The best family friendly hotels in the UK

British country hotels, with their fine china, silver service lunches and expensive Persian rugs, were not traditionally hot spots for sticky-fingered children. As a nation, we have lagged woefully behind our European neighbours on the family-friendly hospitality front – forcing parents to choose between Centre Parcs or a stately spa hotel… minus the sprogs. Luckily, times have changed. British hotels’ once austere Victorian attitudes towards children have thawed along with the chintz, the dress codes and the punitively narrow breakfast window. In fact, our Fair Isles are now riddled with reimagined country piles and manor houses, whose facilities and rhythms have been cleverly reset for modern family life, without compromising on stylish interiors. From ensuring baby and toddler paraphernalia is booked ahead to engaging energetic broods with eye-popping workshops and activities while parents take a well-deserved break in the spa, hotels well-versed in smoothing the pain points of travelling with children elevate a family escape to a bona fide holiday. And it’s so often the little things… the step-ahead-of-you service, armbands readily available at the pool, milk bottles warmed in a flash, flexible menus, kid's club leaders who understand what makes children of all ages tick… and untick.
Add to this the architectural oomph of most British hotels, with their warren-like corridors steeped in history and landscaped gardens or rugged sea views, and a bolt in the Blighty, en famille could just be the ultimate reset for the whole clan. From toddlers to teens, here we round up the best family hotels in the UK.
For more inspiration, see our dedicated family guides:
- Mark Bolton Photographyhotel
The Grove, Hertfordshire
Best for: A quick escape from London
A 20-minute train ride from Euston – and a quick taxi drive – lands you at The Grove, a Grade-II listed do-it-all retreat surrounded by idyllic green hills. It’s here that all ages can burn off energy across 300 acres of glorious grounds – tree climbing sessions, archery and the newly introduced mini landies, a cute-as-can-be 4x4 that ages three to eight can pootle about in through the woods. In the school holidays, the Walled Garden is a haven for families, with lawn games, a pop-up Everyman outdoor cinema and Ralph’s Beach, where parents can order cocktails from their loungers while offspring splash about in the pool. For more time out, there's a championship 18-hole golf course, as well as the Sequoia Spa (don’t miss the rooftop terrace on a sunny day), while ages two to nine can be happily entertained at the OFSTED-registered Anouska’s Kids Club. The best rooms are found in the 18th-century Mansion, particularly the suites with their elegant parquet floors, stand-alone tubs and windows overlooking the grounds. Welcome packs are thoughtfully provided to tiny tots and include sweet treats, soft toys, Le Petit Prince bath products as well as mini robes and slippers. Meal times are a breeze, with kid’s menus available throughout – even room service – although the ultimate crowd-pleaser is the impressive buffet at The Glasshouse. Parents will love the raw bar, kids will love the Willy Wonka-esque dessert spread. Just don’t let them spy the chocolate fountain before they’ve eaten their vegetables. Lauren Burvill
Address: Chandler's Cross, Watford WD3 4TG
Price: Rooms from £430 per night
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Cameron House, Loch Lomond
Best for: little adventures
With prized spot on the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond and within the Trossachs National Park, Cameron House is a quintessential Scottish pile where the whole crew can bed down. The grounds are sprawling, comprising a marina and a nine-hole golf course, a scattering of self catering lodges, and the sandy banks of Cameron Bay. Family suites are well equipped with dreamy bathtubs, children’s lego and wholesome board games. All the usual baby paraphernalia can be requested. Kids menus are found in each of the four restaurants – there’s even an epic kids afternoon tea offering in the lobby bar. If your smalls are raucous, the laid back vibes at the Boat House are ideal. Apart from the couple of steps at the front – the kind staff will happily give you a hand – the hotel is pram friendly throughout. The Leisure Centre has plenty to keep wee ones busy, with a great mix of gentle baby slides as well as a bigger kid option. Swim nappies and floaties are available to buy. For any rainy day entertainment there’s also a cinema. One of my personal highlights was following the delightful fairy trail at the Clubhouse with my toddler, where we discovered a whimsical woodland setup with fairy doors and toadstool houses and even a troll bridge. Lauren Burvill
