These days a stellar kids club is the key hotel ingredient for keeping stress at bay on a family jolly (particularly with young children).
Distance makes the heart grow fonder, particularly for a few blissful hours when parents can sink into a spa treatment guilt free, as their tots happily pet donkeys, cook nonna-style dishes or get stuck into watersports.
While there are so many variables, the one to really check is that the kid’s club caters to your childrens’ ages (many begin from 4+). There is nothing worse than learning your sprog is a few months short at check in. Here are the hotels with the best kids clubs in Europe.
Forte village, Sardinia
Best for: sports enthusiasts
Age: 0+
Just a short 40-minute hop from the picturesque (and highly underrated) Sardinian capital, Cagliari, lie the excellent facilities, incredible restaurants and 116 acres of pristine coastline of Forte Village. It’s a behemoth of a place with eight hotels, 13 luxury villas and 40 exclusive suites to choose from. There is no shortage of inventive ways to keep kiddies entertained. For under 3s there is the sweet Nursery; toddlers and olders will love the Children’s Wonderland featuring a giant Barbie’s playhouse. You’ll never see your teenager again with a go-kart track, bowling alley and disco to help them burn off whatever it is teens need to burn off. For budding little Beckhams, Real Madrid coaches will be on hand to help kids perfect their ball skills at the in-demand Fundación Real Madrid Clinic. There is exquisite Italian food wherever you go and a thalasso spa to hide away in. They really have thought of everything.
Kids and Family Package’ for a family of four from €640 per night on a half-board basis, excluding drinks, for a minimum stay of 2 nights, fortevillageresort.com
Parklane a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, Limassol, Cyprus
Best for: the spa
Age: From 4 months to 11 years
This plush, easygoing Cypriot hotel clings to the coast (moments away from the ancient city-kingdom of Amathous) and has been cleverly designed to work for families without sacrificing on style or five-star pampering. Parents will want to check their tots into the newly spruced, Scott Dunn-run Explorers Kid Club, now Europe’s largest. You’ll find dedicated sleep rooms, pine-infused gardens peppered with soft play furniture, a pirate ship splash pool and sporting facilities that would make a prestigious inner-city prep school sigh. Divided into various age groups, the club consumes children for hours of fun. Parents can then skip off to the show-stopping Kalloni spa or sidle up to one of the bars for a pre-children style afternoon.
Scott Dunn offers seven nights at Parklane Resort & Spa, Cyprus from £10,000 based on a family of four sharing two connecting rooms on a B&B basis, and includes return flights from the UK and private transfers. For more information, please visit scottdunn.com.
The Marbella Club, Andalusia
Best for: An achingly chic, old money scene
Age: 4 +
Well before the Costa del Sol crowds moved in, Marbella was a sunny enclave for Europe’s glitterati, and The Marbella Club was at the very centre of the scene. It was founded by Prince Alfonso von Hohenlohe, who bought the former Finca Santa Margarita and began filling its rooms and sunbeds with fellow royals, dignitaries and movie stars. Today, the hotel still dines off its ‘50’s glamour, with stories of summer escapades recounted over candle-lit tables enveloped in the subtropical gardens, and Missoni kaftans dotted around the centrepiece pool. Somehow, it’s unbelievably family-friendly. Fanning out in Mediterranean village-like fashion, London parents will sigh as they enter the kids’ club, a vast courtyard, filled with tasteful toy cars, wicker baskets and fun climbing frames. Once they take a look at their kids’ itineraries, they’ll want to check in too: plucking herbs from the gardens for perfume-making, tomatoes from the veg patch for gazpacho-making, flamenco-dancing, hopping onto a paddleboard or into a donkey saddle. They’ll sleep soundly in the hotel’s new coastal-chic suites (cleverly configured for families).
From £398 per night, marbellaclub.com
The Peligoni Club, Zakynthos
Best for: social, sporty families
Age: 4+
Clinging to the north east edges of Zakynthos with the surreal blue Ionian winking below, The Peligoni Club is legendary for its social, family-friendly summers. The secret to its success is a creche that takes babies as young as six months, and a fantastic kids club. This year, the kids club (6 - 10 years old) will fall into the capable hands of TARKA – the screen-free warriors who inspire children to get outside, build their confidence and forge friendships through high energy teamwork. The older lot can learn to sail, wing foil and get stuck into tennis coaching. Evenings are a social affair, where families dissect the day’s adventures over plates whipped up by guest chefs on The Peli’s summer programme (tots snoozing in bed are looked after by an army of babysitters, permanently on call). Parents of tinies will enjoy the Petit Peligoni service: curating all the baby and toddler paraphernalia to hire during a stay.
