How to make your family vacation relaxing and interesting? The answer is simple – plan!
Make a list of places you want to visit in advance, set aside a couple of days to get ready, write down your schedule and methods of travel, and, of course, decide in advance where you will stay. If you are traveling with a child, you need to take into account a lot of nuances when choosing a hotel. Of course, it is impossible to foresee everything, but it is worth paying attention to the following points:
Safety
Feel free to call your chosen hotel and find out if there are lifeguards on the beach and at the pool and if the windows and balconies in the rooms are equipped with child locks. It would be great if the hotel has its own doctor or at least a nurse.
Entertainment for children
Find out if the hotel has a kids’ club or games room, they will come in handy in case of bad weather. And if you plan to leave your baby in the care of the children’s club staff, check in advance at what age they accept unaccompanied children. Usually this is 3-5 years, but in any case it is necessary that the child can explain himself to the staff (in some cases, knowledge of English or another foreign language will be required). The presence of water slides, trampolines and other entertainment on the hotel premises can be both a plus and a minus – some children are very difficult to drag out of there, this can disrupt your plans for sightseeing, swimming, sleeping and eating.
Additional payment for a child
In some hotels you need to pay extra for children to stay in a room, starting from a certain age, in others an additional payment is required only if the child needs a separate bed, and in some places children stay for free. Be sure to check this point, so you can save a decent amount.
Availability of children’s gadgets
Find out whether the hotel provides its guests with a so-called children’s set: playpen bed, potty, high chair and stroller. Some hotels provide these items for use free of charge, while others will cost extra to rent. Check to see if these items will be available for your arrival and whether you can reserve a set in advance. If you are traveling with a baby under one year old, you will probably need warm boiled water to dilute the mixture or porridge, so keep in mind that in some hotels there are no kettles in the rooms.
Food
If your baby is a picky eater, make sure that there is a restaurant with simple and familiar food in the hotel itself or within walking distance. This advice is especially relevant for Asia, because even a 5-minute daily taxi ride for scrambled eggs and porridge early in the morning will drive you crazy by the end of the first week. And if your child eats pureed food, find out if the hotel has a blender that you can use and dietary options on the menu. It is much easier to puree boiled meat and vegetables from the common table than to look for the usual jars in the supermarket.
Noise level
Hotels with bungalows or separate small buildings are preferable, since you can book a room away from the source of noise – a swimming pool, restaurant, utility rooms, etc. And it is better to find out in advance whether the hotel has its own disco or a noisy bar with live music and football matches broadcasts.
Beach
If the chosen destination and finances allow, give preference to a hotel with its own beach. After all, a situation can always arise when there is no one near the sunbed. For example, if one parent is bathing, and the child urgently needs to go to the toilet. Still, on a hotel beach, the likelihood that your things will not be stolen at this moment is much higher. If nothing works out with a hotel with its own beach, paid or wild beaches are preferable to public ones – they are cleaner, safer and you will have a better chance of finding a comfortable place in the shade.
Extra bed in rooms
If you don’t go to bed at the same time as your children, but want to chat or watch TV after lights out, choose hotels that have two-room family suites or just rooms with terraces or balconies. In the latter case, we strongly recommend staying on the first floor.
The travel planning service OneTwoTrip will help you speed up your search for hotels.