Address: Loch Lomond, Alexandria G83 8QZ
Price: Rooms from around £340
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Chewton Glen, New Forest
Best for: safari-style tree houses with a mix of beach and countryside
Envisage pulling up at the crunchy drive of a Hampshire grande dame, wrapped in acres of woodland and a mere brisk morning walk away from the beach (the salty air is the giveaway). Occupying a great chunk of good-looking countryside on the fringes of the New Forest, Chewton Glen is an unapologetic traditionalist – a fun-but-formal aunt with a glint in her eye and a few tricks up her cashmere sleeve. One of these is a slew of slick, safari-style treehouses, knocked together with families in mind and perched in the tree canopy overlooking an idyllic wooded valley. Families can use these as their own country bolthole, complete with five-star hotel service, daily breakfast hampers and (if easier with tinies), scrumptious room service, skipping over to the spa and hotel restaurants when the time’s right. ‘I’m bored’ has yet to be overheard, with Chewton’s raft of cleverly-curated activities, from farm experiences herding ducks and grooming Valentino the sheep to cookery classes, clay shooting and golf lessons. Older kids can finesse their swing in the tennis centre or master butterfly crawl in the Grecian pool, while the younger lot embark on eye spy games and flying kites around the beautifully manicured grounds, with Chewton Glen’s clever activity hampers.
Address: Christchurch Rd, New Milton BH25 6QS
Price: From rom £375 per night
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Lucknam Park, Wiltshire
Best for: countryside pursuits
Two years ago, my seven-year-old daughter Matilda declared that her dream was to ride a pony. A modest ambition, but for various reasons, including my beloved mother’s terminal cancer, it moved down our to-do list. As Mum neared the end of her life, her wish was to see the rolling hills of the English countryside again, ideally with a rose garden in view, and to be cocooned in the family. So late last summer, we descended on Lucknam Park, the 18th-century Palladian pile atop a mile-long, tree-lined drive in 500 acres of Wiltshire parkland. This time I bypassed the spoiling spa and Michelin-starred Restaurant Hywel Jones, and checked into Middle Lodge, a new three-bedroom house within the grounds. Its vibe is elegant, classic country cottage, complete with range cooker. We opened the French doors onto the private garden to let the dog out and the scent of roses waft in. One evening, via a walk through the walled garden and its sculpted yew hedges, we headed to the glorious drawing room of the main house to drink cocktails under lofty ceilings, chandeliers and a huge fireplace. My mum never drank but that night she insisted we have a Champagne cocktail because “life is for enjoying”. Matilda’s wish also came true when she took JD, a friendly old pony, for a trot in the woodlands with her sister Poppy. As we neared Middle Lodge, we waved at Mum sitting in the rose garden, a blanket over her knees and the sun shining on her face. Louisa Parker Bowles
Address: Lucknam Park, Chippenham SN14 8AZ
Price: Cottage from £1,350
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Gleneagles, Scotland
Best for: entertaining teens
Blending Scottish outdoorsy spirit with Jazz Age flourishes, Gleneagles is the ultimate Highland playground for all ages, with championship golf courses, endless country pursuits and restaurants showing off Scotland’s spanking fresh bounty. A fantastical ‘Little Glen’ creche lures in wide-eyed sprogs with its wacky indoor treehouse and train while parents sink into the cavernous spa for a deft pummelling and Dr Barbara Sturm facial, or nab a few tiddler-free hours in Andrew Fairlie’s two Michelin-starred restaurant. Special children’s menus are available in most restaurants, where chic highchairs are unfolded like origami and well-exercised children fuel up on proper Scottish fare, rounded off with thick, creamy fireside hot chocolates. Whatever the weather (this is Scotland), the older lot can fling on their Barbours for clay pigeon shooting, fishing, falconry, archery and even hacks out into the glens on handsome steeds. Such high-energy days soon drift into afternoon siestas (albeit in smart cots, single beds or grandiose four posters) in the plush pistachio-hued rooms, all nodding to a traditional baronial style without a trace of stuffiness. And while Shetland pony rides and tree climbing expeditions keep the little ones on cloud 9, and the Den’s cinema room and PS4s , the parents are really here for the hopping American Bar, aglow with amber whiskies and that roaring twenties Highland energy, while a babysitter watches over their conked broods.
