Add these 3 hotels to your travel bucket list if you have kids

It’s been a while. But I have a good reason: summer. 

As a parent, gone are the days when this time of year meant long languid weekends sleeping in, sunbathing, or doing whatever the heck I wanted.

Now, summer is one gaping calendar to fill with limited childcare, a boatload of work to somehow finish, and a whole lot of screen time.

I’m dealing with it all by traveling as much as possible. I find it to be cheaper or as expensive as summer camp, and while we still feel stress, we’re never bored.

So far, we’ve explored central California, the Ozarks, and Vail, and in each destination, we checked into some of the best hotels I’ve ever experienced with my kids. 

Rather than gatekeep, here are three hotels you need to add to your family travel bucket list (and no, no one is paying me to share these. I genuinely loved them). They’re fantastic, loaded with amenities for kids of all ages, and adults will adore them, too.

Carmel Valley Ranch in Carmel Valley, California

• Set on 500 gorgeous acres, Carmel Valley Ranch (a member of Hyatt for all my fellow loyalty point collectors) is spectacular with views, views, and more views. It’s kind of like a farm stay with an on-property organic farm and pinot noir vineyard, except with all the luxury comforts of a full-service resort. 

• Every room is a suite, so there’s no cramming into a tiny room and sharing beds, and if you forgot something, the hotel has a “munchkin menu” lending strollers, high chairs, diaper pails and baby gear from the premium brand, Nuna. 

• The hotel’s River Ranch complex has three heated pools including a toddler-friendly wading pool and splash pad, plus fire pits, a game lawn, and even a swing hanging from a tree. They also offer full and half-day childcare.

• Kids can pick fruit at the organic farm, feed chickens, and get up close to alpaca, horses, goats, and sheep—all included. For added fees, sign up to be a ranch hand, harvest honey, take donkeys out for a walk, and more. There’s also hiking trails and activities like archery, pickleball, and arts and crafts from lavender crown making to bath bomb workshops.

• If you can sneak away, the views from the adults-only infinity edge hot tub are jaw dropping. There’s also a spa, golf, and great on-site dining.

Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale, Missouri

• Holy cow, is this place cool. Owned by Johnny Morris, who started Bass Pro Shops, the resort encompasses 4,600 acres of wilderness in the Ozarks with luxury cabins, fantastic dining, beautiful pools, golf courses, spa services, an on-site nature preserve, and a museum with 75,000 items including Native American artifacts, and relics from the American West and Civil War. 

• We stayed three nights and it wasn’t nearly enough to take advantage of the hotel’s amenities including a lakefront beach with water sports, mini golf, activities like kids’ fishing or arts and crafts, great on-site dining with live music, and a variety of pools including a lazy river, zero-entry options, a lakefront infinity pool, and adults-only areas.

• There’s also Fun Mountain, a kids-centric spot with underwater-themed bowling, an arcade, go-carts, rope courses, a climbing wall, playground, and more all in one place.

• The hotel also offers access to Top of the Rock, which overlooks Table Rock Lake with excellent restaurants, sweeping views, and the can’t miss Lost Canyon Cave and Nature Trail. Here, we drove our own golf cart on a self-guided tour alongside dramatic rock formations, cascading waterfalls, sky bridges, lake views, and went through a large cave with a “Bat Bar” selling beer or canned cocktails. It’s beautiful, uniquely fun, and was the highlight of our trip.

• Accommodations range from lodge-style hotel rooms to multi-bedroom cabins. We stayed in a two-bedroom lakefront cabin with a full kitchen, a deck with a grill, and I would absolutely choose this room type again, even though it’s a bit removed from the hotel’s main activities. A free on-demand shuttle is available though, if you don’t want to drive.

The Sebastian in Vail, Colorado

• If you want to feel like you jetted off to Switzerland without the long flight, add Vail to the top of your travel list. In winter or summer, it’s consistently gorgeous, but I highly recommend a visit with kids in spring, summer, or fall when there is so much to do aside from skiing. Depending on your visit, there’s tubing in the creek, incredible playgrounds, free gardens and parks, beautiful kid-friendly walks, and more. 

• The Sebastian is a centrally-located hotel that’s walkable to everywhere with residence-style suites that have separate bedrooms, full kitchens, and kid-friendly amenities like cribs and high chairs. 

• Outside of the room, there’s a lovely pool heated year-round, a game room with free arcade games, bike rentals, and more.

• If you skipped a car rental, the hotel has a town car service that will drop you anywhere in the village. 

• I highly recommend a few activities while here. Take the gondola ride to the top of Vail Mountain where kids can enjoy an alpine coaster, tube rides, trampoline bungee jumps, a zip line, a climbing wall, and much more. We also did excellent, kid-friendly excursions including a backcountry llama-led hike with Paragon Guides and a Jeep tour to Piney River Ranch with Vail 4×4 Tours. The guides were kind and knowledgable and the kids did great and loved it all!

What are other incredible family-friendly hotels you’ve discovered? I want to hear all about them.

Talk + travel soon,
Emily

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