Where the Pint-Size Are a Big Deal
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CLOSE your eyes and imagine a Caribbean paradise: throngs of baby sitters minding tots around the raucous swimming pool, chicken fingers on every menu and Big Bird plodding cheerfully along the beach, the white sand drifting across the Muppet's yellow feathers.
A nightmare, you say? Not if you're traveling with kids craving constant activity and entertainment and you're hoping to steal a little time for yourself.
Any resort can throw a pint-size robe in a guest room and call itself family-friendly, but truly family-oriented destinations go to much greater lengths. They feature extravagant pools and splash parks, provide an assortment of all-inclusive restaurants for picky eaters, offer suites with separate children's rooms and, yes, some even put Big Bird on the beach.
That's what Beaches Resorts, in partnership with Sesame Street, is using to cater unabashedly to children and attract families to its properties in the Turks and Caicos and Jamaica. Unlike so many Caribbean resorts that try to be all things to all vacationers, Beaches, the family brand of Sandals resorts, along with Club Med Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic and a few other places, has largely forsaken the newlyweds, retirees and run-of-the-mill tourists. With nannies on hand to care for infants, seemingly nonstop beach games, talent shows and arts and crafts at these places, pretty much no one without children would think of staying there -- and that's precisely the point.
"Anyone looking for an adult getaway would feel out of place," said Kyle McCarthy, editor of FamilyTravelForum.com, about such resorts.
Sure, there are plenty of places that offer robust family programs for children ages 5 to 10 -- just when they're old enough to entertain themselves. (Give those kids a bucket and a shovel and go back to your book!) But it's the babies and teenagers, who demand constant entertainment and come with erratic tantrums and wild mood swings, that weary parents often need the most help with and who resorts tend to neglect.
First Published November 6, 2010 2:01 am
