Treat your family to the ultimate luxury Caribbean holiday
Preparing for your family's Caribbean adventure is made far easier with British Airways Holidays. This most trusted tour operator carefully selects the finest resorts and hotels in the most idyllic locations, and provides a generous baggage allowance for all travellers, as well as Atol protection from the moment you book. If you're keen to spread the cost of your trip with a low deposit and flexible payments*, you can. Not only that, all customers benefit from a dedicated 24/7 holiday helpline too.
With everything taken care of all you need to do is relax and enjoy your destination and hotel, but which will you choose?
Royalton Saint Lucia, An Autograph Collection All-Inclusive Resort
Like many Royalton properties, this gorgeous Saint Lucian resort is celebrated for its All-in Luxury at Its Finest offering, a concept that redefines the all-inclusive holiday package experience with its exceptional service and premium amenities. Be warned: once you experience this you may never settle for anything less again.
Expect a breathtaking oceanfront location with vast swimming pools, wide-ranging sports facilities – including tennis and dance classes – plus the blissful The Royal Spa where you can totally unwind in style. The hotel has eight exceptional restaurants offering unlimited dining and top-shelf drinks. Its serenely designed accommodation is also loved for its high thread-count sheets, fully stocked minibars and Jacuzzi soaker tubs that set the tone for a truly luxurious escape. The resort's innovative smart bracelet – that doubles as your room key – only adds to the convenience of your stay.
Want to scale up your stay? Book the hotel's Diamond Club suite VIP experience for butler service and the option of a swim-out pool. Your youngest travellers will love the splash park, teens lounge (for ages 13 to 17) and kids club (for ages four to 12).
Royalton Grenada, An Autograph Collection All-Inclusive Resort
Check your family into this elegant resort and you'll have everything you could possibly need. Not only will you be a stroll away from two sublime beaches, you will also have daily entertainment, state-of-the-art fitness equipment and instructor-led classes with Royalton Fit and wide-ranging water sports at your fingertips. There are three swimming pools and a dedicated kids' pool, plus a programme of kids' club activities. Everything is a breeze here: simply download the easy-to-use Royalton app to make spa appointments and dinner reservations (there are four brilliant restaurants here) while managing your overall stay.
Exclusive DreamBed-equipped suites are all set up to provide the ultimate comfort, and mornings here are never a drag when you've got verdant gardens or sunrises over the sublime beauty of Tamarind Bay to wake up to, while the resort's smart bracelet technology allows you to move around freely without the hassle of a room key. Upgrade to the Diamond Club suite category to unlock butler-led services such as laundry pick-up and ironing, allowing you and your gang to experience nothing but the most memorable and relaxing family break on the beautiful Spice Isle.
Royalton Antigua, An Autograph Collection All-Inclusive Resort
Antigua is a honeypot for families and whether you want to relax in beach cabanas, play with the kids or take a cookery class, you can at this fantastically equipped hotel.
There's an exceptional variety of flavours across its restaurants and endless entertainment for young ones, alongside beautifully decorated suites featuring mini bars and huge rain showers. Nightly turndown services, luxe robes and slippers will help the whole family enjoy the best night's sleep possible.
With butler-led services and perks such as laundry pick-up and spa discounts, this resort will win the whole family over in an instant.
British Airways Holidays packages include a generous checked baggage allowance for each customer and come with full Atol protection for complete peace of mind. Secure your Caribbean holiday to these Royalton Resorts with a low deposit and enjoy flexible payments until you fly.*
*Based on two sharing. Full balance due seven weeks before departure for long haul holiday bookings. Subject to availability. T&Cs apply.
