Free fun in the sun ... it’s child’s play!

EVERY week our Holiday Hero NEIL SIMPSON takes an in-depth look at a brilliant holiday topic, doing all the legwork so you don’t have to. This week: Free child places for summer holidays.

FREE places for children are the big draw from holiday companies desperate to get families travelling again. Take advantage and kids don’t just get a sofa bed in your room. They also get free seats on the plane, a full luggage allowance and transfers to the resort. And at the hotel, children are offered the same food and drink deals as their parents, whether that’s B&B, halfboard or all-inclusive deals.

To qualify, kids normally have to be under 11 (but it can be as high as 15) on the day you return, not on the day you book, but ages can vary between hotels, even with the same company.

At the start of the year, firms such as Jet2, Tui and easyJet released more than a million free places for children. Tens of thousands are still on offer, with departures from airports across the UK.

Deals include a family-friendly escape on the Greek island of Kefalonia. Book the Apostolata Island Resort and Spa with Jet2 and kids can go free in a beachside hotel with three pools, a play area for children, a spa for adults and a mix of rooftop and poolside restaurants. Seven nights’ halfboard in May costs from £1,069pp from Stansted.

Or head to Turkey, set to be 2022’s summer-holiday star due to low prices and wide availability. The Miracle Resort hotel on Lara Beach has four pools, water slides, a kids’ club and a dozen places to eat. From £6,799pp for all-inclusive weeks from Leeds Bradford in June.

There’s also availability for Jet2’s free kids’ places on holidays in the Canary Islands from Birmingham, Spain’s Costa del Sol from East Midlands, Crete from Belfast, plus breaks in the family-favourite Wave Resort in Bourgas, Bulgaria, from Manchester. Find holidays in the Free Child Places section at jet2holidays.com.

Tui’s best kids-go-free deals can take families to Portugal’s Algarve for seven-night, allinclusive breaks in Salgados Palm Village.

The hotel has six pools and a free shuttle to the beach. Get a week from East Midlands Airport in May from £827pp.

In peak summer there’s still availability at Tui BLUE’s low-rise Tropical hotel by the sea in southwest Turkey. Enjoy water flumes, splash pools, a kids’ club and family-friendly entertainment.

The hotel’s wellness focus also offers healthy-eating challenges to encourage youngsters to try new foods. All-inclusive deals depart Luton Airport in August from £1,137pp. Other great deals include holidays from Birmingham Airport to the Black Sea resorts of Bulgaria, plus holidays in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Croatia and Spain.

Find a bargain with the Free Kids Place Finder tool at tui.co.uk but if you can’t find availability try firstchoice.co.uk – it’s Tui’s sister company and uses the same aircraft and resort staff but has its own allocation of holiday deals.

Package holidays with easyJet can also qualify for free kids’ places. There are offers for anything from three-night mini-breaks to fortnights in the sun.

Its best prices are currently on holidays to the Canary Islands, Corfu, Crete and Morocco, with many deals set at less than £500pp per week and deposits of just £60pp.

Want face-to-face help finding a deal? Staff at resurgent Hays Travel, with branches on some 400 high streets, also have access to free children’s places.

Its top choices for summer include resorts in Turkey, Minorca, Majorca, Ibiza and its sister island of Formentera.