Planning a holiday with the whole family in mind is no easy thing. The logistics are a pain enough as it is, without contending with the reality of shepherding tired children, vexatious partners and your own frazzled self through the various steps of making it to another country. Harder still is making the holiday as memorable as it can be, when costs are high and hotels often an afterthought.
It doesn’t have to be this way though. Instead of settling for “we all slept in the same room”, what can you look out for to turn a hotel stay into a truly memorable family experience? Here, we’ll find out exactly what a great hotel stay looks like in the context of a full-family trip abroad.
1. Location & Ease Of Access
First, it’s important to ensure you have some essentials covered by your choice of hotel. A beach view is nice, but not if it takes you three hours to get there after your plane lands! Your hotel’s eventual location makes or breaks your family stay, so make sure anywhere you’re looking to stay is somewhat close to either your airport or to public transport routes.
Location also, of course, matters for the fun parts. You don’t want a struggle getting to local attractions, nor do you want to be situated in a historically or notoriously unsafe area. To use a specific example – if you’re on your way to Menorca for your next family holiday, choosing a resort like Club Hotel Aguamarina in a well-connected coastal setting can minimise drama both in travelling and in enjoying your surroundings!
2. Rooms & Safety-Ready Accommodation
Next up, there’s the quality of the hotel’s rooms themselves. Truly family-friendly hotels offer rooms that cater for different age groups, to maximise comfort. This might mean smaller beds in a shared space, or interconnecting rooms to ensure you have access to everyone; it might also mean ready and free access to baby- and toddler-friendly provisions, such as a travel cot or corner guards for the beds.
3. Dedicated Family/Fun Facilities & Activities
Fun is the name of the game when you’re holidaymaking with your loved ones, so, naturally, you’ll want your eventual hotel to go above and beyond in this regard too. The best family hotels go beyond just family-friendly rooms, providing dedicated children’s zones, kid’s clubs, activities across age ranges, and maybe even some suitable entertainment for parents too – even if just a good bar by the pool so you can ‘supervise’ the little ones in style!
