Tag Archives: Hotel

Family Friendly Fun in the Sun: Courtesy of Majorca Hotels

The perfect tonic to kick-start your summer after those cold winter days, sunny Majorca offers a fantastic family holiday destination. The largest of the Balearics, this beautiful island offers miles of sandy beaches, clear shallow waters and many great days out. It is an island that offers both charm and tranquillity – with its many old villages and historic sites nestled inland, and a buzzing coastal atmosphere – with its numerous shops, bars and cafes. Majorca hotels have also firmly established themselves as family favourites, catering very well for children of all ages with fantastic kids clubs and child specific facilities. Here is a hand-picked selection of some of the best kids clubs and family friendly hotels on the island

The Iberostar Playa de Muro hotel

Located directly on a wonderful long, sandy beach surrounded by pine trees, this hotel is a great choice for families. Set in beautiful peaceful surroundings near the port of Alcudia it has a fantastic array of activities to keep the children happy while you sit back and relax by the poolside or beach bar. This hotel is particularly good if you’re looking for somewhere that will keep older children busy as it has a fantastic range of sporting facilities, such as table tennis, tennis courts, volleyball, bowling and bicycle hire. And for younger kids, there is a playground and kids club for those aged between 4 and 7 years, and sure to satisfy kids of all ages is the children’s pool and games room. If you want to venture out of the resort head to the beautiful S’Albufera natural park for a great family day out, or perhaps soak up some history at the Cabo de Formentor and the Roman city of Pollença.

The Hipotels Paraiso Apartments

Situated on the eastern side of the island 100 m from the Sa Coma beach, this is a very family friendly hotel that offers great all inclusive packages. Like many hotels in Majorca it has a fantastic mini Club, this one caters for children from 4 – 14 years every day, and as a bonus it runs both morning and afternoon – so plenty of time for you to get in that round of golf or browse the shops in laid back Sa Coma. The hotel also has various sports activities and though it doesn’t have a separate children’s pool, they are given their own section in the main one, and there are lots of pool games and live entertainment for the whole family. For a day out, visit the nearby small safari park or go on a glass-bottom boat trip, both sure to keep the little ones happy.

Ola Tomir Apartments

This is a fantastic hotel for families, with an extensive range of on-site facilities in a lovely resort. Located close to marine land and the trendy marina area of Punta Portals, it’s only 300 metres away from the sandy beach of Costa den Blanes and stumbling distance from the local bars, cafes and restaurants in Portals Nous. The hotel itself offers a wonderful fresh water outdoor swimming pool with children’s section, tennis courts, children’s playground, table tennis, and pool tables. On top of the usual daytime activity programmes, here they also have a great range of evening entertainment for the children, such as the popular mini disco. The adults aren’t forgotten either, there are also a good variety of activity and entertainment programmes to keep the parents out of trouble. Again, going one step further than most Majorca hotels, Ola Tomir not only has a mini club, but in peak season there’s also a teen club, and a baby-club for Majorca’s youngest holidaymakers.

The Ice Hotel in Sweden

Imagine a dwelling place which is made completely from ice including the walls, the beds and even the tables and the chairs. Seems too good to be true? Then welcome to the ice hotel in Sweden. The whole hotel is made from ice brought from the Arctic regions. This hotel is located about 200 kms south of the Arctic Circle adjacent to the Torne river. The place in Sweden where the hotel is located is called Jukkasjarvi which means a meeting place. There are different types of rooms available in the hotel and you can visit the hotel’s official website to find out the room facilities and the room tariffs. The concept of this hotel was born in 1989 when they snow architects made a big igloo on the Torne River for exhibition purpose. The visitors who came to see the igloo were amazed at the art galleries made of ice inside the igloo. Many of the visitors stayed back inside the igloo for a night and that’s when the concept of the ice hotel came to their minds.

The snow architects build the ice hotel every year in winter. The hotel stays till spring when the ice begins to melt down. The architects start cutting big blocks of ice on the Torne using special ice saws. The blocks of ice are then transported to the Ice Hotel Art Centre where they are given shape as per the requirements of the rooms. The building of the hotel begins around the month of October. There are about a dozen each of artists and workers who begin their work on the hotel. The ice blocks are then given shapes using chisels and other tools. The arches of ice are supported by ice pillars to make the outer foundation of the hotel.

The interiors of the hotel are made in the cold months of December when the temperatures are well below zero degrees. In this stage the doors, windows, desks, chairs and everything else that is required in a room are created. All the rooms are then decorated in their own discreet way and the ice sculptures reflect the gleaming light giving a beautiful effect. The ice hotel begins to melt down in April but the artists like to preserve the huge chandelier made of ice. All the other ice objects melt away.

In the beginning the Ice Hotel had only one room. However today it is a hotel which has 60 rooms and even a bar serving drinks along with a cinema. In case you want to do an unusual wedding then you can do it in the church made of ice. The beds inside the rooms are made of ice and you have to sleep in hot sleeping bags provided in the rooms. The temperature inside the room can hover around -4 to -9 degrees and this depends on how many people are present in the room. The temperature outside can be as low as -40.