Little Explorers

Little Explorers is Willow & Bird’s approach to luxury family travel, created for parents planning holidays with babies, toddlers and young children.

From carefully chosen family friendly luxury hotels, and thought out room configurations to flight times, transfers, children's facilities and the practical details that make travelling with little ones easier.

Because when we say “family friendly”, we speak from experience.

Our home for all things family.

Little details. Big difference.

  • We travel with little ones too, which means we experience family holidays much as our clients do - pushchairs, cots, bottles, early bedtimes and all. Our youngest travellers may not be writing the reviews, but they’re surprisingly good at helping us decide which luxury family friendly hotels we’d recommend.

  • A kids’ club and a children’s menu don’t automatically make a hotel brilliant for families.

    When choosing luxury hotels for families, we look deeper at - family room layouts, connecting options, shaded pools, beaches, transfer times and those practical details that become surprisingly important when you’re travelling with a baby or toddler.

  • Can you comfortably get a pushchair to breakfast? Is there somewhere to sterilise bottles? Can baby equipment be provided? What type of high chairs are provided?

    These aren’t always things you’ll find on a hotel website, but they’re exactly the questions we ask when planning holidays with babies and toddlers.

  • It’s probably the simplest test we have.

    When we recommend a hotel through Little Explorers, we consider whether we would genuinely choose it for our own family.

    Because when you’re trusting Willow & Bird to plan your luxury family holiday, “family friendly” isn’t quite enough. We want it to be family wonderful.

Less to pack.

Less to think about.

More of the world to explore together.

Willow & Bird clients can hire selected family travel essentials directly from us, including Stokke YOYO pushchairs and DOONA car seat / strollers, subject to availability.

Hire equipment is exclusively available to Willow & Bird clients on selected bookings and is subject to availability, suitability, hire charges and our applicable terms and conditions.

“ Having children changes the way you travel, but we believe that it shouldn’t change your ability to see the world beautifully.”

The story behind Little Explorers.

Before children, my husband and I loved to travel. Then we became parents to two little ones in quick succession — and suddenly holidays felt very different.

We still wanted beautiful hotels, new places and that feeling of escape, but getting there came with a whole new mental load. Which hotel really works with a baby? Is the transfer too long? What do we need to pack? Which pushchair, car seat or travel essentials are actually worth buying?

I found myself spending hours researching every tiny detail, just to make our holiday feel like a holiday. And also a garage full of different pushchairs that I felt we needed for every eventuality!

And that’s where Little Explorers began.

I wanted to create the family travel service I wished I’d had — one where someone has already thought about the things keeping you up at night, from the right room and if it will work with two separate nap times, to the equipment you’ll need along the way without having to sacrifice your handbags in place of a steriliser.

Becoming parents didn’t make us want to see less of the world.

We just needed travelling with our little people to feel a little easier, because us parents deserve a holiday too.