Polurrian Bay Hotel

A spectacularly sited Cornish coastal hotel, reinvented as a boutique family haven, with great facilities including creche and spa

Perched on top of a cliff facing the silvery seas and setting sun, this handsome Edwardian building has been around for over 100 years. And it has welcomed its fair share of notables, including Marconi who sent the world's first transatlantic radio signal from nearby Poldhu Cove. But in 2011, under new owners Halcyon (creators of Martinhal in Portugal), it was reborn as a determinedly 21st-century, and unashamedly family friendly, boutique hotel.

Its 40 or so bedrooms sport a pale olive-and-grey palette, with Flos pendant lights and chrome rainshower heads, while its airy common rooms gleam with newly revealed pitch pine floors and bright chartreuse cushions. The lunch and dinner menus feature Med influences (cassoulet, beef carpaccio) alongside classic Cornish mussels and local rump steak. But its real trump cards are the children's facilities - creche, games room, cinema, huge gardens with playground, 2 pools: a fantastic complement to the Lizard's sandy beaches (one of them 5 minutes down a stepped path), fishing harbours and subtropical gardens. It's a place to delight kids of all ages, while giving parents a rare reminder of that stylish, indulgent lifestyle they feared they had left behind forever.

Highs

• The location: a prime, west-facing spot on the lovely Lizard peninsula, near the pretty harbours of Mullion and Porthleven
• The free "Den" (creche): one of the friendliest we have encountered - our son is still asking when we can go back
• The facilities: cinema, games room, Elemis spa, indoor pool - plenty to keep you amused if the weather turns (we could happily have stayed a week or more)
• The seaview family rooms are perfect for parents plus 1-2 children, and excellent value too
• Staff are unfailingly friendly, and their daily info sheets have some really useful tips

Lows

• It's a long way to go: 4 hours from Bristol, 6 from London
• The lounge and dining area are being extended during winter 2011/12 - due for completion in May 2012
• Outside school hols, the clientele reverts to (mostly older) couples, many of them repeat guests from pre-Halcyon days; if the hotel can entice them back with grandchildren, it would be a great multi-generational option
• The food, though mostly spot on (superb fish, good breakfasts), had some lapses during our stay
• With 40 rooms and red-carpeted corridors, it feels more 'hotelly' than some of our smaller Cornish properties