**BLOG READERS SPECIAL OFFER!**
Name: Sands Resort Hotel and Spa
Type: Hotel
Country: United Kingdom
Town: Newquay, Cornwall
Cost per night: £142 for two-bedroom family suite
Facilities: A very long list! See the blog below for more details..
Tripadvisor rating: 4.5
This guest blog is kindly contributed by Rachel, who is mum of a 4 year old. Read on if you are interested to hear more about a very family-friendly hotel in Cornwall that doesn’t break the bank. Blog Reader’s Special Offer mentioned at the end.
“Sands Resort Hotel and Spa in Newquay, Cornwall is a 3* hotel overlooking the ocean within moments of golden sandy beaches and just outside of quaint Newquay. The hotel is about as ‘child-friendly’ as it gets, with playgrounds indoors and out, swimming pools, a bouncy castle, kids clubs, and great entertainment, not forgetting a very relaxing spa for the grown ups.
Click here for the hotel’s website
Without doubt our week at Sands Resort was one of our most enjoyable holidays we’ve had as a young family. The hotel is sensibly laid out with the emphasis on activities for the children and, had it not been for all the delights that stunning Cornwall had to offer, I doubt we’d have strayed particularly far from the hotel’s boundary.
Following a warm welcome at reception, we were helped with our suitcases to our room (always a treat). The best thing about the accommodation is that, in the suites, there are separate rooms for the children so if, like us, you have a child who demands to be put to bed by 7pm, you aren’t trapped in a darkened room, listening to the rest of the world enjoying the evening whilst you play games on your phone underneath the bedcovers.
The bedrooms are spacious, with glorious views, and nicely decorated with a seriously sensible amount of storage space and decent sized bathrooms.
However, we spent little time in the bedroom, apart from some occasional enforced rest / CBeebies to ensure our son didn’t completely lose his mind from the excitement on offer in the resort. From the hotel’s own website here is the list of available activities:
- Tennis
- Gym
- Maze
- Table tennis
- Foot Golf
- Indoor pool
- Outdoor splash and kids fun pools
- Basketball
- Crazy golf
- Football
- Croquet
- Zip wire
- Bouncy castle
- Soft play area
There were also arranged treasure hunts, quizzes, and various arts and crafts activities.
And, in all honesty, everything is brilliant fun – we all enjoyed belting around between indoor and outdoor pool, climbing, sliding, bouncing, and generally enjoying being together.
The kids clubs are arranged by age and my little boy enjoyed his first experience so much that he asked to go back again, sending my husband and I off to enjoy a relaxing massage (which we did, in the lovely spa).
The restaurant has well thought-through dining times (whoever thought those through definitely has children of their own), with an earlier time for families and a later time if you want to ditch the kids and enjoy an actual conversation over dinner which doesn’t involve how much ketchup is an appropriate amount (nearly always, ‘less than that’).
The food itself was mostly great, beautifully presented and using fresh local produce. Sometimes the service was a little slow but the young staff were charming and great with the kids. It was as stress free as eating in a restaurant with a small child can be.
An absolute highlight for us was the children’s entertainment before dinner. As both my husband and I work in the world of theatre and television for children we are quite hard to please and often children’s entertainers leave me mildly furious – however, every entertainer we saw at Sands Hotel was absolutely great, respectful, slightly old fashioned (in the best sort of way), and genuinely skilled. My only bugbear is that I wish sweets were not offered as prizes – but that seems fairly endemic throughout our society.
Surrounding the hotel is Cornwall in all its epic, rugged beauty. We enjoyed a day out at the Eden Project, a lovely stroll through Newquay, and golden days on the beach (where we were befriended by some local children and spent hours gazing into rock pools together and playing crazy games).
Should we return I would like to explore the Lost Gardens of Heligan, and I know there are many family fun theme park attractions which my husband and child would happily enter now the little one is five centimetres less little. Cornwall is definitely one of my favourite places on this earth, every bend in the road brings beautiful new horizons which bring peace to the soul … and it also makes the best ice cream.
Whilst at the hotel we were chatting with another family, they told us that they’ve been going back to Sands for 40 years, first with their children, and now with their grandchildren. I can see us following a similar pattern.”
You can tell you are a writer Rachel.. Thank you for this brilliant guest blog and giving us all a taste of a hotel that I have no doubt we will personally book in the future x
Blog Readers Special Offer: Free upgrade to the next room type up when quoting Where To Stay With Kids. This offer is available outside of school holidays only, is subject to availability and is not available to guests travelling without children.
Where To Stay With Kids 