The best holiday kids' clubs in Australia

Kids’ clubs – the saviour of holidaying parents everywhere. Whether your offspring are at the crawling stage or the sneering stage, there’s a club out there to suit. We’ll help you find it.

If you don’t discover the joys of a good kids’ club early on, you may miss out on some truly memorable family holidays. Sure, there may be times when you can’t wait to hand them over and occasions when you prefer to spend precious holiday time actually in their company – but isn’t it great to know there’s a choice? In no particular order, here are Australian Traveller’s pick of the kids’ clubs.

Run away to the circus

No need to call the RSPCA – there isn’t a clapped-out old bear in sight at the brand new Cirque Espace, Novotel Twin Waters’ Cirque du Soleil-inspired circus school. The 4.5 star resort on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast beachfront has always gone out of its way to make kids happy with its excellent Club Dolfi – and now there’s the added element for anyone aged seven and up (ie, you can do it, too) in the form of the Exhiler8 Flying Trapeze, a static trapeze, juggling, acrobatic balancing . . . it’s a tumbling, clowning free-for-all.

Open daily, Club Dolfi also has a new games and play area, meaning kids aged anywhere from two to 12 can check in for activities such as painting, jewellery making, sand sculptures, movie and popcorn nights, discos, puppet and clay design, kite flying – all along the resort’s private, enclosed lagoon beach. While your kids will expect you to put your hand in your pocket for them until the day you die, Club Dolfi offers a brief respite – for each full-priced session your darlings attend, they receive one Dolfi dollar to spend on Dolfi merchandise. A nanny service for children under two years is also available on request.

Shh! Don’t tell the kids . . .

. . . but Couran Cove Island Resort off the Queensland Gold Coast (www.courancove.com.au) is only 40 minutes from theme parks such as Dreamworld, Wet ‘n’ Wild and Movieworld. The island itself has many different styles of accommodation, including two-bedroom waterfront lodges, four-bedroom villas on the Broadwater or in the Forest setting, 2.5-bedroom nature cabins for self-catering, and waterfront hotel rooms and suites – so check to make sure which will suit you best. Guests bike around this spacious resort or take the tram.

The Kites Kids’ Club is an activities centre for children aged three to 12 and is run by trained coordinators who supervise highly entertaining pastimes such as frog and crab spotting expeditions, treasure hunts, pipi gathering, kayaking, boat making, sand castle competitions and even a mini Olympics.

A clown school, arts and crafts, T-shirt painting and special theme nights are just some of the other activities – as well as something called “mud madness” which I don’t want to ask any more about (it probably involves laundry – but what the heck, that’s as good an excuse as any to book yourself an additional spa treatment). Costs are from $18 for morning and afternoon sessions and $30 for an evening session, including Spa Island dinner. There’s also a babysitting service.

Lighten up

Pack only the essential toys your child won’t leave home without when you visit the Novotel Pacific Bay Resort in Coffs Harbour, NSW (1300 363 360), as toys for babies and toddlers can be hired for ten dollars a bag. Babysitting is also available, as well as supervised trips to the movies and Hungry Jacks in school holidays. Package stays are available at this resort overlooking Charlesworth Bay, and up to December 24 a family can stay in a one-bedroom suite from $231 a night, with a free activities pass thrown in.

Since this is a Novotel, kids aged two to 15 can avail themselves of Club Dolfi and all its attendant delights – programs for making Shrek hats and jungle masks, painting sea collages, that sort of thing – and be kept generally entertained while you’re off taking care of the washing and cooking (all spa suites feature a full kitchen and laundry). Or perhaps you’re off relaxing in your spa bath. Either way, once those chores are done you might be found by or in one of the three swimming pools, playing a round of golf or having a treatment at the day spa. Music, games and video nights are also available for the kids. Nearby, see the Wallabies training facilities, the Big Banana and other family attractions.

For the little (and the big) kids

For a destination that ticks all the family boxes, Hamilton Island nails it. It’s postcard-perfect location is ideal for recharging your batteries, all while the little ones run down theirs – in the best possible way. Go-karting, mini golf, tenpin bowling, a wildlife park, and an array of watersports – to name but a few activities – will keep the whole family busy, while the Clownfish Club (Hamilton Island’s childcare centre) is on hand when kid-free moments beckon. Three of the island’s five resorts cater for young children and even include a generous ‘kids stay and eat free’ offer.

For the big kids, there’s a plethora of adrenaline-inducing activities such as water tubing, wakeboarding, waterskiing ad windsurfing. If that’s not enough action, they can hit the hills on an adrenaline-fuelled quad bike expedition, or set off on a jet skiing or sea kayaking adventure, leaving you free to loll on a sun lounger.

Play tag with a turtle

I (almost) wished I were a kid again when I first saw the fun they were having on the Heron Island Junior Ranger Program. Heron is a coral cay actually on the Great Barrier Reef and, as part of the Marine National Park, it’s of course surrounded by an ocean filled with bright fish, is aflutter with thousands of noddy terns (watch your head), and hosts turtle-nesting season from November to April. The island just barely makes it into the tropics, so it’s not really subject to a rigid Wet and Dry season.

Kids aged seven to 12 can join the Junior Ranger Program during Australian eastern seaboard school holidays (and at other times by request, minimum of three), with activities designed to earn them 15 colourful badges. During turtle season they become part of the Queensland Turtle Research monitoring program, with activities including reef walks and snorkelling, turtle tagging, charting the night sky and “piloting” a helicopter. Registration fee is AUD$55, which helps to raise funds for the Queensland Turtle Conservation Program, while also covering the cost of Junior Ranger activities, workbooks and badges.

You can swim straight off the beach to the coral and take snorkel and dive trips to some sensational spots. All meals are included in the tariff and the atmosphere is very laid-back – but with enough nightlife to keep parents happy, too.

Little rascals

Don’t fancy being squished into one room? The two- and three-bedroom resort cottages at Rafferty’s Resort beside Lake Macquarie sleep up to six. A home from home, they’re designed for families (and/or friends), with large living areas complete with TV/Foxtel, gourmet kitchen, courtyard and a veranda, with all the resort facilities on the doorstep. Along with the children’s playground, there’s Rafferty’s Rascals Kids Club for ages four to 12, which operates at weekends and during school holidays.

There are four grass tennis courts (two floodlit) and four swimming pools with one indoor, heated and with a spa. Lakeside beach games such as volleyball help keep kids amused, along with all kinds of other activities on, in and around the lake and property grounds. The resort also has a general store on the property with – importantly – wine sales.