Luxury Family Travel
Luxury Family Travel
Luxury travel and kids don’t always go together. How many beautiful boutique hotels are there that will welcome small children with all their potential for sticky finger-prints and accidental breakages let loose amid prize winning décor and serene ambience?! And yet families with young children have all the more reason to look for comfort and superb service when they travel. Arriving frazzled and stressed after a harrowing journey with a couple of restless toddlers leaves you all the more in need of the balm and pampering of a top class luxury hotel. If you are lucky enough to find an hotel with a welcoming and sympathetic approach to children then even better.
Travelling with children is an art you can learn: from babies and toddlers who need regular meals and re-assuring surroundings, to older kids who need room to stretch their legs and fun things to do, toreluctant teens who are coaxed into the holiday spirit with stimulating activities and access to high speed internet connections, there is a perfect luxury destination out there for them all, sometimes one place will even meet the needs of all age groups!
Each family is as individual as its members so only you can decide what will suit your family best. Of course, a little help never goes amiss, so we highly recommend using a dedicated concierge service to help you with ideas, suggest solutions to suit your individual family, and make all the arrangements for you. They can save you money and they truly do help to smooth the way to a hassle free holiday.
To make it easier to discover your ultimate luxury family travel solution, we've put together a few ideas that might be right for your family.
Get Away From It All, In Luxury
Whisking your whole family away to a luxury hideaway in the wilderness has a lot to recommend it: plenty of gentle time together to rediscover your equilibrium as a family without all the distractions of a busy everyday routine; the pampering of first class service and wonderful meals; enough outdoor activities to enthrall kids and adults alike. One example of this idyllic scenario is Bushmans Kloof Wilderness Reserve in South Africa, where a luxury farmhouse can be hired exclusively, along with personal chef, housekeeper and field guide. A kids’ loft with toys, entertainment room with surround sound and rim flow pool vie for attention with personal game drives and guided walks and rock art to captivate the attention in between wonderful meals devised in the state of the art kitchen.
Luxury Hotel in Cosmopolitan City
You wouldn’t often think of grand city hotels as being family-friendly but if you do your home-work you can hit the jackpot. Cities can be great places to holiday with kids, with so many places to visit and loads of infrastructure to keep everyone entertained. If Cape Town is your destination then the grand Mount Nelson Hotel is surprisingly welcoming to families with children. A wonderful garden with stunning pool provides plenty of running around space and staff are friendly and relaxed. Kids will love being served dinner from an elegant trolley/ dining table in their room of your interconnecting suite, supervised by an in-house childminder, while parents are spoiled in the elegant restaurant downstairs. Even the renowned luxury spa is child friendly so kids can enjoy their own Cinderella facial or mini pedicure alongside mum.
Family Luxury on the French Riviera
The French Riviera has had a name for the ultimate summer holiday since way back in the 1920’s: grand hotels, pristine beaches, decadent parties, yachts, champagne and caviar, it has the unreal feel of a James Bond movie and could seem way too glitzy a scene for kids. But if you are looking for a beach holiday with a difference, a grand hotel that caters for kids will give you a little bit of pampering, as well as making sure the kids have the time of their life. Hôtel Le Beauvallon is one such. Menus for young gourmets, mini golf clubs, child sized shower robes, cartoon character sheets, private screening room, a private launch to take you to nearby St Tropez, plenty of things to do together as a family, but childminders on hand so that mum and dad can have some time on their own.
Winter Activity Holiday
An alpine skiing holiday with kids along can be a wearying experience. Instead of liberating runs down sparkling slopes you find yourself struggling with boots and chairlifts for tiny tots and the logistical nightmare of accommodating everyone’s different levels of skill and stamina. A luxury hotel that is close to the slopes and caters for kids like the Hotel Bellevue in Cogne, Italy has to be the perfect answer. Tired kids can put skis away and recuperate in the spa area or hang out in the children’s playroom and dog sledding activities ring the changes when skiing palls.
Luxury Villa on the Beach
With small children sometimes the least stressful option is hiring a villa that is a home from home. But it doesn’t have to be a dull and characterless rental. Look for luxury villas with plenty of character and plenty of room. If you can find one right on an unspoilt beach, with glorious views yet close to a cosmopolitan city, like the Villa Blanc in Cape Town, then all members of your family are sure to be happy.
Other things to consider when planning luxury family travel:
Are your kids comfortable with being looked after by strangers? All family-orientated luxury hotels, safari lodges and the rest offer the services of in-house baby-sitters. If your children are happy with friendly new faces then you will have the freedom for any amount of special pampering and adults-only dinners. But if your toddler is going to howl every time you leave him with these strangers, however smiling and helpful, then your relaxation is going to be spoiled before it begins. If this is the case then you have a couple of options: consider taking along a nanny or babysitter that your toddler knows well; or choose a destination that has plenty of activities that you can enjoy with your child, perhaps one where you can also order an intimate dinner a deux to be served in your suite after your toddler is asleep so that you don’t miss out on romance and together time with your partner.
How much moving around do you want to do? Packing and unpacking with a different stop every night can be a nightmare with children. They get unsettled by so many changes and sleep patterns can go haywire. With small children it could well be best to book just one or two different destinations of at least a week each; this way you can establish a re-assuring luxury holiday routine and a home from home.
Luxury family travel at its best.
