Baby Family Holidays: Post pregnancy

Life may change beyond all recognition when a baby arrives, but as any parent of teenagers will tell you, early infancy is actually the easiest part! With a newborn, your nights are broken by feeds but your baby will sleep an enormous amount during the daytime. Add to that their portability and the fact that they can’t yet run riot, and you’d be mad not to take a recuperative break with your new arrival.

Close to the Channel ferry port of Dieppe in Normandy, in pretty Etretat with its famous cliffs, the Hôtel Le Donjon offers an ‘Escapade avec Bébé’ package that  includes breakfast and dinner, skincare products for mum and tot, and a room fitted with practical items so you don’t have to both to bring them (changing table, baby bath, bottle-warmer, nightlight, and even nappies). For an extra charge, a nanny can look after the baby while Mum and Dad go for a splash in the outdoor pool.

France is actually one of the prime destinations for those looking for a baby break destination, because of its long tradition of thalassotherapy. These sea-water therapies (like spa treatments, only with a formal medical basis) often include special packages for new mums. However, do avoid any slimming diets offered at this tiring time, especially if you are breastfeeding (the French are obsessed with getting back into shape as soon as possible).

I can personally recommend the Thermes Marins by the old walled pirate’s town of St-Malo on the Channel coast of Brittany. The thalassotherapy centre itself offers a week-long Sea Young Mother package that includes three massages, three body wraps, three supervised pool sessions and three aqua-exercise sessions, eight hydrotherapy treatments, and four beauty treatments. Five hours of baby-minding is included per day, and two sessions of baby massage over the week. Dad gets free access to the swimming and hydrotherapy pools, hammam, sauna, gym and marine mist room; treatments can be booked separately. The Thermes offers a wide choice of accommodation, from the four-star Grand Hôtel des Thermes to self-catering apartments.

A similar proposition is the Hôtel Thalassa Miramar in Biarritz on the Basque coast in south-west France, in the Aquitaine region. Its Young Mother option offers 27 seawater treatments over the course of six days, while baby is looked after in the crèche, but there’s plenty of scope for bonding too, with aqua-baby sessions and baby massage.
For more thalassotherapy hotels, see the specialized website of the mighty Accor group Thalassa. As well as hotels in Le Touquet in Pas-de-Calais, at several sites in Brittany, in the Vendée, in the Poitou-Charentes, in the South of France and on Corsica, it has a property in Essouira, Morocco that offers a new mums package.

There’s more about travelling with babies in our baby break in Morecambe Bay feature. Bear in mind that a hotel doesn’t have to offer a specific package to welcome parents with newborns. For instance, Browns Hotel in Mayfair, London offers a ‘Fourth Trimester Healing Hour’ massage for new mums that you could take as part of its Relax & Indulge package. Virtually all five-star and many other hotels will arrange in-house babysitting for guests, usually with a minimum of 24 hours’ notice.