This summer was my first travelling with an extra passenger in tow – my baby daughter Sylvie, who has just turned one. Lots of fellow parents told me that jetting abroad with a baby who can’t walk is a bit of a sweet spot, as they’re easy to pop on the plane and will happily come along for alfresco lunches and chill sessions by the pool. I knew we wanted to book somewhere sunny but peaceful and with lots of sea and sand for Sylvie, who’s a real water baby, and Jet2holidays were the perfect place to search out a hassle-free escape complete with flights, transfers and a friendly welcome.
Jetting off to Skiathos, Greece
Jet2 Holidays make it super-simple to book family holidays – infants go free on all their holidays and city breaks, and many of their destinations offer free places for older children, too. I loved that you can search holidays by total budget or by which locations are child-friendly, and the generous 22 kilo luggage allowance for adults and 10kg for infants is, frankly, an essential (seriously, no-one told me that babies require quite so much stuff). You can also bring car seats and pushchairs, and check in travel cots with Jet2. So far, so stress-free – in fact, the really tricky bit was picking where to go. After hours of window-shopping gorgeous-looking trips to Ibiza, Malta, Mallorca and Crete we settled on Elivi Resort on Skiathos, which had direct flights from Bristol Airport and looked impossibly sunny when I Googled it on a rainy day in the Cotswolds.
Jetting off, Jet2 really do make travel days as smooth as possible, with friendly staff both in the UK (who insisted we board first with Sylvie) and in Greece (whisking us quickly onto a bus to the hotel) for our flight to Skiathos as well as a rep available if you need help in-country or just fancy booking excursions (Mamma Mia tour, anyone?). I’ve recently been on a series of uncomfortable flights with budget airlines, and it was amazing how much loveliest Jet2’s staff were – they made travelling a pleasure, rather than a stressful obstacle course.
Easy days at Elivi Resort
Jet2holidays really know how to pick them – Elivi Resort has gone straight to the top of my list of favourites. The hotel sits on its own little itsmus at the southwestern tip of the island, edged by four gorgeous beaches and has to be the prettiest and most secluded of the the hotels in Skiathos. Rooms at Elivi are dotted across two areas – 32 rooms at Elivi Xenia, and 19 villas and suites at Elivi Nest. Our Junior Suite in the paradisical gardens of Elivi Nest was perfect for us, with a big king-size bed plus a travel cot all ready for Sylvie. Sliding doors led out to our own balcony and a little plunge pool which was the perfect size for Sylv to play in. These suites sleep up to two adults and two children, and having the freedom to hang out by our own pool was wonderful – I’d recommend splashing out (literally) on one of these suites if you’re bringing little ones, while the suites with balcony hot tubs would suit couples.
I’ve been island-hopping in Greece before but this was my first time on Skiathos – it feels like a world away from the volcanic islands I’d visited, with a lush forested interior that felt fresh and cool when we visited in September, plus wonderful turquoise beaches around every corner. I’m usually the first one up and out on a Greek holiday for an early morning swim or a hot and sweaty hike to visit a monastery. But staying at Elivi with a baby, I finally learned to just relax, take things slow and, well, be on holiday. I did venture to Little Banana, the naturist beach, for a baby-free skinny dip, and we explored Koukounaries Beach, where you can rent all manner of paddle boards and other water kit, which would be wonderful for tiring out older kids. But we spent most of our time on Big Banana Beach, which was my absolute favourite of the four beaches surrounding Elivi – it’s a wide stretch of translucent turquoise water dotted with fish and backed by a sweep of sand furnished with a little bar for lazy lunches and plenty of parasols to pop Sylvie under when it got hot.
While Sylvie is little enough to be entertained by snacks and swims (and by the wonderful hotel staff, who were so warm and welcoming to us all), Elivi has plenty to offer bigger children too, including a kids club for little ones aged 5-12 and even yoga and pilates classes for kids. The hotel also have – joy of joys – a gem of a babysitter available, and on our final night we booked the in-house babysitting service and went out for supper. I often find in-resort restaurants a little lacking in personality but that’s definitely not the case at The Nest, which feels like that lovely gem of a taverna you once stumbled upon in a remote Greek village, just elevated. There were musicians plucking the strings of bouzoukis, festoon lights strung up in the olive trees and a view of the sun setting slowly over the sea, illuminating paddle boarders out enjoying the cooler air. There were actually lots of families enjoying the fresh seafood around us, but we loved being baby-free for a night and toasting our first proper family holiday with an ouzo as the stars came out.
