10 of the best winter-sun family villas
Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives
Beach Pavilion at Per Aquum Niyama
At this high-octane retreat, a 45-minute seaplane ride from Malé over atolls of pancake-batter-drop islands, there is endless activity in the water: surfing, paddle-boarding, kitesurfing, kayaking and marine expeditions. Swimmers can snorkel the cultivated trail close to shore or plant a baby coral among nurseries teeming with sea anemone, clownfish and needlefish. Or keep feet dry on a dhoni, sailing out to spot dolphins, flying fish and moon-faced manta rays.
Back on shore, the box-fresh Scott Dunn kids' club is a delight, set in the centre of Play, the shiny bright new island (linked to the main hotel by a clackety wooden bridge under which the occasional turtle swims). Within its circus-styled buildings, the air-conditioned baby room has cots for naps, a good staff-to-little-ones ratio and endless sticking, crafting and painting (plus toys, books and games). Outside is an incredible fountain zone, with jets and streams that burst out of gigantic flower heads, a climbing wall, slides, sand diggers, and a disco stage with lighting that pulses in time to the music.
The family beach pavilion is the one to book, with its own spa-therapy room, hot tub and pair of pools. Inside it's modern and slick and, most importantly for jet-lagged light sleepers, has blackout blinds that slide down at the push of a button.
Address: Per Aquum Niyama, Dhaalu Atoll, Republic of Maldives
Telephone: +44 161 826 9647
Website: www.carrier.co.uk
Price: Seven nights from £4,270 per family, based on two adults and two children sharing a beach studio, including flights, seaplane transfers and breakfast. Sleeps four
Antigua, Caribbean
Sandpiper Beach House at Jumby Bay
This private island is pretty much as close as a castaway hideout can get to the baggage hall: three minutes in the car then seven on a boat across a fiercely bright turquoise strait. That transfer blasts away all airplane fogginess and deposits you on a warm wooden jetty.
Over half of the 53 villas here are available to rent. There are some ultra-grand whoppers, all colonnades and marble, and some surprisingly low-key cottages last decorated in the 1980s. This winning beach house lies somewhere in between. It is crisp and fresh, and laidback enough that sandy footprints across floors and soggy bottoms on sofas won't give anyone cause for concern. The bleached wood, soaring ceilings, whirring fans and coral-print fabrics give the house a colonial feel with a dollop of Oka-style thrown in. All five bedrooms have mosquito-netted four-posters, headboards made from sea-bleached branches, funky local art to add colour and plantation shutters that let in a soft breeze at night.
For daytime entertainment there's a lovely pool as well as a pool table, and masses of striped outdoor beds. The beach - with its starfish-filled shallows - is right at the end of the deck, and beyond the walls are 300 acres of roaming-around room for mini escapades to spy black-headed sheep grazing or blue bellied lizards basking on the sand.
At night, roast marshmallows around the firepit after a supper cooked by your private chef, or toddle off to one of the three hotel restaurants (no need to take a wallet: it's all part of the deal).
Address: Jumby Bay, St. John's, Antigua
Telephone: +44 1244 355527
Website: www.itcluxurytravel.co.uk
Price: Seven nights from £5,195 per person based on 10 adults sharing the Sandpiper Beach House, full board, including flights and transfers. Sleeps 10
Marrakech, Morocco
Maisons at Amanjena
All Aman hotels come with certain expectations - of a hushed atmosphere, refined elegance, grown-up serenity - and this Ed Tuttle terracotta masterpiece is no exception. But that isn't to say smaller travellers aren't welcome too. And compared to the hurly-burly of Marrakech's medina, the space you get here is a much-needed antidote with its palms and olive trees, endless expanses of manicured grass for tearing around and petal-strewn tiled fountains for cooling hot little feet.
The main, aquamarine-tiled pool has a huge shallow end for tentative swimmers, and it's impossible to get in anyone's way. There are tennis courts for late-afternoon knockabouts, a library to overwhelm even the most committed bookworm, cooking classes, donkey rides and babysitting when needed. And beyond the gates is the Sahara desert, for hiking, biking and sandy escapades on camelback.
With its own 120ft heated swimming pool, the Al-Hamra mansion is the big-daddy villa to book. There are also six rose-tinted Maisons with open-plan living areas, children's rooms on the ground floor (with mini djellaba robes on the back of the doors and babouche slippers at the ends of the beds) and a master suite, dressing room and bathroom upstairs, containing straw sunhats and Havaianas for the adults.
