It’s a ten-minute walk from this clifftop hotel to a private cove, ideal for picnics, paddling, swimming and bodyboarding. They cater for all ages, with two-room family suites, cots, bunks, pool, tennis, outdoor movie screenings, yoga and spa treatments. There’s a kids’ menu, wood-fired pizzas, a friendly, casual vibe.

All ages are welcome at this sophisticated historic manor house in landscaped gardens. A ‘little needs’ questionnaire assures that babies’ requirements are laid on. There’s a play area, babysitting and baby listening, nature trails, swimming. Poolside, vegan, vegetarian, kids’ and foodie menus cater to all tastes and appetites.

This Georgian manor house above Chesil Beach offers fun and games indoors and out, with mini-golf, swimming, a skittle alley, climbing wall, trampolines. It has children’s menus and mocktails, while a crèche and baby monitoring afford parents quality time in the spa and over dinner.

Energetic teens are in their element at this resort on Loch Torridon, where days can be spent kayaking, gorge scrambling, snorkelling, mountain biking. The whisky bar appeals to sybaritic adults. Hearty brasserie fare is served in Bo & Muc, tasting menus in 1887 restaurant. Stables bedrooms are especially family-friendly.

Perfect for a multi-generational stay, this Victorian fantasy castle in the beautiful Eden Valley has family and interconnecting rooms and suites. The unstuffy ambience is that of a family home. Bring toys and games and feel free to leave them out in the drawing room.

If you’ve the cash to splash, Chewton Glen takes some beating. Keep the kids busy with cooking classes, indoor and outdoor pools, golf and tennis, check them into the kids’ club while you check out the spa, and enjoy relaxed family dining together. The treehouse suites get a huge family thumbs up.

Lure them there with promises of a visit to the nearby theme park, Alton Towers. They won’t want to leave when they see the retreats scattered around beautiful grounds, perfect for letting off steam, some with outside baths for four. There’s an outside pool, indoor games room and kids’ menu.

Take the kids back to a holiday from yesteryear, starting with the ferry ride to this island hotel. Hire bikes and explore the island, stopping at white-sand beaches to spot dolphins and seals. Back at base, there’s a kids’ menu and a relaxed atmosphere in the bar and restaurant.

Its quayside location makes this hotel perfect for seal-watching trips, as well as for crabbing, fishing, water sports and beach expeditions. Back at base, enjoy the indoor pool together before adults take a well-earned rest and admire the estuary views while kids hit the games room.

There’s something for everyone at this baroque Victorian mansion overlooking the Fowey estuary, with a crèche, cinema, library, den, spa, indoor pool and Wind in the Willows-inspired outdoor play area. The flexible dining showcases the best of Cornish cuisine, and a sandy cove is a short walk away.

With everything from a crèche to a cinema, Calcot is family heaven. Get the kids exploring some of the 240 acres on bikes, or sign them up for disc golf and tennis. Follow it up with family splash time in the spa pool, and eat together in the country inn or gourmet restaurant.

The whole family can enjoy this Victorian folly of a castle, where the most relaxed of atmospheres prevails amid the ornate-ceilinged rooms with wood panelling. There are 15 acres of grounds to explore, interconnecting and family rooms, and food everyone can enjoy together.

You can only stay in the pig arks and bell tents in the summer, but all year there’s a family-friendly vibe here with a soccer pitch, tennis court, cycling and fishing. Kids can tuck into high tea, leaving parents to savour a four-course tasting menu and to try Ballyvolane’s gin, Bertha’s Revenge.

You can feel the playful, relaxed air as soon as you arrive at this Georgian mansion, with its topiary animal sculptures outside, and slightly mad decor within. The outdoor pool is open year round, there’s a complimentary pantry to raid, and kids stay free in the holidays.

While there isn’t a kids’ club, there’s plenty at Headlam to keep the youngsters busy, with gardens to explore, family-friendly slots in the pool, and both tennis and golf. Early tea and an informal atmosphere complete the picture.

You only need glance at the all-day menu, with its fish platters for adults, fish fingers for kids, to see that Trefeddian caters for all generations. Play tennis or golf, go swimming, sailing or pony trekking, or hit the nearby beach.

Slick treehouse suites and fab facilities including a spa, pools, tennis courts, golf course, kids’ club and cookery school are the recipe for the perfect family break in this New Forest country house. It’s not cheap, but it’s worth it.

Quirky decor and a laid-back atmosphere reign in this refined Jacobean mansion. There’s a spa for adults and free childcare for kids, both family and formal dining, and ducks, pigs, chickens and a rabbit to pet in the extensive grounds.

It’s family holiday heaven in this elegant but relaxed hotel, with everything from a crèche and cinema to a pool and playground. Add to that Cornish cuisine, a spa and a sandy cove nearby and you’ll see why guests are as happy as clams.

Forget the fancy kids’ club and full-on facilities – this Norfolk pub is more about its family-friendly attitude. There’s a play area in the garden, a kids’ menu, a miniature steam railway at Norton Hill next door, and beaches nearby.

Towers and battlements are part of the fun at this Victorian folly of a castle, where no one bats an eyelid if the tinies scatter their toys round the elegant drawing room. Everything from baby monitors to dressing-up clothes is on hand.

When you’ve been rowing on the lake near the ruins of a Knights Templar castle and explored the acres of woodland around the Perceval family mansion, kids’ supper is served in the kitchen while adults eat communally in the dining room.

This grand Italianate mansion decorated with 1960s pizzazz comes with wellies for woodland walks, family swimming time in the spa’s two pools, and rooms for all sizes of families. Some rooms have interconnecting doors for up to seven.

