Villas, yachts, slopes, safaris
Travelling well with children is a skill. The villa, the season, the flight time and the nanny question decide whether the holiday is remembered for the right reasons.
The short version
A family holiday has more moving parts than a board meeting: nap times, ski school levels, a teenager who wants nobody, grandparents who want everybody. We match destinations to your children's ages and your season, and we tell you what the villa brochure leaves out.
In this section
Family Travel · 8 min read
A villa with a pool, six bedrooms and a view is not yet a family villa. The questions that decide the holiday are about the pool fence, the cook, the boat, the doctor and the distance to the ice cream.
Family Travel · 7 min read
A ski holiday with a four-year-old is a different sport from a ski holiday. The resort matters more than the snow, the instructor more than the resort, and the afternoon nap more than either.
Family Travel · 8 min read
Teenagers are bored by beaches and villas. They are not bored by a leopard at dawn, a walking safari with a rifle-carrying guide or a night under a sky without light. Twelve to seventeen is the safari age.
Villa with staff for stays over a week, hotel for shorter trips. A villa with a cook and a housekeeper gives you your own rhythm; a good family hotel gives you the kids' club, the paediatrician on call and other children. The worst of both worlds is an empty villa and a hire car.
Ski school from three and a half or four, proper skiing from five or six. Book a private instructor for the first mornings, keep afternoons free and choose a resort with a village at the bottom of the slope rather than a lift-served hotel at the top.
Most camps take children from six, the good ones from eight, and walking safaris from twelve or sixteen. Teenagers are the ideal safari age: old enough for early mornings, young enough to be astonished.
