Family Holidays: Mums' Breaks with Kids

by Rhonda Carrier

If we’re honest, most of us fantasise about shaking free the shackles of the school run and other routines that dominate our lives as parents, if only for a day or two. And there is certainly no end of places to which we can retreat, whether we have a specific goal – fitness, a cultural interlude or the acquiring of a new skill – or just sleeping and otherwise relaxing in mind. For our top suggestions, see Mums’ Breaks Without Kids.

But it’s not always possible – or we don’t always want to – leave the kids behind, especially when they are tiny and routines are the backbone of their existence. Perhaps you’re not emotionally ready to leave them either, even for just one night, or perhaps you’re still breast-feeding. Luckily, these days it’s easy to find great places that allow Mum and Dad time for pampering or other pursuits while also offering some great family amenities, including crèches, kids’ clubs, and activities for all ages. We’ve short-listed our favourites; do also check out our partners Mr & Mrs Smith for a cherry-picked selection of boutique hotels and stylish self-catering properties that welcome kids. 

UNITED KINGDOM
See also our page on Best Mother’s Day Breaks for Luxury Family Hotels such as The Elms, and also for Bedruthan Steps and CenterParcs.
 
Bluestone National Park Resort, Wales
These luxurious lodges and cottages set around a traditional village complex in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park have something to suit every member of the family, from toddlers to adrenaline junkies via those looking to chill in the lovely spa, where the offerings include pre- and post-natal treatments. For those looking to get fit, there are also pilates breaks and fit camps, while kids of all ages are keep well occupied with everything from Baby Sensory sessions to junior bushcraft.

Cottages4you, Various Locations
This extensive range of hand-picked self-catering properties across the country, including cottages, townhouses and apartments, features properties in or near some of Britain’s loveliest spa towns, making it child’s-play to combine a family break with some spa activity for Mum. They include Harrogate in Yorkshire with its famous Turkish baths (the Old Reading Room at Thimbleby, sleeping 5–7), Bath in Somerset with its natural thermal waters prized by the Celts and Romans and new Thermae Bath Spa (Rose Cottage at Rode, sleeping 4), Buxton in Derbyshire with its Devonshire Spa (Dewsnaps Spring in Chinley, sleeping 2–3), and Leamington Spa in Warwickshire, with its Spa Leamington (Rosemary in Kenilworth, sleeping 4).

Coworth Park, Berkshire
Sister to London’s Dorchester, this restored Georgian manor within its own parkland has a kids’ concierge to organise trips out, book activities or help younger guests explore the estate, a kids’ program including indoor and outdoor activities for all age groups, and a kids’ menu featuring the healthy likes of organic vegetable risotto with Coworth garden herbs. Only opened in Sept 2010, Coworth is an excellent place to come as a family if you’ve having or have just had number 2 (or 3, or 4…), since its ground-breaking eco-spa (partially submerged in the landscape, with a living roof with a garden of thyme, lavender, chamomile and other fragrant herbs cultivated for the natural treatments) offers several during and after pregnancy treatments, including a nourishing New Mother Envelopment using damask rose gel, oil and cream.

Lime Wood, Hampshire
Another newish country house hotel (it opened in late 2009), Lime Wood in the heart of the New Forest welcomes ‘little acorns’ (under-12s) for free at half term and in the Easter holidays, if sharing a parent’s room or Forest Suite. Its new Herb House Spa with its sun-deck and meditation areas, indoor swimming pool opening onto the garden sun terrace, and Raw Bar offering natural healthy and garden-grown food and juices, is perfect for a spot of parental relaxing and/or detoxing, although all kids are welcome in the pool and ages 10+ can get manicures and pedicures and ages 14+ certain treatments. Packages include Mum-to-Be and Mother-and-Daughter packages and the 4-night Welly Boot Camp, while fitness offerings include a Body MOT or yoga on the rooftop herb garden.

Gleneagles, Scotland
This famous Scottish resort is another place to come if you’re pregnant again or have just had another baby, as it offers pre- and post-natal nurturing body treatments and facials in its spa, plus specially devised Baby Swim sessions for mums and babies, and a playroom for under-3s. For older siblings, there are clubs and indoor and outdoor activities for all age ranges, including a golf academy and riding school. Also on offer in the spa is that much-sought-after commodity, time – the ESPA Time treatment invites you to surrender yourself to your therapist for 2, 3 or 4hrs, allowing them to create a sequence of face and/or body treatmetns to suit your specific needs.

Loch Melfort Hotel, Scotland
This mid-range family-run hotel near Oban on the west coast of Argyll is a great place to come for a detox escape with kids. It welcomes the latter with family-friendly sea-view rooms equipped with toys, books and games, baby-listening, an under-12s menu in the bistro (beside which there’s a new playground), and the opportunity to feed the Highland cattle and the ducks on the bond. There are also whale-watching trips in the vicinity, and you might spot otters, stoats, red squirrels, seals, porpoises, eagles and even wild goats in the surrounds. The hotel’s therapy room offers holistic treatments, including a shamanic healing massage and Thai skin-therapy facials.

