Exploring Hyatt Kids Clubs: My Latest Foray Into Making Family Travel Easier And More Fun – View from the Wing

Exploring Hyatt Kids Clubs: My Latest Foray Into Making Family Travel Easier And More Fun

by Gary Leff on June 2, 2024

My daughter has reached an age where she’s plenty happy spending time away from us, and she loves making friends with other kids. When we were at the Park Hyatt St. Kitts in February she wanted to spend all of her time at the Kids Club (“Island Fort Kids Club”) there. What’s more, while they used to charge for it, it’s now 100% free.

So we’ve been looking for kids clubs as part of our family travels. And Hyatt works best for those trips, because as a frequent guest I earn confirmed suite upgrades that allow me to book a suite for the same price in cash or points as a regular room when I make my reservation. That gives us the space we need as a family.

That means for family trips I’m looking for Hyatt kids clubs. Park Hyatt St. Kitts has a great one. So does the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines which works well for our staycationing (it’s not far past the Austin airport). Hyatt kids clubs are searchable as an amenity on the chain’s website.

When I stayed at the Andaz Papagayo before my daughter was born I had a peek at their kids club. It used to be free during the day but many activities are now charged. Officially ages are 4-12, though I’ve been told they’ll take three year olds during periods when they aren’t busy, and they have babysitting services and evening activities for a fee.

The Andaz Papagayo kids club is a converted Presidential suite with several nooks and crannies, a child-sized toilet, and an indoor play house as well as outdoor areas. The woman running the kids club when I visited seemed like one of those really special people who loves to interact with, teach, and care for children.

Andaz Mayakoba looks to have a great kids club as well, and the nice thing for me is Cancun airport is just a 2.5 hour non-stop away from Austin and with service from both American and Southwest.

While I tend to love Park Hyatt as a brand, perhaps followed by Alila within Hyatt’s ecosystem, I probably become a lot more open to the Grand Hyatt Baha Mars of the world since visiting a large resort in Nassau opens the possibility for a game zone, wildlife visits, and plenty of other young kids to play with. Along the same lines, Hyatt Regency Maui where I haven’t stayed in a decade (and which is open despite butting up against the area devastated by wildfires) has kids water sports and a swim school, plus rooftop astronomy program.

Closer to home on the West Coast of Florida, Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort has what appears to be a pretty good-looking Camp Hyatt as well.

Many hotels around the world had kids clubs that closed during Covid and never re-opened, so there aren’t as many choices as their once were – and it’s important to make sure you’re looking at the most recent information when researching kids activities at resorts.

For instance, there are a lot of older references to Camp Hyatt at the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort (on the Nevada side) but I can’t find reference to it on the hotel’s website. I need to call them to see if it’s active.

Since I can’t rely on space available upgrades at check-in when traveling with my wife and daughter, and since I want kids clubs, I’m going to be working through all of the Hyatt ones that we find. It may even sway me to the Grand Hyatt Bali over Alila Villas Uluwatu – because my daughter loves the kids club experience so much.

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