Stuart Arnold and family visit Newquay in Cornwall and find it a child-friendly place to stay

SOMETIMES, when you have children, it is the little things that make a holiday. Our Cornwall hotel, The Esplanade, in Newquay, had the right idea, with free activities for the kids and indoor and outdoor play areas. Staff also went to the trouble of pushing bedtime stories under room doors.

The hotel is handily placed for Fistral Beach, a favourite with surfers. Throwing caution to the wind, after unpacking we were soon descending its rocky steps and plotting a path around the large pools of water left behind by the tide.

Our two young sons had great fun leaping into them, and ended up soaking wet. Hot chocolates at a nearby bar helped recover their spirits.

Back at the hotel, there were plenty of families eating dinner in the restaurant. The staff were friendly and attentive and the food was spot on, with the kids enjoying their fish and chips. At breakfast, the pancakes and chocolate sauce were also a hit.

Our room was spacious enough, with bunk beds for the children and a small balcony. There’s also a swimming pool and spa at The Esplanade, as well as an adjoining surf school. A pleasant lounge with comfy sofas seemed to be well populated, with the Atlantic acting as a scenic backdrop.

My eldest son Archie loves his arts and crafts and enjoyed a bouncy ball-making session at the hotel, while there were plenty of other things on offer, such as build-a-teddy bear, glow-in-the-dark T-shirt making and an under the sea-themed silent disco, where children are provided with their own wireless headphones – all available by booking through reception.

Newquay Zoo is one of the town’s top tourist draws and, after arriving there the next day, we craned our necks with hordes of other visitors to see the African lions being fed. They must have been hungry, as it was a Wednesday and they are starved on Monday and Tuesday each week to replicate natural conditions in the wild.

It’s not the biggest of zoos, but prides itself on its conservation efforts, and there are also daily talks and feeding sessions.

As well as the animals, our little monkeys had their faces painted and negotiated a dragon-themed maze.

The zoo is set in Trenance Gardens, and there are a boating lake and mini-railway nearby.

This was our first visit to Newquay, and a chance conversation in the hotel later led us to The Fort Inn, a family-friendly pub with great views of the harbour and children’s play areas.

Saying goodbye to The Esplanade, we spent the remainder of the trip a few miles away at Trevornick, a five star-rated camping site on a clifftop setting at Holywell Bay, which promises the “everyday extraordinary”.

It was a misty lunchtime when we arrived and a helpful scooter rider provided an escort to a pre-pitched Eurotent.

Our temporary home boasted a fridge, television and separate living room/bedroom areas. This was camping, but not as I previously knew it.

What was striking for me about Trevornick was how modern, clean and well-kept it was. Staff buzzed around the site on buggies and everything seemed to run seamlessly. The children splashed about for a few hours in the outdoor heated pool.

The restaurant on site, Fodders, serves up decent grub, while there is a programme of evening entertainment.

Sadly, I missed the advertised “Arnold Gutbucket”, but we did catch a Punch and Judy show, which had the young audience enthralled.

Like the Esplanade, Trevornick goes the extra mile to keep the little ones occupied. It has a woodland area where children can take part in “Wild Tribe” activities, from building dens to identifying bugs and toasting marshmallows over a fire.

Older thrill-seekers can try surfing, kite-buggying and kayaking, but we restricted ourselves to a day pass for the nearby Holywell Bay Fun Park.

There was a fantastic racing car track and I found myself whooping with laughter as I overtook my partner Helen, albeit at a relative snail’s pace. Helen and the kids also took to blaster boats with spray guns – much watery mayhem ensued.

The beach at Holywell Bay, as seen in the BBC’s adaptation of Poldark, is beautiful and about a mile from Trevornick.

Setting off on our last afternoon, we soon lost two of our party, who turned back in the persistent rain, but Archie and I ploughed on and were rewarded with clearing skies and a picture-postcard setting.

My son tried skimming down the huge sand dunes and also kept himself occupied filling buckets of water from a fast-flowing stream.

The sun was setting as we headed back to camp over the dunes, and I kept stopping and turning to take in the view again.

It was an idyllic end to a lovely break.

TRAVEL FACTS

For more information about autumn offers at the Esplanade Hotel, call 01637 873333. To book, visit esplanadehotelnewquay.co.uk

To book or get more information about Trevornick, call 0843 4535531. The full activity schedule at Trevornick is available at trevornick.co.uk