Address: Gleneagles Hotel, The, Auchterarder PH3 1NF
Price: From £350 per night
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Calcot Manor Hotel & Spa, Gloucester
Best for: its Playbarn and creche
On the bucolic fringes of antiques-heavy Tetbury lies Calcot & Spa, a honey-hued farmhouse surrounded by a cluster of tastefully renovated barns and cottages. These all tow the rustic-refined line and spill onto pretty gardens, terraces or acres of rolling pastures. The wisteria-browed main house, with its crackling fires and drawing rooms evincing fresh creamy classicism, is a sanctuary for families tucking into brasserie lunches or afternoon tea and hot chocolates (with mounds of marshmallows). Family rooms occupy the scatter of reimagined barns, with family suites resembling a private cottage and with all nodding to the buildings’ rural roots, without feeling overly formal or stuffy. For breakfast, parents will squeal with delight at the children’s counter (mini cutlery, bibs, bowls) in the light-filled conservatory, and all-day grazing spot, the Hive where children’s pizzas are whipped out alongside craft beers and cocktails for the grown ups. Families can embark on Calcot’s Tim Trail walking routes that slice through sun-doused fields and skirt the woods, practise their serves on the tennis court or make the most of the spa’s enormous pool. Tots will love the pirate ship and outdoor play areas, when not filing through reams of toys in the much-lauded Ofsted-approved crèche and Playbarn, leaving parents ample time to sample the spa’s treatment menu or stew in its outdoor hot tub.
Address: Gloucestershire, Tetbury GL8 8YJ
Price: Doubles from £259, the new Cosy Family Room from £664 per night on a B&B basis based on a family of four sharing
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Daylesford, Gloucestershire
Best for: a chic cottage stay for the whole crew
The newest addition to The Wild Rabbit stable, hot on the heels of the much-lauded pub with rooms The Fox at Oddington, Daylesford is a hamlet of 15 Tudor-Gothicstyle Cotswold cottages tucked into the 2,500-acre Daylesford Estate. It can be rented in its glorious rusticity as an entire village or as individual cottages. The Old School House, which sleeps eight and includes an accessible bedroom on the ground floor, is the largest house; Wisteria, which sleeps two, is the dinkiest. Each cottage comes with an Aga, private garden, crackling fire, Bamford products, weighty bed linen and preternaturally fluffy towels – all very adult, but laid-back enough not to inhibit boisterous youngsters and dogs. Daylesford Organic Farm is a Cotswolds stone’s throw away and offers cookery sessions (which, miraculously, gratify all three generations of my family), floristry workshops, wine-tasting and access to the Bamford Wellness Spa, one of the most soul-soothing places on earth. Our tour of the farm (wellies were essential) with Henry Unwin, director of sustainability, was eye-opening. Owner Carole Bamford, who has farmed organically for decades, ensures that her pioneering approach to sustainability remains at the heart of everything Daylesford does. The farm shop bustles with Barbourclad guests and visitors from nearby villages, filling baskets with colourful, seasonal produce and chatting animatedly over steaming cups of organic coffee. Louisa Parker Bowles
Address: Daylesford near Kingham, Cotswolds, GL56 0YG
Price: Cottages from £350 per night
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Soho Farmhouse, Oxfordshire
Best for: wholesome fun
They say it's the country retreat for people who would never otherwise go to the country. Park up at the gatehouse to be driven by your farmhand – perhaps in a Range Rover, perhaps in a dinky old-fashioned milk float. Already it feels like an adventure, and then you glimpse ramshackle-cool cabins dotted about rolling countryside, a river running through them, and you’re suddenly knee-deep in a farm that might have been reimagined by Tom Ford, where the yard has fire pits and outdoor sofas rather than tractors and troughs. Cabins are designer distressed, paint-chipped clapperboard and corrugated iron, with picture-perfect Foffa bikes propped up by the steps. Five of them have bunks for kids. While parents escape to the popular spa, the kids' club Teeny Barn puts on a huge range of activities, arts and crafts from 9am to 5pm daily. There are dedicated times for little ones to swim in the pool – possible the most spectacular int he UK – and an animal petting area you’ll no doubt want to gatecrash. Sarah Allard
