Holidays without tears

Fractious toddlers, lonely infants and bored teenagers are the bane of travelling parents. But there are ways of keeping children of all ages happy, says Jill Crawshaw

COTE OF MANY COLOURS

The French family village of Cap Esterel on the Cote d'Azur has six supervised clubs catering for children aged from three months up to 18 years. This allows parents the freedom to enjoy the site's adult activities, including a fitness club, golf course, archery field and a pool complex. Or they can head for the glitzy beaches nearby and the medieval villages perches in the mountains behind. Motours offers seven nights' studio accommodation sleeping up to (a pretty crowded) five people, plus the ferry crossing for car and passengers, for a total of pounds 799; 14 nights cost pounds 1,054. As a bonus, bookings that include a Ramsgate to Dunkirk crossing will receive a free Sally Line return trip to be taken between 1 October this year and the end of March 1996.

Motours 01892 518555

FAST FRENCH

"School Holiday Specials" from Travelscene offer families of up to four (two adults and two children) a one-night taste of France for pounds 118. This includes the Ramsgate to Dunkirk ferry for car and passengers, one night b&b in a four-bedded room at Le Mans, Calais-Coquelles, Rouen, Amiens and Cergy-Pontoise; Paris Orly costs pounds l4 extra per room; it's within one hour of Parc Asterix, where two children under 12 will be admitted free with two paying adults. Extra nights' accommodation can also be booked up to a maximum of four nights, for pounds 23 per adult.

Travelscene 01535 611775

FREEDOM IN TUNISIA

The Kerkennah Isles off the east coast of Tunisia have long been the haunt of exiles, from Hannibal to Habib ben Ali Bourguiba, Tunisia's president from 1957-1987. Now, they are available to holidaymakers who want to get away from it all. The islands are beautiful, scattered with palms, lagoons, white sand and gently shelving beaches. But be warned, there is little to do. Parents longing for peace and tranquillity might therefore appreciate Panorama's Sunshine Gang and Explorers Club for three- to 12-year-olds, with early suppers and a babysitting service. These are free at the Hotel Grand, where a week half-board, including flights, costs pounds 285 (children 20 per cent off).

Panorama 01273 206531

OFF ON THEIR OWN

Teenagers bored with holidays with parents, and vice versa, can choose from a variety of adventure holidays in France organised by PGL, which has special low-priced offers in August. On its 10-day "Double Decker" two-centre holidays aimed at 16- to 18-year-olds, the first three days are spent canoeing in the Ardeche, and the rest of the holiday on the Mediterranean coast learning to sail Topper dinghies, to windsurf and to wave-ski.

Travel is by coach, and the accommodation is in tents. Two people can go for the price of one, while a single teenager will pay pounds 199, which is pounds 150 less than the brochure price. Multi-activity holidays for 10- to 14-year-olds based at Le Pre Catalan, Hardelot, combine land yachting, dune surfing, riding and theme-park excursions. Once again there's the option of sending two children for the price of one, or sending one child for pounds 194 a week - a pounds 75 reduction off the brochure price. Travel is by coach, and accommodation is in small dormitories.

PGL 01989 768768

THE HIGH LIFE

Sun Esprit organises supervision and activities for children of all ages at its hotel in Morzine in the French Alps; there's a creche run by qualified British nannies, and an "Alpies" Club with treasure hunts and nature walks for older brothers and sisters. Mountain biking, tennis and skiing are available for parents. Cots, high chairs, sterilisers and toys are all provided by the hotel. The week costs pounds 298 for adults (children half price), which includes Channel crossing for car and passengers, half board, wine with the evening meal and three nights' babysitting.

Sun Esprit 01252 616789

UNDER CANVAS

Small family campsites in rural and coastal France, many with children's adventure tents pitched alongside their parents' more pampered versions, are the speciality of French Country Camping. The company is offering savings of pounds 170 on its brochure prices during the school holidays. A 14- night break in August at St Gilles Croix de Vie in the Vendee, in a pine forest with the beaches of the Vie estuary nearby, costs pounds 705 in total for two adults and up to four children, crossing by the Ramsgate to Dunkirk ferry. For pounds 649 a family can camp beside a small lake at St Emilion in the Dordogne. Free bicycles and junior tents costing pounds 3.25 a night are available at both locations.

French Country Camping 01923 261311

T FOR FOUR, OR MORE

If you're heading en famille for the popular beach resorts in the Mediterranean, Thomson Holidays runs Big T Clubs on the Spanish costas, the Balearic and Canary islands, Malta, Greece, Tunisia and the Algarve. Features of the Big T Club, organised by qualified staff who are often ex-nurses and teachers, include free membership for four- to 11-year-olds, daily activities on six days a week, and evening activities lasting two hours on three nights a week,

Though availability in the peak season is by now strictly limited, there are pockets left - as on the family-friendly island of Minorca, where two weeks' self-catering at the Son Blanc apartments in Sa Caleta towards the end of August costs pounds 1,234 for a party of two adults and two children, including flights; pounds 1,080 in September.

Thomson Holidays 0171-707 9000

PYRENNEAN PASTIMES

Children under the age of 18 stay free on Headwater's Discovery Holidays, which are based at the Village des Alberes in the south of France. There, the cost of a weekly programme of activities is included in the price. These range from tennis and volleyball, cycling and walking expeditions, to lessons in local arts and crafts, a health club and teenage disco evenings.

The village is about two miles from the beaches of Argeles, in the heart of interesting touring country. Highlights worth visiting are Perpignan and the medieval town of Carcassonne, a host of mountain villages in the Pyrenees and the Salvador Dali museum at Figueras, just over the Spanish border. A week's self-drive holiday in a self-catering apartment with Headwater costs from pounds 248 per adult, which includes ferry fares.

Headwater 01606 48699

ON YOUR BIKES IN CHIANTISHIRE

New cycling trips to Tuscany from Alternative Travel could appeal to families with children over eight years old who want something more mind- and body-stretching than sun and sand. The eight-day trips provide independent travel on 18-speed all-terrain bicycles, with a pre-arranged itinerary going from Pisa via Certaldo, San Gimignano, Colle Val d'Elsa and Monte- riggioni to Siena, averaging about 12 miles a day, or an alternative route by way of Lucignano, Buonconvento, Montalcino, Ripa d'Orcia and Pienza. The price of pounds 640 each covers flights, bicycle hire, seven nights' half- board accommodation with wine, maps and itineraries, and transport of luggage between hotels.

Alternative Travel 01865 513333 !