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Times
16 hours ago
- Times
Family holidays: what we got wrong — and right — by the experts
It starts with such good intentions, writes Siobhan Grogan. When you first consider a family holiday, you might picture all the quality time spent together, long sunny days chatting and picnicking, perfectly built sandcastles on the beach, perhaps a glass of wine while your angelic child plays quietly nearby. But children have an uncanny knack of upending even the best-laid plans, whether you're in the Maldives or Margate. They get ill at the most inconvenient times, have screaming meltdowns on planes, won't eat anything but chicken nuggets or decide they're terrified of the sea. Yet we continue to live in hope for that rare time that everything goes perfectly to plan. Here are our writers' own tales of their best and worst family holidays to — hopefully — help you to avoid our mistakes this summer. The stylish Peligoni beach club and villa set-up in northern Zakynthos manages to be heaven for children and adults. The kids' club, open four hours a day, runs activities such as sailing, tennis, tie-dyeing classes and so on, which means parents can get coffee, go to the gym, even talk to each other. Samuel, my four-year-old, was at the club every minute he was allowed. When we went last October half-term, the weather was absolutely chef's kiss: low twenties, still-warm sea, blue skies. It made me realise my non-negotiable on all future holidays: childcare. Everything that could go wrong on holiday went wrong on our Barbados trip, when my son was 18 months old. We were all sick from unfiltered water; he didn't sleep and had severe nappy rash; it rained. We were tutted out of lovely linen-tablecloth restaurants when he lost interest in loud iPad videos. I had wanted to see the island so had booked us into five hotels in totally different places, and we spent most of our ten-day break travelling between them. Even nightly rum punches didn't cheer us up. It's the closest we've been to divorce. To top it off, we flew from Manchester. On a recent (child-free) trip to Marbella, I noticed a family on holiday with two nannies and one toddler. This, I have learnt, is a reasonable adult-to-small-child ratio. One of our best holidays so far has been to a Landmark Trust house in Lyme Regis, Dorset, with my sister and her young family plus our parents. No airports, no (quickly crushed) expectations of sunbathing with a book. The cousins played (largely) happily together, chasing chickens around the garden and hiding behind curtains. The grandparents covered bedtime stories and the domestic drudgery was divvied up. One night, to celebrate a special birthday, a caterer came to cook dinner for us. Champagne! Canapés! No washing up! The ultimate treat. City breaks, for me, mean walking for miles, dipping into shops, visiting galleries, sipping the odd overpriced drink in a hotel bar and dining out. None of which is suitable for young children. We took ours to Florence and, while they were doted on by the Italians, it was all a bit of a challenge. Narrow pavements, no playgrounds (at least that we could find), lots and lots of tourists, very late dinner times. Our eldest had a meltdown because I wouldn't let her hold the handmade marbled paper I'd bought. Even the chocolate gelato had to work hard to bring her round. One of the benefits of having kids is that they don't know anything. So when you say things like 'We're going to Belgium!' they might be excited. This was the case when my lad was 12 and we took the train to Bruges. I was aiming for some kind of culturally uplifting experience, full of art, canal rides and architecture. But what was I thinking? The plan went straight out the window and we basically just larked about, eating fancy chocolate for breakfast, racing up the steps at the bell tower and laughing like drains in a museum dedicated to French fries. Who needs plans? You know that feeling when you go camping and everything works out really well? No, me neither. But as a broke single dad, summers invariably used to involve at least one week sitting in a cheap tent somewhere in Yorkshire waiting for the rain to stop. The summer of 2014 was particularly memorable as my seven-year-old and I were joined in Robin Hood's Bay by, drum roll, Ex-Hurricane Bertha! Yes, I did eventually manage to catch up with the tent as it blew down the hill. No, I didn't notice the huge tear until I'd put the wretched thing up and unloaded the car. Yes, I had left the coolbox full of food at home on the kitchen table. No, I didn't cry that much. The cottage looked adorable online. Exactly the kind of place you would choose if this was your first trip to Sardinia and you really wanted to see the island at its best. Unfortunately, when we