The Ocean Club, A Four Seasons Resort ranks #5 on our 2026 list of the best family hotels in the world. It earns the place on a specific combination: a genuine heritage estate, the Kids for All Seasons programme, and Cabbage Beach, one of the calmest swimming beaches in the Bahamas. The case below covers the programme, the suites, the honest trade-off, and the rivals.
“On Paradise Island, 105 rooms and pool villas in the historic Ocean Club, restored by Four Seasons. Casino Royale was filmed here.”
The hotel itself
On Paradise Island, 105 rooms and pool villas in the historic Ocean Club, restored by Four Seasons. Casino Royale was filmed here.
Why it works for a family
A beach-resort family trip succeeds when the hotel takes the kids off the parents' hands without making the kids feel banished. The properties that earn family-list inclusion in beach destinations have the kids' club staffed by professionals (not interns), the pool depths zoned for toddlers and adults, and the in-villa or in-suite dining that handles a 6pm kids' dinner and a 9pm parents' dinner without negotiation. The Maldives, Caribbean, and Hawaiian flagships have spent decades refining this.
Four Seasons Resorts are the family-luxury workhorse of the industry. Founded in Toronto in 1961 by Isadore Sharp and now controlled by Bill Gates and Saudi Arabia's PIF, the brand has refined the resort kids programme into something close to a science. The Kids For All Seasons programme is consistent across the portfolio, same standard at Maui, Maldives, Orlando, Jackson Hole. The connecting suite categories have actual configurations, not afterthoughts. The dining programmes have parent restaurants and kids restaurants in the same compound. For a family that wants the trip to work without thinking, Four Seasons Resorts are the floor.
Where it ranks against rivals
On our 2026 family list, the closest neighbours are Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua in Maui (#4), Four Seasons Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru (#6), and the list leader for US beach families, Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea (#2). The Ocean Club sits at #5 on heritage and beach calm rather than sheer programme scale, so if you want the biggest kids’ operation or overwater villas, one of those may suit your trip better.
Practical: getting in
Address: Paradise Island, One Ocean Drive, Nassau, The Bahamas. Family-suited categories, the connecting suites, the multi-bedroom villas, the rooms with sofa beds plus a separate king, book six to twelve months ahead in school holiday peaks (Christmas, Easter, summer). The full review at the hotel page has current rates, the room categories worth paying up for, and the kids’ programme details. Use the family occasion page for the broader context, or the Bahamas city guide for what else to do while you’re there.