Grand Hotel Brioni is sleek, grown-up and unapologetically luxurious — but how does it fare when one of its guests is barely one? We checked in with our son Jack to find out.
There are family hotels, and then there are beautiful hotels that happen to welcome families. Grand Hotel Brioni falls firmly into the latter camp.
Set on Croatia’s Istrian coast, the hotel feels polished and distinctly grown-up, with contemporary interiors, beautiful pools and the Adriatic quite literally on its doorstep. It isn’t a resort designed around children — there’s no kids’ club, children’s entertainment or babysitting service — but what it lacks in dedicated family facilities, it more than makes up for with an exceptionally warm welcome.
And for us, that mattered far more.
Room & Sleep ★★★★★
Food & Mealtimes ★★★★
Family Welcome ★★★★★
Getting Around ★★
Play & Facilities ★★
Grown-Up Appeal ★★★★★
Best for: Parents who want a genuinely luxurious hotel experience and are happy not to have lots of dedicated children’s facilities.
Think twice if: A sandy beach, kids’ club or babysitting are essentials for your holiday.
The best thing: The staff. Jack was treated like a tiny VIP from the moment we arrived.
Would we return? Yes.
Room & Sleep ★★★★☆
Our room was beautifully finished and had everything we needed, although it was a little on the small side once you added a baby and all the paraphernalia that inevitably travels with one.
The Nuna travel cot was excellent, with proper sheets that were changed every day — a small detail, perhaps, but exactly the sort of thing you notice when travelling with a baby.
The curtains weren’t completely blackout, but they came very close and worked well for sleep. Room amenities were excellent too, and the Acqua di Parma toiletries were a particularly lovely grown-up touch.
This is one of those rooms where you don’t feel as though the luxury has been compromised simply because there’s suddenly a travel cot in the corner.
Overall the room had excellent wardrobe storage. As a mild inconvenience thouhg, there aren’t high shelves to put things on, so be prepared for little hands to reach up and pull things off bedside tables and console tables.
Teeny tip: If travelling with a baby and you have a choice of room categories, we’d be tempted to prioritise extra floor space.
Food & Mealtimes ★★★★☆
Mealtimes were refreshingly easy.
Highchairs were excellent and readily available, and the buffet offered a genuinely broad selection of food, making it easy to find something suitable for Jack without having to plan ahead.
For parents, there was enough choice that eating at the buffet night after night didn’t feel like the compromise the word buffet can sometimes suggest.
We never felt that we were distrubing other diners by having a small, energetic child making a mess. Nobody made us feel unwelcome or a nuisance which we greatly valued and appreciated.
The hotel’s Sophia restaurant is a different proposition. We loved the idea of a more elevated dining experience for a night or two of our trip, but we personally didn’t feel we could take Jack. Dinner is a long, multi-course affair and we felt he’d simply have become bored before we had a chance to enjoy it properly.
For us, Sophia is somewhere to enjoy as a grown-up dinner rather than a family meal.
Family Welcome ★★★★★
This was where Grand Hotel Brioni really surprised us.
For a hotel that looks and feels so sophisticated, the welcome Jack received was extraordinary. The staff couldn’t have done more for him. He was fussed over every day, members of staff stopped to play with him, and — most tellingly — they remembered his name.
There is a huge difference between a hotel that allows children and one where you feel completely relaxed having yours there. We never felt as though we needed to apologise for arriving at breakfast with a baby or worry that we were disrupting the grown-up atmosphere.
The hotel manages that difficult balance remarkably well: Jack felt genuinely welcome, while we still felt as though we were staying somewhere special.
Getting Around ★★☆☆☆
Around the hotel itself, we found travelling with Jack manageable. The main compromise comes when you want to access the sea.
Despite its beautiful waterfront position, this isn’t a traditional beach hotel. There isn’t a sandy or pebbled beach where you can spread out a towel and let a toddler potter at the water’s edge.
Instead, the coastline is rocky, with lots of steps and ladders providing access directly into the sea.
It’s beautiful — and probably dreamy if you’re travelling without a newly mobile little person — but it isn’t particularly practical with a baby.
There is a public beach which is only a short walk away, but it did feel quite busy. It is also not a sandy beach.
If your vision of a Croatian family holiday involves spending hours sitting together on a beach, this probably isn’t the hotel we’d choose for that.
Play & Facilities ★★☆☆☆
There is no kids’ club and no babysitting service, so it’s important to know that Grand Hotel Brioni isn’t trying to compete with a dedicated luxury family resort.
The pools, however, gave us somewhere to swim with Jack.
We particularly liked the indoor pool, which was quiet, calm and excellent with a baby. The outdoor pool is seawater and, during our stay, we found it a little too cold for Jack to enjoy properly.
Again, the distinction is important: there are facilities you can enjoy with a child, but very little specifically for children.
For some families that will be a drawback. For us, it was part of why the hotel retained such a grown-up atmosphere.
Grown-Up Appeal ★★★★★
This is where Brioni really earns its place on Teeny Guests.
Would we have wanted to stay here before having Jack? Absolutely.
It feels like a proper five-star hotel rather than a family resort dressed up as one. The interiors are sophisticated, the setting is beautiful, the food is excellent and details such as the Acqua di Parma toiletries make the whole experience feel indulgent.
That’s really the question at the heart of Teeny Guests: does having a small child mean compromising on the hotels you actually want to stay in?
At Brioni, we didn’t feel that it did.
The practical bit
Transfer Length: Only a short drive from Pula airport
Cot: Yes — we were provided with an excellent Nuna travel cot
Blackout: Almost, although not completely
Highchairs: Yes — excellent
Children’s food: Plenty of suitable options at the buffet
Kids’ club: No
Babysitting: No
Indoor pool: Yes — particularly good with a baby
Outdoor pool: Yes — seawater and chilly during our stay
Beach: No conventional beach; rocky sea access via steps/ladders
Buggy: Fine around much of the hotel due to there being lifts, less practical around the rocky waterfront and surrounding area.
Nearest shop: There is a small supermarket that is a 10-minute walk away but it didn’t have a very big selection.
The Teeny Guests verdict
Grand Hotel Brioni isn’t the obvious choice for a holiday with a baby — and that’s rather why we liked it.
There are compromises. We’d have loved easier access to the sea, the room could have been larger and families wanting a kids’ club or babysitting won’t find either here.
But in return you get something that can be surprisingly difficult to find after having children: a genuinely beautiful, grown-up hotel where your baby is made to feel every bit as welcome as you are.
The staff were exceptional with Jack, the food made family mealtimes easy and, once he was asleep, it still felt like we were staying in the sort of hotel we’d have chosen before becoming parents.
That, for us, is exactly what makes a Teeny Guests hotel.
Teeny Guests 