pulled up outside — in the middle of a rainstorm — it became apparent that the guy who'd photographed the place had carefully framed out the depressing agricultural complex that dominated the landscape and the inescapable air of dark gloom within. Three rooms didn't have windows, the 'garden' had a broken twin tub in it and, worst of all, there was no television. I'm not ashamed to say I wept. As did my two children. But, magically, this then turned into … … the best holiday, because my husband — not normally one for bold decisions or reckless expenditure — simply took out his credit card, held it aloft in front of his weeping women-folk and said: 'Behold: the solution.' Twenty minutes later we were in a frankly magnificent hotel on a white-sand beach with swimming pools that the kids spent all day in. Everywhere reeked of jasmine, the hotel restaurant did a cocktail that became my main source of hydration, and the thrill of pulling off a good holiday, having glimpsed the prospect of a nightmare one, kept us buzzing all week. Best of all, there was a TV in our bathroom. One rainy morning me and both kids watched all of Mamma Mia! while up to our necks in hot bubbles. Money: is there nothing it can't do? • Read our full guide to Sardinia A week on the beach at Watergate Bay in Cornwall has been a fixture on our family calendar from the get-go, with Granny and Grandpa stalwart supporters for many of those years. Accommodation has ranged from hotels to cottages to campsites. Our beach buddies have included like-minded London families and, now, teenage friends from school. Every year is the same, but also different. We surf. It rains (heavily) twice. The kids grow ever more capable. At the end of it we always wish we could stay another week. We got our timing wrong with ski holidays. I'd heard loads of stories from the locals about how their children were skiing straight out of the cradle (well, almost) and so tried our son, Sam, in ski school in La Plagne, France, when he was three. When we picked him up later his face was white with dried tears and snot. He did one more day and then we gave up — and no one skied much after that. He loves it now, of course, but we should have waited until he was in reception year back home and not so freaked out by the company of strangers. • 16 of the best family adventure holidays Renting an out-of-season villa in the middle of nowhere in Umbria was risky. There was little close by for the kids to do, it was too early in the year to use the pool, and the nearest shop was half an hour's drive away if we ran out of milk (aka wine). In fact, we whiled away a surprisingly sunny week playing football and Frisbee in the garden, ate vats of no-frills pasta on the terrace, day-tripped to hilltop Assisi for great views and gelato, and discovered a vineyard within walking distance, where the owner lavished hunks of parmesan on the kids as we sampled the vino. It's the most relaxed I've ever felt on holiday. Everyone loves Cornwall, apparently. Well, everyone can't have spent the best part of a day stuck in a traffic jam en route listening to the chirpy Peppa Pig theme tune at the start of each new episode on the iPad. My two-year-old was sick several times on the journey — we later discovered she has chronic travel sickness — and our rented cottage had a death-trap staircase our daughter wanted to spend the entire day going up and down. Plus, the 'short drive' to the nearest beach was not so short once you'd factored in hours spent battling for a parking space. I still shudder when I see Peppa Pig. • 20 of the best family-friendly hotels in the UK Every summer between the ages of 5 and 15 with my parents and siblings, and now as an adult with my own children, I have spent a week on a narrowboat. It's always the highlight of our year — normal life fades away. Last year our route took us through Skipton and the Yorkshire Dales. On golden afternoons my niece lay on the roof reading Agatha Christie aloud to her cousins as emerald-green hills slipped by. True, there was a sticky spot when we ran out of water and no one could shower for two days. But that was all part of the fun. Once I had aspirations that we would become a 'van family'. We bought a second-hand VW when our sons were two and four and headed to a sprawling campsite behind Rhossili beach on the Gower peninsula. We spent an hour trying to get the van level and erect our awning, then it began to drizzle. When it stopped raining we collected driftwood from the beach and made a campfire, but got nothing but black smoke. We thought we'd go for a meal then realised we couldn't get anywhere without packing up again. The boys went back to their iPads in the van, while my husband and I sat silently outside in the cold and dark, watching other families happily barbecuing and