Pregnancy holidays: Babymoons

Baby is coming, and with the excitement comes the rather chastening awareness that life as you know it is going to change dramatically. Unless you are lucky enough to have a superb support network of family and/or friends, you have to resolve yourself to the fact that this may be the last occasion you and your partner will get to yourselves for quite some time.

Luckily, these days you’re spoilt for choice with the number of hotels offering ‘Babymoon’ packages offering couples valuable together time along with pampering treats. Below are some of our favourites both in the UK and around the globe.

Remember, however, that a hotel doesn’t have to offer an actual Babymoon package – many hotel spas now offer mother-to-be treatments or days and may tailor an accommodation package to include this, as well as a men’s treatment for the father-to-be.

Bear in mind that maternity spa treatments are normally only suitable for those into their second trimester (ie from 13 weeks onward).

LONDON 

Metropolitan 

Still Mayfair’s funkiest hotel ten years after its bar became the city’s hangout for hip celebs, the Metropolitan on Park Lane is surprisingly child-friendly. As well as its Honey I Brought the Kids package, it offers a Met Mum to Be package including a COMO Shambala tote bag, purifying, hydrating mist, a pre-natal massage using a specially designed ‘body cushion’, and a healthy breakfast for two.

Baglioni
Part of a luxurious Italian group, the Baglioni on Hyde Park Gate in Kensington offers two-night pre-birth packages, including in-room check-in accompanied by fruity drinks, a gift and one-hour in-room massage for the mum-to-be, and 10% discounts in the hotel’s restaurants and in La Perla boutique nearby. Guests also get a special consultation on baby meals and recipes with the hotel chefs.

While it now longer offers a specific Babymoon package, Browns Hotel in Mayfair offers a range of excellent range of Mamma Mio maternity treatments in its spa, some of which you could take as part of its Relax and Indulge package. The Lowry Hotel in Manchester and the Balmoral in Edinburgh, both of which are also part of the Rocco Forte group that owns Browns, both offer maternal treatments that can be taken as part of a package.

REST OF UK

Although it doesn’t offer Babymoon packages, the Titanic eco-spa near Huddersfield in Yorkshire has an excellent Nurture package comprising a day of unique treatments for expectant mums according to their stage of pregnancy (including first trimester and post-pregnancy). With men’s treatments and accommodation in deluxe apartments for up to 4, you can easily create your own Babymoon package or even take existing kids along too.

Similarly, Champneys runs mothers-to-be days, including Beautiful Bump Treatments, at its four UK health farms, as well as men’s treatments. Accommodation is offered in a variety of room grades.

In Scotland, Gleneagles is a family-friendly five-star resort offering a pre- or post-natal nuture spa treatment lasting a blissful 3hrs 40mins, plus men’s treatments. If you wish to take the family, there’s a supervised playroom and activities for children of all ages.

REST OF EUROPE

Baglioni hotels (see above, under ‘London’) offers the same Babymoon package at its hotels in in Bologna, Milan, Rome, Venice, Florence and Verona, and at number of associated French Relais et Châteaux hotels: the Château de Mirambeau in Bordeaux, the Villa Gallici in Aix en Provence, Le Saint Paul in St Paul de Vence, and the Royal Champagne near Epernay.

Hotel Cipriani, Venice, Italy
The surprisingly family-friendly Hotel Cipriani, one of the world’s most famous luxury hotels, has a two-night Babymooners package in a lagoon-view room, including two meals in its restaurants, a ‘Pre-Maman’ massage, a copy of ‘The Baby Owner’s Maintenance Log’, and a present for the unborn baby. You can also book a personal shopper to escort you to maternity shops and boutiques.

If you’ve already had a baby or two, the Cipriani also has a Very Important Kids three-night package including a complimentary double room for kids up to 14 plus four hours’ babysitting. Venice itself is a surprisingly child-friendly city.

Thalassa Boutique Hotel & Spa, Cyprus 

At the Thalassa with its holistic spa , mums-to-be get a whole spa menu of treatments, including one of the few body wraps safe to be used on pregnant women, employing on organic Sodashi products. The Thalassa – which does not accept children under-12, ensuring you some pre-baby peace and quiet! – is available through our partners Sovereign.

Intercontinental Aphrodite Hills Resort Hotel, Cyprus
If you’re travelling with existing kids, this large family-friendly resort has plenty of facilities for children (including a kids’ club) in addition to a spa offering a variety of pregnancy treatments, one based on Aboriginal Australian techniques, plus special treatments for couples.

FURTHER AFIELD

The Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa, Cape Town, South Africa

This luxurious retreat in South Africa (which also welcomes existing families with its Kids Fun in the Sun package) has a superb Babymoon offer of a minimum of two nights. It includes transfers to the hotel, cocktails (Champagne or a Virgin Mary) on arrival, one dinner for two, a midnight feast to satisfy cravings, chocolate truffles, romantic candle turndown, a Swedish massage for him and a Moya Pregnancy package for her (a choice of any three of five treatments), plus a one-year subscription to a baby magazine.

Topnotch Resort & Spa, Vermont, United States 

Although it doesn’t currently offer a specific babymoon package, this magical New England estate with its internationally renowned spa offers an Enchantment Package for couples that includes a 50min spa treatment per person per day, with maternity massages and men’s treatments among them. Also included in the deal are daily breakfast in bed and dinner for two, and champagne and chocolates on arrival. The resort has indoor and outdoor pools, while if you take existing kids, there’s plenty for them to do, including horse-riding and tennis clinics.

Observatory Hotel, Sydney, Australia
This very traditional, old-fashioned five-star in the heart of Sydney has a Babymoon package that includes a ‘Crave No More’ menu of dishes that many pregnant women lust after, including spicy laksa noodles, pancakes with maple syrup, and peanut butter and banana sandwiches! Couples also get pampering gifts from the hotel’s day spa and a 20% discount on treatments there, a monogrammed bathrobe for the baby, and a 20% discount voucher for those who return to celebrate the baby’s first birthday.