Have you ever had a holiday with small children that was actually worth it?

[superorganisms]

...in terms of money and stress? And if so, what/where was it?

I have two under three. One 9 week old. Thinking of holiday next year but the thought of travel, the expense, the stress...would it actually ever be worth it? Thinking maybe not abroad, or at least not long haul, and possibly asking another family along. Don't care about hot weather, just not crap enough to allow us to get some fresh air every day.

Have you ever actually had a good, vaguely relaxing time, and if so, where did you go? Where did you stay? Any top tips?

I went to Varna, Bulgaria with my toddler. He was a week away from turning two and we had such an amazing time, I've never seen him so happy before jumping in the pool and playing on the beach. We made alot of lovely memories as a family and I'm still surprised at how easy it was! The only thing that was difficult was going out for lunch, dinner etc as he wouldn't sit still and was hard to distract him. We only chose Varna as that's where my partner is from but I probably would have chosen an all inclusive resort at this age.

We book apartment style rooms rather than standard hotel rooms. So there's a living room area (usually with a sofa bed).

Bedruthan Steps hotel in Cornwall for us. Easy set up for younger children - kids' tea, soft play, entertainment, playground etc.

Not sure whether it's changed but they used to have baby listening in the bedroom so you could have an adults dinner in the evening.

We probably went three or four times, although it wasn't cheap.

Loads of them. Cottages in UK, hotels in Italy and Malta, self-catering in France and Spain, UK festivals. From age 8 months. Now 5 and 6. Planning sleeper train to Edinburgh at Easter.

Never understood the same shit different location thing. The different location is the thing. There are castles and museums to visit and beaches and new foods to try and staying up late and eating loads of ice-cream.

Never had a holiday we regretted.

Yes!
Holiday cottage away with grandparents a few hours drive when youngest was about 8 months and eldest just 2.
Holiday cottage to the south coast on our own. Beachy, warm and chilled, lots of lovely photos. Think they were 2 & 3 then.

Small kids are hard work wherever you are, but it is still fun.
And make the most of it before you need to stick to school holidays!

Would never do AI for a start, only do small privately owned with own restaurant type hotels. Much more family attuned. And you just keep the DC's with you in their pushchairs, they join in, or more often they just sleep. Long hot days on the beach tend to wear them out, have dinner, put them in their pushchairs, and they stay there until it's time for everyone to go to bed.

My children are 6 and 2. I strongly suspect that my oldest has ASD and/or ADHD (not yet diagnosed) which does make holidays - and holiday childcare eg crèche / kids club - tricky.

When DC1 was a baby/toddler we had some nice UK breaks with family - it really helped to be with other adults to share the work and for extra company. We did go to Center parcs just the 3 of us but tbh I didn't enjoy it and felt it would have been much better with family or friends.

Since DC2 was born we haven't really done holidays with wider family, for various reasons, although hopefully might do in future. We did a UK self catering break which was really bloody hard work (DC1 had recently turned 4 and struggled a lot, DC2 was a baby and slept terribly, it was exhausting). Our best holiday so far was summer 2022, ferry to France and stayed in a mobile home at an upscale campsite (with amazing pool complex) - it was still ridiculously hard work but also felt worth it because the kids loved the pool, the beaches were amazing, we had a few nice meals out and managed to see friends. We are going back next year and I'm hoping it will be easier as we know what to expect - this will make a big difference for DC1 especially.

I did find myself fantasising about all inclusive, as it is such a faff having to do food shopping and cooking while we are on holiday, but I also like the freedom and flexibility of self catering... my ideal would be an aparthotel, half board maybe, so the option is still there to do some light self-catering, but we'd mostly eat in the restaurant.

Oops, my oldest is actually 5, doh Turning 6 in a few months though and in my defence I have just booked our holiday for next summer so I had to put his age as 6!

We only have one so appreciate that dynamics are different, but we had lots of great holidays when he was young.

We did a number of house swaps through NCT and that worked really well as usually there were different toys to entertain him and because we were staying in a house, then there was lots of space and generally comfortable beds.As it was free, then we weren't as bothered about all the sight seeing.

