Best UK luxury family hotels to cater for every generation

Close to Newquay’s Fistral beach, Headland Hotel and Spa has rooms to suit families with children of all ages. Make yourself at home in a family room with pillowy double beds for adults, cots for tots and bunk beds for bigger kids.

These light and airy rooms have little luxuries like Nespresso machines, while some also have sea views. Lofty family cottages feature one, two or three bedrooms, a cosy living room with a wood burner and a kitchen diner for family meals.

Children can spend their days splashing about in the hotel’s pools or learning to surf and paddle-board down on the beach. For adults, there’s a gym and a tranquil spa offering soothing massages and revitalising treatments.

The hotel also boasts two AA Rosette-awarded restaurants, serving a menu of artistically presented dishes inspired by the area’s rugged coastline, such as Cornish lobster with a citrus salad.

The Carlyon Bay in Cornwall has lots going on, from tennis and croquet to golf on the 18-hole championship course. In the serene spa, adults can float in the hydrotherapy bath or work out in the fitness suite. Kids can play in the pool and explore the 250 acres of grounds – there’s also a coastal path to sandy St Austell Bay.

Make use of the hotel’s babysitting service for a dinner date in the elegant AA Rosette-awarded restaurant, or eat as a family in the hotel’s seasonal brasserie where there’s a children’s menu. Pop to the lounge for light lunches with views of the manicured grounds.

Rooms are airy and bright, with idyllic views of the sea and a plush seating area by the window. Double rooms with a pull-out sofa bed are ideal for small children. You can also request for a cot to be added to your room for little ones.

Stay in one of Hotel Bovey Castle’s cosy lodges dotted across its 275 acres of Devon’s Dartmoor National Park. Tucked between the aged trees, each has three floors with three en-suite rooms, a country-style kitchen, a lounge with a crackling fire and a spacious balcony overlooking the grounds. The castle and its mews building offer an additional 60 individually-designed rooms, including deluxe doubles with marble bathrooms and regal four-poster staterooms.

Explore the outdoors with off-road driving experiences and clay pigeon shooting, while children meet local wildlife in the deer park or join in with the kids’ club. In the lavish spa, unwind with a sumptuous ESPA treatment and gaze out across miles of parkland from the bubbling whirlpool.

The relaxed brasserie is ideal for family dinners, with a menu including dishes like spaghetti with meatballs. Adults can choose from a selection of reimagined British favourites, such as honey-glazed ham with a fried duck egg.

Hampshire’s New Park Manor has thought of everything to keep your little ones happy and give grown-ups a well-deserved rest. Enjoy quality family time on bike rides through the surrounding New Forest or munch popcorn in the cinema room. Kiddies aged three months to eight years can also spend two hours a day in the complimentary crèche – giving adults some free time.

Newborns will have milk delivered twice a day, or fresh puréed food from the chef. In the airy restaurant, you can dine on European flavours such as lamb kofta – and children have a special menu that hides veggies in favourites like mac and cheese.

The manor house has spacious family suites as well as inter-connecting rooms. These welcoming spaces are decorated with retro prints, soothing earthy hues and soft furnishings. Peer out of your window across acres of the New Forest and spot rabbits hopping between the shrubs.

At The Ickworth, mealtimes are for everyone with freshly puréed food for tots, favourites such as fish goujons for little ones and even mocktails for big kids. Grown-ups have a seasonal menu to choose from, filled with dishes like rabbit lasagne – arrange for a babysitter to watch the children for an evening of fine dining in the sophisticated adults-only restaurant.

Rooms are designed for families, with suites sleeping five, and doubles with an optional extra bed. In the old lodge, there are cosy two or three-bedroom apartments that also have a kitchen area. These homely spaces combine historic details with soft textiles and look out across the vast grounds.

From trampolining to cycling together along woodland paths – the hotel’s 1,800-acre grounds have all sorts to satisfy curious children. There’s also a pool and arty activities in the complimentary crèche. While they’re busy, adults can enjoy a treatment in the serene spa.

Take in the sea air at the Saunton Sands Hotel, where coastal-inspired rooms overlook the golden beach. The airy inter-connecting rooms and two-bedroom suites are ideal for families. There are also homely apartments with a dining room, kitchen and direct beach access.

Water babies can splash around in the heated indoor and outdoor pools or head down to the sea to learn how to surf. In the supervised playroom, children will be busy making friends while you take a balancing yoga class, play on the tennis court or simply doze off in one of the garden’s deck chairs.

In the two AA Rosette Art Deco-style dining room, sample tastes of the sea with dishes like native lobster thermidor. For family meals, choose a table down by the sands at the beachside grill. Here, kids have their own menu with puzzles to solve while they wait for home favourites like scampi and chips.

Nestled in the quaint Cotswolds, Calcot Manor Hotel is a peaceful haven with 220-acre grounds for family bike rides. When they’re not playing on the tennis court or adventuring in the pirate ship playground, tots and older children can join the kids’ clubs, visit the exclusive cinema and get baking in Saturday morning workshops.

In the hotel’s rustic Gumstool Inn, locally-sourced ingredients are used to make pub-grub classics like Sunday roasts with fluffy potatoes, as well as child-friendly dishes. Eat outside in the pub’s garden on sunny days or cosy up by the crackling fire on colder ones.

Designed with a shabby-chic flair, Calcot’s family pads feature a plush king-size bed and an adjoining kids’ room. There are essentials such as bottle warmers for the smallest guests and must-haves like a Nespresso machine for adults. Book rooms set over two floors for more space and luxe features like twin bathtubs and a garden.

Summer Lodge Country House Hotel and Spa captures quintessential English charm with its family-friendly rooms, suites and cottages. Fragrant REN toiletries, plush bathrobes and freestanding bath tubs add opulent flair to these homely spaces.

Play on the croquet lawn and tennis courts, cycle in the countryside or set up a picnic in the manicured gardens – there’s a pretty spot by the water feature. Nearby, you can ride a horse to the beach or learn about Harris hawks with the hotel’s own falconry experience. Unwind in the Jacuzzi while kids enjoy the pool, or escape with a treatment in the neighbouring spa.

Reserve a table in the restaurant to sample fine-dining dishes such as cured sea-trout tartar. Down the road, a 16th-century country inn is a quaint spot for family meals, with favourites like sausage and mash and mini ploughman’s on the menu for kids.

At the coastal Bedruthan Hotel, little ones can pretend to be a deep-sea diver in the indoor and outdoor pools, or let off some steam in the soft play area and kids’ clubs. Adults can don a fluffy robe and gaze out to sea from the spa or connect with nature in the sensory spa garden – there are deep cedar-wood hot tubs and open showers nestled among the trees.

The hotel’s child-friendly restaurant is a cosy spot with views of the nearby bay. Its rustic dishes use ingredients from Cornish farmers and fishermen, like locally-sourced bacon and sausages for breakfast. There’s a kids’ menu too, with options like fish and chips.

The hotel’s spacious rooms feature floor-to-ceiling windows that fill the space with daylight and frame sea views. There are beds for all the family in villas and inter-connecting rooms. Larger families of up to six can spread out in apartment suites.