To not have attempted to go abroad yet

We’ve took ours from being tiny babies there’s 3 years between them. We always have a great time making memories, it’s what you make it

Have you had a look at European Centre Parks?
It’s about half the cost of UK centre parks, more stuff is included AND the sun shines!!

If you’re anxious about flying with small people, maybe a ferry would be a good place to start - you can walk around, there’s lots to look at, there’s soft play, you have a bed.

Lol is it fun spending " time as a family" if kids are playing up? And surely it's the same in the UK

Once you are wherever what's the money got to do with it? And half the fun is being in a new place ,

Sorry, another tip from me!!

Take a look at Tui’s website for cheap last minute flights. I’ve picked up return flights to Greece for £60 each in August in the past….

https://www.tui.co.uk/flight/deals/search?fromAirports=&toAirports=&month=0&year=0&flexible=false&days=93&startDuration=1&endDuration=35&searchType=ins&oneWay=false

I’ll let you know when I go with my 4 year old and 1 year old boys next month. I don’t expect it to be enjoyable in the same way it used to be, it’ll be crazy, chaotic, anything but relaxing - but hopefully still lots of lovely memories. Even though I’ll come back and need another holiday to recover!

Are you on FB? If you are there’s a great group called “Our Tribe Travels - Adventurous Travel with Kids”.

It’s a great source of inspiration, tips, itineraries etc.

Lot’s of very adventurous travel like back-packing through South America etc but there’s also lots of people just going to Austria or Spain etc.

It’s a very friendly group and everyone shares their photos, itineraries, places to stay that’s great for kids, money saving tips, logistics tips, what went well, what went badly etc.

Why not join the group to start getting an idea of where you might like to go and start planning an adventure for in a year or 2?

Why is it harder to do abroad?

I've only ever taken kids on holidays with another parent twice ( they are all adults now) so would've thought it would be easy to divide as such with 2 of you

Depends on the type of holiday and your kids’ activity levels and focus. If you’re thinking a sun holiday with pool and beach, do you have the kind of kids that will just sit still on a sunlounger in the shade in the hottest part of the day, or the kind that would be racing around constantly and wanting to do impractical things? Yes to going in the pool but they can’t do that all day. Mine are both under 5 and the latter. We don’t want to just give them an iPad each and whilst we enjoyed our holiday it was VERY hard work and we were lucky that our resort had indoor entertainment options to get out of the blazing sun in the middle of the day.

I think if you planned it right you could get flights and accommodation for that. The cheapest way is to book everything separately but that takes quite a lot of effort. I love researching and planning holidays so I’m fine to do that.

Did you travel much pre-kids OP? I think if you’re not used to travelling abroad much then doing it with 2 little children in tow may be quite stressful.

You're not being unreasonable. You know your children and the kind of holidays you enjoy and should do whatever you want. But I'm not sure why "abroad" is necessarily more stressful than the UK, unless you are particular worried about the travelling part.

I know that I'd have been pretty miserable and frustrated if I'd waited until my children were over 5 before we left the country. But then, my idea of a holiday has never been relaxing by the pool/sea, doing nothing but sunbathing or reading my book, then going out late into the evening. I can see that is quite hard to replicate with young children and could get stressful as a result. I've always seen holidays as a chance to see different places, and I did that with young children in tow too.

By the time they were 5/6, our two had been on holidays to Provence, Belgium, Vienna, Umbria, Switzerland, Paris, Norway/Sweden, Croatia and Japan! Not including trips to the Netherlands to see family. I may have forgotten some others. In the primary school years they got to many other places including South Africa, California, Morocco.

Our most miserable holiday with young children was when I attempted a family friendly beach holiday in the UK. It rained half the time and they didn't much like the beach anyway! I wished I hadn't bothered. In contrast, travelling around Japan with a 5 and 6 year old had it's occasional tricky moments, but I didn't care because I hadn't planned it around being child friendly anyway, and I was loving being somewhere new and exciting. They still love sushi now.

I’ve been taking dd on holiday since she was 3 months. Her first flight was when she was 7 weeks old to visit family. We go away 3-4 times a year. Have always had a great time and it’s much less stressful than home. I’ve always been an avid traveller though and wasn’t going to stop when I had dd.

Agreed. As I said earlier in the thread, I can’t quite fathom the appeal of CP. I’d rather get an air BnB somewhere rural and let my
DC bike/run around there for far less. Or even better just go abroad for the same price!

We took our eldest two abroad from early on, but they were both pretty easy and they both slept well. After we had our third we spent our holidays closer to home because she was anything but easy. So it really depends on your dc.

But you’ve been to CP lots of times.

My colleague told me how much he spent going to CP, I couldn’t believe it! It was way more than I spent on my abroad trip.

It really doesn’t need to be expensive. There are always bargain flights to be found, good value villa’s and apartments.

Our favourite holidays when the kids were little were island hopping round the Greek islands. We’d stay a few days on each island, spend our days on the beach, maybe rent a little boat for the day, evenings in little tavernas, we’d find somewhere basic to stay. It was bliss.