Best for: The stylish kids club – and the food
It is easy to imagine the LVMH-owned Cheval Blanc Randeli is so soigné that chocolate-faced toddlers or foot-stamping threenagers would be greeted with horreur! But it could not have been further from the truth. From the moment you glide into the jetty, the lemon and taupe-clad greeting party carrying parasols and cinnamon-scented cool towels, the welcome is heartfelt and warm. We proved to be a challenging arrival party. Shortly into our stay, our youngest, Beatrice, started complaining of mosquito bites. They were not mosquito bites but chicken pox (we had forgotten to vaccinate her), yet they could not have been more accommodating. Except for the odd outing to the ice cream stand, Beatrice was confined to our villa for the duration of our stay. This proved to be easy when villas came with a private 12.5m pool, daily bowls of succulent mangos, full-size lemon or banana cakes left in the fridge and a nanny who was happy to look after her with a raft of toys brought from the kids’ club. We took her to deserted beaches nearby, where we watched lionfish pirouette over rays, and the girls scurried after hermit crabs. Our five-year-old was free to explore the island – as soon as she had polished off her freshly pressed clementine juice, sliced Alphonso mango and Valrhona-packed morning pastry, she was pedalling furiously on her Cheval Blanc bike (oh to spirit that one home), past silverbacked shoals of Thaavalha fish, chirping minor birds, ducking waxen banana leaves and almost convincing me that the Walking Palms had indeed moved an inch overnight.
Her destination: Le Carrousel – the wonderful kids club, completely remade in 2022. As one would expect, the Jean Michel Gathy space is possibly the most stylish kids club you can find – designer frocks would not look out of place hanging on pegs in the pastel-hued room, rather than fireman’s outfits and art smocks. There is a water park with slides and a games room for older children. Amelia painted faces onto coconuts, made sand sculptures and shell necklaces and adorned picture frames that were then filled by our wonderful Majordome (villa butler) Irakli with photos from our trip. Open to kids aged 3-12, it holds evening cinema nights so adults can enjoy dinners alone, and no wonder French children have a reputation for being such good eaters if this is how they style their kids’ menus. Tomato gazpacho comes garden fresh; Caesar salad is crisp and lamb cutlets are buoyed by a fluffy pile of jasmine rice. Even fish fingers are catch of the day reef fish in hand-made breadcrumbs. A daily ice cream van provided squeals of delight, mango sorbet adorned with M&Ms proving to be the popular choice; afterwards, we played giant chess and watched swooping fruit bats retreat to their palm tree boudoirs. On the last night, when we were all finally allowed out en famille, albeit to a private location, we watched Puss in Boots on our own starlit cinema screen for an outdoor lobster BBQ with sand beneath our toes.
Amelia’s highlight was discovering the underwater world. She enjoyed guided snorkels with a marine biologist, ticking off the multihued Nemos, Dorys – and sharks! – from the species chart afterwards over fresh coconut water.
We felt there was a generosity of spirit—kids under five eat completely free (and there is no room service charge, ever, even for adult food), and laundry under four is also free of charge. Where one rivalling resort was charging an eye-watering $50 per hour per child, babysitting here is a (Maldives) reasonable $30 for two.
Travelling with children, especially young children, can always make you feel on edge: how you will be judged when they throw a tantrum, how smart hotels will judge you. Having been back twice to Randeli, including one of the hairiest times we have experienced as a family, it is clear why this is still our favourite resort of all time. Jemima Sissons