£10,000 AND UNDER
Costa Rica
Ensure top marks for the “what I did in the school holidays” essay with a trip to Costa Rica. Spend time at a turtle conservation project, helping to tag leatherback and green varieties, explore the rainforests, hike in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge and pootle around the rumbling Arenal Volcano. Minimum age is 5. Prices at Easter start at £1,989 per adult, £1,839 per child (0845 4505316; adventurecompany.co.uk).
Tanzania
For serious family bonding and trip-of-a-lifetime stuff, book a self-drive safari across Tanzania, travelling from lodge to lodge. Pick up a new Land Rover Defender with satellite phone and fridge, and head for the Tarangire National Park in search of elephant, zebra, buffalo, impala and gazelle. There’s full back-up if needed. Seven nights in the summer holidays cost about £2,500pp full board, including flights. Children should be over 8 (01488 71140; safaridrive.com).
The Grenadines
Bag a Caribbean bargain at the Raffles Resort, Canouan, a car-free haven on a tiny island in the Grenadines. Its 2010 family-fun package offers a pleasing 50 per cent off the room rate when you book a one-bed suite. Seven nights’ B&B start at £2,415 per adult, £665 per child aged 2-17. The total cost is £6,160 for a family of four – a saving of £3,075. This price includes flights and transfers, 10 hours’ babysitting and use of the crèche and access to the kids’ club, which this year will be giving golf and tennis lessons to children aged 4 and over (020-7751 0660; caribtours.co.uk).
£5,000 AND UNDER
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The Maldives
Spooning honeymooners no longer have the tropical Maldives to themselves: direct British Airways flights mean the islands are now a viable family option. For non-stop entertainment, try the Olhuveli Beach and Spa Resort with its new kids’ programme, watersports centre and the Maldives’ first licensed kite-surfing school, as well as magic shows, discos and weekly crab races. Seven nights’ half board start at £1,249 per adult, £1,149 per child, including flights and speedboat transfers (0871 6640273; thomsontailormade.com).
Puglia
Done the Sani Beach Club, the Vila Vita Parc and the Anassa, and looking for another plush family resort in the Med with hot and cold running childcare? Try the Borgo Egnazia in deeply trendy Puglia, which opens in the spring with a replica local village complete with its own market square. There’s a private beach, four pools, a golf course, tennis courts, spa and cookery school. The kids’ club opens this summer. Seven nights’ B&B in a junior suite with flights and car hire start at £2,219 per adult, £638 per child (01425 673848; ultimatefamilyhideaways.co.uk).
Worcestershire
If the members of your brood seem to have lost their inner sparkle, an Ultimate Balance retreat might be just the ticket. Based at the Elms hotel in Worcestershire, these seven-day breaks in May and September will be run by health and detox coach Sabine Savisalo-Schuh and focus on relaxation and “rebalancing”. That means a healthy diet, Pilates, yoga, plenty of Nordic walking – and not a Krispy Kreme in sight. It costs £3,476 in a deluxe room, all inclusive (01962 772323; theultimatebalance.co.uk).
£2,500 AND UNDER
Orlando
Polish those broomsticks. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opens at the Universal Orlando Resort in the spring, complete with Hogwarts castle and flying hippogriffs. Seven nights in Orlando staying at the Quality Inn Plaza on International Drive start at £699 per adult, £399 per child sharing a standard room, including flights with Virgin Atlantic between April 8 and June 30. Two-day Universal tickets start at £76 per adult, £71 per child (0844 5573859; virginholidays.co.uk).
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Mont Blanc
Keep the nippers active on a guided walk across trails in the French and Italian Alps. Overnight stays are in high mountain huts, mules transport all bags and supplies and there will be plenty of time for leisurely lunches in the villages along the way. The itinerary is suitable for active children from the age of 7, and there are departures every Sunday from July 4 to August 29. It costs £605 per adult, £445 per child. Fly with easyJet into Geneva and take the bus to the Chamonix valley (0845 2417599; utracks.com).
Corfu
Villas on Corfu’s beautiful northeast coast can be up to half the price of the Côte d’Azur and just as lovely. Villa Kyma is a new family property with pool, a minute from the Krouzeri and Kaminaki beaches. Kassiopi’s clubs and bars are a short drive up the coast. Prices start at £2,460 with CV Travel based on four sharing, including Gatwick flights, taxi transfers, welcome food hamper and maid service (020-7401 1026; cvtravel.co.uk).
£1,000 AND UNDER
Wiltshire
Country House Hideout lets you pretend you’re an explorer in Africa in the wilds of the English countryside. Tents are kitted out for wannabe Dr Livingstones, complete with telescope, field telephone and a gramophone with 78s. There’s also a wood-burning cooking cart and proper bathtub in a bathing tent. It’s carbon neutral; electricity is provided by dynamo bike. There’s only one site so far, on Hamptworth Estate in Wiltshire, but five more should be open by Easter. A week in a tent sleeping up to six costs £495-£985 (01420 549150; countryhousehideout.co.uk).
Devon
Hire the Gallery, an 18th-century smuggler’s house in the centre of Beer on the Jurassic Coast. One of the town’s few rental properties, its top floor – which was once a secret rum store – has been beautifully furnished and equipped for young families. The Jurassic Coast is fantastic for walking, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s restaurant and deli are a few miles up the road, and you can even take the kids llama-trekking nearby. The house sleeps six in three immaculate bedrooms, and a week in high season costs £995 (01297 20307; devonretreat.com).
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France
Camping Parc de Fierbois in the Loire Valley is the latest French campsite to sign up to Canvas Holidays’ Family Extra programme. Let the children loose on everything from canoeing and BMX biking to raft-building and chocolate parties, while you slope off to the camp shop in search of a cheeky little sancerre. Seven nights in a mobile home sleeping two adults and up to four children cost from £841 in July, including a midweek return Dover to Calais P&O ferry crossing (0870 1921159; canvasholidays.co.uk).