My daughter has reached an age where she’s plenty happy spending time away from us, and she loves making friends with other kids. When we were at the Park Hyatt St. Kitts in February she wanted to spend all of her time at the Kids Club (“Island Fort Kids Club”) there. What’s more, while they used to charge for it, it’s now 100% free.
So we’ve been looking for kids clubs as part of our family travels. And Hyatt works best for those trips, because as a frequent guest I earn confirmed suite upgrades that allow me to book a suite for the same price in cash or points as a regular room when I make my reservation. That gives us the space we need as a family.
That means for family trips I’m looking for Hyatt kids clubs. Park Hyatt St. Kitts has a great one. So does the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines which works well for our staycationing (it’s not far past the Austin airport). Hyatt kids clubs are searchable as an amenity on the chain’s website.
When I stayed at the Andaz Papagayo before my daughter was born I had a peek at their kids club. It used to be free during the day but many activities are now charged. Officially ages are 4-12, though I’ve been told they’ll take three year olds during periods when they aren’t busy, and they have babysitting services and evening activities for a fee.
The Andaz Papagayo kids club is a converted Presidential suite with several nooks and crannies, a child-sized toilet, and an indoor play house as well as outdoor areas. The woman running the kids club when I visited seemed like one of those really special people who loves to interact with, teach, and care for children.
Andaz Mayakoba looks to have a great kids club as well, and the nice thing for me is Cancun airport is just a 2.5 hour non-stop away from Austin and with service from both American and Southwest.
While I tend to love Park Hyatt as a brand, perhaps followed by Alila within Hyatt’s ecosystem, I probably become a lot more open to the Grand Hyatt Baha Mars of the world since visiting a large resort in Nassau opens the possibility for a game zone, wildlife visits, and plenty of other young kids to play with. Along the same lines, Hyatt Regency Maui where I haven’t stayed in a decade (and which is open despite butting up against the area devastated by wildfires) has kids water sports and a swim school, plus rooftop astronomy program.
Closer to home on the West Coast of Florida, Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort has what appears to be a pretty good-looking Camp Hyatt as well.
Many hotels around the world had kids clubs that closed during Covid and never re-opened, so there aren’t as many choices as their once were – and it’s important to make sure you’re looking at the most recent information when researching kids activities at resorts.
For instance, there are a lot of older references to Camp Hyatt at the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort (on the Nevada side) but I can’t find reference to it on the hotel’s website. I need to call them to see if it’s active.
Since I can’t rely on space available upgrades at check-in when traveling with my wife and daughter, and since I want kids clubs, I’m going to be working through all of the Hyatt ones that we find. It may even sway me to the Grand Hyatt Bali over Alila Villas Uluwatu – because my daughter loves the kids club experience so much.
I do the same thing Gary- choose resorts based on amenities my kids will like (kids clubs included). Park Hyatt St Kitts is the favorite. I thought HR Aruba also had one?
One of the many reasons I go out of my way to stay at Hyatts for work travel… for the globalist status and SUA’s (along with GOH). Love it.
Look at the kids clubs at Hyatt resorts in Asia. Unfortunately there aren’t enough kids all the time to keep other kids entertained that way too.
Also look at all-inclusive resorts using Hyatt and/or Wyndham points in and around North America and in Europe that are popular with American or British, Dutch and Scandinavian families.
Velas resorts (I think you recently missed out on visiting one, from memory?) have fantastic kids clubs as well. Purpose-built, not an afterthought, with staff who also double as paid babysitters in the evening. They won my future business despite the resorts themselves being only slightly above average (mainly due to their relatively smaller size).
My kids had a BLAST at the Kid’s Club at Alila Maldives. They did cupcake decorating, a dolphin cruise, crafts, sand castle building and more–all included!!! We did not even factor it in when booking, but it turned out to be a real highlight of their (and our) trip!
In Asia you’re often better ignoring loyalty to or benefits of any particular chain and just going for the best resort at the best price. My experience living in SE Asia for 5 years and having travelled back both solo and with family (2 young kids) many times since is that there are always reasonably new independent resorts that are very well priced, not super luxurious but are upscale and have good facilities for families which often includes a kids club and or babysitting. Suites are often reasonably priced. On-site F&B options are more or less always good value compared to western countries.
I would say you have to take a bit of care choosing. You get the occasional one that is just plain poor, and some (definitely not all) aren’t great for the first year or so. And without an overarching brand maintaining standards some (again, definitely not all) degrade in upkeep and even service standards after a few years. Attitudes towards reinvesting to keep competitive can be very variable. Just need to make sure you check recent online reviews carefully and do enough research to understand what you are and are not getting.
In short, I see the argument about confirmed suite upgrades but often it limits your selection and costs you more.
I’ve not spent much time at super luxurious and or remote places like the Maldives, etc, but I suspect that’s the time you want to do some brand-specific research and finding one that does a good job of honoring elite benefits. Not sure how many have affordable suites or ones where an upgrade is easy. But free breakfast, club lounge snacks and cocktails, etc have a lot of value at places where on-site F&B are expensive and there’s no alternative.
My then 4 year old (and I) absolutely LOVED the kids club at Andaz Mayakoba. Highly recommended. Plus the sweet spot is 4 years old when both the kids club is free AND they eat free (under 4 and the kids club charges to keep the kids, 5 and over and the kids have to pay 50% for food).
We plan our vacations around kids clubs. It is a win win for the kids and parents. Our top ones are:
Andaz Mayakoba
Andaz Papagayo
Conrad Bora Bora
Waldorf Astoria Pedregal
Most family all inclusive also have a kids club, but then you have to stay at an all inclusive.
A couple of Hyatt Kids Clubs gems:
1. Alila Diwa Goa–My kids completed a scavenger hunt here and as a reward were given 30 minute massages at the spa! No joke! Also, ping pong, crafts, foosball and more!
2. Hyatt Regency Dehradun–All sorts of activities and video games. My kids even got carrom lessons!
Carrom board game is a South Asian classic. Especially in the snow-hit parts of the country.
My kids are 3.5 years and ~9 months, so we’re just entering the point where kids clubs are something we’re thinking about.
We just got back from a middle east trip and the St Regis Abu Dhabi Saadiyat had a great (free) kids club. Looking forward to suggestions from the crowd on others.
If you want a sense of where the kids clubs are and are perhaps good/good enough, checking out reviews/ratings via some of the European charter tour companies can be useful. Among the mix of marketed hotels covered are actually major brand hotels that aren’t even all-inclusive properties.