My family (2+3, all children under 10) has just been visiting Le Dune Blu in Calabria. We really enjoyed the stay. The hotel is very nice and clean, has a big family friendly pool, is very close to the beach (actually on the beach), has a nice and good restaurant AND really friendly personnel. There is also a football pitch, volleyball nets, a big playground for the kids, table tennis and more. The room we stayed in was VERY nice (compared to other hotels we have stayed at in Italy this was luxurous!), really clean and comfortable. The only small negative thing was the size of the balcony (too small to fit a sitting family in a good way).
At the time when we where here (end Sept to Beg Oct) we had the resort almost for ourselves, which was a surrealistic feeling due to the warm weather - with summer weather like this you would expect the hotel to be full - but it was clearly off season we understood.
Even if the closest surroundings is not so exciting, you are rather close to other beautiful places, like amazing Scilla (30 km). You can go by car or take the local train, which we did. Very easy and cheap!
The closest town is San Ferdinando (1,5 km) and this is a place not worth visiting if you prefer nice restaurants and beautiful surroundings, even if the people living there was really helpful and kind to us. The town of San Ferdinando was the only disappointing thing about our visit to Calabria.
To summarize, we really liked Le Dune Blu. Normally we are more active on our vacations than we were this time: we "only" wanted peace and quite and a nice place to relax on. If you prefer that - do not hesitate to book your vacation at Le Dune Blu in Calabria!