Which flight with baby?

[Pinkstuffs]

Flight is short haul 1 hour but we do have checked luggage so need to be at the airport a couple of hours beforehand.

Have a 3 hour drive the other end including round the m25. There is DH, me and DS 14 months who is generally a good sleeper.

Option 1 lands at 1pm

Option 2 lands at midnight.

Which would you do?

Definitely option 1. 1pm is a nice flight time and you won’t have to leave that early to get there. Arriving at midnight with a 3 hour drive at the other end sounds horrific with a toddler age DC.

Option 1 for sure. Don’t forget flights are often late, too.

Thank you, would you still choose option 1 if it meant your holiday ended 48 hours earlier? As there are no flights on option 1 on the day we want to depart so would leave a day earlier.

In that case no, I'd suck up the later flight instead of losing 48h.

I personally would still do option 1. A whole day of entertaining a toddler after having checked out of accommodation into the evening is not fun. I have done many arriving in the middle of the night flights and it’s not enjoyable. You lose that whole last day anyway to shuffling around, dealing with luggage storage, nowhere to have a decent rest, etc. I’d arrange my arrival flights so we didn’t lose too much time and take the midday flight. Breakfast, check out, a little play and then off to the airport.

We don’t have to check out of a hotel as we are staying with parents who live abroad! So that might be a consideration.

I would either do option 1 so you get home at a decent time, or if you do option 2, book into an airport hotel and complete your journey the next day. I wouldn't be trying to do a 3 hour drive at 1-2am after being up all day.

If the child will happily sleep in a pushchair, then not get grumpy f woken to be carried onto plane, then being carried through the arrival airport when your pushchair doesn't appear, then into car seat... the later flight.

(I'm guessing this is Northern Europe... can't you just drive the whole way? May actually be quicker...)

If it is drivable through the Eurotunnel then this is by far the best option.

It could be Ireland though.

We can’t drive the whole way as we are actually already here and don’t have our car. We are flying business and had our YoYo so on the way here there were no issues getting it right up to the aisle and into the overhead locker. Yes we are in Northern Europe!