As a family with children with Danish holiday plans, day trips to amusement parks, museums, playgrounds and zoos are often on the agenda, and for the full holiday experience, hotel accommodation is an obvious option. But can you take both young and old on an overnight stay at Comwell? This family from Greve gives us an insight into this after visiting Comwell Middelfart.
Text: Camilla H. Gjedde and family. Photos: Private.
"Uhhh, I can't wait!" 6-year-old Theo starts the morning as we pack the last things into the car, click the seatbelts, slam the car doors and switch on the GPS.
We are a family of three, father-Thomas, mother-Camilla and Theo, living in Greve on Zealand, and we love to holiday in Denmark. Like many others, we hope that the Danish summer weather will surprise us so we can go on an adventure in our lovely Danish country with all the experiences it has to offer.
184 kilometres and almost two hours later, including a pee break, we park the car at Comwell Middelfart. We're in good time for check-in, so the sweet receptionist, Anne, welcomes us and makes sure the adults get a cup of coffee and Theo a glass of juice.
"Elderflower or rhubarb?" Anne asks, but Theo doesn't have time to answer. On arrival, we were handed a children's bag with a welcome booklet, colouring book, a blank piece of paper and three very interesting Comwell Coins. The Comwell Coins can be used by children visiting during the summer holidays to 'buy' something from the small shop in the reception.
"Don't you want the deck of cards so we can play fish or war?" Thomas asks, hoping that the choice from the shop might benefit him a little too. But no. Of course, it's the big bouncy ball and the bat and ball that he chooses before we are introduced to the children's room that takes the 6-year-old's breath away.
With the flick of a switch, a bouncy castle of a different world unfolds in what was a meeting room just a few weeks ago. Now the room has been transformed into a playland with the large bouncy castle, tables with printed colouring pages, games and a bobsleigh table.
Now there's time for a little lunch before exploring Middelfart. And so it's fortunate that it's the locally known head waiter, Jesper, who greets us during lunch.
"You can walk down to the beach in just 10 minutes from here, and down in the town there are shops, cafés, football goals at the harbour, and from here you can also go whale watching with one of the boats, as there are many small porpoises and seals out in the Little Belt. But you can also try bridge walking on the old Little Belt Bridge if you're brave, or go to the zoo at Kongebroskoven and get close to deer," Jesper continues.
He also highlights the major tourist attractions such as Legoland and Lalandia just 45 min. away, Odense's many attractions 35 min. away, Givskud Zoo 40 min. away and all the cosy options in Kolding on the other side of the Little Belt Bridge, including a large play park, which we will return to.
We'll be sleeping in Kolding tomorrow, so we'll save Kolding and Legoland for the coming days. Instead, we'll use this summer holiday afternoon to check in and then go animal watching, visit the pedestrian street in Middelfart and play football on the beach at the harbour.
After a lovely dinner in the restaurant in the evening, where Theo himself ran back and forth between the table and the bouncy castle, we retired to our room with a view of the old Little Belt Bridge.
When the morning episode of Waffle Puppy on Ramasjang ended the next day, we headed for the breakfast buffet. But on the door to the buffet was a drawing we had seen before. The blank piece of paper, which was included in the children's bag handed out to us on arrival, is so children can take part in a drawing competition every day, where the winning drawing of the day is exhibited.
"Er, have you seen, Theo?" Dad asks, pointing to the drawing: "You've won the drawing competition."
The 6-year-old is shy and has to work up the courage to stand in front of the winning drawing and have his picture taken. Shy, but proud. However, he quickly gets ready to enter the breakfast buffet when he realises how much awaits him. In fact, we quickly agree that it's probably the best breakfast buffet we've ever been to - and for the 6-year-old (and his dad) it's the ability to make his own waffles that makes the difference. For the mum, it was the iced coffee dispenser. Yum!
"Okay, this is just delicious, and probably the best Nutella I've ever tasted," says Theo as he takes a bite of his homemade waffle with the 'Nutella' made by the pastry chef at Comwell Middelfart.
We all bid a fond farewell to the sweet staff at Middelfart as we set off for Kolding after breakfast. And Theo is in no doubt that "they are simply so sweet, all of them," as he states time and time again.