Guests can stay in B&B’s, cottages or private villas with individual pools from £735 per week, peligoni.com
SANI, Halkidiki
Best for: upmarket all inclusive with knockout beaches
Age: From 6 months for the creche
A little like Madonna, SANI needs no surname or introduction. Ask any parent in the affluent thickets of our fair city about SANI and they’ll have some anecdote or raving first-hand review – ‘our first actual holiday since having kids!’ Highchairs appear like thrones at every restaurant; food is cooked to gourmet standards for sticky fingers; milk appears, as if by magic, at optimum temperature (no froth) before quivering parents have even put the phone down. The resort is now considered the paragon of unresorty, resort family holidays, where weary souls accept their fate and forgo the woefully unserviced villa or hip boutique hotel for ludicrousy comfortable rooms, fantastic childcare and, wait, a real holiday. Each of the five stylishly pared down properties within the resort has its own highly professional, reasonably priced creche, often placed close to the pool or beach so parents can relax without feeling too far away from their tinies. A ‘Babe Watch’ team keeps little ones entertained on the beach while parents, a few metres away, reacquaint themselves with a sun lounger and a book. Older children will love the impressive sports facilities (the tennis academy’s coaches have taught some of the world’s most famous players).
From £180 per night, sani-resort.com
Verdura, Sicily
Best for: multi-age families
Age: 0 (really)
Family runs through the veins and marbled corridors of the Rocco Forte group. What sets this hotel apart from other kids club contenders is that ‘Verduland’ is carved into three age groups: babies (0-3), kids (4-12), teens (13-16), so parents can jump into pre-children holiday zone without worrying that their nine-year-old is cantankerously colouring farm animals. Tinies can splash in a knee high pool shaded by a cabana or get messy with Sicilian cooking, the slightly older lot can shoot and edit films or conduct scientific experiments, and sporty types can throw themselves into volleyball, golf lessons and, famously, Verdura’s fantastic summer football academy. The country club-level facilities really come into their own for older kids, and teens will forgive their parents for pulling them away from important home turf parties with a pool table and games area. Kid’s club aside, there’s plenty to do en famille: cycling along the coast with a picnic, refining serves on the courts, and plenty of downtime around the pool, without worrying about overzealous splashing.
Rooms for a family of 4 starting from £940 a night on B&B basis, roccofortehotels.com
Borgo Egnazia, Puglia
Best for: anti-resorters
Age: 3-16
For parents who abhor the notion of ‘resorts’, this is one of the few hotels that has reconciled the ease of a resort format with the authenticity and chain-free beauty of a sun-dappled 40-acre estate. Rooms couldn’t feel further removed from your classic wipe-clean family-luxe stay, with linens dressing the buffered buttermilk stone in similar shades and split-level family-friendly suites inhaling the citrus-laced air. But the main event here is the kids clubs. The Trullalleri Kids Club, 3-7, whose crafts put Notting Hill nurseries to shame. Parents can check into the knockout spa or sample the cocktail menu at the hotel’s own beach club overlooking the Adriatic while their little ones craft jewellery, master traditional Puglian cooking or splash around in the swimming pool. The Marinai Kids Club keeps 8-12s occupied with go-karting, competitive pool game sessions and, if they’ve had enough sun for one day, Playstation games, while the Teens Club (13-16) is essentially just a socialising opportunity while tucking into the watersports menu (and shaking off nagging parents for a few hours).
From £289 per night, borgoegnazia.com
Daios Cove, Crete
Best for: beach-orientated activities
Age : 4 months +
Parents have been known to rebook their stays here before jetting home from Greece’s largest island. At first glance, Daios Cove is an adult only retreat – earthy, restrained hues, expensive olive oil drizzled on seafood salads, a perfect blonde beach. But this is Greece, a country that rarely leaves the sprogs behind, even on the most luxurious escapades. The Scott Dunn Explorers Kids Club here takes as young as 4 months (I can’t press enough how rare this is). Even better still, Crete summers begin as early as Easter and linger on until October – great for school age families but also for those with tinies whose shadebathing is wasted on a peak summer Mediterranean.
