If I have one piece of advice to cover all of parenthood, it's this: whatever you think, however sure you are, don't commit yourself by saying it out loud. When I was pregnant, I blathered on to my husband about how our baby would come with us in life. We would still travel, see places. We would never cave into that anomaly: the family-friendly hotel. Why would I want to go on holiday and be surrounded by noisy children, additional to my own?
So, for our first holiday with a then four-month-old Finn, we learnt about family holidays the hard way: driving from London to Verbier, Switzerland. It seemed like a good idea, but that was before we embarked on a 1,240-mile round trip with a bored baby in the back of the car. Lesson learnt ,and so we renege, and my husband, 18-month Finn and I book into a family-friendly hotel, Antigua's Carlisle Bay, with my sister masquerading as our nanny.
Antigua is a direct flight from London and so a great long-haul destination for toddlers. Arriving is bliss: it looks exactly like the sort of hotel we used to stay at pre-Finn. It's incredibly luxurious. The lobby is all teak furniture, huge wooden carvings and white sofas. Are children really allowed here? But it seems they are: everyone coos over Finn — despite him having been travel sick. Set in 55 acres of lush gardens and crisscrossed by little walkways, Carlisle Bay stands on a long white beach on the wild, beautiful south coast of Antigua. Small waves unfurl on the flat expanse of sand making soft, patting sounds. I feel as excited as I used to when I arrived on holiday as a child.
Although it is family-friendly, the design is such that children don't take over (although if you are child-free, I would probably avoid the school holidays just the same). Families are allocated suites on a different part of the beach from those reserved for other guests. The centrepiece of our suite is the (child-proof) balcony, with a huge day lounger, with views of the smoking Montserrat volcano on the horizon. In the bathroom, hanging alongside the grown-up fluffy robes, is a baby-sized waffle dressing gown. But the best thing is that Finn has his own room. Anyone who has eaten food from room service in the dark to avoid waking a sleeping baby will appreciate our joy at this.
