Planning a family trip requires more preparation than planning a romantic getaway, after all you need to consider your kids AND your pets.
The choice of accommodations is one aspect that is really hard to organize, especially if your child has special needs and your pet is not that common or is plain big. The ideal
place to stay is of course an establishment that welcomes children and pets and at the same time actually offers facilities and services that will make the stay more enjoyable not only for the kids and the animals but you as well. However, places like these are not always that easy to find. While it is true that more establishments
now have child and pet-friendly policies sometimes you still need to really check out whether these policies are more than just face value.
In fact more often than not a “pet-friendly hotel” simply means that the hotel allows you to bring your pets with you. Other than that they offer no extra services whatsoever. You can also almost always expect to get the rooms with scratched and old furniture.
Establishments that declare themselves “child or family friendly” are often better in that the appellation usually means that they actually do offer services to help you take care of your child like baby sitting and special activities.
In my next posts I will give some pointers on what to look for to make sure that the hotel you are staying in is really child AND pet friendly.