About Us

After organising stunning Ultimate Honeymoons around the world for the last 5 years many of our clients are now coming back to us with families in tow and asking which are the best hotels for families. With two children of our own we are in the same position. We want great hotels, of the same quality we stayed at before our little cherubs arrived, but that will cope with our new needs. And as every parent knows this is a minefield. With just Inca we realised that we could travel everywhere we had been before and as she has always been quiet and ‘well behaved’ we could stay in almost any hotel. The older she gets and the more mobile (and vocal) she gets the more we have to look for hotels where we feel comfortable with her. We know there are hotels out there full of screaming children having bowl throwing competitions and karaoke by the pool all day but we don’t want to have to give up on our holidays and nice hotels just yet (maybe when we have three!).

Therefore we have scoured the world, revisited our honeymoon hotels and left no stone unturned to find hotels which are primarily adults hotels but ones that will welcome the smaller members of the family. In the process of this we have talked to lots of families we have met at the hotels and friends and family with children to find out what everyone wants in their holiday. We, travelling with two young children, understand that each family is different and each child needs something different. Whilst the wonderful Caruso in Ravello worked perfectly with a quiet Inca, a noisy and tearaway Oli (her cousin) would make his parents feel very uncomfortable in the restaurant. We have tried out babysitters, tested Kids Clubs and phoned room service at 2 am demanding warm milk. We have travelled near and far with one child and two and put together a list of our favourite Ultimate Family Hideaways. We have quiet lodges ideal for parents with one infant that will just sit there and gurgle and hotels with incredible Kids Clubs for fraught parents needing a break. One thing we do know is we all need guidance getting family holidays right. 

But more than anything we want UFH to be interactive with you and that is why we have a regular news letter. If you have been somewhere great recently that just worked perfectly for your family please tell us and we will let other parents know. Again if you have found a gadget for the children which made your holiday more enjoyable, please tell us. And if you have had a horror story to share we will put it on the Blog. Hopefully the more parents review the hotels on the site the more useful it will be and you will have first hand experiences from families with different aged children.

How are we paid:

The best thing about using us is you don't pay us for our services! We get paid a commission by the hotel, so the price you pay us for your hotel is the same as if you went to them direct and in many cases less than you could get direct. The benefits you get from using us are:

• We organize all your flights, transfers and accommodation for you.
• We make sure that there is always someone to meet you at the airport and you never have to catch a dilapidated local taxi, unless you want the experience!
• We have been to all our camps and lodges so can recommend the best suited for you.
• We check out the best rooms and the best views, so that we can advise you on whether an upgrade is really worth it, is the 'Sea View' really a sea view or do you need binoculars.
• You can pay for your holiday in Pounds Sterling and therefore don’t have to transfer money abroad in a foreign currency. We use Travelex Business for all our Foreign exchange transfers and this means you get a better rate of exchange then the Credit Card companies give you if you pay the hotels direct with a credit card.
• If you need help when you are in the middle of Africa or your flight gets cancelled or you just need some packing advice we are here to help you. And we can promise that trying to locate luggage yourself, which has stayed behind in Terminal 5, from your mobile on a beach during your holiday is a pretty miserable experience. I can’t promise we will fare any better with Lost Luggage lines than you but at least we can sit here all day trying.
• And most importantly all travel arrangements which include flights, booked through us are fully protected and bonded by our ATOL licence and the Civil Aviation Authority

Late Bookings:

We are often asked if booking late means good discounts. The answer is sadly no in most cases, unless you are flexible on hotel, dates and even destinations. The flight cost on the main scheduled carriers such as British Airways just go up as you get nearer to the time and the availability at the hotels just gets less and less. Many of the boutique hotels, camps and lodges we use have very few rooms so last minute bookings rarely get the availability. Our advice is book as soon as you know exactly what you want to do or you will end up kicking yourself if you have planned the perfect holiday and it isn't then available when you try and book. We can often hold rooms and flights for a week or so, to allow you to have a look at all the options but after that the hotels release these holds.