DESTINATIONS FAMILY HOLIDAYS | CHRISTMAS
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Hard Rock Hotel Punta Cana; Walt Disney World Florida; the Serengeti, Tanzania; a Flyboarding Santa at Sheraton Maldives
Show a real highlight. Combining Orlando with a stay at St Pete Beach presents a great opportunity to top up the tan and enjoy sunset with drinks on New Year’s Eve.” Book it: Gold Medal offers a two-week holiday with flights from Heathrow, seven nights each at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, Orlando, and RumFish Beach Resort, St Pete Beach, both room-only, plus car hire and Disney’s 14-day Ultimate Ticket with Memory Maker, from £1,999 based on a family of four travelling on December 28.
goldmedal.co.uk Or try: If families want to spend Christmas at home with their loved ones, suggest a New Year escape instead. The New Year’s Eve gala dinner at Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai offers good food, a glass of bubbly, live entertainment and a prime spot on the terrace to watch the city light up with fireworks at midnight.
BEST FOR . . . FAMILY FUN Tenerife: Many hotels go to town come Christmas, with fun family activities that create a sense of magic for their littlest guests while giving parents a break too. Jet2holidays recommends Hard Rock Hotel Tenerife in Playa Paraiso, where kids get a visit from Santa on Christmas Day, along with live music and festive food. Craig Davidson, general manager of trade sales, says: “Many of us are looking ahead to a much-needed trip away with the family over winter, especially at Christmas, which is already such a special time of year. “The Hard Rock Hotel Tenerife is full of celebratory spirit, with live
performances and a traditional Christmas menu. Guests can still enjoy time around the pool or a stroll to the nearby beach – something you certainly can’t do in the UK in winter! It’s also hosting a New Year’s Eve gala, helping visitors see in 2021 in style.” Book it: Jet2holidays offers a week’s B&B at Hard Rock Tenerife, with flights
28 28 MAY 2020
from Manchester on December 20 from £989, based on two adults and two children with baggage and transfers.
jet2holidays.com Or try: Father Christmas also hops across the Atlantic to sister property Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana, where kids make festive sand sculptures, decorate stockings and write letters to Santa, before joining the man in red for selfies at a festive foam party and Christmas dinner under palm trees.
BEST FOR . . . MEMORABLE MOMENTS Tanzania: Imagine waking up on Christmas Day to a picnic breakfast on safari in the Serengeti, making your way to the vast, sweeping caldera of the Ngorongoro Crater for an afternoon game drive, followed by a festive dinner in a safari lodge. If your well-heeled clients have seen their best-laid plans go up in smoke this summer, tempt them with some much-needed escapism on a National Geographic Journeys family adventure to Tanzania. It’s not just about the big day. The tour includes painting and craftwork at Mto wa Mbu village, learning about the discovery of early human fossils in the Great Rift Valley, game drives through Serengeti National Park, a coffee farm tour and visit to the G Adventures-supported Clean Cookstoves project in a Maasai village. Just warn clients their next Christmas will never match up. Book it: G Adventures sells Tanzania Family Journey: A Serengeti Safari from £3,729 per adult and £3,569 per child (seven-11), for an eight-day trip departing Arusha on December 20, staying in safari lodges or tented camps, with transport, guided activities and some meals. Flights extra.
gadventures.co.uk Or try: Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without building snowmen and seeing reindeer – both of which feature on Exodus Travels’ Finnish Winter Adventure Family Holiday. It’s the ultimate festive break, introducing kids to snowshoeing, dogsledding and cross-country skiing through snow-blanketed landscapes, with a chance to go sledding or ride on a reindeer sleigh.
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travelweekly.co.uk
PICTURES: David Massey/DMP Productions; Matt Stroshane; G Adventures/Shereen Mroueh; Westend61/Newmarket Holidays
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