Top 11 weekend getaways to enjoy with your family in 2016

By: Rosalie Marshall

Let’s be honest here, no one likes the start of the year. January and February are cold, dark months with generally not a lot going on. Chances are you’ll need a pick me up to get you through the worst of the winter, and no we’re not talking a glass of Prosecco. We’re talking a weekend family getaway to recharge your soul until summer, keep the kids happy and get that spring back into your step.

Planning a vacation that will please everyone in your family may seem near impossible, but choosing the right destination will help. Accessibility, a mix of indoor and outdoor activities, a certain wow factor for the kids and maybe some luxury pampering for the adults make for the ultimate choice. Here are 11 destinations that fit the bill, all selected by Viva.

• Legoland (staying onsite)

Legoland is popular all year round, even when the main attractions aren’t open. Family breaks outside of the Park’s open season are called Winter Family Escapes, offering a night at the 150-room hotel with breakfast from £89.

This escape offers plenty to keep your little ones busy with an indoor pirate-themed splash pool, complete with water guns and slides, and a reception ball pit. Each bedroom has a unique theme, and contains a treasure map to help your children find their special lego gift (hidden in the chest of course!) If you can wait for your break, Junior Builder Week runs through February half term and offers keen Legoers tips on how to improve their building skills, as well as daily treasure hunts and fancy dress discos.

There are separate sleeping areas for adults and children within each room, and each area has its own TV. There’s an adults-only gym, and parents can unwind in the evening Skyline Bar while the children enjoy their designated play area (they’ll be climbing a castle turret). The park reopens on the 11 March so visit then if you fancy even more excitement, although you’ll have less time to check out all the hotel amenities.

• Warborne Farm

This is a family run organic farm based in the New Forest, offering luxury barn conversions as accommodation. The best thing about Warborne is the amount of space for children to run around without a road to worry about. There’s also a good sized hay barn where they can jump around for hours and make dens. Your little ones can also enjoy cuddling the lambs, helping with the horses and feeding the other animals. Meanwhile, the whole family will take pleasure in the simplicity that’s farm life, picking fresh eggs from the chickens every morning, and organic vegetables and fruit for mealtimes.

The yard is great for playing tennis or riding bikes and there are also stretches of grass for playing football and rugby. Prices for a weekend stay are between £450 and £800, depending on the time of year.

• Potters Resort

The 5-star Potters Resort in Norfolk, complete with its own private beach, is especially worth a trip if you time your weekend getaway with a school holiday or half term. This getaway should satisfy even the most energetic of youngsters.

There’s plenty of family daytime activities onsite and included in the weekend price. In fact, you’ll probably find you don’t leave the 700+ room resort during your stay. Activities range from exercise classes to quizzes, arts and crafts, dancing, archery, clay shooting, go karting, swimming and bowling. There’s also a laser adventure and games station, featuring X-Box and Playstation. The highlight though has got to be the live evening entertainment in the onsite Atlas Theatre.

If you visit during half term, there is also plenty of free sports coaching available with professionals in football, tennis and golf. On arrival you’ll receive a programme of all the activities on offer, so you can build your own itinerary and ensure the kids have lots to talk about when they go back to school. They won’t even notice you slipping off to the Aphrodite Beauty Studio to pamper yourself.

Prices for a two night break (with meals) start from £259 for adults and £139 for children (although it’s only £20 for under 2’s). You can choose to stay in a bungalow or hotel room. 

• Peppa Pig World staying at the Meon Valley Marriott Hotel and Country Club

If you’ve got very young kids, nothing beats a visit to Peppa Pig World. The place shares a location with Paultons Holiday Park, which is sure to entertain any older siblings. The queues for Peppa’s rides tend to far exceed any of those at Paultons so it’s best to go there first. This getaway is only available from the 14^th February as that’s when the Park reopens from its winter break.

When visiting, stay at the Meon Valley Marriott Hotel and Country Club. The hotel is also near the Beaulieu motor museum, which is worth checking out if your family likes cars (there’s lots for the kids to do there too). While the hotel is in definite need of refurbishment, the facilities are impressive. Expect the kids to be greeted with play packs, including colouring pens, puzzles and balloons. Breakfast is a treat (even if they do add sugar to their freshly squeezed orange juice) with a buffet to suit all tastes, and a play area to keep the kids busy. The restaurant is convenient for family dinner with a kids menu and garden area with plenty of space for them to run around. The hotel has two golf courses, a pool (with toys) and a spa for a day of rejuvenation. Prices from £238 for a 2-day entrance to the Park and a one night stay at the hotel (for a family of four).

• Europa House Apartments

Take a trip to London and stay at the Europa House Apartments, perfect for families. Amenities for the kids include changing mats, highchairs and toilet steps. Your family will also be welcome to borrow skipping ropes, footballs, rackets and pop-up tents to use in the communal garden and playground. There’s a ‘Kids Only’ cupboard containing games, toys, DVDs and books while on holiday.

The apartments are situated right next door to Regents Park, which makes them convenient for visits to the London Zoo (you can take a boat there from Little Venice). Otherwise, if the weather’s bad, take a short bus ride to one of London’s many museums or just spend the day inside Hamleys, the biggest toy store in the UK. One night in a two-bedroom apartment starts at £250. All apartments are nicely furnished with a fully-fitted modern kitchen, integrated dishwasher and washer-dryer. The 24-hour telephone concierge can arrange restaurant delivery, grocery shopping services, airport transfers and taxis. Book in advance to arrange an in-room spa treatment.