Address: Great Tew, Chipping Norton OX7 4JS
- Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve
Port Lympne, Kent
Best for: animal lovers
It’s not easy to find a 1.5-ton black rhino rolling in mud or hand-feed a giraffe in the Kent countryside, but Port Lympne, a 600-acre safari park, animal reserve and hotel, brings a slice of the Serengeti to southeast England. Spearheaded by Damian Aspinall, the park protects and breeds endangered species and houses more than 800 animals. It’s split into enclosures, which we explore in our golf buggy, taking in spectacled bears, sunbathing lions and noisy troops of baboons. In the safari park, we’re driven around in an open-sided truck, stopping for stubborn camels who block the path. It’s all thrilling, thanks to the supremely knowledgeable guides and their stream of fun facts (my seven year old was delighted to learn that zebras are black with white stripes, contrary to playground opinion). There are 14 accommodation options, including plush suites in the Grade II-listed country house, timberclad lodges among the habitats of the majestic African lions and glamping under the stars. The latest reveal is Leopard Creek, opened in 2022, which features shepherd’s huts for families and wigwams for couples. We stayed in self-catering treehouses, tucked into the canopy with magical panoramas of the reserve: roaming wildebeest give way to wary ostriches; axis and sambar deer meander alongside water buffalo; capybara and vicuna graze by a lake. The dawn roar of the lion reminds everyone who’s boss. If it wasn’t for the English Channel glistening on the horizon, we could easily forget that we’re on the Kent savannah. Louisa Parker Bowles
Address: Aldington Rd, Lympne, Hythe CT21 4LR
Price: Cabins from £459, includes golf buggy and safari
- Chris Russell
Harbour Beach Club Hotel & Spa, Devon
Best for: seaside adventures
Of all the flora and fauna of Devon, the sea tractor is a rare beastie. Kayaking back from South Sands beach, my son and I watch as it trundles into the waves, taking passengers through the shallow water to board the Salcombe ferry. Around the headland from the town proper, Harbour Beach Club Hotel & Spa opened in 2021, tucked away from the crowds but still engaged with estuary life. It sits on a pocket-sized scoop of a bay, a rock-pool miniature of the English Riviera. There’s a kitbag of complimentary activities on tap, such as sea-swimming lessons and seal walks around Gara Rock. One day, after a teetering paddleboard session, we make our way up through ghostly sea fog to wander through bromeliads and banana plants in the tropical gardens at Overbeck’s. Its eccentric 1920s owner invented the Rejuvenator, a literally electrifying machine that claimed to restore hair, sight and even youth. But revival by electrode isn’t needed when there are early evening in-room G&Ts, a spa and jewel-like swimming pool, plus daily hauls of fresh seafood for prawn and lobster bisque (best with a glass of Calancombe fizz). A real seaside buzz. Rick Jordan
Address: South Sands, Salcombe TQ8 8LJ
Price: Doubles from £195
Four Seasons Hampshire
Best for: country pursuits an hour from London
Here’s a hotel that’s winning in the family stakes before you’ve even arrived, with a breezy one hour drive from London, dodging the dastardly motorway trek and multiple loo stops (the price London parents must pay in a bid for staycation paradise). It’s hard to believe this rambling pile ensconced in the cattle-grazed Hampshire hills could be so close to the urban jungle, particularly once you gasp in that fresh air and the children are grinning from ear to ear in the saddle of one of FS’s glossy ponies. Interiors decking the Grade II-listed pile deliver on all polished, urbanite notions of plush country living, without compromising on the glamour where family-perks and parks are concerned. Small-but-mighty touches include complimentary food for under-fives, organic snacks in the room and even swim-friendly nappies alongside the pool. Though, the hard-hitters – an imaginative indoor waterpark, Sharkie’s Reef, and highwire adventure obstacle course – seem to imprint themselves indelibly in little mind, along with those Nutella brioche rolls hiding at the bottom of the Winnie the Pooah package picnic hampers.
