Most of the parents I know have mixed emotions about the ‘Kids Clubs’ at big resort hotels. The clubs provide a welcome respite from the holiday duties of adjusting goggle straps, blowing up armbands and bankrolling the hotel’s tuck shop. Parental guilt only kicks in when its time to collect your child from a windowless clubroom in the bowels of the hotel and you discover that your wunderkind has spent the entire afternoon watching degraded Disney videos. Full of remorse you resolve to spend more quality time with your angel when really what you both need is a better kids club.
Last year, Grecotel’s Cape Sounio luxury hotel on the Attica Peninsular attempted to raise the bar of the quality and content of children’s holiday clubs by introducing a specialist scheme for 4 –12 year olds. Their programme called the ‘Ambassadors of the Environment’ aims to “introduce children to a better understanding of their role in the planet’s eco system”. A grand title and worthy ambitions but is it possible for your child to learn to save the planet while mum and dad have a guilt-free rest?
The hotel’s promotional literature explained that the key to the club is that children learn about nature’s systems while “immersingthemselves in lots of fun outdoor activities.” All of the sessions on offer certainly sounded jolly exciting - everything from underwater photography safaris, kayak and snorkelling expeditions to navigation by the stars. The accompanying glossy images were equally as enticing - happy, sun kissed children in colourful wetsuits paddling, diving and snorkelling in the protected waters of Cape Sounio Bay. The olive-oil-advert light and photo-retouching all made it look too good to be true. Then, when I learnt that the Jean -Michel Cousteau (son of the patron saint of sea exploration, Jacques Cousteau) had helped design and launch the programme I almost signed up for the club myself. I enthused about the scheme to my nine year old son Ben and we decided to try it out as a family - Ben would do the activities and write a review while I would do my bit as relaxing parent on sun lounger
Ben Morris’s (aged 9) personal account of the Ambassador of the Environmentkids club at Cape Sounio, Summer 2008.
“Rock climbing today - very good. We talked about the environment and I liked it when I could climb alone without the pressure of the group. The rock wall doesn’t seem so high from the bottom but when you look down from the top it’s very high. Erika the helper encouraged me a lot so I liked her and the other kids were nice too. There were lots of different ways up to try and time flew because I was having fun. The only bad points were the giant hornets and Alexandra the leader was a bit bossy telling me not to wear out the ropes. “
Marks out of 10 – 8
“Kayak and Snorkelling exploration – not great. There was not much playing or fun. I had to share a kayak with two people and the lifejacket hurt my stomach. During the snorkelling I didn’t see many fishes because we didn’t go out far enough and it would have been good to have a tick list so I could tick the fish I saw. Waiting was a bit boring after the snorkelling and I wanted to go back to Mumand Dad but the leaders wouldn’t let me. Three hours seemed more like four.”
Marks out of 10 – 5
"We were going to do waste and whatever – the session about rubbish but no kids came. I asked if I could do the climbing again instead and they said yes."
"We went night snorkelling and it was amazing - a real experience. We saw an octopus and a scorpion fish and lots of other fascinating fish. We had to shine the torches at the fish and they stopped moving. Then we came up from underwater the beach bar music was playing “ Dancing Queen by Abba – that was pretty weird. I filled in a postcard at the end. I wrote about the octopus and promised to help the environment by helping dad with the garden."
Marks out of 10 – 10
"No club today, played with new friends from England on the beach. Built a River Nile sand channel, hunted for fish and explored the rock pools. It was so fun."
Marks out of 10 – 10
Ben’s assessment of the kids club was similar to mine – like the hotel itself it was good in parts but it had problems living up to its own publicity. I met two English families at the resort who had based their whole holiday choice around the Ambassadors of the Environment scheme and were disappointed when activities were late starting or didn’t deliver the amazing experiences that they had expected. They believed their children had a good time but pointed to muddy shots from the photography safari and mentioned shivering kids from the kayaking expedition.
None of these would be problems if the expectations and prices had not been so high - £55 for a rock climbingsession was as steep as the plastic wall the kids were clambering up and at £44 a pop it is no surprise that the compost class didn’t have any takers.
To be fair the movie nights that the club offered twice a week were free and proved very popular with the English parents - especially after they had checked out the vertiginous hourly rate for babysitting at Cape Sounio. The children could watch nature films and even catch a glimpse on the screen of that rare sea creature, Jean Michel Cousteau – the programmes director. He certainly didn’t make any other appearance at the camp while we were there.
Perhaps the hotel is promising too much from one of its key attractions.The hardworking and enthusiastic leaders of the club have to cram alot into the three hour sessions - excitement, instruction , environmental education and group childcare. Part of their difficulty is that the scheme has been adapted from an intense two week summer kids camp where there was enough timeto balance high energy activities with more thoughtful classes on ecology.
The real star of the holiday was the benign Cape Sounio Bay beautifully punctuated by the ancient temple of Poseidon. The bay provided a safe haven for Ben and his new friends (introduced through the kids club ) to explore the shoreline with minimalparentalsupervision. A pair of jelly sandals and a £5 fishing net was the only equipment he needed to enjoy the ecology of Cape Sounio. He still hasn’t helped me in the garden so the jury is still out on his credentials as an Ambassador of the Environment but during those long hot days on the Attica shoreline he became a fully fledged Explorer of the Environment .
3 out of 5. An excellent idea that needs to be refined and developed.
Reservation for Grecotel Cape Sounio resort0030 210 72 80 417 www.grecotel.com.Prices start from £3565.00 for 7 nights for a family of 2 adults and 2 children (under the age of 12 years) staying in a Family Bungalow. This price includes breakfast and daily Ambassadors of the Environment activities, round trip airport transfers in Greece and Economy return airfare tickets.
Prices for The Ambassadors of the Environment programme start from £44 per child for a three-hour session.
Tailor made travel and transfer to the resort can be provided by the Couture Travel Company Tel: 0845 603 9815 www.couturetravelcompany.com