We also did Center Parks with friends but in separate chalets. DS loves CP and would probably still go - age 16 - given half the chance. We did shared villas abroad with friends and that worked pretty well when the DCs were younger, but stopped when DS was about 11 as all my friends have girls.

We never shared a room with DS and would get somewhere like an apartment or aparthotel when going abroad. Ironically now DH and I go away sometimes just the two of us, we still want a separate tv area as he likes to stay up later than I do.

Yes, loads. I never understand how so many on here believe holidays with kids aren’t worth it!

We’ve had amazing family holidays to Florida, the Bahamas, Australia, 2 cruises (1 around the med, one transatlantic) New York City, Texas, LAnand Hawaii was our best trip when the kids were 3 and 6 months.

When our ds was 13 months we booked a week in Devon.
Fortunately it was a really warm and sunny July and we had a superb time as we could go to the beach regularly.
When we took ds and dd, then 18 months, abroad dd caught a cold on the plane and was miserable the whole time.
Ds was 7 and had a great time, dh and I not so much.

Honestly even sharing rooms with my 2 year old on holidays - doesn’t matter we just leave her up late with us anyway and she sleeps in the buggy if tired and we do a cot transfer - we don’t really sit around the room all evening - we all sleep in the next day cus she’s been up late she doesn’t wake at 7 like usual

so basically her routine goes to shit but we don’t really care cus we are on holidays

we are really relaxed about things like this though and have taken her all over the place travelling and have always had a brilliant time

Our holidays worked out roughly as: Butlins until DD was five - completely child focused holiday.
City breaks until she was 10 often to London during kids week seeing lots of theatre shows - this sparked an ongoing shared interest and we still go to the theatre alot now she's in her teens.
Canary Islands from 10+, shewas a very strong (competitive) swimmer so I could actually relax around the pool, understood the need for sun protection and also was quite independent so I could nip back to the hotel room without having to drag her and everything else with me.

However this is largely due to the fact that I am a single parents and Butlins is perfect for that and I'd have never been able to relax on a beach holiday.

We already live near a beautiful sandy beach so we're not desperate for that.

DD is a red head and the thought of trying to wrangle a small child, alone in a hot country was far too stressful.

We didn't holiday abroad with ours until our youngest was 3, admittedly this was largely financial at the time with high childcare costs, but I've never felt regret for not being able to go on holiday in those years!

By the time we could go youngest was 3.5 so out of a push chair, potty trained, no more naps, could behave on a plane, sleeping well and most importantly out of that period of time where a break in routine was hard work! We had a fab holiday and have done so repeatedly ever since!

Bosinver cottages in Cornwall, been so many times and can’t beat it. Perfect holiday, although expensive and need to book far in advance as it’s popular.
Love that since covid you can book private sessions in the pool.
When they were younger ours used to cry when we were leaving, it’s magical.

But jus to add, I would do something like Center Parcs (term time) obviously it's still hard work as it always is with young kids, but it's a change in scenery and you can keep to routines if your kids rely on them. Maybe take it in turns with an adult to go to the spa! At least you haven't the hassle of airports etc.

Yes have been to Mexico when he was 3 months old, Maldives at 5 months old, Lanzarote at 7 months and Italy + Switzerland at 12 months. He'll be 16 months old on our next trip.

I love it, as soon as we get home from one trip I'm already researching where to go next. I wouldn't say we have a particularly easy going child although he is in a good routine and is good to sleep on the go if it's naptime.

We almost always book a villa with a private pool now so that there's no pressure to be always going somewhere, we can have a great day at home with a BBQ by the pool if we need a relaxed day. Also, it means he has his own room so we're not tiptoeing around a hotel room while he sleeps. We can have a swim or some poolside cocktails when he naps.

I think the fact we only have one child makes things easier (also he isn't at tantrum age yet), I'm sure it will be harder if we're lucky enough to have a second child but hopefully we can continue to enjoy holidays.

