The Good Family Hotel Guide: Turtle Beach Club, Barbados

Mood:

Mood:

Though not on the island's fashionable west coast, this is a classy hotel set in six acres of lush gardens and combining style with special attention to family needs.

Accommodation:

Plush, air-conditioned rooms all look out over the sea. A "Junior-Suite" converts to inter-connecting family rooms.

Refuelling:

A choice of three restaurants: by the pool, on the beach or in the air-conditioned Chellonia.

Beach:

Right by a broad expanse of pink and white coral sand. However, being on the island's more exposed south side, it can sometimes be windy and the sea can be choppy.

Activities:

Tommy Turtle Club looks after three to 13-year-olds between 9am and 9pm. Children are divided into groups according to age, with activities varying between beach games and outings to places of interest around the island. There's the full gamut of non-motorised watersports, three swimming pools, an air-conditioned gym and floodlit tennis courts.

Fellow Guests:

There are plenty of families - mainly Americans and British, but also a few French, Germans and Italians.

Sample Prices:

A week's stay for a family of two adults and two children staying in an Ocean View Junior Suite and travelling with British Airways Holidays (0870 242 4245) costs from £3,128 in May and June 2000 and rises to £4,036 over the February half-term. Prices include flights from Gatwick, domestic flights to and from UK airports if required, transfers and all meals, drinks and activities.

Address:

Turtle Beach Resort, Dover, Christchurch, Barbados, West Indies (tel: 001 246 4287131, fax: 001 246 4286080, e-mail: turtlebeach@eleganthotels.com