Address: Dogmersfield Park, Chalky Ln, Dogmersfield, Hook RG27 8TD
Price: From £476 per night
The Fish, Oxfordshire
Best for: its family-friendly treehouses
City families craving a free-range escape and a blast of fresh country air should make a break for The Fish in the Cotswolds. This outdoorsy adventure boutique hotel sits within the bucolic 400-acre Farncombe Estate, not far from Broadway’s cluster of independent shops and dusty knuckle pubs. There’s no stepping on toes in the spacious (and stylishly dressed) suites and treehouses, the latter sleeping two adults and two children with two al fresco heated baths, and with three cavernous additions to the old Coach House designed with the whole clan in mind. Families can squeeze on pairs of borrowed wellies and explore the estate’s tangle of trails, or book onto one of Farncombe’s adventures – shooting clays, axe throwing, falconry and the likes. And when not scaling the outdoor children’s play zone, crafted from the estate’s recycled wood, children can tuck into the Tiddler Menu at the main Lodge’s Hook restaurant, where fish plates with actual vegetables are a refreshing addition to the usual something-and-chips sprog hotel diet. Larger groups with little ones in tow can organise a memorable al fresco banquet on the Fish’s Feasting Deck, with locally sourced produce sizzling on the barbecue, and a delicious, crowd-pleasing mix of salads and puddings under the stars.
Address: 4 Appleford Rd, Sutton Courtenay, Abingdon OX14 4NQ
Price: From £220 per night
Woolley Grange, Wiltshire
Best for: its Woolley Bears den and toddler breakfast club
Staycation-savvy parents of young children will have either stayed at Woolley Grange or salivated over its legendary complimentary childcare pledges and abundance of parental perks. Ensconced in acres of soft rolling Wiltshire countryside, Woolley Grange’s exterior may strike as stiff, noble abode, but its bring-the-brood spirit is quite the antithesis. Rather than an extra website tab, families take centre stage here, with a wildly creative schedule of activities choreographed around children or family time, and a hotel team determined to offer weary parents that much-needed timeout. Those with tinies are wise to book the ‘Baby’s First Stay Away’ package (brimming with well thought-through perks such as complimentary on site babysitting and baby’s first swim sessions). Children routinely refuse to leave the Ofsted-registered Woolley Bears Den and Hen House hangout (for the older lot) where fun crafts, workshops and outdoor games are typically afoot. Days en famille are well spent wandering through Woolley Grange’s 14 acres of meadows and woodland, clambering up crowd-pleasing climbing frames or getting stuck into a game of croquet (and Pimms) on the lawn. And far from exclusive to parents, pampering treatments in the walled garden spa now extend to Mini-Me Children’s Massages, with all-natural Bramley lotions and potions.
