I've just returned from a week at the Homeplace Ranch in Calgary, a place I last visited six years ago with my son Tom. It's not one of those prissy spa-resort-type ranches with cordon-bleu food and five-star luxury. Instead, it is comfortable and authentic without any affectation or anything to detract from the location (spectacular) and the people (friendly, informed and charismatic). The place has soul.

But, like many businesses in North America, its been hit by the credit crunch;not by a lack of UK and European travellers, but by Americans who aren't travelling--and those who are leaving their booking till very late.

The ranch's sprightly owner is Mac MaKenny, at 74 still looking like John Wayne. He was pondering whether to change what the ranch offers, in order to attract younger guests.

There are no TVs in the bedrooms, no computer games in the sitting rooms, and no gimmicky GPS scavenger hunts to distract the kids. There are some board and card games, plus a range of eclectic and interesting books. You can help Tracey, the chef, make cookies or Duncan, the wrangler, handle the horses. As soon as you walk through the door of the main log cabin, you feel as though you're being hugged rather than sold to.

I told Mac not to change a thing about the place--because I believe people are starting to realize that computer games, TVs, the Internet and mobile phones (the scourge of all conversations and relationships) have no place on a family holiday.

Each morning the ranch has classes on how to talk to and handle horses for all "wannabe" horse-whisperers. Mac chooses the horses for the riders to bring out the best in both the rider and the horse--so much so that it becomes something of a spiritual experience as well as a practical one. The horses arrive through the forests out of the morning mist and into the corral, knowing they will be fed and looked after.

Each breakfast and supper, guests sit around a communal table, while lunch for those out riding for the day is a picnic by a campfire in the Rocky Mountains.

In summer and autumn most guests ride for the day, while in the spring they can help clear the paths of fallen logs that block the way for the horses, staying at the ranch for free in return for their labor. Doing this, they get a taste of what it's like working rather than playing at ranch life.

And that's probably why families return year after year, each time feeling more at home and more a part of a family while on the ranch than they might in their busy lives in their own homes.

The emphasis is very much on the outdoors and on being together. As a holiday concept, it's one of the best family opportunities you could find.