All inclusive with children: six hotels where the family counts

For a couple, all inclusive is a convenience. For a family, it becomes almost a method. A child is hungry at four, thirsty at every hour, and dinner cannot always wait until eight: when everything is settled in advance, the day stops being a string of small bills, and parents stop counting.

The package still has to be designed with them in mind. What makes the difference is what children find in it: a free club that stays open late, a buffet at their height, rooms where four or five can sleep, and sometimes a package that is free for them. Here are six hotels where all inclusive and family life go together.

On the Le Morne peninsula, in the south-west, the Riu Turquoise is a family holiday hotel run on a twenty-four-hour all-inclusive basis: there is no hour after which drinks and food stop being included. It is the simplest argument for parents, who never have to look at their watch at the bar.

The Family room measures forty-five square metres. The pool has a swim-up bar and a children’s pool, and the Riu Land programme keeps children busy during the day, before live shows in the evening. Several themed restaurants, including an Indian one, complement the main buffet. The peninsula lies at the far end of the island from the airport, and the drive should be allowed for.

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LUX* Grand Gaube

★★★★★Grand GaubeSee the hotelBook on Booking.com →

On a peninsula at Grand Gaube, in the north, LUX* Grand Gaube offers an all-inclusive package in which lunch and dinner are served à la carte, with a thirty per cent discount at INTI, the Peruvian restaurant. Children have their own places: PLAY, the club for three- to eleven-year-olds, where they make pizzas, GAIA, a pottery workshop, and Studio 17 for twelve- to seventeen-year-olds, with beach volleyball and slackline.

The large pool is watched by a lifeguard, and children’s menus and a children’s spa complete the picture. The included activities are many, from water-skiing to kayaking and paddleboarding, from creative workshops to film screenings.

At Pointe aux Piments, on the north-west coast, the Victoria offers all inclusive as an option, and at Beachcomber the package is free for children up to the age of eleven. It extends to three other hotels in the group, the Shandrani, the Canonnier and the Mauricia, where dinners are interchangeable.

The kids’ club, free for three- to eleven-year-olds, sits by the beach and is open from 9am to 10pm: creative workshops, an introduction to séga, henna tattoos, a trampoline, lagoon outings and beach cinema twice a week. The teens’ club is free for twelve- to seventeen-year-olds, and the bottle-preparation room is open day and night. The two-bedroom family apartments measure one hundred and twenty square metres.

At Trou aux Biches, this five-star Beachcomber hotel offers an optional all-inclusive package that covers lunch and a selection of drinks; for stays of at least five nights, it runs from arrival until 6pm on the day of departure. It adds a perk for golfing parents: a green fee, a buggy and transfer to the course, offered every day.

The Kids Club, free for three- to eleven-year-olds, has its own restaurant, garden and pool; the Teens Club welcomes twelve- to seventeen-year-olds free of charge. There is a dedicated space for babies, with free childcare on weekdays from 1pm to 4pm for one- to two-year-olds. For larger families, twenty-seven villas of two or three bedrooms have their own private pool.

Facing Île aux Aigrettes, ten minutes from the airport, the Preskil can be taken on half board, full board or all inclusive, a package that opens the main restaurant and the Mediterranean restaurant, the Mosaïc; the 1810, by the sea, remains extra. There is no dress code, which makes dinners with children simpler.

The Baby Club takes children from three months to three years old, from 9am to 5pm, with staff trained in the care of the very young. The Tikoulou Kids Club separates three- to five-year-olds from six- to twelve-year-olds, until 9.30pm, with lunch and dinner in the company of the team, cooking classes on Thursdays and Creole lessons. The family rooms sleep two adults and three teenagers, and water-skiing is free.

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The Ravenala Attitude

★★★★BalaclavaSee the hotelBook on Booking.com →

At Balaclava, between sea and river, The Ravenala Attitude has nothing but suites, two hundred and fifty of them, and the seventy-two-square-metre Family Suite sets aside a sleeping corner for children, for up to two adults and three children. Its all-inclusive package applies to the whole family, children included, from arrival until the hour of departure, even after the room has been handed back.

It covers breakfast, lunch at Ō and Taba-J, afternoon tea from 4pm to 5pm, dinner on the Dine Around at seven restaurants, a selection of local drinks at the bar from 9am to 11pm, the minibar restocked daily and a picnic basket for excursions, to be ordered forty-eight hours ahead. The kids’ club welcomes three- to twelve-year-olds free of charge from 9am to 10pm, with kite-making, an introduction to séga, biscuit workshops and a buffet of their own. That, in the end, is where a family all-inclusive is judged: at teatime.