Holiday with an 11MO

[thismotherhoodthing]

We have a 10MO who is crawling and trying to walk. She is unstoppable at the moment and won't stay still or be held, she just wants to crawl and climb.

We had always thought we'd try and have a little family beach holiday before I went back to work. But now the thought of it just doesn't seem quite as appealing! The flight worries me a bit, as does the thought of spending a lot of money on something which could potentially just feel stressful. So can't decide whether to leave it until next year when she will be about 20 months, or bite the bullet and go! Or do a little UK break at end of September , but the weather could be a consideration!

Any one who has been there have any pearls of wisdom to help me make a decision

we took our daughter to the south of France when she was 9months and stayed in a beautiful apartment. The flight was fine as it wasn’t too long and she slept all the way in an ergo. I don’t know what we were thinking trying to have a cultural break lol. It was a total nightmare. The apartment just wasn’t set up for a baby and you constantly find yourself needing all kinds of stuff when you have a baby. Going out for dinner was a nightmare too as it was always around my daughters bed time, it wasn’t fun trying to get her to sleep in the ergo whilst we ate. Our next holiday was when daughter was just over 1 and we stayed at an amazing all inclusive that catered very well for families. They literally provided everything you would need like cots, bed rails, sterilisers, potty, baby bath tub. They even made us milk every night. They had loads of kids activities , kids disco, playground, play area with toys . My advice is if you want a relaxing holiday do all inclusive.

oh and I forget to say we only found 1 restaurant that had high chairs in the 5 days that we were in France.

@Kmj2018 thanks! We are looking at resorts with villas on site so we could
Choose the type of accommodation. I don't think we'd attempt to eat out much on an evening as DD wouldn't sleep in the pushchair, so we'd probably go out more for lunches really. At the moment we're leaning towards waiting until next summer though as I think it could just be really stressful!

I think holidays with little ones can be great as long as you don't expect it to be a holiday / relaxing if you see what I mean. They tend to sleep less well and as pp said, the place tends to be less set up for a baby / toddler than your own home. That said it's fun going somewhere new and doing new things with baby but tends to be fairly exhausting.

It doesn't need to be either or?

You can go abroad to a beach and drive.

Or look at Europe centre parcs.

You could do a uk beach/ coastal holiday.

If you don't think she can manage the flight then look at other ways of doing what you want.

Maybe even hire a camper van?

We went to Dubai when little one was 11 months old. We stayed at a hotel with a beach, pools and on site restaurants. Honestly, it was great. Keeping him on our lap and entertained on the flight was draining but he was completely fine.

The hotel was family friendly and so the restaurants all had childrens menus and high chairs. If we wanted to head out, you could request an Uber with a car seat so that made life a lot easier. He loves the pool and the beach and we had a great time.

Obviously It’s a different type of holiday than we’re used to as we had to follow DS’s timetable re naps and keeping him out of the sun around midday but we enjoyed it.

I know MN frowns on Dubai but I’m from the region so it was a good place for us.

We also did Dubai when DS was 10 months old. It was great. He wasn't on the move though.

If you want a break in the uk I recommend somewhere like centre parc. It’s really well catered for children of all ages.

Tbh a 1 year old is the same as a 2 year old to me in terms of difficulty. So just go for it if you want a break. 3 is when it got easier for me

For a UK break I'd look at a Just For Tots break at Butlins. Almost all activities are included in the cost of your break, including the pool and the funfair, and all the shows and activities are geared towards Under 5s. They're usually during term time so cheaper and you can add a dining plan if you don't fancy cooking.

Hi OP our DS is now 14 mo and we’ve had lots of lovely breaks away with him!

All U.K. so far but we are going abroad later this month too.

Accommodation wise we’ve stayed in an airbnb that had stairgates, Highchair, cot, toys and a baby play mat. We also had a trip to a B&B that had a cottage which also came with stairgates. As a minimum all the holiday let’s we’ve stayed in have had a cot and Highchair.

Over all though our trips away have been great and we’ve made some lovely memories. Baby’s sleep is often much worse but we just take things at a slower pace.

Thanks all. I'm definitely not expecting it to be like a normal holiday! We've done short trips with her and we've managed with her sleep, new surroundings etc - It's definitely the flight that is putting me off to be honest. She is crawling and climbing everywhere at the moment and gets really frustrated being held so she flails about a lot. Obviously this could change as everything seems to be a phase! I think I could handle a 3 hour flight but as we would need to go in October time we'd be chancing it a little bit more with the weather in those places.

We live very far north in the UK so we would have to do a veryyyyy long drive to get to Europe in the car but a good suggestion!