These hotels offer a spectacular standard of service and facilities for families. Indoor swimming pools, all weather play areas, family rooms and spas, nature trails, babysitting services and beautiful views and locations all add to the family experience. Here are the Good Hotel Guide’s Editor’s Choice selections for best family hotels.
2019 Editor's Choice Family Hotels
Best family friendly hotels in UK
Star Castle - Family Stay Special Offer
St Mary's
Now here is the real thing, an Elizabethan stone house within star-shaped fortress walls. Tim the boatman offers sea trips. You can swim in the indoor pool, play tennis, go horse riding, hire an electric Scilly Cart or take afternoon tea on the ramparts.
Bedruthan Hotel and Spa - Complimentary Spa Garden Special Offer
Mawgan Porth
Baby and Toddler and Toddler and Time Out breaks are available at this super- family-friendly, Scandi-style seaside hotel. Children’s menus and sophisticated dining, a happy, laid-back vibe and plenty of activities keep everyone entertained.
The Rose & Crown - £199 per room Two Night Early Summer Special Offer
Snettisham
From bangers and mash and knickerbocker glory, to a walled garden with climbing frame, early suppers, high chairs, cots, crayons and colouring books, children are more than merely tolerated at this fun 14th-century pub.
The Grove - Three for Two Special Offer
Narberth
A fairy trail beguiles little ones at this Georgian mansion in gardens and woodland. With boules, croquet, bike rides, an Iron Age settlement and sandy beaches, you’ll never hear ‘I’m bored!’ Family suites and early supper are available.
Ballyvolane House
Fermoy
The relaxed, welcoming atmosphere at this Georgian country house on a working farm makes everyone feel instantly at home. Young guests have woods to explore, a tree house to discover, animals to feed, new-laid eggs to collect.
Moonfleet Manor
Fleet
Family rooms, all-weather play facilities, beaches for fossil hunts, a crèche, babysitters, a baby pool, flexible meal options, treatment rooms and adult-only dining keep all generations in clover at this country manor house close to Chesil Beach.
Fowey Hall
Fowey
‘There’s Toad Hall…’ said the Rat, ‘…one of the nicest houses in these parts.’ Nice, indeed. And with so much laid on for kids at this manor house (said to have been Kenneth Graham’s model for Toad Hall), parents can truly relax.
Glenapp Castle
Ballantrae
Wellies of all sizes await outdoor types at this Scottish baronial castle on the Ayrshire coast. Take a boat trip with a picnic to see seabirds on Ailsa Craig, roam woodlands, go mountain biking, play tennis, quoits, giant pick-up-sticks.
Augill Castle
Kirkby Stephen
Children thrill to stay in this fantasy castle with its free-and-easy ethos. Books and games, a cinema, flexible meal times, tennis, a playground and ‘Little Cooks’ school add up to a recipe for a happy holiday.
Longueville Manor
St Saviour
It’s one long round of pleasure for kids at this Jersey manor-house hotel, with nature trails and treasure hunts, cookery classes and tennis lessons, beaches and pool. Babysitting and baby listening allow carefree evening dining.
2018 Editor's Choice Family Hotels
Best family friendly hotels in UK
Chewton Glen - 4 Nights for the Price of 3 Special Offer
New Milton
After more than 50 years, this country house hotel and spa on the edge of the New Forest still sets the standard for luxury.
The White House - Murder Mystery Weekend Special Offer
Herm
Visitors are not spoilt for choice of places to stay on this tiny, car-free island – they’re just spoilt at the island’s best and only hotel
Bedruthan Hotel and Spa - Complimentary Spa Garden Special Offer
Mawgan Porth
In a hillside location with ‘stunning sea views’, this supremely family-friendly hotel has something for everyone – indeed, everything for everyone.
Trefeddian Hotel - Summer Break Special Offer
Aberdovey
The Cave family’s holiday hotel overlooking Cardigan Bay is ‘very much family orientated, and the facilities are excellent – indoor pool, putting green, games room, beach across the road.’
