Lexus Magazine invited us to co-author a piece recommending kid-friendly luxury vacation venues. The format is compelling for everyone with adults-only and kid-friendly getaways featured side-by-side. The result? You can’t escape feeling inspired for whatever flavor of vacation you need right now.

Me? After a month of no school or camp paired with a move to Europe, the adults-only getaways are calling my name.

One of the best aspects of living in the San Francisco Bay Area is the abundance of weekend getaways within a 1-2 hour drive. A favorite option that is easy to access yet a world away is Half Moon Bay, a seaside town in San Mateo County.

The Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay is new to our luxury hotel portfolio. It’s not one of those properties that scream family with an endless list of onsite activities for kids; however, there are just enough things to do that parents and kids alike love spending time here.

Villa, home, cabin, apartment and/or condo—where you go may change what it’s called and what it looks like—however, the process to find and rent independent accommodations for family vacations is the same.

There are two main sources on the Web for rental inventory: 1) direct-from-owner-sites like VRBO/HomesAway/Airbnb.com (the list of options is exploding) and 2) rental agencies who facilitate rentals and services on behalf of the owner.

I wrote about hotel kids’ clubs a few weeks ago—thoughtfully run programs are a fantastic amenity for families. We just published a list of all our properties with kids’ clubs on the Ciao Bambino homepage (use Quick Search located at the top of the page to narrow down options by age requirements and pricing).

That said, any parent that is considering using a kids’ club needs to understand if a program includes swimming and exactly what that means.

Does this sound like a dream not reality?

Kids’ clubs can be an essential amenity for parents seeking downtime on vacation, particularly at resort properties where families spend the bulk of their time onsite. Many parents hesitate to use kids’ programs because they don’t want to feel guilty that they are “dumping” their kids into glorified daycare or they feel uncomfortable leaving their kids in an unknown environment.

Good news: It is possible to have …

Caveat: Unless you are defining what makes a property top by quantitative or statistical information, creating a list of them is subjective.

Since Ciao Bambino specializes in uncovering family-friendly hotels that enhance vacations with kids–versus listing a list of any and all possibilities—top for us means favorite brands within the kind of properties we cover, i.e. those that offer something special for families in one way or another.

There are many exceptional hotels in Hawaii but there is one in particular that seems to have cult status with families, Kona Village on the Big Island. One of the few inclusive-style accommodations in Hawaii, we’ve had the family-friendly hotel review on Ciao Bambino for a while now. Even though I personally interviewed the family that wrote the review, I didn’t really understand what made the hotel so special.

I do now.

One of the few positive consequences of the travel downturn over the past year is that it has forced hotels at every quality level to become more value conscious.

Hoteliers who have been able to figure out how to manage costs while maintaining value for their guests have been able to ride out the storm while keeping occupancy rates higher than the industry average. I’ve seen this trend in action repeatedly through both our booking activity on Ciao Bambino and my own travel experiences.

We have quite a few extraordinary hotels featured on Ciao Bambino and I’ve been lucky enough to stay at a large number of them. We checked into The Breakers last night and I have to say, I’m thoroughly wowed by this historic hotel in Palm Beach, Florida.

I’ll write a full report later. In the meantime, I have a few fun Photo Friday moments to share.

Skiing is a wonderful family activity. Expense aside, it is a sport that all ages and genders enjoy, and when kids are old enough, families will appreciate the time spent on vacation together—versus a pool or beach environment where everyone may be doing their own thing.

Qualifying what makes a resort great for families is important since terrain, facilities, and amenities vary widely.