How to choose a luxury family friendly hotel

Jo MacGregor is the founder of Quo Vadis Travel, the family holidays company and she shares with BritMums her six insider tips to make sure you pick the best hotel or resort for your family holiday.

The Pool

This might look gorgeous in the photos but depending on where you are going and when it could be essential it is heated for full family enjoyment. If it doesn’t specify it is heated it almost certainly won’t be, and even if it does say heated ask the temperature. A freezing cold pool just won’t do! 27 degrees is an absolute minimum but to not feel cold 28 – 30 degrees is better.

Rooms with Balconies

If you are imagining stretching out on your balcony whilst your little one is having a daytime nap or after they are asleep take care with the description. I have experienced a huge, fully furnished balcony with comfortable sun loungers to a 30 centimetre ‘ledge’ – & both were described as ‘balconies’. If dimensions are hard to find (which they are on hotels’ websites) then ask what furniture you can expect to give you an idea.

The Bathroom

Just because you are booking a 5 star hotel does not always mean that you will find a separate bath tub and shower cubicle. Some will just have a shower and others a bath-with-shower-over combo. If a bathtub rather than a shower is essential for your kids then double check

The Beach

A beach, private or otherwise, does not mean it is family friendly. If your kids love building sandcastles then a fine shingle sand will not suffice so beware the description ‘golden beach’, it does not mean there is sand!

Dining

Often the main hotel restaurant might be a buffet. I am definitely in the anti-buffet camp but with my kids I have come to think a buffet is better than the dreaded ‘kids’ menu’. They get to see what they eat before they commit and can try many, many dishes they would not get from a kids’ menu. Even so there are buffets and buffets although with people’s taste varying so much even recent customer reviews are hard to trust. Look for ‘live cooking stations’ in the description, it’s a start but not fool proof.

Also in my 20 years of inspecting hotels I have never experienced a really great room service meal – simply don’t rely on it – check for the earliest opening restaurant or have a large lunch and a sandwich tea if you want to keep to UK early kid dinner routines.

Adults-Only Pool

Don’t dismiss and move to the next one if there is an ‘adults only’ zone, pool or accommodation area mentioned. It is actually a massive positive that your kids can splash in the pool, laugh and have fun to their hearts’ content and you have no fear of offending anyone.. And don’t forget you could take it in turns or use the kids’ club and you get to enjoy that peaceful place rarely found in our stressful lives as parents.

Biography: Jo MacGregor is founder of Quo Vadis Travel, the family holidays company. Jo set up the company after a couple of just-average holidays, which she found harder work with her three children, all under five, than being at home. Since then, creating the perfect family holiday has become Jo’s obsession and she’s spent the last 12 years travelling the world in search of the best luxury family holidays as well as quizzing friends, family and colleagues about their holiday experiences. Jo, together with her team, always personally inspect Quo Vadis’ hand-picked hotels to ensure they met their excellent standards.

Read her blog Family Holidays Company, chat to her on Twitter @Jo_QuoVadis

About Marianne Weekes

BLOGS AT: Mari's World; TWITTER: @maris_world. Mother of four and nana to three, Marianne Weekes has spent half her life in the UK and the other half in Italy. Blogging since Jan 2010, she finds it hard to drag herself away from her laptop and writes about food, travel and lifestyle. Always on the lookout for the next thing which takes her down many surprising lanes.