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Top 10: the best family-friendly beach hotels
![Top 10: the best family-friendly beach hotels](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/Travel/leadAssets/30/27/fabfivemandarinori_3027957a.jpg?imwidth=680)
With the announcement that Air Passenger Duty (APD) is to be scrapped for children aged 12 and under, our experts select their favourite family-friendly beach hotels worldwide.
Le Pirogue, Mauritius
People rave about the friendliness of the four-star family favourite La Pirogue, with characterful rooms in thatched rondavels shaped like sails spread among 1,000 coconut palms on a calm mile-long white-sand beach in lively Flic en Flac. A large pool with water slide, cheery kids’ club with everything from mini-golf to pearl diving, and the run of the colonial-style five-star Sugar Beach next door mean there is plenty to do on site, and the hotel has an all-inclusive option.
The first hotel built on the island, La Pirogue is set in a spacious coconut grove on the longest stretch of white sand beach in the west coast, with a view over Le Morne. Diving and big game fishing are popular and its lovely large infinity pool, with sun loungers on islets planted with frangipani, and a slide, backs right onto the beach. It also has use of a freestyle pool, which meanders around neighbouring Sugar Beach.
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Check availability: La Pirogue, Mauritius
Best hotels in Mauritius
Turtle Beach, Barbados
If you want a good-quality all-inclusive with lots of facilities, this is currently the best bet on Barbados. All rooms have a sofa bed and can sleep a family of at least four. Junior suites are one large room, while one-bedroom suites have a separate bedroom and living room. There's a supervised kids' club for children aged 3-12 runs from 9am-9pm daily, and offers lots of on-site activities, including movies after supper. There's also a games area with table tennis, table football and a pool table. Note that the sea here can be too rough for safe swimming but the hotel has two pools to compensate.
Plenty is covered in the all-inclusive rates: as well as main meals and drinks, afternoon tea, non-motorised watersports and use of the kids' club.
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Barbados travel guide
Le Royal Meridien Beach Resort & Spa, Dubai
This is perhaps Dubai’s most family-friendly resort with kids menus at every restaurant and the outstanding Penguin Club, which employs certified carers and provides a Penguin folder for children on check-in, with a schedule of the week’s activities, from beach games to painting classes, sand-building competitions to bonfire parties.
Popular with families, groups of friends and couples who don’t mind children. Three big swimming pools, an excellent kids' club, myriad water sports and beach activities, from windsurfing and water skiing to fishing and sailing, and tennis and squash courts have long made Le Royal Meridien a favourite destination for holidaying families. A Roman themed spa and health club, 14 restaurants and drinking spots, pool bars, and regular happy hours also keep the adults content.
The hotel rooms won’t win any design awards but they’re spacious and comfortable
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Check availability: Le Royal Meridien Beach Resort & Spa, Dubai
What to do in Dubai
Carlisle Bay, Antigua
Tucked away on the south coast, outside a local village, Carlisle Bay sits on its own lovely beach and bay. It is quite isolated, which means privacy and plenty of boat trips, but it is within relatively easy reach of the action in English Harbour. The rooms, all of which overlook the beach and bay, are beautifully decorated and effortlessly contemporary. They are muted in colour, with dark wooden furniture and lighter-toned fabrics, save for just a slash of colour in the cushions or pink bougainvillea on the veranda. The hotel is popular with families and there is an extensive children’s club – with child-care activities from six months up to 12 year old, and a separate teenager’s club.
The rooms, all of which overlook the beach and bay, are beautifully decorated and effortlessly contemporary. They are muted in colour, with dark wooden furniture and lighter-toned fabrics, save for just a slash of colour in the cushions or pink bougainvillea on the veranda.
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Antigua's best beaches
Six Senses Yao Noi, Phuket
With its swaying butterfly-filled gardens, honey-coloured beaches, swish hilltop infinity pool and Zen garden spa, Six Senses is a tropical island dream scene. Golf buggies nip guests up and down the hillside, while bicycles, kayaks and boats are available to explore local villages and secluded seashores under your own steam.
