Family Program at Le Meridien Goa

Goa is a place very close to my heart. After all, this is where I met my husband the first time! Now that we're a family of 3 after the arrival of our boy - we are still very much going to Goa but now more particular about where to stay. It has to be kid-friendly after all!

We spent the Mother's Day weekend at Le Meridien, Calangute, Goa and were so happy to know that North Goa finally has a hotel catering to kids and families and here's why -

1. Le Meridien Kid's Club -

A very few 5 star hotels will have a children's play area, and that too would be a really tiny area with a slide and some more toys. Le Meridien has a huge huge space (I don't know the square feet area now) but imagine 5x the size you would generally see. It has activities for kids of every age - plush toys, art and craft supplies (even glass painting, yes!), a chalkboard, slides, soft-play, a bed (incase the really small ones need to crash), a huge TV, couple of video games and more! They have 2-3 attendants present all the time to engage the kids in different activities and teach them some cool craft tricks! What's more? If your kid is old enough and comfortable, you can leave them under the supervision of the staff and step out. (Timings of the club are morning to 8.30pm weekdays and till 11pm on Fri/Sat). Imagine getting to have a drink or two with your partner at the bar while the kid plays here! One recommendation would be to have extended timings on Sunday as well.

2. Activities for the family -

 

Apart from the swimming pool (with a separate section for kids) and gym, there also are indoor games like foosball, carrom, snooker, table tennis, chess, air hockey for the whole family to play! Usually you'll find a carrom board and table tennis but I was delighted to find the air hockey machine and snooker table and we had fun playing all the games! The swimming pool is a 5 feet pool with bar-stools near the pool bar, some lounging seats where you can relax inside the water itself and a separate kids pool. We had a lot of fun in the pool, thought it would have been great if they also had floatees, tubes etc for the kids, since we don't have a pool near our home in Mumbai - we don't have those things yet and usually find them in the hotels.

3. Le Meridien Library Lounge -

This was my favourite I have to say! I used to love reading as a kid, as a teenager, as a young adult (still do, but don't get the time anymore so resort to sitcoms). Le Meridien Goa, Calangute has a library cum lounge on the first level filled with books for everyone. I just browsed and glanced through and I could find archie comics, tinkles, jeffrey archers, sidney sheldons and more. Even travel related books and more. Someone like me can spend all the time just lounging here instead of being outside.

Apart from these, the staff is very polite and courteous with the kids. On one instance during our stay, my toddler got cranky and was crying when a staff person walking by halted and directly spoke to my kid like he was a grown up (instead of asking me what's wrong) and enquired what happened, is there anything he could do to help. I was really touched at this! All the restaurants are very friendly to kids and you can order khichdi, fries or whatever else fancies the kids! We also called for hot cuppa milk on both days - I wouldn't be very comfortable to ask for that everywhere - but knowing how important the junior customers are for the hotel - I didn't have to hesitate once!

Stay tuned for my next blog on how we spent Mother's Day at Le Meridien, and till then do check out their Facebook and Instagram pages to know more about their offerings.