Two of these Moorish-minimalist Maisons have garden courtyards where staff can set up family suppers under the minzah (pillared gazebo). Or head to the bar, find a sofa on the lawn and listen to the local musicians before dinner in the restaurant. The kids can run free while you unwind into the evening.
Address: Amanjena, Route de Ouarzazate, Morocco
Telephone: +44 20 8682 5080
Website: www.scottdunn.com
Price: Seven nights in a Maison from £3,500 per person, including flights, transfers and breakfast. Sleeps four
Bonaire, Caribbean
Villas at Piet Boon
This wild, windswept corner of the Caribbean is only 50 miles from Venezuela, but you're more likely to hear Dutch voices chattering at the beach bars than Spanish (or indeed English). Bonaire, still part of the Netherlands, is a tiny island with no traffic lights but lots of flamingos and cacti.
Amsterdam-based architect and designer Piet Boon has created a gathering of nine rather extraordinary and well-priced villas, four of which sit right on the water's edge with steps down into the sea. His stark, modern design, with sharp lines and polished concrete, is warmed by shafts of sunlight and vases of bougainvillaea and softened by sculptural benches of hewn wood and seashell mobiles.
It's refreshingly different to the usual Caribbean floral fussiness - this is smart yet still barefoot and breezy. There are hammocks and swinging rattan chairs strung under a thatched palapa, and charcoal day beds are placed around the emerald-tiled pools. Slatted shutters direct the strong gusts like natural air con (this is a popular wind- and kite-surfing spot).
Chefs and housekeepers are on call to whip up BBQs of freshly caught fish, and organise sailing days or kids' camps at windsurfing hub Jibe City. But you can just as happily fend for yourself, and the Van Den Tweel supermarket has all the essentials for a picnic lunch: marinated tomatoes, amazing cheeses and rotisserie chickens. In the evenings head to Kite City, a food truck right by the sea, for zingy fish tacos. Bring fins and masks to drift around under the clear water first, then hang out on beachside beanbags to watch the sun sink.
Address: Piet Boon, Kralendijk, BonaireTelephone: +599 717 6424
Website: www.pietboonbonaire.com
Price: Seven nights' villa rental from about £2,250. Sleeps four
Franschhoek, South Africa
Rhodes cottage at Boschendal farm
For a dose of post-safari farm living, the Sir Herbert Baker-designed house on the 2,200-hectare Boschendal estate is a knockout. It comes with a dollop of Cape history, a live-in housekeeper called Jones, bicycles and two swimming pools - one of which is an eco-pool, which means the kids can paddle with tadpoles.
The whitewashed Cape Dutch cottage was originally built as a bolthole for Cecil John Rhodes, who revived the vineyards and planted deciduous fruit orchards 120 years ago, and the comfy, country-house vibe remains intact with floral and ticking fabrics, solid indigenous-wood antiques and an Arts and Craft influence.
A puttering tractor may mean an early wake-up, but there's so much to do before the fierce South African heat settles in: hiking and mountain-biking, pony rides, trout fishing, picnics, spa treatments and wine tasting, all kicked off with a slap-up breakfast served on the veranda.
While it's cheery to head down to the farmshop and deli to pick up biodynamic provisions for a family supper, with a little advance warning Jones can sort pasture-fed Black Angus steaks on the barbecue or a basket of roast organic chicken and salads to eat on the lawn. Wash it down with sparkling wine from the estate or a bottle of Cecil John Reserve Shiraz.
For a blow-out lunch, head to the Werf Restaurant in the old cellar, where farm-to-table disciple Christiaan Campbell conjures up pretty plates in front of your eyes. Boschendal sits beneath the towering Simonsberg peak in the Drakenstein Valley, halfway between Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, with day-tripping possibilities in all directions, and the excitements of Cape Town are just a 45-minute car-ride away, too.
Address: Boschendal Estate, Pniel Road, Franschhoek, South Africa
Telephone: +27 21 870 4290
Website: www.boschendal.com
Price: Seven nights' villa rental from about £3,525. Sleeps eight adults and two children
Riviera Maya, Mexico
Villa at Esencia
Cooler than anywhere in Playa del Carmen, smarter than Tulum, Esencia wins the chicest beach spot on this coast every time. Nowhere on this significant stretch of shoreline - with its turquoise waters and its pale sands, its pencil-palms and clattering seagrass - does it better if you just want to fly and flop.
