The Sandbanks Hotel

The location of this hotel really makes it.
It is right on the beach with stunning views out to Old Harry Rocks.

The staff were absolutely fabulous, when we arrived they fussed over the DC (8,5 and 3) and they had arranged towels into the shape of a crab on their beds. This particularly tickled DD2, 3 who spent the rest of the w/e walking sideways.

We had an adjoining room with the children and a shared bathroom. Both rooms had a very safe enclosed balcony that overlooked the beach.

The bathroom was huge and very well equipped for the family with a shower and a bath.

We ate dinner in the main seaview restaurant. We were initially a little put off by the amount of glass on the table with small children around but the staff were wonderful again and cleared away any danger.
The children's food was very nice but normal pizza type foods, it would have been good if they could have had the same meal as us, just smaller or at least the option to do that.

I am gluten and dairy free and our waiter had spoken to the chef and was very knowledgeable about what i could and couldn't have from the menu and how they could adapt other dishes to suit. This is the kind of attention to detail that makes this a lovely hotel that we would definitely visit again.

After dinner we took the children to the kid's club where they played lots of silly but active games. My three really enjoyed bouncing around and we really enjoyed the fact that they fell asleep at 9.30pm exhausted [wink]

We sat on the balcony with a glass of wine safe in the knowledge that the children were just behind us tucked up in bed. It has been a while since we had been able to do that. It is a shame we could only spend one night.


The next day we were invited to go the The Sandbanks sister hotel (2 mins up the road) for a massage. The DC were in the kids club and we went to The Haven Spa. We were greeted by Richard, who was really friendly and showed us around the club - he really knew his stuff.

We then had an hour long massage which was soooo nice, we would love to have stayed all day but had to get back. The Haven is very exclusive and has it's own private beach. The pool and outdoor bar and grill would be beautiful in the summer.

We returned to collect the children who had an amazing time with Loopy Lisa and the gang. They came away with a trophy and certificates.

We would really recommend The Sandbanks Hotel for families this summer. You can have a mini break as parents too and rest assured that the children are enjoying themselves but there is also an awful lot to do together. We would recommend taking scooters for a dash up the promenade and the obligatory bucket and spade of course.