The best ideas are the simple ones.
We've been in the travel business long enough to know that there are hotels that claim to be family-friendly, and then there are hotels that actually are family-friendly. So what's required for real family friendliness? Well, the clue's in the title - it's got to be good for all the family, rather than just great for kids and bearable for parents or vice versa. There are very few places that achieve this almost mythical alchemy, but the Anassa and Almyra hotels in Cyprus do just that. Our list of Travel Stories is not designed to blow sunshine up the behinds of hotels, but when a hotel or hotels come up with a concept as nifty as 'Baby Go Lightly' then we will lavish praise where praise is due.
The big idea...
The concept? As with all the best ideas, it's incredibly simple. Anyone who has travelled with infants knows that it can involve lugging enough luggage to require a Bedouin camel train, but not if said family is heading to the Anassa and the Almyra. Simply fill in the extremely detailed form listing all the baby accoutrements required, and they will all be in your room on arrival, be that potties or training seats to high chairs, buggies, bottles, sterilisers, swimming nappies, wet wipes, crayons and colouring books. Genius. Both family friendly hotels are also fully geared-up to cater for kids of all ages and have the full range of facilities to keep everyone busy, from sandy beaches and watersports centres to tennis courts and kids' clubs, but as we all know, a happy mother equals a happy family, so there are also pampering spa treatments galore.
