Family holidays and luxury go together like pickled cucumbers and chocolate. Or so thought Darius Sanai before a new development in Portugal persuaded him to take the plunge

Is it possible to have a luxury family holiday? I was convinced the answer to that question was affirmative until, one August day a few years back, I loaded my wife and newborn baby onto a flight en route for a tour of Portofino, Monaco and St Tropez in a BMW M3 Convertible. The resulting chaos of wailing, sleeplessness and disorientation (and that was just me) convinced me that ‘luxury’ and ‘family’ are words that should never appear in the same sentence.

But children grow up so, a few years later, we decided to try again, this time with two chidren, aged two and five, and provisos set by my wife: if the children are happy, we are happy. Which ruled out the splendours of the Cote d’Azur in favour of a truly young family-friendly luxury resort. After much searching, a perfect solution appeared to present itself in the form of the Pine Cliffs Resort on Portugal’s Algarve. It seemed to satisfy all the conditions above, plus my own, namely that it should be a genuinely luxurious place to be for adults, not just a children’s holiday camp.

Pine Cliffs Resort has a dizzying array of accommodation types, varying from five-star rooms at the Sheraton Hotel, to townhouses, golf apartments and, what we chose, the top-end Residence apartments. Newly built, our place came with a kitchen bursting with the latest equipment, three balconies overlooking gardens, two bedrooms, two marble-clad bathrooms with rainforest showers and a living room with LCD digital TV and a DVD player. So often the blurb for places like this is misleading and you find yourself holed up in a place you wouldn’t dream of living in for the rest of the year; but this was a truly luxurious apartment. And more importantly for little and big feet, the resort is designed so that, despite being at the ‘opposite end’ of the development to the hotel, we didn’t face a trek from the attractions to and from the apartment. The Residences have their own, beautifully sculpted, pool, plus a paddling pool for smaller children, which remained operational despite the best efforts of our two-year-old to transfer all the water from it to the flowerbed using a beach bucket. This was about 20 metres from our apartment, accessed through a lovely, landscaped garden in full bloom with beautiful undulating lawns to play on, shaded by stone pines. Again, many cynical developers eke ‘value’ out of every last centimetre of land, meaning gardens are sacrificed for buildings, golf or parking; but not here.

Also at the Residences was a buffet restaurant serving a spectacular American breakfast (“They have pancakes and waffles for BREAKFAST?” announced my five-year-old, sounding almost disapproving, like a British maiden aunt) as well as lunch and dinner, more on which later; and, across a pond occupied by several brown and green frogs, a small but perfectly equipped shop. And, just next door was... an ice-cream stand. Perfection.

The Residences would almost have been enough for a fine holiday, but as we were to discover, there was much more. A path winding through more gardens led to the golf clubhouse, where, amid another cluster of apartments, there was another outdoor pool, a heated one for chillier days. Two minutes’ walk further on was a row of clay and hard tennis courts and, just beyond that – paradise. Of sorts. Called Porto Pirata, this is a large, fenced-off, immaculately kept children’s playground featuring two full-sized pirate ships, a bouncy castle, swings, climbing frames, and a volleyball court, all interwoven by a track for the small-person-sized karts, tricycles and scooters. My abiding memory is of my two daughters scooting around on a tandem tricycle, looking utterly delighted with the world. Oh, and there’s also an 18-hole minigolf course – quite a challenging one for me, as I dropped at least two shots on every hole. My five-year-old did just fine.

That would have been enough for a perfect holiday, but there’s much, much more. Scattered around the hotel, just beyond the playground, are at least 27 other swimming pools (or so it seemed) including a large indoor one for when it’s too hot/cold. But the star attraction lies below: take a glass elevator from the clifftop gardens by the hotel, and you find yourself on Falesia, one of Europe’s most famous beaches. It owes its fame to the spectacular orange/red cliffs that line it, and to the seemingly endless stretch of sand in either direction; no fights over where to find a space here. A word of warning though: not only is the Atlantic cold here, it has a powerful undertow that has claimed children’s lives, as recently as last year, so it’s not a place to let the small ones bathe unattended. (That’s where all the swimming pools come in.) There’s also a beach restaurant for romantic dinners – a pipe dream for us.

If all that makes the Pine Cliffs Resort sound like perfection for families, that’s because it is. Almost. Every diamond has a flaw, and I would take issue with two elements. Firstly, the food. Venturing alone to the seafood-themed O Grill one evening, with the family safely in the apartment, I experienced a grilled squid that Michelin could have used as research for a new type of racing tyre. Grilled squid is not a hard dish, given the right ingredients, and a restaurant charging €65 (£50) for a buffet dinner should be able to source the right calamari. A Greek salad I had from room service was similarly uninspiring. Second, and related, was the price. We all know that true luxury has no price, and it might seem a strange gripe in a magazine that regularly features million-euro watches, but €9 for a chocolate ice cream cone is just too steep. Our apartment kitchen was good, but we don’t stretch to making ice-cream.

But they are minor gripes and wouldn’t stop me, or the family, returning for an instant. So if you visit – and if you have young children, you must – do say hello. I’m the bloke sweatily pushing the tandem tricycle along the track in Porto Pirata.

BUYING A RESIDENCE APARTMENT
All the apartments in the Residence, where we stayed, are new and privately owned. This summer a new phase of sales releases a number of two- and three-bed apartments like ours, at €715,000 (£570,000) and €995,000 respectively. Owners receive a five per cent guaranteed return per year for the first three years, and a share of the rental pool. The apartments are serviced twice a day, every day, by Starwood Luxury Collection housekeepers who even load up your dishwasher for you. Pine Cliffs is 25 minutes from Faro airport.
www.pinecliffs.com

Four other perfect family holydays

1 BEST FOR… sporty children
Forte Village, Sardinia

David Beckhams in the making can practice their ball skills on three five-a-side pitches at sprawling Forte Village. Lessons are also offered in basketball, tennis, sailing and golf.
www.fortevillageresort.com

2 BEST FOR… big teenagers
Club 55, St Tropez

If your children are 16 going on 36, there’s one place they’d love: Club 55 in St Tropez, which attracts supermodels, rap stars, billionaires – and their families. www.leclub55.com

3 BEST FOR… gourmet families
L'Andana, Tuscany

With Alain Ducasse advising on the menus, the food at L’Andana won’t disappoint. Serious gourmands should take advantage of villa’s popular the Italian cookery school.
www.andana.it

4 BEST FOR… all ages
Sani Resort, Halkidiki

Beach beauties will be in their element at Sani Resort. A hard day’s tanning should be followed up in the Sani Spa, the evening highlight is the open-air cinema.
www.saniresort.gr