drinking beers. Mum died. Not on the holiday, but before. Also before was the London Olympics, so the biggest month of my professional career. Bradley Wiggins had won Great Britain's first gold medal and I was waiting to speak with him when I got the call to say come home, quick. She went that night. I took one day off then carried on working. So there was no time to grieve, no time to process and when we finally got to our villa that was beginning to show, physically and mentally. Then I fell down the stairs. Speaking to the owners about an air-con issue, I must have dripped water on my way up, slipped on it coming down. Marble. Top to bottom. Not good. At least I wasn't hospitalised. Shame, because it was lovely, I'm told. Roberto ran the house and cooked for us — 'very fresh, very typical' — and one of my lads still says it's the best villa we've had. Pity I wasn't really around to enjoy it. Just came back from it, thanks for asking. Only ten days, but as the family gets older it's harder to be in one place together. But this was us — my three sons, all the girls, even our Australian exiles. The villa in Zakynthos was superb, again — 'I reckon better than that one in Sardinia where you fell down the stairs,' said Art — we swam in the Ionian Sea, Rob fanned the barbecue and Will cooked some nights, so we dined like gods. And Art has a new Australian hip now, so is getting his life back. No crutches any more. I could have whiled away hours just watching him walk. Had it rained every day — and, no, not a drop — it would still have felt perfect. • 18 of the best family hotels in Greece I was a weird teenager because I really enjoyed hanging out with my family. Which was just as well because in the summer of 1997 we crammed into our car, drove to Hull, caught the ferry to Zeebrugge and then spent the next fortnight on the road. The Black Forest! The Swiss Alps! Austria! The shores of Lake Garda! I was 15, had made an incredible mix tape — which I made everyone listen to constantly — I read The Secret History by Donna Tartt and my parents even let me have the occasional beer. From watching Aida staged in Verona's Roman arena to guzzling sausages at a Bavarian village fête run by drunken firemen, I loved every single minute of it and still think about it weekly. Our first holiday as a family should have been great: a pretty little villa not far from the south coast of Mallorca where we could decompress after successfully completing our first 12 months of parenthood — ie alternate between nailing cold cans of Mahou Cinco Estrellas, paddling in the sea and taking nap after nap after nap. Unfortunately our son decided to run an explode-the-thermometer temperature and have a violent febrile seizure. Cue an ambulance ride to the hospital, where we all spent the next four days sharing a stuffy, windowless hospital room. On the plus side the hospital canteen had a wine list — quite good, actually — but I've never wanted to be home while on holiday quite so badly. • 15 of the best family holiday destinations for 2025 In 2008 we decided to take no risks on our first holiday as a family of four — just a cosy Dartmoor cottage in late September. Where better to be sleep-deprived and out of our parenting depth? Alas, the cottage was not as described: one tiny broken bed, several broken windows and a swamp for a driveway. Which would have been fine except it was raining, from the minute we arrived to the minute we left (three days early). Which would have been fine except the farmer who rented it lived right next door. He was a lonely old man who tried to whittle wooden animals but always ended up with wooden mushrooms. He liked to come into our kitchen to make himself a brew. We left with two mushrooms and three colds — and a renewed gratitude for our own cosy home. In 2010 we decided to take some risks on our third and final family holiday before Child A started school. We set off on a four-week camper van trip across France feeling like expert parents. For the first three weeks and two days it rained, and we were worn down by the damp, the drudgery, the fermé signs in every restaurant window. Then, for the first and probably last time, I decided to hang the expense. I booked us into the most expensive luxury château I could find in Bordeaux. We arrived and a team of valets unpacked all our waterlogged equipment. They hung our bell tent in the wine cave to dry while we sat on the terrace ordering lunch. The sun came out and I don't think I've ever been happier. Even though I grew up a few hours away, I'd shamefully never taken the family to Montreal. Last October we stepped out of the Gare Centrale just as the autumn leaves were peaking and summer was heaving a final sigh. Obviously we headed straight out for poutine at La Banquise. Then we hit Saint Laurent