Families · 6 min read
How to pick a beach for small children
Shade, shallow water, a lifeguard and a toilet within a hundred metres. The five things that matter more than white sand, and the palm destinations that have them.
Family travel
Travel with children
Calm water, shade, a hospital within reach and a flight that does not break anyone. Every guide carries a family note; these are the destinations that score best.
Ranked
Eight beaches that work
Mallorca
Playa de Muro and Es Trenc have water so shallow that toddlers can wade out for fifty metres.
Costa Blanca
The Costa Blanca has the gentlest water in Spain: Benidorm’s Levante and Poniente beaches slope so slowly that children can play far out, and the Terra Mítica and Aqualandia parks are ten minutes away.
Málaga & the Costa del Sol
The city beaches are calm and shallow, and the chiringuitos grill sardines on the sand.
Tenerife
Las Teresitas has a breakwater that keeps the Atlantic out, Playa del Duque in the south has lifeguards and loungers, and the island keeps children busy with Loro Parque, the Siam water park and whale watching from Los Cristianos.
Nice & the Côte d’Azur
Nice’s beaches are pebbles, which children find either brilliant or unacceptable.
Mauritius
The reef turns the whole coast into a lagoon: warm, flat, waist deep and full of fish.
Dubai
The Gulf is calm, warm and shallow at Jumeirah and Kite Beach, and the city treats children as VIPs: aquariums, water parks, an indoor ski slope and desert safaris with camel rides.
Seychelles
Beau Vallon on Mahé is calm, shallow and shaded by takamaka trees; Anse Lazio on Praslin has snorkelling from the sand.
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Twelve hours in a metal tube with a four year old is survivable, and the jet lag is beatable if you use the sun. A plan that works for the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean.
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