Hotels with water slides your kids will never want to leave

There is an age, roughly four to twelve, when the pool is not a feature of the holiday. It is the holiday. For those years, a hotel with proper water slides buys you happy children and, honestly, a bit of peace. But not all water-park hotels are equal, and the best one for a confident nine year old is the wrong one for a cautious four year old. Here is how to choose.

The single biggest mistake is booking for the wrong age. Look for a resort that has all three: a toddler splash zone, shallow and zero-entry, for the little ones; mid-height slides with a low age or height limit, for the four to seven crowd building confidence; and big flumes for the older kids, who are bored without them. All three at once, and a mixed-age family is happy at the same time. That is the real trick.

The slides are the exciting bit. The things that actually make the week work are quieter: lifeguards on the slides and the pools, and a genuinely shallow shallow-end. Shade near the water, because a full day in the sun is a lot for small skin. A quick lunch you can grab poolside without a full change of clothes. And a room big enough that everyone sleeps after all that swimming.

A water park is only as good as its shallow end and its lifeguards. Here, safety and the pool both feed the KidProof Score, so a resort cannot coast on big slides alone.

The Costa del Sol is built for this: big resorts with on-site aqua parks, lazy rivers and toddler zones, plus the sunshine to use them. Our picks are just below. Pack the swim nappies.