It is a truth universally acknowledged that any exciting holiday that you have
taken in the past few years, probably will not have included the children.
Think back, when was the last time you wowed someone with the gosh-factor of
your travels, actually raised an eyebrow when you told them where you were
going? If it was when you skipped off with your partner to Brazil, or India,
or Cambodia, then you are not alone. It has been confirmed in one of those
blinding-glimpse-of-the-obvious surveys that more and more of us are going
it alone without the kids to experience the excitement of travel.
In the survey, 1,000 couples with children under 16, revealed that 50 per cent
of them had left their children at home while they holidayed together, and,
more surprisingly, more than a quarter of them did so “regularly” and “for
more than a week”. Also surprising was the fact that only 14 per cent did it
because it was too expensive to holiday as a family, with most citing that
they wanted a break from the chores of parenthood, or to re-stoke the
romance in the relationship, and 14 per cent saying they did not want to
take their children out of school or to an unsuitable destination.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. From the cheapies to the luxury, there are
great holidays to be had with the children in tow, but not under your feet.
It’s all down to the quality of the kids’ club or creche facilities, and,
above all, the attitude of the establishment towards children. It is not
enough to have just gum-chewing teenagers managing the children’s area, they
need to be thought through properly so the children want to go. British
children are a discerning bunch, and any whiff of being dumped in a dump,
and they will be clinging to your cocktail twizzler faster than you can say
“waiter!”
So, from the bottom to the top, luxury end, which are the best places to take
your children? Having talked to dozens of mothers on Mumsnet,
all of whom are bumped up in the family department, recurrent themes emerge.
Victoria Benson, 35, from North London recommends a Mark
Warner holiday, despite the fact that her four children Charlie, 7,
Poppy, 6, Isabelle, 3 and Phoebe 20 months old, are reluctant to attend the
kids’ clubs. She says: “I don’t like going to cottages - it rained on both
of our holidays in Wiltshire – and I don’t like transferring the drudgery
abroad with villas.” Dedicated net surfers were able to avoid the inflated
holiday price hikes by booking one-off accommodation direct and finding
their own flights (“taking the children out of school either side of Easter
we found outbound tickets for £6 each to Spain and £60 return. We spent
about three hours researching online,” said one such mumsnetter).
When Mumsnet asked its 250,000 monthly users last year where their best budget
holidays of around £1,000 were, good kids’ clubs featured in them all. For
example Mousses,
Lefkas, Greece, was cited as a favourite, and described as “a complex of ten
small houses set in an ancient olive grove, offering English-speaking
nannies perfect for pre-school and primary age children, with a club and a
creche. Large pool and children’s pool with beaches, restaurants and shops
close by are another attraction”. In the medium budget range, one place that
attracted more than ten votes was Sunsail
Perili, Bay of Datca, Turkey. It was described as “a hotel on a hillside
with very large rooms for families and five friendly kids clubs. Sailing is
free for over-five year olds who want to learn and there are water
activities, tennis, swimming pools and good food”. It’s only downside was a
transfer of three hours from the airport but many reported it was “well
worth the wait”.
While these places with their good kids'clubs may mean that you don’t need to
leave the children at home to enjoy an activity holiday, they still don’t
elicit the wow-factor over the watercooler that the more exotic locations
do. For that, one former travel consultant is putting together a luxury
travel book where children really can experience something different. Sarah
Siese, author of Heaven
on Earth Kids due out in May (Times Online, 01189 333777, can order it
at special price of £16.95 softback or hardback £27.95, posted free of
charge to UK address) was inspired by child-friendly places that she had
visited on her global travels.
Often the owners had children themselves, like the CEO of the Reethi
Rah hotel in the Maldives where the five-star kids’ club included
regular hermit crab races on the beach. Owners having children themselves
meant that they knew how to treat her daughters Rosie, 11, Isabella, 9, and
Francesca, 7, like princesses. Others like EvaSon,
Hua Hin, Thailand made the list because their kids' club offered something
over and above the norm, such as Elephant Trekking or exciting sleepovers in
the hotel grounds. Says Siese: “I choose hotels not for their numbers of
stars or price, but because they are places where, from the moment you wake
up to the moment you go to sleep, you know that you are in that country… I’m
very well travelled and it’s the friendliness or the welcome of all the
staff that makes you instantly know whether a place is good or not".
When it comes to kids’ club timetables, Sarah searched for activities for the
book that were unique to the destination. So when they stopped off in Sri
Lanka at the Lighthouse
Hotel and Spa on Boxing Day, her children helped light candles around
the island for a special requiem mass for the victims of the Tsunami, and
took part in staging a show for the island using indigenous puppets with the
German Puppeteer Steve Brick. Gosh. Now that really does inspire a “wow”.