The hotel is also surprisingly offspring-friendly for such a romantic spot. As an all-villa property there are no connecting rooms but the villas are enormous so extra beds can be rolled out without ever getting under your feet – and come at no extra charge for wee ones under 11. Children’s menus are also discounted, with kids aged one to six eating for free, and seven to 11-year olds receiving a 50 per cent discount – although just try and keep them away from the complimentary ice-cream parlour. Elsewhere, the beach is silk soft and the sea flat calm making it ideal for splashing around with tots, while activities for older children include everything from Muay Thai boxing sessions in a beachside ring to kayaking around shady mangroves to messily-brilliant batik painting classes.
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Check availability: Six Senses Yao Noi, Phuket
Best hotels in Phuket
The Ritz-Carlton Abama, Tenerife
Generally considered to be the best hotel on Tenerife, the Ritz-Carlton, Abama is a luxurious, Moroccan-styled hotel with its own championship golf course, an indulgent spa, a secluded golden beach and two Michelin-starred restaurant.
Positioned in splendid isolation on a clifftop above banana plantations on the south-west coast, overlooking the neighbouring island of La Gomera. Designed to resemble a North African citadel with sandstone turrets rising from a luxuriant garden, the property covers a vast area yet the design creates a sense of intimacy. Pleasant, casual atmosphere. The Ritz Kids' Club, children’s pool and a full agenda of daily activities, including the feeding of the Koi carp, make the hotel an attractive option for families.
The Ritz-Carlton Abama occupies a splendid clifftop location.
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What to do in Tenerife
St Nicolas Bay Resort Hotel & Villas, Crete
On the Nisí peninsula’s north shore, almost a mile outside Ágios Nikólaos proper, gazing over Mirabéllo Bay from grounds landscaped with drought-tolerant species. The sandy coastline is limited to one little cove, but there’s a full watersports programme. There is also a kids’ club (geared for very young children), though most children will be in the water at the sheltered and safe beach.
There are six new three or four bedroom villas which have a remote feel and private lidos.
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Crete's best beaches
Princesa Yaiza, Lanzarote
By Dorada beach in the low-key resort of Playa Blanca in the south of the island, with views across the sea to Isla de Lobos and Fuerteventura. Modern and practical, but well designed in colonial style with plenty of space. The Kikoland area has lots of kids’ activities, including two pools just for children. There are tennis courts, a gym with fitness and Pilates classes and a huge spa with a wide range of treatments.
There are 385 spacious rooms and suites, decorated in natural tones in contemporary Canarian style, with many suitable for families. Most have a small kitchen too.
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What to do in Lanzarote
Anassa, Cyprus
With terraces, terracotta tile roofs and great views, the effect is more Tuscan than Hellenic, and a clever layout ensures that even when nearly full, the hotel doesn’t feel so. There’s a kids’ pool and adjacent playground and the well-regarded watersports centre accepts child novices (eight years and up) for shallow-water scuba courses. The Anassa can be busy with children during school holidays.
Kids’ clubs, provided six days weekly, are divided into five age groups, the Baby Go Lightly programme is offered as at other Thanos properties, and some rooms interconnect. There’s a dedicated kids’ pool and adjacent playground; the well-regarded water-sports centre on beach accepts child novices (eight years and up) for shallow-water scuba courses. There are minimum age requirements for the two indoor la carte restaurants: no under-12s at Basiliko, no toddlers requiring high-chairs at Helios.
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What to do in Cyprus
Mandarin Oriental Bodrum, Turkey
Wrapped around its own private bay on the northern shores of a peninsula jutting-out from Turkey’s beautiful Aegean coast, it’s hard to imagine a more laid-back yet sophisticated and exclusive retreat than the Mandarin Oriental. It’s perfect for children. There’s a choice of beaches, including Olive which slopes gently into the sea, a children’s pool with toys next to it, a supervised playroom for toddlers and games room for older kids, and baby-sitting services.
What’s really special about this place, though, is that the size of the grounds compared to the number of guests is so generous, and that the low-rise hotel buildings have been subtly designed to blend perfectly into the olive groves amongst which they have been built. At times it’s hard to remember that you are in a holiday complex at all, especially when all you can hear is the incessant creaking of the cicadas.
Read the full review: Mandarin Oriental Bodrum, Turkey