Hotels for mums and daughters
Marylebone Hotel,
47, Welbeck Street, London, tel: 0044-207 486 6600, doylecollection.com
Topshop at Oxford Circus and the new toy department at Harrods are some of the retail treats for girls and teens in London. The Marylebone Hotel is a 15-minute walk from the fashion hub while the new shoe floor in nearby Selfridges could incite some drooling. The hotel is also very close to Madame Tussauds and the zoo at Regent’s Park.
The spa is only open to 18s and above but over-fives can use the swimming pool. They also offer a children’s concierge service and children’s magazines in the room. Children also get a free meal when eating with an adult before 7pm.
Rooms: The Marylebone has 257 bedrooms and suites, with doubles starting at £174 (€218.60).
Grotta Giusti Resort Golf Spa, Italy
Via Grotto Giusti, Monsummano Terme, Tuscany, Italy, tel: 0039-057 290 771, grottagiustispa.com
Many hotel spa treatments are only available to 18s and above but the Grotta Giusti resort in Tuscany embraces children and teens and offers them candy-coated treatments. Younger girls can be indulged with cotton candy, strawberry and chocolate-vanilla massages, a chocolate face mask and a manicure or pedicure with peach, apricot or strawberry foot bath, glittery nail polish and a temporary tattoo.
Teens get a coconut scrub, chocolate and cocoa butter massage, cocoa butter facial and manicure and pedicure. Highly indulgent, but maybe good as a back-to-school treat or Christmas gift. There are also family packages with massages and fitness classes for all.
The resort itself, near Pisa and Florence, for culture to counter the pampering, has plenty to splash about in and includes an open-air pool with thermal water, underwater jets and a waterfall; and a gym and a thermal underground natural grotto with a steam bath in it.
Rooms: There are 58 double rooms and six suites, with white marble bathrooms running with thermal water. The hotel is a 19th-century villa set in a park; some rooms are in the villa and some in a modern wing. Doubles from €260.
Marriott Marquis, New York
1535 Broadway, New York, USA, tel: 001-212 398 1900, marriott.com
Five New York Marriott hotels have mom ‘n’ daughter getaways based around the parochial American Girl doll (each doll is linked with the life of girls throughout American history, from a Native American to a fun-loving girl from San Francisco in the 1970s) which has a store devoted to it on nearby Fifth Avenue.
Mother and daughter share their room with an American Girl doll’s bed which gets its own turndown service and is a gift to the daughter. Hotels offering this are Marriott East Side, Marriott Marquis (pictured), Courtyard Manhattan Midtown East and Residence Inn Times Square.
The Carlton Hotel in New York has a Girl’s Night Out package that would suit mothers and daughters as there is no age restriction on the spa treatments involved.
The Midtown Manhattan hotel is in the NoMad (North of Madison Square Park) ‘hood north of the Flatiron building and has that New-York smart hotel signature mix of old charm and modernity.
The Girls’ Night Out includes two massages, blow-drys, cocktails (or mocktails) at the Carlton’s restaurant Millesime and a shared plate of oysters or tuna. A two-night stay starts at $939 (€756).
Rooms:Marriott Marquis has 1,900 rooms and 57 suites on 49 floors, some of which have views of Times Square and the city skyline. Doubles from $382 (€307.50), doubles at other Marriott hotels in the city start at $199 (€160).