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Baby Friendly & Child Friendly Holidays
For more holiday ideas you can do with with your family. Not sure what is suitable - find your ideal holiday with our unique profile system to get a personalised list.
- Tips for Travelling with Babies
- What do you need for a child friendly holiday
- More information on travelling with Children and Babies holidays
- More articles on Family holidays ideas
- Family specialist operators and kids / family club.
- More articles on child friendly holiday
Tips for travelling with Babies
- Bring a minimum of two changes of clothes in your hand luggage - a return trip home with a baby with diarrhoea taught me the value of this.
- Don’t mix milk before you go travel - sour milk and sick baby - yuk! Measure the water into the sterilised bottles and put the correct amount of milk powder into a separate plastic container. Or buy in sachets. Always take more than you anticipate in case of delays.
- Don’t check the baby stroller in with the luggage take it to the departure gate. In addition to the obvious plus of not having to carry a heavy toddler its also a good prison when you get fed up with chasing them round.
What constitutes a child friendly holiday?
Think about your needs - these are some of the key things to put on your check list.
- What supervised activities are offered for your children's age-group?
- Do the activities or excursions cost extra? Are the staff trained? (You'll want the staff to be a minimum age of l8 and have at least two years experience working with children.)
- Is there a baby-sitting or baby-listening service? If not, can they recommend an off-site baby-sitting service charging reasonable rates? What qualifications do their staff have?
- Will your children be experimental with food or do you need children's menus? Do you need special diets? Are kids excluded from the restaurant at any time?
- Do the rooms have kitchenettes, a kettle or mini refrigerators? What about a suite rather than a standard double room.
- Are cots, cot bed sheets, buggies, highchairs or other children's supplies available? Facilities for bottle warming ?
- Is there a pool with a shallow end or separate toddler's pool? Are there lifeguards on duty?
- Is there an in-house laundry service?
- How is the resort laid out - what will be your transport needs - and what is available? Long walks to the beach with kids and the gear is something you dont want.
- Are there any reductions for children? Do you want adjoining rooms?
- Are the rooms/accommodation child-safe? What are the hazards: - balconies, heaters, bathrooms, kitchens, stairs ?
- Do they provide any courtesy rooms between checkout and transfer?
Many hotels and resorts now have websites, so you can often check rooms as well as the pool and the resort itself and the locations of the hotel within the resort.
Finally, remember it's not just the facilities that matter, but a relaxed, child-friendly approach which can make all the difference.
Family Clubs & specialist operators
If you are not sure about checking on all these factors then perhaps you want to circumvent this by selecting either a specialist tour operator or selecting a resort & operator which offers a family club.
Some operators such a Mark Warner, Club Med, and Euro Camp have made families and their requirements central to their offerings. Each has their own ethos and style, you have to consider whether it will suite you and your family. Nothing is absolutely guaranteed using this method however it should cover many or most of the issues and questions listed above.
Likewise operators such as Thomson have their family clubs (revamped for 2008) which have a whole range of activities for each different age group; and which also concentrate on trying to smooth the path of your holidays where the children in concerned. This generally means that they able to meet all reasonable requests.
- For babies and toddlers there is a creche and splash pool
- For the over 3 there are all kinds of activities and evening entertainment including swimming lessons.
- There is also plenty of effort to play it cool for the teenagers, although they may be harder to please, at least the cyber cafe will probably be a hit.
- The accommodation also offers pre-bookable baby equipment and larger and inter connecting rooms.
- There is also a whole range of activities to try as a family.
For the slightly more adventurous families there are a whole range of companies providing family centric activity holidays (for example The Adventure Company and Kumuka). This could range from a safari in Africa to hiking and abseiling in the Alps through to touring the Pyramids. The range is truly unbelievable.