The Colonsay
Colonsay
On an island of white-sand beaches and rocky inlets (human population 135; seals, otters and eagles unnumbered), Jane and Alex Howard’s 18th-century inn sits at the centre of village life, with quiz nights and live music.
Ballyvolane House
Fermoy
A mildly bohemian air filters through the Green family’s wisteria-hung Georgian country house hotel, bordered by bluebell woods.
Moonfleet Manor
Fleet
Once used to billet D-Day troops, this revamped early 17th-century mansion now hosts ‘young children, exhausted parents’ and grandparents.
Fowey Hall
Fowey
A Victorian baroque showstopper, this manor house stands on a steep hill in gardens above the Fowey estuary. It is part of the Luxury Family Hotels group.
Augill Castle
Kirkby Stephen
We hear a perennial chorus of approval from fans of Wendy and Simon Bennett’s family-friendly Victorian fantasy castle in the Eden valley, between Lake District and Yorkshire Dales.
Calcot & Spa
Tetbury
‘A lovely, family-friendly hotel,’ was Guide inspectors’ verdict on this 16th-century stone manor house with spa in beautiful grounds, ‘looking out over rolling hills’.
2017 Editor's Choice Family Hotels
Best family friendly hotels in UK
Woolley Grange - Fun in the Sun Special Offer
Bradford-on-Avon
‘As soon as we arrived the kids got started on the Woolley Grange Sheep Challenge treasure hunt,’ writes a Guide insider after a stay at this ‘beautiful Jacobean manor house in lovely grounds’.
Porth Tocyn Hotel - October Mid-Week Walking Package Special Offer
Abersoch
A Welsh rarebit on the tip of Cardigan Bay, this ‘lovely, wacky’ hotel is a family-friendly, family-run affair.
Bedruthan Hotel and Spa - Complimentary Spa Garden Special Offer
Mawgan Porth
In a hillside location with ‘stunning sea views’, this supremely family-friendly hotel has something for everyone – indeed, everything for everyone.
Trefeddian Hotel - Summer Break Special Offer
Aberdovey
The Cave family’s holiday hotel overlooking Cardigan Bay is ‘very much family orientated, and the facilities are excellent – indoor pool, putting green, games room, beach across the road.’
The Colonsay
Colonsay
On an island of white-sand beaches and rocky inlets (human population 135; seals, otters and eagles unnumbered), Jane and Alex Howard’s 18th-century inn sits at the centre of village life, with quiz nights and live music.
Tresanton
St Mawes
Up 137 steps, through ‘glorious’ gardens, ‘one of the most comfortable establishments I’ve ever stayed in’ occupies a higgle piggle of houses with ‘extraordinary views’ across Falmouth Bay.
Moonfleet Manor
Fleet
Once used to billet D-Day troops, this revamped early 17th-century mansion now hosts ‘young children, exhausted parents’ and grandparents.
Fowey Hall
Fowey
A Victorian baroque showstopper, this manor house stands on a steep hill in gardens above the Fowey estuary. It is part of the Luxury Family Hotels group.
Augill Castle
Kirkby Stephen
We hear a perennial chorus of approval from fans of Wendy and Simon Bennett’s family-friendly Victorian fantasy castle in the Eden valley, between Lake District and Yorkshire Dales.
Longueville Manor
St Saviour
‘The best on the island’, ‘the most spectacular and sumptuous’, this luxurious, family-friendly manor house hotel (Relais & Châteaux) 'just gets better',
2016 Editor's Choice Family Hotels
Best family friendly hotels in UK
Congham Hall - Sunday Special Offer
King's Lynn
The herb garden is a major draw at this Georgian country house hotel set amid lawns, orchards and woodlands close to Sandringham.
Calcot & Spa
Tetbury
‘A lovely, family-friendly hotel,’ was Guide inspectors’ verdict on this 16th-century stone manor house with spa in beautiful grounds, ‘looking out over rolling hills’.
The Evesham Hotel
EVESHAM
A self-confessed ‘quirky’ establishment, this family-friendly hotel has been run by John and Sue Jenkinson for 40 years. They have appointed David Field as manager, and stepped back ‘to concentrate on the bits we really enjoy’.