EUROPE
Schloss Elmau, Germany
This ‘luxury spa and cultural hideaway’ in the Alps 100km south of Munich is quite unique, boasting two concert halls hosting classical music, jazz and literary events, two libraries, an adults-only spa and hammam, a family spa and a nature spa hosting ‘edutainment’ (the likes of arts workshops and chess academies) and sports programs, an six restaurants. Many of the rooms are kitted out for families, with sofa-beds, kitchenettes and two bathrooms; some have mountain views. There are both winter and summer sports galore, swimming lessons, teen sports weeks, and a kids’ club. Teens’ treatments in the spa include anti-acne and Happy Back, ‘for backs strained by carrying school bags and bending over school desks’…

Mum & Baby Experience, Italy
Both fitness holidays and cooking and yoga breaks, both with optional beauty treatments, are offered at this lovingly restored villa in Puglia; children up to the age of three come along and take part in organised activities while you’re busy (the property has a fenced-off pool and there’s play equipment in the garden). The fitness holidays are quite hard-core, with a low GI diet and no coffee or alcohol, but weight loss is guaranteed. Despite the name, dads are welcome too.

Villa Sant’Andrea, Sicily
This gorgeously located hotel with its own private beach at Taormina in southern Italy is child-friendly down to its Wellness Centre, where parents and kids can enjoy a relaxing lavender and camomile aromatherapy massage together, or kids can get a honey and ginger manicure or an orange and sugar pedicure. Accommodation includes interconnecting rooms for families.

Almrya and Anassa, Cyprus
These uber-friendly luxury sister hotels are a great choice for parents who want to combine a family holiday with some serious pampering. The Almyra runs Week of Sleep packages when exhausted parents can indulge in slumber-enhancing treatments, including reflexology and water therapies, in its state-of-the art holistic spa, while their babies or children are looked after in the crèche or kids’ clubs. There are also personal yoga and fitness sessions and a whole raft of treatments; many of the latter are also offered at the Anassa, where the emphasis is on marine-based thalassotherapy, and which also has kids’ clubs.

Breath Retreat, Lanzarote
These courses in transformational breathing make not sound like the best basis for a family break, but those coming to the family-friendly island of Lanzarote with kids can take advantage of the fact that the self-catering accommodation here includes an independent apartment with a double and twin bedrooms. Hence while you are learning to breathe property, your kids can use the on-site pool or play on pristine Famara beach a 5-minute drive away. Alternatively, you can book a beach bungalow at Famara.
Led by ‘breath guru’ Alan Dolan, who believes that most of us use just a quarter of our respiratory system, the daily one-to-one breath sessions – one each day for a minimum of three days – are designed to benefit your immune system, aid relaxation, help cure sleep disorders and improve emotional wellbeing. Add-on activities include yoga, personal training, cycling, nature walks and… volcano-climbing!

Deniz Feneri Lighthouse, Turkey
Kas on the Lycian Coast is the place to head if you want to rejuvenate your face without resorting to Botox or surgical intervention – this boutique waterfront hotel with rooms, suites and villas for up to six has recently launched Natural Face Clinics at its spa, with guests instructing in strengthening facial muscles, removing weight and tension from the neck and shoulders, and creating better upper-body alignment. Kids won’t be bored: there’s a small, shaded children’s pool, a reading and games area with board games, satellite TV, DVDs and a Playstation, and free use of the sea kayaks and snorkels to explore the bay, where you might get lucky enough to swim with loggerhead turtles. The locally grown food is mostly organic.

REST OF WORLD
One & Only Palmilla, Mexico
This luxurious resort in Los Cabos welcomes families with its complimentary daily KidsOnly Club for ages 4–11 (under-4s can participate with a parent or guardian, or there are babysitting and nanny services), where activities include beach volleyball, tug-of-war, and football matches, Spanish lessons, piñata-making classes, and cookery. Teen programs include golf, tennis, volleyball, and football, and there are family and children’s pools. Burned-out parents might sign up to the Wellness Sleep Therapy Program of sleep-inducing therapies, including the Deep Sleep Watsu underwater massage, the Brain Synch double massage, which forces the mind to disconnect as it can’t focus on movements performed by two therapists at once, Transformation Breath Work, Sleep Deeper Nutrition, Guided Visualization, and the Sleep Retreat, when your are given a massage in your room after essential oils have been diffused into the air and you have enjoyed a cup of herbal tea to the strains of sleep music while your private butler prepares a bath filled with relaxing oil.
Other unique offerings include the scary-sounding Polar Body Age Evaluation, which assesses your real ‘body age’ (you may be 40, but are you physiologically 50?), couples’ and family yoga, Family Sanctuary side-by-side treatments for parents and kids aged 8 and up, and even kids’ wellness activities to teach younger guests the importance of taking care of their health.

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