Staycation at Fota Resort & Wildlife Park

[Anonymous]

We went to Fota in Cork last week for a mini family break and had a great time. The hotel is very family friendly. Where many hotels ‘claim’ tobe family friendly, some do not really live up to expectations but Fota was genuinely family friendly.

The attitude of the staff towards our children was perfect – for example on one of the nights our 7 year old was upset that she had not had ice-cream and it was too late after kids camp because the kitchen was closed – she was about to have a meltdown when a member of staff saw this and very quickly brought her some cookies to calm her down! She did not have to do that but it made a big difference to our daughter and sorted out a potentially explosive situation!

Here is a quick overview of what we thought of the hotel, resort & park:

Rooms – very spacious, comfortable and well equipped. Great sized bathrooms too.

Food – the food was lovely; breakfast was excellent, the children loved the
pancakes & strawberries and we all enjoyed our dinners and snacks. The staff in the restaurant were truly brilliant and really good with our children. They had so much patience for our children and answered
their questions and interacted with them. This makes a huge difference to parents because it allows us to relax when the children are being genuinely welcomed in a hotel – so we have to give full marks on that!

Kids club – The 7-10pm nightly kids club was great and the children really enjoyed that and it gave us a chance to relax for a while with just baby.

Summer camps – If we had been staying longer, we would have done a summer camp in the daytime. There are different activities each day and for 3 children the cost is only 23 euro from 10am-3pm. They have a Teddy bear picnic some days which is a great idea – so if you are going, make sure the kiddies bring their teddies with them.

Swimming Pool – The pool was lovely and they have a summer camp in the pool on certain days from 10am-11am – our children were able to get into the pool with the two instructors and play and be looked after and this meant my hubby was able to nip into the spa and enjoy the hydrotherapy pool and I was on a lounger with baby, watching the kids splashing away happily.

Spa – The hydrotherapy pool is amazing. I have never been in one like this
before, it’s so much fun and lovely to have all the little feet, back, neck
massages etc. too. There is a part of the pool with a current that spins you around – its great fun, I really enjoyed that. I was like a big kid in there!!

Playground – Its great to have a playground on the hotel grounds and it
has a soft surface which is ideal if they fall down. David took the kids
there for an hour Wednesday and I took that opportunity to go to the spa for a while. They have tennis courts too, so lots to do to stay entertained.

Playroom – there is a playroom beside reception as well that the kids can enjoy and they also get little fun packs with quizzes, colours etc when they check in and at dinner time to keep them occupied.

Overall we were really impressed with the hotel and will definitely go back again – I would be torn though, I would love to come and spend a day being massaged and pampered with David but its so family friendly, I cannot imagine going without the children (I think they would go mad if we went without them!!).

We stayed in the hotel and got a special family deal for our stay so it worked out good value but if you are on a budget, they have lodges that you can book into and these work out very good value and you can still avail of all the amenities and the pool and kids clubs etc.

Overall, really enjoyable and we would recommend it.

[Author]

Posts