@shivawn

Yeah easy with one child. Not even comparable to multiples to be honest. I said this to my friend who has 1 child for years, a decade. She then went on to have twins and she’s like Wow yes life is just totally different now and holidays are not the same.

Just to add some tips.....we always stick to routine on holidays. We follow wake windows at home and continue this abroad although at least one nap will be in his pram or car seat. I know a lot of people throw routine out the window when they travel but for us it's not too much trouble to stick to it, if we're driving somewhere we'll try and time it to coincide with naptime or else I just rock him to sleep in his buggy wherever we are - he won't nap for as long as he would in his cot but that's okay.

We try to stick to destinations with less than a 4 hour time difference.

Always book a night flight that leaves close to bedtime where possible, I sometimes choose destinations depending on how well the flight times work for us. The airport is often a nightmare but he has slept through every flight so far.

Yes of course, will start trying for number 2 soon so will hopefully be getting first hand experience of this. 😊

We've always enjoyed UK holidays with young kids (but had a bigger age gap so never 2 under 5 which obviously would be harder, but I guess is harder at home too!). We've always enjoyed a caravan with a fenced veranda for gated outside space / al fresco eating, near the sea and some family friendly days out (south Pembrokeshire, Devon and isle of wight all fit the bill). You need to lower your expectations of what constitutes a holiday, but I've never had one I regretted and kids always had happy memories. Buy pastries and variety pack cereals for breakfast, picnic stuff for lunches and then plan a mixture of takeaway, early evening pub type meal out and a few minimal cooking meals or bbqs- book a supermarket click and collect or delivery for first day to keep things easy. You can pack much more stuff if you stay in UK (or drive and ferry I guess) so you can take whatever makes life easier for you with your kids.

We initially did the sites with lots of facilities, which means you have more rainy day options, but mine wouldn't usually take part in the kids entertainment and we found we only got round to using the pool a couple of times mostly, so now we are more likely to choose a more basic site or a holiday cottage, ideally walking distance from beach, so not every outing is a big day out, but can just have a quick walk for an hour between rain showers sometimes!

We've never had the weather ruin a UK summer holiday - you accept you won't be sunbathing but who has time for that with young kids anyway?! Plan a few rainy weather activities (going out for breakfast, indoor swimming pool, zoo or other attraction which is partly undercover, amusement arcades, souvenir shopping, going out for cake, film afternoon in the accomodation, board games, sticker books etc), and get out between showers. I don't think we've ever had more then one torrential rain day on a week summer holiday.

If you do go abroad, we've only done it twice,and with older kids, but I'd say look for hotels which advertise 1 bed apartments rather then family rooms, as you usually then have a sofa bed in living area, so you can sleep there, but kids in the bedroom and be able to use the living space and balcony while they sleep. We haven't struggled to find these. I also love AI abroad as Tesco deliveries aren't an option and can't pack as much stuff on a plane, so self catering seems harder work somehow.

I think holidays with kids are easier then keeping them entertained at home, as long as you choose well and don't expect it to be 'relaxing'.

I genuinely enjoyed camping with ds and dh when he was little. Uk sites within max an hour from home, long weekends.

We also had some nice stays in UK youth hostel family rooms.

Also self catering on a farm, UK again.

Yep ds turned one whilst we did 2weeks in Portugal dd was 4 , Best holiday ever! (Ds wasn’t walking)
Did a 5 day uk seaside break however when ds was 7weeks , too soon after birth for me was crap .
2 weeks abroad when ds was 2 and dd was 5 wasn’t as relaxing as the previous year of course, but still amazing .

Yep loved all our holidays, all have been abroad both short and long hall and apart from the US road trip when she was a baby they've been all inclusive which makes things easier, they usually have lots of activities and a good kids club, we always hire a car too for a few days so we can go off and explore.

Yes - but we have an only DC which makes a huge difference . And he loves kids clubs ... even at 18 he loved Neilson 'teen clubs'. Eurocamp was great when he was young, we've done skiing trips .. he went to ski school. Cottages in this country combined with activities - sailing etc.