Bowling is the rainy afternoon insurance policy every family hotel should carry. It is also, unexpectedly, one of the few activities where a four-year-old with bumpers and a grandparent with a lifetime average can compete on genuinely equal terms and both take it far too seriously. That is a rarer thing than it sounds.

The hotels in this collection have built proper bowling into the property. Think real lanes with working automatic scoring, bumpers and ball ramps that let the smallest kids play without help, shoes in children's sizes, and balls light enough for a six-year-old to actually throw. The better properties keep the alley open into the evening, which is exactly when families want it, and pair it with a bar so parents can settle in while the kids run the lanes.

Alpine and Kinderhotel properties lead here, where a wet mountain afternoon is a real scenario and the infrastructure was built to handle it. Bowling is the amenity nobody books a hotel for and everybody is grateful for by Wednesday, when the weather has turned and the day needs saving.

Below are the top family hotels with bowling, sorted by overall score.