Ticking the Boxes: Your Family Holiday Checklist

When done well, your family holiday is a personal haven – that slice of utopia you look forward to every year. Done badly, however, and there is no way you’ll hear the end of it. Like, ever. Fortunately for you, the experts at Kenwood Travel have put together a list of things to keep front of mind to ensure that your next family getaway goes off without a hitch. We bring you the ultimate family holiday checklist:

Pick the right accommodation

This one goes straight to the top of our list for good reason. We don’t want to sound dramatic, but pick the wrong hotel and your family holiday will be a bit of a nightmare. Overtired and understimulated kids with a lack of entertainment? A cacophony of muttering and tuts as you drag said kids through an otherwise silent hotel lobby? The building dread as you realise the à la carte restaurant does not, in fact, serve chips or pizza? If this sounds traumatic to you, that’s because it is. You might need a second holiday just to recover.

You’re far better off basing your selection on a resort’s family-friendliness. Hard Rock Hotels do this especially well…

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Family holiday checklist: Hard Rock Tenerife

Hard Rock Tenerife’s Roxity Kids Club includes indoor and outdoor facilities.

Location, location, location

Know both your limits and your children’s limits. If you think you can survive a flight to Thailand without the ‘are we there yet’ questions seriously getting to you, then you should absolutely go for it. However, if anything over a four hour flight seems like a bit of a stretch, don’t feel disheartened: there are plenty of exciting destinations within range. These awesome hotels in Europe are just the (short-haul) ticket for families seeking sunshine without the hefty travel time:

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In fact, you don’t even have to limit your family holiday to the European continent. There are plenty of locations in Africa and the Middle East that you can reach with a short flight. We recommend Morocco, for example. From kite surfing lessons on a windswept beach, to quad biking through the desert, cooking lessons, and souvenir shopping in the enchanting souks of Marrakech, Morocco will have your little ones in awe.

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Family holiday checklist: Mazagan Beach & Golf Resort

Mazagan Beach & Golf Resort, Morocco, is full of amazing family-friendly extras.

Get your packing down to a tee

Any parent will tell you that packing for a family is a royal pain. How is it that a suitcase can be fit to burst and yet something important gets left behind each time without fail? It’s so vital to go into this with a plan, so we’ve put together the family packing checklist to end all family packing checklists. Gone are the days of the panicked passport pat-down at the airport. Make a handy note of these essentials and you’re sure to eliminate any unnecessary stress.

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