As everyone knows, families come in all shapes and sizes, so for us it isn't simply a matter of giving our clients a list of so-called 'family-friendly' hotels or resorts, but listening to what you have to tell us about your family and matching what you tell us to the resort and type of holiday that we think will be the best for you.
There are, however, some obvious considerations:
How big is the family ? How old are the children and the other family members ? What are the family interests ? How, when and how far do you want to travel ?
As a general rule, if you have very young children, you want to avoid anywhere that is too far away or too hot...if the constant questioning of 'are we nearly there yet' gets to you on a short car journey, it can drive even the most placid of parents mad on a long flight - especially after the hassle of going through some of our larger airports, so the kids have spent up their holiday money even before getting out of the country...And it's also worth remembering, that whatever the journey is like on the way there, you will have the same on the way back ! Based on this, one of our top recommendations for families is to look at our programme of flights from Oxford to Jersey. The airport arrangements at both ends couldn't be easier, a nice short flight, and beautiful beaches when you get there with lots to do for older kids as well.
Activity holidays are always a favourite, so good options for this are some of the UK holiday parks or their counterparts just across the Channel. You get comfortable, good value accommodation with lots of things to do.
Of course, not every family holiday takes place in the summer months. One of the best family holidays is a ski holiday. As ever, you need good advice as to the sort of resort that is best for you dependent upon your skiing ability. Key considerations are proximity to the slopes, good ski school arrangements and plenty of things to do as alternatives to skiing or snowboarding, especially in the evenings.
In this respect, some of the Austrian resorts, such as Mayrhofen and Seefeld are hard ones to beat. The great thing about a ski holiday is that everyone can progress at their own pace...the worst thing that you can do is insist that your whole family go into the same ski class together. Kids learn to ski in a completely different way to adults, so it is better for them to go into a class with youngsters of their own age and the adults have their own tuition. In your own classes, you make friends incredibly quickly and early nervousness is quickly overcome. You can always meet up over lunch or at the end of the day for a few runs together - and the great thing is that you will have your own stories to tell each other at the end of each day.
If you are looking for a family holiday further afield, then again, it is important to get the right balance of location and activity. The Maldives might be a wonderful destination for adults, especially honeymooners, and although some of the resorts offer 'family activities', it's not a destination that we would recommend. However, some areas of Thailand, Sri Lanka and particularly Malaysian Borneo (Sabah) provide the ideal mix of great beach locations with lots of unusual and interesting activities, whether it visiting the elephant orphanages or orang utan reserves. Although some age restrictions apply to certain camps, African safaris are wonderful opportunities to see wildlife at first hand.
Another holiday option which works well for families is cruising, especially if you use some of the mega-ships from RCL or NCL, which double-up as theme-parks, and have the most outrageous facilities - including ice-rinks, climbing walls and waterparks. The joy about cruising is that along with the overall ship experience, they are really a collection of city-break holidays all nicely linked together, but without the trouble of having to pack up and travel between each place yourself...You basically put down your roots in one room for the duration of your stay and are safely delivered to your different destinations.
As outlined above, we start off with you and YOUR family, and then work out what the best holiday would be for you - so why not give us a call, or drop us an e-mail and we will fix up a time to talk to you about the holuday that will suit you best.
