Luxury Family Travel Awards’ winners revealed

Five Star Kids magazine is excited to announce the launch of the Little Luxie Awards, the only awards dedicated to the best in the international family luxury travel.  

Finding the perfect stay for luxury-loving families isn’t easy. Sometimes choice is governed as much by the service or the private experiences on offer as it is by the kids’ club. Parents don’t want to sacrifice standards for climbing frames, but they do want their children to have the ultimate holiday. 

Five Star Kids shares the places in the world that combine five star and family friendly in perfect harmony, chosen by our readers and an expert panel of Virtuoso travel advisors.

The panel

After collating our readers’ votes in our awards survey, we also asked a panel of experts to choose their luxury family favourites, combining the results to define overall winners. Our experts have years of experience in the luxury travel arena. When making their choices we asked them to consider: the luxury standard of the accommodation and its suitability for families; the bespoke family activities on offer; and how welcoming the hotel and service was to children.

Penny Spencer, Spencer Group of Companies

Founder and managing director of Spencer Group of Companies, Penny Spencer is a Virtuoso member and was named in SmartCompany’s 2018 list of Australia’s Top 30 Female Entrepreneurs. 

Melissa Ferguson, Mary Rossi Travel

Melissa Ferguson is a travel advisor with luxury agent Mary Rossi Travel, one of Australia’s most respected agencies. Virtuoso agent Melissa’s passion is for crafting family holidays filled with adventure and discovery.

Hilary Doling, Five Star Kids

As founding and executive editor of the world’s first dedicated luxury family travel magazine, Hilary has road-tested a lot of five star destinations, so she knows what stands out in the luxury family market. 

Sally Bird, Executive Edge Travel

Specialising in designing extraordinary luxury holiday experiences for families in amazing destinations, Sally Bird is co-founder of award-winning leisure travel agency Executive Edge Travel. 

Anthony Goldman, The Goldman Group

Anthony Goldman is joint managing director of one of Australia’s premier luxury travel advisory groups, The Goldman Group. Anthony is a member of the Virtuoso and helloworld business travel networks. 

Sarah Bryans, The Luxury Travel Bible

Sarah Bryans is features editor of The Luxury Travel Bible, one of the world’s largest independent luxury travel websites. Sarah’s particular interest is European destinations for families.

The awards are in our current issue of Five Star Kids – on sale now – and viewable online here.

About Five Star Kids 

Five Star Kids is published under the Holidays with Kids umbrella, Australia's #1 multi-platform family travel network reaching over 850,000 Australian families each quarter. Our combined reach to the family market across Holidays with Kids, Five Star Kids, Ski & Snowboard with Kids and Caravan & Camping with Kids cannot be rivalled by any other publication or group of publications globally.