Family-friendly luxury hotels revealed

An upscale hotel near Saint Tropez on the French Riviera is unlikely to immediately suggest the phrase "family-friendly".

But the five-star Le Beauvallon hotel in Saint Maxime is one of ten hotels to make online travel agency Five Star Alliance's list of the world's best luxury hotels for families.

For families with infants, there is a baby menu, push chairs and formula milk, while for young children there is a children's menu with food that they will enjoy and parents will approve.

Other features include character sheets for children's beds, a specially commissioned Wendy House with its own baby grand piano, and dinner served in the cinema on special first-class airline seats.

The Don CeSar Beach Resort in Florida, another to make Five Star Alliance's list, also boasts a wide range of activities for kids. A special Camp CeSar programme for five- to ten-year-olds allows kids to discover nearby St Pete beach through activities such as coconut painting, beach relay races and scavenger hunts.

The Elounda Bay Palace in Elounda, on the Greek island of Crete, is another to make the list, with family-friendly facilities such as a supervised children's swimming pool.

Further afield is the King David hotel in Jerusalem, Israel, which numbers a 'children's corner' among its facilities, while the JW Marriot in Phuket, Thailand, also features.

Other hotels to make the list include Cloister at Sea Island, Georgia, US; Paradius Playa Conchal, Guanacaste, Costa Rica; the Homestead, Hot Springs, Virginia US; and the Grand Wailea Resort Hotel and Spa, Wailea, Hawaii.

But a list of family-friendly hotels would not be complete without mentioning Disney. Disney's Grand Floridian Resort, Lake Buena Vista, Florida, has everything one would expect from a Disney hotel including the Mouseketeers Club, a kids' swimming pool, arcade and playgrounds.

For more information on family-friendly luxury hotels and other luxury hotels see: www.fivestartalliance.com