Out and out for children

As children, we holidayed in our canary-yellow VW camper van in Saint Girons just south of Biarritz, France. Here the Atlantic is fun and stroppy and the skies bluer than a cartoon. We made gardens from fallen pine cones and hopped across vast dunes trying not to burn our pudgy feet.

I remember beach bonfires, funny stand-up loos and eating mussels. The other day I stumbled on a photograph of my sister and I toddling, berry brown, from the sea, wet and grinning. Holding our hands are my parents, also wet and grinning. It was the 1970s.

Sweet memories

At the time, I enjoyed these simple summers but at school I remember friends coming back from their holidays talking of something called a hotel. They arrived there on something called an aeroplane.

My parents found this sort of showiness to be vulgar, but it certainly sounded exciting. Apparently, in a hotel, you slept in a bed and could press a button and people would bring you chips. Aeroplanes sounded like rockets to me.

Now that I am married with two toddlers of my own, we have to decide on our family holiday. It is not easy. Just as I favour books and jigsaw puzzles over computer games and DVDs, so I veer towards a Famous Five approach when it comes to holidays. I loved mine and my wife fondly recalls camping on Mull as a child.

Family holiday

But I do not want my children to have to wait until they are 17 to go on an aeroplane or experience a hotel. Besides, it is 30 years on, and travelling by aeroplane and staying in hotels is more commonplace and affordable. I do not think it will spoil them — always my parents' fear.

So last summer, I booked us into a "family-friendly resort" in Sardinia called Chia Laguna.

I had heard that the southwest of Sardinia has some of the best white-sand beaches in Europe and is far less smothered than the Costa Smerelda.

This is a tourist area in the northwest, founded by the Aga Khan in the 1960s as an "exclusive area for the enjoyment of the heads of international high society". I would rather eat my hair than take my children there.

I also heard that a British company, Scott Dunn, ran the children's club at Chia Laguna and came highly recommended.

The rocket to Cagliari is a little over two hours, which is fine. The children (18 months and three) loved it. They enjoyed looking from the window.

The drive to the resort is only 45 minutes, which is good news. It should be said that Chia Laguna itself is in a flux.

Change of place

There had been a hotel on the site but it was average. It was taken over by Le Meridien group a couple of years ago.

I say flux because when we visited in June last year, the programme of refurbishment was unfinished. We stayed in two spanking new rooms in the main hotel, which are large, extremely comfortable, and with first-rate bathrooms and an interconnecting door. The balcony overlooks a lagoon with flamingos, white beaches and the sea.

The other accommodation is in cottages and less sumptuous.

Some other guests I spoke to were unhappy with the quality of the beds, lack of views and drippy air-conditioning. In defence of the hotel, they tell me these rooms are to be refurbished.

If I had any quibbles, it would be concern over the grand plans for villas and golf courses at Chia Laguna. I had a snoop around. They are very smart and some cost well north of £1 million (Dh3.7 million).

Well watched over

I hope they do not have any Costa Smerelda ambitions. Also, they must not have conferences during the holiday season.

That said, the resort is in a wonderful location and the Scott Dunn service a revelation. I do not understand parents who drop off their children at a club all day.

Scott Dunn understands that and caters to the childcare for each family. You have the same "nanny" all week. We asked for help for a few hours in the morning and an hour in the afternoon.

We were lucky enough to be given a wonderful Irish girl called Ethany who was fully trained, friendly and brilliant with children. I love making sandcastles with the small people and going for swims, but not for three hours. This is where Ethany came in, patiently playing with them just in front of our sun loungers. They loved her, they were happy; we could read and chat and we were happy. Everyone was happy. It was good.

There is a restaurant by the beach where we had a lunch of grilled seafood and salads. Then it was off for a two-hour siesta, the children in their room, we in ours. Ethany would arrive at 5pm and take the children to a fully staffed play area with a shallow pool. There was painting and sticking galore.

In the evening, the four of us would eat together, as a family, from an exhaustive buffet with a mix of grilled meat, fish, salad and chips. Afterwards, at 9.30pm, there was a children's disco where we jigged about like buffoons. Six days of this and we were all refreshed and the children, in particular, were overjoyed.

Simple joys

Simple holiday pleasures were not overshadowed by glitz. They still talk about it and want to go back. We will not, but only because it is good to try new places.

We are having a simple week in Cornwall and a week in Cyprus at another family-friendly resort. It is the perfect balance. Have we cracked the ultimate question when it comes to family holidaying? Now, I just need to persuade them all to pose for the wet shot. I would hate them to feel they were missing out.


Go there...Chia Laguna

From the UAE
The nearest international airport to Chia Laguna is Cagliari.

From Dubai: Emirates flies daily via Rome. Fare: Dh4,135
Alitalia flies daily via Milan and Rome. Fare: Dh3,570
Lufthansa flies two days a week via Frankfurt and Munich. Fare: Dh3,185
(All fares are exclusive of taxes)

— Information courtesy: City Travel Point LLC

Information
Scott Dunn (www.scottdunn.com) has seven nights at Chia Laguna from £4,755 (Dh35,006) half-board for a family of four, including arranging flights with British Airways.