Taormina Family Hotels with Real Game Rooms

Taormina works well for families who want a Sicilian base mixing beach mornings, history and evenings in a lively pedestrian centre. The town is compact but steep, and the hottest hours of a summer day are better spent in the shade. Hotels with table tennis, billiards or a games room give children a reason to enjoy that downtime. The five picks here range from a family-run three-star near Corso Umberto to a five-star Liberty-style villa, and all offer real family rooms.

Don Vittorio Country Village has the most complete games set-up of the five. This chalet-style 4-star resort sits in the country zone about 10 minutes from the Taormina cable car, with a separate games building holding table tennis, billiards and darts. It adds a tennis court, a swimming pool and an animation team in summer, and family rooms are the norm rather than the exception. I would choose it for families with active children who want space to move around and do not need to be in the old centre, since the resort itself provides most of the day's entertainment.

Hotel Lido Mediterranee is the beach option. This 4-star stands on Mazzaro beach with direct beach access, a beachfront pool and a kids' club, and its board games corner gives children something quieter after a morning by the sea. Family rooms include sea-view options, and the cable car up to town is an eight-minute walk along the coast. Its games offer is lighter than at Don Vittorio, so pick it when the beach comes first and indoor games are a bonus rather than the main reason for booking, especially with younger children who will spend most of the day on the sand.

For a base close to the historic centre, three hotels stand out. The Ashbee, a 5-star Leading Hotels of the World property in a restored Liberty-style villa on Viale San Pancrazio, keeps table tennis in a converted ground-floor lounge, alongside a pool, a garden and a Michelin-recommended restaurant; its family rooms are large but few, so book early. Villa Belvedere, a 4-star Liberty-era hotel facing the Greek theatre, has a basement games room, a tennis court and two pools, one of them for children. Both suit families who want to walk into town for dinner and sunset.

Hotel Continental is the simplest and most affordable of the five, a family-run 3-star on Via Dionisio I, about eight minutes' walk from Corso Umberto. Board games and a tennis court are available to guests, and family rooms include a connecting-room option, which is useful for families with older children who want some privacy. There is a garden, a small pool and a breakfast that guests rate highly; more than 1,500 reviews give it 8.8. Choose it when location and value matter more than the size of the games offer, and when you plan to spend most evenings in town.