Elba family holidays and breaks

Set just 10km from the Tuscan coast and the third-largest Italian island after Sicily and Sardinia, Elba is an unusual but delightful choice for family holidays. As in the rest of Italy, the general love of children is accompanied by fabulous, child-friendly food, and there is also a good choice of family-friendly hotels and other accommodation, beautifully clear water, fine white-sand beaches and a lush wooded interior perfect for walking and cycling.

Le petit general, Napoléon, tends to dominate Elba's history, but at different times, the island has come under the rule of the French, Turks, Spanish and a myriad of Italian peoples (Romans, Etruscans, Medicis) – a cosmopolitan mix that has left its legacy on the architecture and the culture.

Flying Time	2 hours
Carbon Footprint	1.07 tonnes CO2
Timezone	GMT +1
Local Currency	Euro

What to Do

Laze by the pool or on the beach – Elba is great for relaxing family holidays.

Cycle or walk through the forest and ascend Monte Capanne (1,019m) to glimpse the island's geographic diversity: it has wonderful views over craggy mountains, gentle slopes with olive groves and vineyards, dense pine forests, and the sparkling blue sea around.

Where to Stay

There are some excellent, upmarket family-friendly hotels on Elba: see the right-hand column of this page for our Booking Specials and recommendations. Self-catering apartments and villas are good bets for those keeping a firm rein on family holiday budgets, or there's a good choice of family campsites.

Photos

When

The average temperature on Elba in July and August is 25°C, but these months the islands get extremely busy with mainly Italian and German holidaymakers, so it's worth trying to schedule family holidays for May, June or September.

How

There are no flights from the UK to Elba. Several airlines, low-cost and regular and including British Airways, fly from the UK to Pisa, about 75mins' drive from Piombino, from which ferries serve Elba (taking 40mins–1hr). If you want to take a car on the ferry, you need to book well in advance.

You could also fly to Florence, about 2hrs from Piombino. Find the best flight deals with Expedia, Opodo and Lastminute.com.

For train travel from the UK to Italy, see Man in Seat 61.

See also our family holidays car-hire page if you need to rent a vehicle either on Elba or from the above airports or train stations.