The main house, famously, once belonged to an Italian duchess, which is irrelevant except it feels exactly like a house that still belongs to an Italian duchess. It's so insouciant, so mid-century classy without ever trying too hard. Service may be a little slow: order scrambled eggs and avocado with a green juice for breakfast then go for a quick paddle-board before sitting down to eat it. But you forgive this because it forces you to relax and stare out to sea and boogie board with your kids and drink too many salty Margaritas.
Look around and there are people who make a point of coming here rather than choosing a cheesier Caribbean vibe: gallery owners from London, presenters of Saturday Night Live, Washington lobbyists, the odd pop star. Families book the two-bedroom villa with its own pool and then dip in and out of hotel life: yoga in the morning; an outing to swim with the turtles at Akumal; a snooze under a palapa after lunch; early suppers while playing Uno as the sun sets. Privacy, quietness, peace. Then again, outside of Esencia's gates are zip-lining, four-wheel drives and crazy racoons - enough to keep the crew exhilarated if needed.
Address: Hotel Esencia, Carretera Cancún, Xpu-Ha, Mexico
Telephone: +52 984 873 4830
Website: www.scottdunn.com
Price: Scott Dunn offers seven nights at the villa from £5,960 per person, including flights, transfers and breakfast. Sleeps four
Mustique, Caribbean
Fisher House
The Mustique set-up is incredibly civilised for families. At this private retreat, everyone cruises around in Kawasaki Mules, hopping in flip-flops from the soft sands of Macaroni beach to the wild waters at Pasture Bay, taking care to avoid any tortoises crossing the road and making detours to sign up for pony trekking, kite surfing or one of the weekly tennis camps.
Fisher House in particular is stellar for an ultra-active brood - the 20-metre, pebble-lined pool with its waterfall is one of the best places to splash about on the island (owner Gordon McCallum, one of the head honchos at Virgin and long-time friend of Richard Branson's, has a household of keen swimmers).
For those who just want to paddle there are glorious views from the shallow end, past the tiny runway where Twin Otter planes putt-putt in and out three or four times a day, over the avenue of palms and the rooftops of the Cotton House hotel, straight across the water to Bequia.
The rest of the outside space is just as fantastic, with a huge terrace and plenty of mauve and grey beanbags for slumping on. The open-sided great room has L-shaped sofas piled high with silk-printed cushions, armchairs that swivel round 180 degrees to watch the sunset, books, board games and the biggest noughts and crosses set you'll ever see. For the odd rainy afternoon, there's a media room full of DVDs and daybeds.
Joy, the chef, has been cooking at the house for 28 years. Breakfast, served in the gazebo, can include bowls of the sweetest mango, papaya and kiwi, warm pancakes, fresh juices - her beetroot-and-celery concoction has a particular kick - and strawberry and banana smoothies that taste like milkshake.
There are three interconnecting bedrooms: two pretty doubles - with White Company bath linen, floral fabrics, limed wood - and a bright and breezy bunkroom. But plans for a further trio of rooms will turn this place into a whopping, bring-the-whole-gang crash pad.
Address: Fisher House, Mustique Island, St. Vincent and The Grenadines
Telephone: +44 20 7201 6831
Website: www.mustique-island.com
Price: Seven nights' villa rental from £8,364, including four staff. Sleeps six
Jamaica, Caribbean
The Fleming Villa at GoldenEye
Owned by Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records and champion of Bob Marley, GoldenEye is famous as the home of Ian Fleming. The writer's original house is now part of the five-bedroomed Fleming Villa, which has hosted Bill and Hilary, as well as Jay-Z and Beyoncé. It comes with its own pool and gaggle of staff; in the main bedroom is the museum-worthy desk where 007 was brought into existence. The villa is hidden away just off the curving, sandy bay with its snaking spine of palm and fig trees, bright wooden deckchairs, lush greenery and heavy bougainvillaea.