Scott Dunn offers seven nights at Daios Cove, Crete from £4,495 based on a family of three (two adults, one child under 5) in a Deluxe Room on a half board basis, one Explorers Kids Club place and return flights from London and private transfers. For more information, please visit scottdunn.com.
Ikos Marbella, Andalusia
Best for: childcare on tap
Age from: 6 months + for the creche, 4-12 for the Kids’ Club
Ikos loyalists may have raised a brow at the family-friendly Greek hotel group’s first foray into the Costa del Sol. But the snobbery dissipates at the creche door, where children as young as six months can explore a colourful, light-filled space decked in what can only be described as a sensory overload while parents exhale on a cabana beside the fenced off adult-only pool, or relish a drawn out lunch, à deux, with only the sommelier interrupting them. Those routinely stung by Britain’s childcare abomination will madly sniff out the smallprint when they hear the price – from a civilised 32 euros per 3-hour session. Meanwhile, Heroes Village absorbs the 4-12 year olds, sending the older lot out on kayaks and paddleboards, while the smalls paint animal faces, put on plays or test their balancing skills on the wooden structures in the club’s own shaded courtyard. Parents with babies will be hard-pressed to find better tot-service, with organic mush on tap, rooms stocked with all the baby paraphernalia imaginable, and babysitters waiting in the wings.
From £250 per night, ikosresorts.com
LUXME Dama Dama, Rhodes
Best for: entertainment beyond the Kid’s Club
Age: 4-12
A Greek newcomer, LUXME Dama Dama appears to have smoothed over all the pain points of family travel. Children up to 12 stay in specific hotel rooms for free; scrumptious kid’s menu dishes are on the house across all the restaurants; and endless complimentary activities – from family disco sessions to tennis parks and watersports – avoids the agony of mentally totting up all the little extras for a grim finale on check out. But LUXME Dama Dama’s winning card is its kids clubs. Grecoland hosts two age-groups, the first (4-6) offering fun team games, arts and crafts and fun, supervised time in the water, and the second (7-12) works up appetites with competitive pool games, tennis matches, and endless watersports. Children of all ages will squeal with delight at the lagoon-like pools and lazy rivers, all of which are tastefully carved into the landscape and blend into the twinkling Aegean sea beyond. Teens can refine their technique at the tennis academy with lessons, or head out on diving expeditions with expert guides. At GrecoBaby, parents can pre-book all the baby clobber to save lugging it across Europe.
From £162 per night, grecotel.com
Terre Blanche, Provence
Best for: country club character
Age: 2-13
Consider this more of a Provençal country club in the hills than a resort, with 750-acres of pine-dotted grounds, preened golf courses, genteel pools and an enormous cloistered spa. The complimentary Kid’s Club emulates professional summer camps, leveraging Terre Blanche’s superlative facilities for days crammed with activities: swimming, archery, gardening tennis, even beekeeping. It’s as educational as it is entertaining. Children meet farm animals, learn about the resort’s various plants and wildlife, and make great friends to splash about in the pool with once school’s out. While the Kid’s Club is a real highlight, the family activities, from cycling around the grounds to cooking classes, make for precious bonding time. A small-but-mighty feature here is the villa balconies and terraces, (many large enough to host a drinks party on), where parents of napping sprogs can continue their downtime itinerary or even enjoy an al fresco lunch, without forking out for a babysitter. The latter can be saved for adult-only Le Faventia’s clipped Mediterranean menu, where regional classics are given a Michelin starred je ne sais quoi.
From £405 per night, terre-blanche.com
Anassa, Cyprus
Best for: water activities
Age: 3-12 years
Not only does the hotel have the good fortune of Cyprus’ generous summers – stretching out well into half term zones and spring/autumn – its sugarcube villas scatter pine-shaded grounds and blink out towards a calm, glistening sea: a heavenly setting that the superlative kid’s club makes the most of. Children are encouraged to take in the fresh, salty air with a full programme of outdoorsy activities, from sailing to kayaking. Even arts and crafts splay out along the beach. It’s worth noting that children are divided into relevant age groups, so siblings do risk being split up (a blessing for some families). And once school’s out, there’s plenty beyond the kid’s pool to do en famille, whether it’s snorkelling the crystal clear waters, pottering with buckets and spades under a parasol along the hotel’s own beach, or (for grown up kids) heading out on epic diving adventures.
From £370, anassa.com
