Hotels Luxury

Specialist Reports Holiday by Accommodation Hotels Luxury Orient Express Hotels 

	Orient Express Hotels
Sea Containers House, 20 Upper Ground, London SE1 9PF			MAP
tel: (020) 7805 5060

Where

The group currently totals 26, including a handful in the US and for example Bora Bora Lagoon, but are largely in Europe.

Style

Run by the same man who revived the Orient Express train service by simply buying up old train carriages, a rather personal collection of luxury hotels started in 1976 with the purchase of the Hotel Cipriani in Venice. Others like the the Splendido in Portofino, the Manoir aux Quat Saisons in Oxfordshire outside London, Reids Palace on Madeira, the Quinta do Lago among Algarve golf courses, the Mount Nelson in South Africa, and the Copacabana in Rio have since been added.

Child Facilities

These hotels are all entirely individual but the only member of the group which operates date restrictions on children is La Residencia on Mallorca.
Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town for example offers tailor-made programmes for each individual family depending on the age of the children. During school holidays, a schedule of programmes is drawn up to entertain children including cricket matches, face painting, swimming games and treasure hunts. For smaller guests, the hotel provides a baby seat in its air-conditioned private Mercedes. Wooden Victorian cots are available on request as well as a tots towelling robe, a basket of assorted baby products and specially fitted white linen on the non-suffocating baby pillows and duvets. The hotel also has a wide variety of children's videos, board games, Play Stations and other toys.
Charleston Place in South Carolina runs summer camps with an aquatic theme to keep children amused whilst parents relax in luxurious and elegant surroundings. Parents can register their children, between the ages of five and fifteen, on five day sessions at the South Carolina Aquarium allowing children to scout for turtles on the beach, splash at a local water park and work with the aquarium husbandry staff to learn about South Carolina's native animals.
At the Hotel Quinta do Lago in Portugal there is a separate childrenīs outdoor pool which is temperature controlled and there will be a special Children's Activity Programme in operation throughout the summer. X-Box(tm) and Sony Playstation 2(tm) video consoles are available in the rooms. If parents book into the hotel on a half or full board basis, children will stay on the same meal plan free of charge when choosing from the Childrenīs Menu at Brisa do Mar.
Reids Hotel on Madeira runs a Fun at Reid's kids club in the school holidays.
The Manoir Aux Quat Saisons in Oxfordshire makes a big point of welcoming children with a toy chest available for the room, a children's menu, babysitting and babylistening, and (among other things) a very relaxed attitude to breastfeeding.

Sample Price

From £200 to £700 a night.

Child Price

Deals vary but at Quinta do Lago for example a maximum of one child up to 12 years old is free of charge on bed and breakfast basis when sharing parentsī room. Teenagers (13-16 years old) receive 50% reduction on the per person rate when sharing parents' room.