First holiday with first baby advice

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We are due our first babe in June, and are looking to book a holiday in October before they are weaning and mobile.

We are used to luxury adults only holidays every couple of years, but this one will be cheap and cheerful due to mat pay.

My main question is should we be looking for somewhere all inclusive where we stay mainly in the hotel, or bed and breakfast where we get out and about outside the hotel? We don’t mind what we do, just wanting to know what will be easiest with the baby. Or does it just depend on the baby’s temperament? I don’t mean to sound daft, I just don’t know! As have never done this before.

We are currently looking at the Balearics, the canaries and Portugal. Ideally for 6/7 nights, for under £1600 for all inclusive and less for b&b, if anyone has any hotel or resort reccs! I know it’s quite a low budget.

That’s £1600 all together, not pp! Just to clarify.
Baby will be about 4 months old.

Honestly, I’d wait until your baby is here and then book. Whilst in theory, travelling with a baby that age is relatively easy, I was still struggling at 3 months finding my feet and dealing with the lack of sleep. If anyone had offered me a free holiday at that point, I’d have told them wear to stick it!

Balearics is a safe bet and a short flight, and I’d probably go even safer by staying nearish the airport to minimise travel. Maybe look at Palma itself, there are plenty of options for going for nice evening strolls along the seafront and around the old town and it’s bustling and vibrant. Some lovely hotels too!

Personally I’d go self catering so you have a bit more flexibility about when and where you eat, as well as having decent facilities in your room. You’ll feel more like you’ve had a holiday if you get out and about and do stuff, rather than staying in the hotel.

I took my baby away at this age and thought it was a nice age. Not mobile so no chasing them around, no solids yet so was easy to just whip out a boob and feed whenever!
My tips would be to pick one of those holiday village types with apartments. We stayed in one in Tenerife and it was great for families. It meant we could put baby to sleep in the cot and still be able to have the living room to ourselves rather than have to whisper in the dark in the evenings if we weren’t ready for bed.
we went bed and breakfast which worked fine as baby wasn’t on solids yet but in hindsight all inclusive would have probably been better so we didn’t have to go out to restaurants and wait around if baby was tetchy.
other than that, just enjoy them being this young and not having to find meals and chase them round! Just go with the flow 😊

I'd maybe take the opportunity to do a bit more while you can, although it may depend on the baby. If they are happy in the carrier they are very portable and baby will find everything new exciting! When they are a bit older you're more likely to be looking for more child focused activities and pubs with play areas but they won't get much out of that at a few months old.

Me too, wait and see how you feel

Baby sling/carrier, brilliant for airport, lie flat stroller as baby will sleep a lot with heat, snooze shade to block out light/sunshine, ensure hotel has travel cot. Great age for holidays, baby will sleep lots and you can relax. I took my eldest at 7 months to Lanzarote and it was wonderful! Check out hiring things like bottle warmers etc, there’s a company in Lanzarote that we hired baby stuff from and it was brilliant! Calpol for plane also as the ears can cause issues, have a great time and good luck with your pregnancy x

We went to Vienna when our daughter was 16 weeks old and had a brilliant time. It’s a great age for travel as she was basically just an accessory at that point and had no say in which museums we visited 😆

I hope you have a lovely time wherever you go!

It really depends on what kind of baby you get… my first was the screamy sicky kind who didn’t sleep… so at 3 months I was surviving on 4ish house of sleep at night and the idea of getting organised and going on holiday would just have been too much.

I’d recommend waiting until the baby is here and booking something last minute if you decide you want to go away.

Getting out and about much better idea that expecting to be able to lie by a pool all day. We took DC1 on his first holiday at 8 months and did the holiday we always used to. Plenty of sightseeing, he was at such an easy age to carry about.

We always do an air b&b/apartment type place because then you can get the baby to sleep and still have a living area/balcony to relax in the evenings. Not many babies are happy to be carted around in the evenings and there’s nothing worse than being stuck in the dark in a tiny hotel room whispering from 7pm 😅 also you can then do a supermarket shop and get the nighttime snacks/coffee/croissants in as you’ll likely be up even earlier than a hotel buffet would open!

If breastfeeding it’s actually really easy with a <6month old baby as you don’t have to worry when out and about exploring as to heating up bottles and packing formula etc. You will probably still be struggling with lack of sleep but at least in a nicer destination! I always take a sling rather than a pram as well. Good luck ❤️

And hotel room with a balcony was perfect for us at that age. He went to sleep and we sat on the balcony with supermarket wine and dessert and talked and read and watched the street below.

Wouldn’t entertain it
it would stress me out to much baby crying at night and ruining other people well earned holidays
we waited till they were 4

This is a bit extreme in my opinion. There are plenty of different holiday options where you wouldn’t be ruining anyone’s holiday if your baby were to cry. A quiet adults resort is obviously a no. A self contained apartment/villa or a family friendly resort is a much wiser choice. I’ve taken mine away as babies multiple times and they’ve been absolutely fine, lovely memories made. To any new parents reading this - please don’t let negative posts like this put you off!

We went to Gozo when my eldest was 4 months. Cheap flights, hired a car, airbnb farmhouse with a pool, walking distance to restaurants. It was totally delightful, we went out to dinner very evening with baby asleep in the pram and had lazy days exploring the island.

When youngest was 4 months we went to Turkey AI, as we had older one to entertain so it was easier to go to a big hotel.

Both holidays were really easy, it’s a great time to travel.

It very much depends on your baby. Like other PPs have said it’s probably better to wait until after the baby is born to see how you feel. You may feel very differently once you are a mother.