You don’t have to go all the way to the Caribbean to find pristine family-friendly shores – Europe has more than its share of picturesque beaches to keep little ones happy. Here’s Oliver’s pick of the top five European beaches for children.
Funny Beach, Spain
Funny Beach – Costa del Sol, Spain – Flickr
Sprawled along the coast overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, Marbella is home to some of the best beaches on the Costa del Sol – but none are more child-pleasing than the aptly-named Funny Beach. Part beach and part amusement park, Funny Beach has a huge choice of water activities for kids, including pedal boats and para-sailing. Anyone who feels a little more comfortable on dry land can take their pick from go-karts, trampolines and bouncy castles.
Avlaki Beach, Greece
Villa Ricco, Corfu – Villas with Pools – Oliver’s Travels
Our Villa Ricco in Corfu is ideal for anyone who loves villas with pools. Located on the coast in the charming fishing village of Agios Stefanos, the swimming pool has gorgeous views of the surrounding olive groves and the sparkling Ionian Sea. Avlaki Beach is just 2km away, and its calm waters, quiet sands and sheltered location make this a great choice for kids.
Dune du Pilat, France
Dune du Pilat, France – Flickr
Gianella Beach, Italy
Located on Tuscany’s Monte Argentario Peninsula, this sandy beach is great for families with its warm shallow waters and array of water sports. The surrounding pine forests make for an idyllic setting – and there are plenty of tiny coves for mini adventurers to explore.
Copacabana Beach, Croatia
Copacabana Beach, Croatia
Most of Croatia’s beaches are stony, but the water is warm and shallow and there are plenty of child-friendly beaches to choose from. We like Copacabana Beach at Lapad Bay just outside Dubrovnik, for its inflatable playground and fruit and ice cream stands. The water is shallow enough for little ones, with beautiful views of the Elafiti islands.
Oliver’s Travels offers a wide range of options when it comes to finding the perfect family holiday. Our concierge team is here to help you to choose from various Italian villas , French chateaux, Spanish properties or British cottages! Have your pick!
Previous
Water Sports That Are Too Much Fun Not To Try!
Next
Top Four Drives Across the Mediterranean Coast
Popular Articles
The 10 Best Beaches in Cyprus
Cyprus has beaches for almost every kind of holiday, from soft, pale sands and shallow family bays to turtle-nesting shores, watersports hubs, and quiet coves beneath cliffs. Better still, the island makes it easy to combine time beside the sea with ancient ruins, mountain villages, and lunches in coastal tavernas. The best beaches in Cyprus […]
The 10 Best Beaches in Mykonos
Mykonos may be known for its whitewashed lanes, late-night parties, and famous beach clubs, but its coastline has more range than the headlines suggest. Long sandy bays curve around the south of the island, while the north coast feels wilder, more exposed to the Aegean wind. The best beaches in Mykonos cover almost every mood. […]
10 Best Villas in Ibiza
The fabled ‘White Island’ is a place of many faces. On the one hand, Ibiza is renowned as a prime clubbing destination with a vibrant nightlife that’s a magnet for partygoers. But there’s more to the island than exclusive clubs and dancing ’til dawn! Further inland, you’ll find there’s a much more laid-back atmosphere among […]
Annual leave is one of the year’s more finite pleasures. Used without much thought, it can quickly disappear into the occasional Friday and a handful of Mondays. Place it more strategically, however, and the same allowance can turn four days away from your desk into nine or even ten days elsewhere. Easter falls early in […]
Sense and Sensibility: Where to stay for a Jane Austen-inspired escape
On 25 September, this year’s Sense and Sensibility will introduce Jane Austen’s razor-sharp wit and biting social commentary to a whole new generation of gooey-eyed romantics. Like Emma Thompson’s much-loved 1995 adaptation and the novel long before it, the new film promises fierce heroines, men whose charms cannot always be trusted and – of course […]
Venice Film Festival 2026: Where to Stay
Every September, Venice – a city already accustomed to grand entrances – becomes the stage for cinema’s most anticipated arrivals. First held in 1932, the Venice International Film Festival is the oldest in the world. Its 83rd edition runs from 2–12 September 2026 on the Lido, the long barrier island separating the Venetian Lagoon from […]
10 European City Breaks and Where to Stay
One of the great pleasures of living in the UK is its access to the rest of Europe. It is easy to forget quite how extraordinary it is until you hear it from someone who has crossed an entire ocean to get here. The distinctly American idea of “doing Europe”, which tends to mean a […]
7 Days In… Corfu
In the turquoise Ionian, just off the coast of Albania, lies Greece’s greenest island. Stand at the north-west of the peninsula at Paleokastritsa, and you will see the whole landscape open before you. Lush, green hills rise from every angle, their cypress trees fringing the rocky bay out into endless azure, the old monastery above […]
Solar Eclipse 2026: Best Places to Watch in Spain & Where to Stay
On 12 August 2026, the solar eclipse will sweep across Spain, coinciding with the peak of the Perseid meteor shower on the same summer night. Near sunset, the moon will pass across the sun, drawing a narrow band of darkness over the country. Hours later, beneath an almost moonless sky, the Perseids will reach their […]
Edinburgh Festival Fringe & International Festival 2026: What to See and Where to Stay
Every August, artists and visitors from around the world flock to the Scottish capital for the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. For a few weeks, the city gives over its lecture halls, churches, music venues, theatres and pub basements, turning them into stages for one of the year’s most interesting arts events. […]
7 Days in… Mallorca
The largest of the Balearic Islands has long worn its paradisiacal reputation with confidence. Along Mallorca’s south coast, there is white sand and calm, turquoise water. In the north, olive terraces and ochre villages climb towards the ridges of the Tramuntana, the mountain range that runs along the island’s north-west coast. Between them, pine-covered hillsides […]
The Odyssey: Where to Visit in Greece
In Book XII of the Odyssey, Odysseus’ men bind him to the mast of the ship, beeswax in their ears, as he listens to the song of the Sirens. No man, they say, has heard the tune and lived to tell the tale. But this is Odysseus; he has already outwitted the Cyclops Polyphemus, survived […]
England’s Most Beautiful Towns for a UK Escape
Take the train to St Ives and you see one of England’s most beautiful towns from above. The track runs high over the bay, carrying you past the pale sweep of Porthminster Beach and its turqouise waters, before the town appears in a jumble of whitewashed houses and cobbled streets. There is a feeling, in […]