• The Grove

With over 300 acres, the Grove has fantastic facilities for families. There are many lovely touches for kids, including cookies and milk on arrival, a toy box, child sized bathrobes and an extensive list of on-demand movies. There’s a games room with classic and modern games machines, as well as a giant Scalextrix. If you’re keen to head outdoors, there are bikes and helmets, as well as tennis courts, and giant chess and jenga games. The Grove offers you a choice of three swimming pools, including a dedicated kids’ indoor heated pool.

The onsite crèche offers babysitting facilities for mums and dads wanting to relax in the spa or on the golf course. Family rooms in the hotel are available from £410 per night. The hotel is conveniently located next to a number of great attractions such as the Warner Bros Studios (currently giving tours of the Harry Potter sets), and Whipsnade Zoo (home to many endangered animals).

• A treehouse stay with Forest Holidays

 

There is definitely something luxurious about lying back in a hot tub, glass in hand, with the night forest around you. In fact, the cold British winter makes an outside hot tub feel particularly indulgent. Forest Holidays offers you this treat in nine stunning UK locations, each in Forestry Commission owned woodland.

There’s a range of treehouses and cabins available, most sleeping 8 to 10 people. All come with modern furnishings, several bathrooms, TV with an optional entertainment package and a wood burning stove. The hot tub is set on your own private terrace. If your family is after the ultimate luxury, make sure you stay in the Golden Oak treehouse.

If you’re after adventure, there are many outdoor activities to choose from, including bikes for hire, guided forest ranger walks to spot wildlife, canoeing, fishing, big tree climbing, archery, shooting and 4×4 driving. A 3 night weekend break in a treehouse sleeping 8 people at Deerpark, Cornwall  starts from £770.

• Luxury Family Hotels

 

Book a room at a luxury family hotel and feel like you’re visiting friends in an extremely grand country house. All the hotels offer complimentary crèches (book times well in advance) and baby-listening services (not available in all rooms), so you can relax while having a spa treatment or candlelit dinner. There are eight hotels to choose from, although these tend to vary in quality and facilities so it’s worth checking out the views on TripAdvisor before you book. For example, if you opt for the Ickworth, we’d advise against staying in the lodge accommodation (even though it’s cheaper and bigger), as you’re a 5-minute drive away from the main hotel

These hotels are all about creating quality family time. You can play a selection of board games in the living room, go for bike rides, watch Blockbusters in the cinema room or take a dip in the pool. If there are any downsides to these hotels, it’s the customer service (we felt it was lacking a bit), although the waiting staff in the restaurants make up for it. Prices average £200 – £300 per night.

• Bluestone National Park resort 

Forget all those stresses and strains with a visit to Bluestone, right in the heart of Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. The 500-acre resort has nearly 300 luxury lodges, cottages and studio apartments, all set around a private village, designed in traditional Welsh style. This is a good value luxury holiday, with prices starting at £299 for a three-night break for a family of four (they give you a 10% discount if you book online).

Bluestone has hundreds of activities to offer any kid that loves an adventure. There’s an indoor Blue Lagoon water park, an undercover Adventure Centre where they can rock climb, a Steep Ravine with zip wires (from 40ft to 260ft), and a Tournament Field for those wanting to hone their archery techniques. There’s more, with history walks, lantern workshops and kayaking to name a few. Younger kids will enjoy the village treehouse and treetots play area, and even babies are catered for with sensory and massage classes. If you’re after relaxation, treat yourself to the Well Spa Retreat with a range of pampering options, saunas, a thermal suite and a hydro pool. Alternatively, you can just spend the break taking relaxing cycle rides, walks and visiting the onsite restaurant and pubs, most with their own evening entertainment.

• The Stay Play Explore Family at a selection of hotels in Leicestershire

Leicestershire tourism is offering families an amazing value getaway package. For just £139, you can all stay at a four star hotel with breakfast included, and then visit three nearby attractions. There are 10 attractions to choose from, including the National Space Centre, home to the UK’s largest 360° planetarium. There’s also Conkers in the heart of the National Forest where you can take walks or have the kids entertained in the Enchanted Forest Adventure play area. Twycross Zoo, Twinlakes Theme Park and Stonehurst Farm are other options, but we’d most definitely pick the Swadlincote Ski Centre, where you get half an hour of sno-tubing and 2 toboggan rides per person.

Most of the hotels in the package have swimming pools, spa facilities and entertainment. This deal is perfect for any family wanting a quick, cheap, easy break.

• Center Parks

It’s impossible to write a family getaway feature without including Center Parcs. The holiday company has five ‘villages’ located around the UK, each covering about 400 acres of woodland. Center Parcs is widely known for its subtropical swimming paradise but there’s a whole range of childrens’ activities on offer, including segways, pottery painting, bug hunting, fencing and Badmington. Your younger children can enjoy the Chocolate Chefs Academy, pirate and princess adventure, meeting owls, den building, street boarding (a unique fusion of skateboarding, snowboarding and surfing) and tree trekking (they’ll have to navigate through the forest 2 metres above ground).

If you want to visit the Aqua Sana Spa, you can drop your little ones into the Ofsted registered crèche service. They’ll be kept occupied with the Mucky Pups programme, which involves them exploring things like sand, water, jelly and pasta shapes.

So which village do you choose? If you’re after a nature getaway, Whinfell Forest has one of the few remaining red squirrel colonies in the UK. Meanwhile Sherwood Forest and Longleat Forest provide the most luxurious accommodation with the Treehouses, offering you your own private hot tub, games den and sauna. Luxury Spa Breaks (one night breaks) are available at Woburn Forest and Elveden Forest, and these include an overnight stay in a one bedroom Spa Suite, direct access to the Aqua Sana Spa and a 55 minute treatment for each person. Weekend breaks at Center Parcs currently start from £429 (the price for a three night stay in a two bedroom Woodland Lodge, sleeping four).