitness and games options for adults, too.
Scott Dunn’s Crew programme, hosted at Pine Cliffs in the Algarve, and Costa Navarino, on the Peloponnese coast in Greece, is aimed at those aged 11 and up who are after at least the illusion of autonomy. There are no strict timetables and no base camp, just arranged meeting points with the crew leader, and the freedom to have an adventure, whether that is scuba diving, rock climbing, wakeboarding, tennis, bike tracks or paddleboarding.
Another option for dipping in and out is the Peligoni Club, a complex of elegant self-catering villas dotted around an unspoilt coastline in Zakynthos, Greece, with access to a teen clubhouse and activities such as sailing, waterskiing, volleyball, and mocktail-making.
If, as my 12-year-old recently announced, your child has outgrown all kids’ clubs and organised fun (and you, as parents, are scrambling for a way to spend facilitated quality time together), it may be time for the Mission Holiday. Whether a cycling trip through Umbria (try freedomtreks.co.uk), or sailing through the Ionian islands on a yacht flotilla (check out neilson.co.uk/ beach), the scaffolding of a group activity will foster cooperation – which leads to genuinely valuable and enjoyable time together.