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(Or six great resorts you'll want to book for next year's trip)

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HAWAII: When relaxation is your goal, the word Hawaii sounds like a reassuring sigh. Choose the Big Island and the spectacular Four Seasons Resort Hualalai on the sunny Kona-Kohala Coast. The resort offers treasure hunts and canoe lessons. Snorkelling gear is free at the enormous aquarium/pool carved into lava rock and stocked with 75 species of fish, including a spotted eagle ray. (There are also rafts with windows to open up the depths below.) Teens can enroll in Junior Alakai Nalu to learn how to paddle a traditional outrigger canoe. Parents will love canoodling under the tiki torches, escaping to the ocean-facing, adults-only pool or teeing off on the 18-hole Jack Nicklaus-designed course dramatically built between the ocean and old lava flows. Rooms from $595 (U.S.); fourseasons.com/hualalai

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ARIZONA: Sedona’s Enchantment Resort will amaze most young Canucks with Arizona’s hot temperatures, big skies and red earth; 4 to 12-year-olds can join Camp Coyote for nature walks, pottery classes, painting and obstacle courses. Pool relays, cooking classes and scavenger hunts keep days lively while s’mores, storytelling and twilight stargazing wind things up when the sun goes down. Parents will love the adult Native American program, which offers walks to ruins and classes in Native American drum and flute. There are also good hiking trails, art lessons and wine tastings. Rooms from $375 (U.S.); enchantmentresort.comMark Boisclair

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ONTARIO: In Collingwood, Westin Trillium House at Blue Mountain has its own heated outdoor pool, but is also adjacent to the Plunge! Aquatic Centre, which, with its water playground, rope swings, docks and slides, is ideal for warming up après-ski. Parents will love the highly-rated Scandinave Spa, with its hot and cold plunge pools, sauna and treatments, will get you fully chillaxed. Then indulge at the Oliver & Bonacini Café Grill. Rooms from $179; bluemountain.ca

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FLORIDA: For many children, the combination of Disney and exotic animals sounds too good to be true, but Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge overlooks 13 hectares of Florida savannah dotted with giraffes, zebras and impalas. Guests 8 and up can book the Wanyama Safari – an intimate, 12-passenger tour in an open-air vehicle with potential sightings of crocodiles, hippos, jaguars and gazelles. At night, your cubs can watch Disney movies under the stars. Parents will love this trip because it hints at Africa without any need for malaria pills, and the chance to try a South African feast at Jiko – the Cooking Place. Rooms from $279. disneyworld.disney.go.com

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CALIFORNIA: Your progeny receive a Very Important Kid check-in at La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California. The Kidtopia club (12 and under) has crafts, a 2,271-litre saltwater aquarium and night camping on weekends. There’s family s’mores-making at the courtyard fire pits and Legoland is in the ’hood. Parents will love the resort’s eight pools. One overlooks a golf course and has poolside fire pits, another features two 30-metre waterslides. Rooms from $269 (U.S.); lacosta.com EDITOR'S NOTE: The night camp runs from from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. An earlier version of this story said it was an overnight camp.

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BRITISH COLUMBIA: The Fairmont Chateau Whistler knows your snow bunnies never run out of energy, which is why it offers a competitive fitness program for guests aged seven to 17 on many mornings. Of course, they may already be busy cross-country skiing, snowboarding, ice-skating, snowshoeing, tobogganing, tubing, swimming in the evenings or drinking Fairmont Bubblegum Tea in the Mallard Lounge. In the evenings, the whole family can take a horse-drawn sleigh ride, followed by a fondue meal in the chalet. Parents will love the luxurious rooms, fine restaurants and the opportunity to book a sitter and go snowshoeing by moonlight. Rooms from $159; fairmont.com/whistlerRobin O'Neill/The Associated Press

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