Boulevard, which is rammed with vintage boutiques, and relaxed on Larrys café patio just as the Halloween revelry was getting into gear — children in zoo animal onesies on the early shift, sexy nurses and Village People on the late one. My eldest was so charmed she decided to go to university there. • Canada's most fun city break — with a French twist Living in Shanghai with two toddlers was intense, so we booked a week in Yunnan, the mountainous province in China's west, for some fresh air and exercise. Right off the bat we realised how badly we'd planned, showing up in historic Lijiang during a high-traffic public holiday with a double buggy and a hotel reservation at the top of a steep, cobbled hill. The girls, with their white-blonde hair, endured constant curiosity from crowds reaching out to touch them. After dinner in the old town, two of us got food poisoning from a misguided bowl of yak curry and spent the night on the floor of the lavatory. We gave it another day but ended up quitting after two nights. Share your own family holiday highs and lows in the comments
The Sun
20 hours ago
- The Sun
Our dream cruise was like being on a floating WETHERSPOONS with drunk passengers throwing up & kids left coated in soot
A FAMILY have slammed their nightmare £8,000 cruise after drunk passengers turned the ship into a floating Wetherspoons. Iain and Sally Wright, from Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, said the dream holiday turned into chaos after the ship's funnels left their two young kids covered in "black soot". 5 5 5 The couple boarded the MSC Cruises Virtuosa with their two children and mother-in-law on July 12 for a two-week trip across Spain. They thought the ship - hailed as "family-friendly" - would be perfect for their 11-year-old son Jack and eight-year-old daughter Molly. But shortly after boarding, Iain, 41, claims the drunkenness of passengers was "insane". Iain said: "But the level of drunkenness was insane. It was worse than a Wetherspoons. It would take you half an hour to get a drink. It was just horrendous. "It felt like an 18-30s club at times. If you were by the pool, you'd just hear constant swearing and people getting louder through the day. "We just thought 'what have we spent our money on?' It became like Fawlty Towers." On one occasion, Iain says a drunk guest threw up next to the family's table while they were playing Scrabble. After complaining to MSC staff, he said it took an hour for them to mop up the "smelly" mess. Things took a turn for the worse when kids Jack and Molly went on the top deck to see if the water slides were open. They returned "covered in black soot" that had spouted from the ship's funnels, Iain said. Royal Caribbean cruise passengers left 'vomiting' as mystery illness hits vessel & over 140 people are ill on board The furious dad said: "Jack's skin was covered in black stuff, Molly's swimming costume was stained all over her and it was on her arms. "We went down to guest services and told them our kids have been covered in the black soot from the engine I think and she said 'yeah that happens sometimes when we pull away from a port'. "She said we can make a claim about the damaged costume. "While we were there, there were other people complaining to say they'd been covered in the black soot too." 5 Iain went on to explain that Molly started itching and broke out in hives two days later. A doctor told them that she had suffered an allergic reaction from the fumes. The little girl was given hydrocortisone cream to treat the itching. Iain said: "We get accidents happen but customer services just didn't care. They acted like we were the problem for wasting their time. Their only intention was to disprove your complaint." Iain claims the family were even offered a £9 ticket for a premium show on-board the cruise after raising their complaints. The family said they spent the rest of the trip inside their cabin due to the "awful" atmosphere on board the ship. MSC Cruises said they "regretted" that the family's experience did not meet expectations, adding that they would be reaching out to ensure their "concerns are properly reviewed and addressed". 5
Daily Mail
21 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Drunk passenger threw up next to us while we were playing scrabble on 'Wetherspoons on Sea' Med cruise from hell: Brit family describe hiding in their cabin as louts ruined £8,000 voyage