If you don't have a party of 10, then there are a handful of two-bedroomed villas: four on Low Cay beach and one by the bath-warm waters of the lagoon. The former have a kitchen and breakfast bar and wooden steps straight onto the sand; the latter is more fun for older kids with hammocks, kayaks and over-water decks (more beach villas are in the pipeline for the next bay along). The style throughout is the same: polished wooden floors, painted clapboard and zesty patterned fabrics in lime and orange and aqua. There are clawfoot baths, outdoor rain showers and a set of Bond novels on bedside tables to read before lights out (the little touches are spot on, from clearly labelled lamp switches to a wooden ladder propped up against a tree by the shower for towels).
At the end of the beach, there's a pear-shaped infinity pool and the open-air Bizot bar, all turquoise and sea-blue with driftwood lights, a thatch roof and pillars decorated with vintage album covers. This is a laidback and unpretentious spot for a family mission.
Address: GoldenEye, Oracabessa Bay, St. Mary, Jamaica
Telephone: +1 876 6229 007
Website: www.goldeneye.com
Price: Seven nights' villa rental from about £24,709. Sleeps 10
Alexander JamesVamizi Island, Mozambique
Tartaruga House at Vamizi
Set in the northern Quirimbas Archipelago, a scattering of 32 tiny, mostly uninhabited islands, Vamizi isn't exactly a place to nip to for a weekend. From Dar Es Salaam or Johannesburg it's a two-and-a-half-hour flight, then a short hop in a small plane over villages, ramshackle fishing dhows, gin-clear seas - and occasionally a whale. But once you've landed on the little strip cut into the mangroves and kicked off your shoes, the getting there is forgotten.
The main lodge and the hotel rooms are currently being refurbished, so settle straight into the thatched and stone cottages that make up Tartaruga, the newest of six private villas. It's set at the edge of a white, shell-strewn beach, with a swimming pool and sunbeds in the centre, and kids' bunkrooms and grown-up suites arranged behind.
The housekeepers and butler, trained at Vamizi's eco-hotel, couldn't be more smiley: serving lobster for lunch, as well as just-picked salads and fresh mango smoothies; organising barbecues on the beach and Champagne cocktails by the pool.
For the energetic, there are kayaks on which to go out exploring, fishing trips to bring back tuna (conjured into sashimi later), diving excursions and snorkelling. Spa therapists can be called to administer coconut massages and salt body-scrubs; and there are hammocks and shaded daybeds on which to while away the hours, and outdoor candlelit baths in which to wallow and gasp at the Milky Way, lit up with shooting stars.
Address: Vamizi Island, Mozambique
Telephone: +44 843 636 8435
Website: www.steppestravel.com
Price: Five nights from £15,980 based on two adults and two children, full board, including flights, transfers and activities. Sleeps 14
Tulum, Mexico
Casa Madera, Papaya Playa
Papaya Playa is best known for its full-moon parties, for its sandy-floored, open-air nightclub with mirrored disco balls and visiting international DJs. But hidden in its jungle walkways is a treehouse that will send the latent hippie parent into an early-1990s, trance-like state of Orb-ish happiness. Everything is open to the elements so that the beach comes crashing at you from all sides like an excitable party crowd. Suck in its whoosh and howl at stars asking to be plucked like huckleberries from the sky.
Here is your butler. She is called Maya; she has dreadlocks and new-wave tattoos and a skirt that doesn't cover her bottom. She'll deal with you on Whatsapp, sourcing mangos slippery as hot butter on a pan, the best tequila in the land, bicycles and tricycles and appointments with the shaman at dusk.
The children play Pelmanism on the creaking floors, collect shells from the beach; they loll in the cool slip of the pool and chase after lizards. Beachside Tulum, and lunches at Pousada Margarita, are there if needed, as is downtown Tulum with its pretty embroidered dresses. But always return to the Casa for its simple pleasures: mosquito-netted four-posters, day beds and hammocks wherever they can be fitted.
This is a beachside hobbit house, all hand-made out of wood. It takes you back to the best of times and makes you realise you can do it all over again with your feral beach babies in tow. Don't. Tell. Anyone.
Address: Casa Madera, Tulum-Boca Paila, Tulum, Mexico
Telephone: +52 1 984 116 3774
Website: www.papayaplayaproject.com
Price: Seven nights' villa rental from £5,924. Sleeps fiveContributors: Jane Broughton, Fiona Brown, Lucy Freedman, Lisa Grainger, Emma Love, Issy von Simson, Melinda Stevens
This feature first appeared in Condé Nast Traveller October 2015