Address: Woolley Green, Bradford-on-Avon BA15 1TX
Price: From £150 per night
Another Place, The Lake District
Best for: outdoorsy families
Unlike the Lake District’s grande dames, who frame their views of the glassy water and surging fells from stiff, heavy curtains and wisteria woven terraces, Another Place brings a more wetsuits-and-wellies style to Ullswater’s western shores. Watersports await along its jetty, guests fuel up at breakfast for wild swimming sessions and families stir Ullswater’s mirror-like surface with kayak oars. Much like its Cornish-based sister hotel, Watergate Bay, Another Place embraces its surroundings with a resolutely outdoorsy ethos – even the heated indoor pool is encased in glass to keep the surrounding natural splendour the main focus. Families trek to this Georgian maverick for a Swallows and Amazons-style holiday of waterborne activities, romps through the rush of green and a first-rate, forest school-style kids club which (unusually for UK hotels) takes children from as young as six months. This roughly translates as a few hours in the pocket-sized spa, a backgammon-and-cocktail stint in the library or simply holing up in peace with a book and uninterrupted conversation in the modern-classic rooms or the rustic-luxe treehouses and family shepherds' huts.
Address: Another Place, The Lake, Rampsbeck Grange, Watermillock, Penrith CA11 0LP
Price: From £210 per night
Carbis Bay, Cornwall
Best for: activities
This classic Cornwall hotel enjoys enviable views over a turquoise bay and its very own sandy beach, as well as a string of admirers who make their annual pilgrimage here for Britain’s best shot at a Riviera summer. And rather unusually for Cornwall, Carbis Bay occupies an enormous swathe of land along the Cornish coast – 125 acres of emerald green valleys, gardens and woodland which roll on until they meet the sea. Families will relish this blend of a rural (albeit maritime) flavoured stay with afternoon picnics along the hotel’s knockout Blue Flag beach, or days spent exploring the postcard-pretty fishing villages (such as nearby St. Ives) dotted along the coastal path. Parents with their eye on Adam Handling’s exquisite locavore menu, or the C Bay spa’s Bamford treatment menu can leave their littles ones in full tie dye, mosaic, pizza-making rapture at Carbis Bay’s terrific Kids’ Club. The hotel has even dreamt up 5pm activities such as movie nights to give parents a little breathing space at the end of a long, outdoorsy day. And of all the self-catered options, the Beach Lodges strikes as the ultimate family bolthole, while several hotel rooms in the antique and chandelier scattered main house are interconnecting.
Address: Carbis Bay, Saint Ives TR26 2NP
Price: Lodges from £1500 per night B&B (sleeping 6) and family rooms from £440 B&B
Moonfleet Manor, Dorset
Best for: its playzone, the Verandah
This creamy-stoned Georgian pile sits in plum position along the Jurassic Coast, overlooking Fleet’s lagoon, and beyond it, Chesil Beach. Don’t be fooled by its austere exterior or Georgian entrance hall – Moonfleet is an unpretentious coastal sanctuary where elaborate cocktails and clipped afternoon teas sits miraculously well alongside energetic children and family spaniels. As part of the Luxury Family Hotels group, the hotel has clearly considered the various crinkles of family travel, and reformatted the entire hotel and its rhythms to smooth them over. This is mainly evident in the ample room and activities available for letting children (and parents) let off steam, from a vast indoor play zone that caters to all ages (think ride-on toys, trampolines, an indoor football pitch and under-fives’ soft play), regular immersive theatre, creative workshops and a family-friendly indoor pool. The location also helps – with direct access to buttermilk Fleet beach from the hotel’s lawns, as well as a string of long scenic coastal walks. Fresh from a refurbishment, rooms are dressed in plush contemporary notions of traditional coastal style (except velvet sofas, scalloped headboards and roll top bathtubs). And when not cosied up in them or tucking into Dorset’s fresh coastal plunder downstairs, parents can check into the cavernous spa while sprogs get creative in the Ofsted-registered crèche (where outdoorsy activities happily sit front and centre).
Address: Fleet Rd, Weymouth DT3 4ED
Price: From £149 per night