A British family were forced to take refuge in their cabin after their £8,000 'family-friendly' cruise was ruined by drunken louts who turned the ship into ' Wetherspoons on Sea'. Iain and Sally Wright, from Sunderland, stumped up thousands for the voyage which 'looked great for kids' and embarked on a two-week trip across Spain on the MSC Cruises Virtuosa on July 12 alongside their two children, Jack, 11, Molly, 8, and their mother-in-law. But they endured a holiday from hell after they were surrounded by 'an insane level of drunkeness' from rowdy youths, while Molly suffered an allergic reaction after swimming in a pool covered in black soot. Mr Wright, 41, an author, said they tried to leave the cruise halfway through when in Majorca after they were sheltering in their rooms to avoid the 'horrible' atmosphere of 'constant swearing' and drunkness which was 'worse than a Wetherspoons'. One inebriated guest even threw up next to the family's table while they were playing Scrabble. MSC staff took an hour to clean up the 'smelly mess', Mr Wright claims. The holiday was further ruined after Jack and Molly returned from the pool the following day 'covered in black soot', which left the eight-year-old needing medical treatment after suffering an allergic reaction. The family complained to customer servics about the fumes but were told it 'happens sometimes' by staff. They then spent the remainder of the trip inside their cabin to avoid the 'awful' atmosphere, which resembled an '18 to 30s club'. Mr Wright said: 'We wanted to book this cruise because we thought it was a family ship. We thought it looked great for kids. 'We were really looking forward to it. My mother-in-law loves cruises and she said she might have one more left in her so for her, this was going to be her last cruise. 'But the level of drunkenness was insane. It was worse than a Wetherspoons. It would take you half an hour to get a drink. It was just horrendous. 'It felt like an 18 to 30s club at times. If you were by the pool, you'd just hear constant swearing and people getting louder through the day. 'We just thought "what have we spent our money on?" It became like Fawlty Towers. 'We were playing Scrabble on the main pool deck when a drunk passenger just walks by and vomits on the floor right next to our table. 'It smelled. It was left there for over an hour. They couldn't get a cleaner. And when you think about the bugs that go around on cruises, this is basic hygiene.' The Wrights' misery was compounded when Molly was 'covered' in black soot, believed to be 'raining' from the ship's funnels, which left her 'suffering with itching for 24 hours'. 'We were leaving the port and the kids went up to the top deck to see if the water slides were open,' Mr Wright said. 'While they were on that deck, it just rained down black stuff all over them. They came down to tell us and Jack's skin was covered in black stuff, Molly's swimming costume was stained all over her and it was on her arms. 'We went down to guest services and told them our kids have been covered in the black soot from the engine I think and she said "yeah that happens sometimes when we pull away from a port". 'She said we can make a claim about the damaged costume. While we were there, there were other people complaining to say they'd been covered in the black soot too. 'Two days later she started itching and broke out in hives so we went to customer services to see the doctor. 'He said it was an allergic reaction to an external substance. They said it was from the fumes because it was in the area where the fumes had touched her skin. 'They gave her hydrocortisone cream. She suffered with itching for 24 hours but it was a result of her being covered in this soot. It's not acceptable. 'We get accidents happen but customer services just didn't care. They acted like we were the problem for wasting their time. Their only intention was to disprove your complaint.' The family were later offered a £9 ticket for a premium show on-board the cruise after raising their complaints. But Mr Wright wants the cruise line to apologise for the 'disappointing' trip. 'We spent most of the holidays just going out to eat and staying in our cabins because the atmosphere was just awful. 'There were no quiet areas. Everywhere was packed. 'We were looking to disembark halfway through the cruise in Majorca. We felt like we were left with no choice. 'There's a level of basic customer service that we didn't get, whether it's a budget cruise or not. 'We wouldn't step foot on one of their cruises ever again. We got back feeling quite disheartened. It was a lot of money. The kids were disappointed. 'We probably had 12 hours of fun on a two-week cruise. We would love a partial refund because that could go towards booking the holiday that we wanted in the first place. 'They should apologise.' A MSC Cruises spokesperson said they 'take all guest feedback seriously and regret that the Wright family's experience did not meet their expectations. 'As we have not received any additional communication from them since then, our Customer Service team will now reach out to the Wright family directly to ensure their concerns are properly reviewed and addressed.'
