The Best Family Holiday Hotels

(or a list of my favourites, anyway)

When you have children, especially small-ish children, the holy grail of travel is that hotel where you can go on holiday with your family and all have a wonderful time, but also not feel like you’re staying at a ‘family hotel’. You’re looking for that perfect balance between somewhere you, the grown-up, wants to go; but also somewhere where your children will feel welcome and - crucially - be entertained without you needing to entertain them yourself all the time.

So I’ve put together a list of the ‘family hotels’ (that don’t feel like family hotels) I love: the list is by no means exhaustive, but they’re all places we’ve stayed with our boys (now aged 12 and 6) over the years, and where we’ve all had a wonderful time.

The Beldi Country Club, Marrakech. Marrakech, generally, is such a wonderful place to holiday with children (for my short guide on what to do, where to eat and other places to stay while you’re there, see here). Moroccans treat children with such warmth, that you never feel self-conscious taking your little ones to a restaurant for lunch or dinner with you (as I so often do at home in England). But the Beldi especially is a wonderland for children: vast, rambling gardens where they can roam around and explore; countless swimming pools of all different sizes. You can sign up for pottery classes or learn to make flat bread; there are donkeys you can admire and pat (they’re very friendly); you can play boules, tennis, padel; and there is a little cinema room you can book out to watch movies together as a family. For grown ups there is a lovely spa and also a collection of excellent boutiques, where you can happily shop to your heart’s content. Plus you’re a short drive from the Medina. There is no formal ‘kids club’ as such, but the hotel is very popular with families (for all the obvious reasons above), so you’re pretty sure to find other little friends to play with - and yet, the grounds are extensive enough that you don’t feel like you’re staying in a ‘family hotel’. The concierge can book babysitters for you, if you like.

Giraffe Manor, Nairobi. We stayed here for the second time last month and I can’t tell you quite how special it is. It’s a small hotel with only a handful of rooms: once upon a time, the manor was a private house and it still feels like one. Built in the early 1930s and set on the edge of giraffe conservation centre, every day, at breakfast and teatime, the neighbouring giraffes amble over to visit the hotel residents, and you can feed them from the palm of your hand. As, in when we woke up at the crack of dawn, there was a giraffe poised at our bedroom window, just waiting for a snack. This probably isn’t the best hotel for tiny ones, because while the giraffes are extraordinarily gentle creatures, they are still wild animals; but we’ve just been with our youngest who is five years old, and he loved it.