So easy: Easter city break with kids

Got children? Looking for a city hotel? Nightmare, eh? Either you all squash in - hardly romantic - or you fork out for two rooms, hopefully interconnecting, but no guarantee. That has you bankrupt before you've started paying for the meals, the travel passes, the museum admission ...

Well, there is hope, thanks to the rise of the aparthotel - a cross between a hotel and a self-catering apartment that is popping up across European cities.

Check in to the new seven-storey Résidence Les Buttes-Chaumont in Paris, for example, and hotel facilities, such as a 24-hour reception and breakfast room, come with a choice of cheerily furnished one- and two-bedroom apartments. Each has a simple kitchen, telephone and satellite TV, and some offer a balcony or terrace, bunk beds and a separate bathroom, shower and loo. There is even a launderette for when junior manages to mess up all his trousers in one day. Purpose-built last year in the residential streets of the 19th, the Résidence is one of five in Paris operated by the holiday giant Pierre et Vacances.

Another French company, Citadines, is pushing the aparthotel concept even further. It has 48 properties in Europe that offer " walk- in- and- live" studios and apartments that come with a fitted kitchen, hi-fi system and babycare facilities as standard.

The majority are in France, but the chain has spread to Barcelona, Brussels, Lisbon and Berlin. You can check in any day of the week and stay for a day or longer. Compared to hotels, the prices seem a bargain: a one-bedroom apartment in Cannes in April sleeping four starts at £55 a night. Stay a month and it drops to £39.

Catching this trend, apartment blocks traditionally aimed at executives are now also wooing the leisure traveller, particularly at weekends when rates can drop considerably.

"This is far better than home," my 12-year-old daughter exclaimed when we checked into the four-star Royal Garden Apartments in Edinburgh. A former annexe of the Scottish Office in Queen Street, it has now been converted into 30 smartly furnished apartments with views over the Firth of Forth. This Easter weekend a superior two-bedroom apartment costs £165 a night. Around the corner, at the Intercontinental George hotel, you would pay £99 just for one standard room.

City break specialists are also including self-catering properties in their brochures. This year Travelscene introduced apartments in Amsterdam, Dublin, Bruges, Prague and Lisbon, while Manchester-based Bridgewater Travel offers properties in the centres of Rome, Florence, Lucca and Budapest.

When you are booking an aparthotel or apartment, check the location on a map. Despite what reservations staff say, some may be on the edge of a city. Rooms can also be small, so, if you're staying several days, it is worth going for a large apartment. Local tourist offices and the internet are good places to get hold of addresses, and Time Out city guides (www.timeout.com) often include details of such accommodation.

At the top end of the market, estate and lettings agent Foxtons' website, www.nothotels.com, offers luxury rental properties in cities around the world.

The world's aparthotels

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