A favourite for multi-generational families, and five minutes from the beach, Trefeddian has oodles of space for all ages. After time in the pool or in the indoor or outdoor play area, there’s early supper or kids’ menus at family meals.

Be prepared to be nagged to return here once the youngsters have experienced the fairytale children’s club, indoor and outdoor pools, cooking classes, golf and tennis. And if you book a treehouse suite, they may never agree to leave.

It’s no surprise that parents who visited this coastal hotel as children return with their own families: it has everything from high chairs and cots to a games room and outdoor pool. It’s gloriously relaxed, with different dining options.

It feels like a family holiday from yesteryear at this easy-going island hotel, reached by ferry. There are beaches to comb, seals to spot and bikes to hire. Families and locals mingle in the bar and the restaurant has children’s menus.

An unstuffy atmosphere reigns in this Jacobean manor with crèche, where little ones can go egg collecting or pond-dipping while adults enjoy the spa. Kids can tuck into high tea before being tucked up, and there’s fine dining for grown-ups.

Take a hotel on Chesil Beach with fossils and smugglers’ tales galore, add a huge indoor play area with traversing wall and soft play area, a spa with indoor pools, plus an Ofsted crèche, and you’ve got the recipe for a happy family holiday.

It’s not just about the kids at this play-and- stay option, which has set splash times in the pool, so adults get some quiet time. On hand is everything from a crèche to a cinema, plus more baby gear than some people have at home.

If staying in a Victorian folly of a castle isn’t enough of a treat for the kids, there’s a games room, cinema and tennis court at Augill. It’s antique-filled but relaxed, with some seriously romantic bedrooms for the grown-ups.

It’s a home rather than a hotel, say owners Jenny and Justin Green, and a very family-friendly one at that. You can expect trampolines and a tree house, animals to feed, eggs to collect, bikes to ride and games galore. There are glamping tents in summer.

Generations of families have enjoyed the view across Cardigan Bay from this popular hotel that’s just a five-minute dash from the beach. But first you have to tear yourself away from the games room, indoor pool, putting green and tennis court.

Be warned: you’ll raise children’s expectations sky high by taking them to this super-luxury hotel. Will anything ever match sleeping in a Treehouse suite with hot tub, 35 feet above ground? Or fun and games in the new fairytale children’s club?

Children love the adventure of a ferry ride to an island. Here there are bikes to hire, dolphins and seals to spot and white-sand beaches – as well as the purest of air. Not to mention board games, a kid’s menu and a laid-back vibe.

Even north Norfolk’s glorious beaches have their drizzly days, and families will find happy refuge here in the games room (pool, table tennis, darts) and indoor pool. Children’s lunch and tea is served, as well as half portions from the adult menu.

One of the first country house hotels to welcome families, this mellow Wiltshire manor continues to delight all ages. Extensive grounds contain a grass maze and play garden with tractor; indoors, there’s a crèche, games room, pool and spa.

‘I’m bored’ is just not an option at this friendly hotel on the Dorset coast. A huge indoor games room, swimming pools for all ages, a skittle alley and fossil hunts are on tap; an Ofsted crèche, high tea and baby listening give parents a break.

This converted Cotswold farmhouse has just the right level of sophistication to make it feel special, offset by an unstuffy atmosphere, a superb spa, crèches and children’s clubs for under- and over-eights and bikes for cycling round the grounds.

Set in 18 acres near the unspoilt Slieve Bloom mountains, this is a wonderfully relaxed and relaxing family home. Cots, kid’s supper and child beds are offered, with babysitting on request – though it’s worth staying in for Paddy Flynn’s superb dinners.

It’s one long round of pleasure for kids at this Jersey manor-house hotel, with nature trails and treasure hunts, cookery classes and tennis lessons, beaches and pool. Babysitting and baby listening allow carefree evening dining.

‘There’s Toad Hall…’ said the Rat, ‘…one of the nicest houses in these parts.’ Nice, indeed. And with so much laid on for kids at this manor house (said to have been Kenneth Graham’s model for Toad Hall), parents can truly relax.

Family rooms, all-weather play facilities, beaches for fossil hunts, a crèche, babysitters, a baby pool, flexible meal options, treatment rooms and adult-only dining keep all generations in clover at this country manor house close to Chesil Beach.

Now here is the real thing, an Elizabethan stone house within star-shaped fortress walls. Tim the boatman offers sea trips. You can swim in the indoor pool, play tennis, go horse riding, hire an electric Scilly Cart or take afternoon tea on the ramparts.

From bangers and mash and knickerbocker glory, to a walled garden with climbing frame, early suppers, high chairs, cots, crayons and colouring books, children are more than merely tolerated at this fun 14th-century pub.

Children thrill to stay in this fantasy castle with its free-and-easy ethos. Books and games, a cinema, flexible meal times, tennis, a playground and ‘Little Cooks’ school add up to a recipe for a happy holiday.

The relaxed, welcoming atmosphere at this Georgian country house on a working farm makes everyone feel instantly at home. Young guests have woods to explore, a tree house to discover, animals to feed, new-laid eggs to collect.

Wellies of all sizes await outdoor types at this Scottish baronial castle on the Ayrshire coast. Take a boat trip with a picnic to see seabirds on Ailsa Craig, roam woodlands, go mountain biking, play tennis, quoits, giant pick-up-sticks.

A fairy trail beguiles little ones at this Georgian mansion in gardens and woodland. With boules, croquet, bike rides, an Iron Age settlement and sandy beaches, you’ll never hear ‘I’m bored!’ Family suites and early supper are available.