Family holidays: Game Boys v snorkels

It takes a lot to keep children and gadgets apart. Ian Henderson flies his family to the Maldives to see what cartoon lizards and a regiment of Indian Ocean marine life can do.

As experimental labs go, it could be worse. The floor is white sand, the walls and ceiling a range of fetching blues and it’s fully equipped with loungers, palm trees and waiters bearing chilled drinks. The ideal scientific facilities, in fact, for the challenging research we are about to conduct – to establish just what kind of holiday it takes for the modern child to willingly forsake his or her Game Boy.

Clearly, not just any old holiday will do. From experience, a wet weekend in Norfolk means more Game Boy, not less, and an outward-bound trek beyond the limits of civilisation wouldn’t be fair on gadgets or children. (Nowhere to charge the Game Boy, for a start.)

So, with the necessary gadgets and games provided by a thoughtful Santa, we find ourselves in the Maldives, notebook in one hand and nicely-judged mojito in the other, attentively observing our research subjects (Children A, B and C). Someone has to do it. [Read more on telegraph]