For $25, This Beach Hotel Will Look After Your Kids The Whole Day
Now that’s what we call a family-friendly staycation.
A staycation isn’t a fun-cation if you’re stuck with kids who are squabbling or demanding your attention 24/7, especially if you’re paying good money for a relaxing time. Of course, you want to do cool stuff with your spawn at some point, but what if for a few precious hours during your staycay, someone will take them off your hands and make sure they’re entertained and having a swell time, so you can have a swell time? This magic happens at the Toots Club at Shangri-La’s Rasa Sentosa Resort & Spa, where this giant treehouse slide is a main attraction.
Dump, we mean, leave your kids here from 9.30am to 9pm.
For $25, you can book the Full Day Fun programme at the Toots Club, where trained staff will take care of your kids for almost 12 hours while you go do whatever it is people without kids do on staycation (spa, read a book by the pool, do beach sports). The price includes lunch and dinner for the littles at the resort’s Silver Shell Café’s kids’ corner. If you can’t bear to be without your mini-mes for that long, there’s the Morning Fun (9.30am to 3pm) and Afternoon Fun (3pm to 9pm) programmes, which are $15 each. Six hours sounds like enough time to get a massage, take a nap and have a meal in peace. If you book certain packages with the resort such as the Family Fun Package (from $485 per night), the Toots Club programme is free. Oh, and kids need to be 5 to 12 years old.
Adults not allowed.
This is the Cool Zone, the Toots Club base, where energetic staff will supervise your little ones. They can burn off energy at the three-storey Treehouse slide, read books, play with toys and video games or just chillax one corner in the fun, colourful space, where parents are banned. If you’re opting for the Toots Club Programmes, the staff will also bring your kids out to play (to the pool, gardening at the resort’s Nature Centre, as well as island tours, for example). There are different activities every day, with fun daily themes. The kiddos can enjoy Toots Monday, Pirate Tuesday, Adventure Wednesday, Zoo Thursday, Survival Friday, Circus Saturday and Sporty Sunday. It all sounds so fun, you will feel zero guilt about dumping the kids here.
Get crafty.
It’s not just all crazy physical fun. More arty types will enjoy the well-stocked Craft Zone, where jie-jies and kor-kors will help you with a cool art project, or just with colouring the hell out of My Little Pony pictures.
What if your kid’s just a baby?
For the under-5 set, there’s the Mini Toots Club, a large play area that’s safe for toddlers and babies. Expect lots of padded gym equipment, a ball pit and baby toys at the jungle-themed space. The good thing? Unlike the usual baby gyms, this probably won’t be too crowded, which means you can get nice pics of your kiddos without a hundred kids in the background. The bad thing? Adult supervision is needed, which means you have to be there with the little ones.
Photo: www.jbabiesinthedaisies.com
For bigger, more boisterous kids.
The resort’s latest addition, Fun Zone, is stocked with an Xbox, race car simulators and other fun family games like air hockey and foosball.
Photo: www.jbabiesinthedaisies.com
Wet, wet, wet.
It’s no secret that the Rasa Sentosa is one of the most kid-friendly hotels in Singapore, and is a top choice for families, thanks in large part to their pool play area, which features three water slides with a canopy that provides sun protection, a splash pad with fun structures that either gently spray water or dump huge buckets of the wet stuff on your heads, and a children’s swimming pool. So when you eventually decide you want to spend time with your kiddos on your staycay, you know where to head to. Also, don’t forget that you’re in Sentosa, where the beach is just a few steps away.
Meals at the right height.
A wonderful feature for the kids is a special buffet counter at the Silver Shell Cafe that is scaled down to their level, so they can help themselves to child-friendly fare like scrambled eggs and Milo, using colourful plates and cups. But if your kiddos prefer the more adult stuff, like dimsum and zi char, mummy and daddy will have to help. There’s also a Baby Zone, which provides complimentary baby food and essentials such as bottle sterilisers, hot water, a microwave, baby wipes and diapers.
Hurray for staycay!
Pack the whole fambam into this Deluxe Garden Room, which is a popular room category with families. If needed, Murphy beds (fold-down beds) are available for suites and Terrace Sea View Rooms. Other kiddo-friendly features include photo opps with Mr Toots, the frog mascot of Rasa Sentosa, who makes regular appearances in the lobby, as well as an ice-cream auntie and a balloon uncle. Additionally, kids five years old and below dine for free with an accompanying adult for buffets at the Silver Shell Cafe. Or you can do like us, and leave the minis with the good folks at the Toots Club, while you sit down to a slow, peaceful meal at one of the establishment’s fine-diners.
The Shangri-La’s Rasa Sentosa Resort & Spa Family Fun Package starts from $485 per night. To book, go to http://www.shangri-la.com/singapore/rasasentosaresort.
