To think my holiday with 3yo and 1yo will be anything but relaxing?! Give me your tips please!

[Zara85]

Going abroad in June for the first time with DH and our 2 boys who will be just 3 and just 1.
Please give me your best tips. Are trunki's worth their money?
Do we need a pushchair for 3yo? Anything you would recommend we take?
We have booked a very family friendly all inclusive holiday in majorca with kids clubs, kids evening entertainment and kids splash pools etc.
Have tried looking for boards with this kind of advice but can't find anything!

My other top tip is for luggage. Instead of putting nappies/formula/baby food pouches in your hold luggage allocation, you can order them click and collect from the airside branch of Boots at the terminal then just carry them onto the plane like any other airport shopping. Just make sure you choose the right terminal and airside branch when you order.

Order child's main course to arrive with your starters and pudding to arrive with your main course.

Once a day spray on sun cream. Lasts 8 hours and we found easier then constant reapplying with fiddly toddlers. And more than one singular/glasses as they will get lost and thrown out the pushchair.
Also water shoes for small one if going on beach or similar so they can run without hurting feet

We’ve had some brilliant holidays with little ones in the past. We always ensured they had an extra nap during the day and then they could stay up until around 9-10pm.

Also went to a couple of places with fantastic crèches (a Tui Family Life hotel, and another independent hotel) and got a couple of hours a day to lie by the pool child free which was bliss. Hopefully you’ve booked somewhere like that!

I think you've got off to a good start by recognising that this will not be a relaxing holiday for you. That doesn't mean it won't be fun. You've just survived Christmas with small children, so you know the score.

My top tip is to try to arrange things so that YOU get a bit of a break before the holiday. Wrangling little children on holiday will be hard work. If you go into it exhausted and frazzled, you'll be hugely stressed. If you start off well rested, you'll be up for it.

Pack and do all the little things in good time. Is there a relative who would look after the kids for half a day just before you leave? That would leave you refreshed, ideally - or if you haven't quite got on top of things then at least you can pack in peace and get yourself to bed at a decent hour.

Order child's main course to arrive with your starters and pudding to arrive with your main course

Family friendly all inclusive in Majorca is not going to be "order" anything. It'll be constant buffet style meal (nothing wrong with this btw!) AI is great with children as they can try bits of everything they fancy or if they prefer chips only that's no problem either.

Relax your standards to the floor.
Dummies galore if they have them.
Take packets of toys, drawing equipment and screens for dinner time.
Take favourite cups/bottles from home.
Sling for 1 year old as when you land you won’t get buggy until you are at carousel.
Block out at least 30 mins for each parents a day for time by yourself for a swim/reading a book or whatever.
Take familiar snacks.
Order nappies at boots and then zip them into the buggy bag with the buggy to handover at the gate.

Disposable bibs- less faff than carrying out bibs and nothing to bring home and wash.
Busy books are good for the 3 year old. They can be expensive but reusable again and again.
You tube kids is your friend

We have a jetkids bedbox for our 2yr old and it was fantastic, she loved pulling it and then to nap on the plane it was great.
OP ignore the 'cancel' posts, we did US with her at 10m old, not the same as holidays pre child but still amazing. We've done long haul and short haul with her and all times she's been great, they adapt have a great time

Also as per PP's get a ton of cartoons on a tablet for when they need down time

Skip the sun cream on their bodies. Get sun suits with hat that has a neck flap. Factor 50 of a good brand on their faces.

Reapplying suncream (which you need to do every time they get out of the water at least..) is a pain and doing that when sand is involved is even more so.

Get two sun suits each so that one can dry.

Make sure kids drink a lot at breakfast and then keep them topped up - dehydration can happen fast and even just a little bit (as in nothing medically serious) can lead to crankiness.

And yeah, don't plan on doing anything at all. Other than whatever keeps the kids happy as that reduces stress dramatically.

If there's a kid's club check out a few hours there and/or if there's a babysitting service see if you can get a few hours to yourselves. It's a family holiday but it's ok for you to have some couple time, even if it's having lunch together and then an hour by the pool without having to entertain.

Zara85 I can remcommend a hire company in Majorca who hire pushchairs and baby equipment if you need it, they deliver it to the hotel.

We’ve been to the holiday village Majorca twice now which sounds like a similar set up to where you are going and it takes a day or so to get settled in (plus a few what were we thinking moments) but eventually we got into a routine and ended up having a great holiday both times

I had several great holidays when mine were that young. I was a single parent so didn't have another adult to think about (and I believe that's a key reason holidays were great!). Just did what the DCs wanted. Made sure no one got over tired. Flights were fine (including a 9 hour to Florida). It was really no drama at all.

Second what the PP said about planning your own downtime. I took lots of books, picked up crisps, treats, and a bottle of wine and had a glass each night.

My worst journey was flying to Canada to see family. I remember being in the very busy, chaotic luggage reclaim, holding an 8 month old baby and a two year old's hand watching my luggage go round wondering how on earth I'd get it off the carousel onto a trolley!

I've taken my kids to Spain at those ages and we had a ball. We basically let them dictate the pace, pool, beach, playground, icecream, repeat. We went to a local supermarket (there was a fancy-ish) one and bought lovely food for us because they just wouldn't sit in restaurants. Buggy was essential.

Admittedly this has been with just one child but I found a holiday at 11m stressful but age 2 was quite nice.

At 1 my baby still needed two naps a day and we tried to do sight seeing. It was all just a bit too much. At 2 my toddler was happy to spend all day in the pool and was napping for a couple of hours in the afternoon.our best days were just spent chilling out and swimming. I ideally wouldn’t go away again until our second child is out of the two nap stage as I just found it quite limiting.

We loved and hated the trunki in equal measure. We did spend time carrying it but my little one loved zipping around the airport on it. The biggest hassle was what to do with car seats.

Holidays with young kids are essentially a change of scene and some sun. I have pretty much hated most of mine while my kids are young - but it wouldn’t have stopped me going. It’s funny. First day back “did you have a nice time?” ....”err, not really, it was really hard work, kids moaned etc”. A week after being back: “it wasn’t too bad. It was quite nice”. A few months after being back “such a good holiday!”. Point is, it’s hard work at the time but there are lots of nice memories created as well as it being hard. Have fun!

You can also use paddling pool poolside under an umbrella!

Plan day in short bursts!

Breakfast
Room to change and suncream
Pool
Room to change
Lunch
Room to change
Walk (take double buggy and they may both sleep!)
Pool after 4pm when it's cooler.
Showers
Dinner
Room or entertainment.

You can't spend all day by a pool with young kids and you'll get frustrated if you plan to lay on a sunlounger and can't!

Plan some time for kids to use club and crèche and plan to chill then!

If it's club mac your going to then you have option of mini golf and various pools to use to mix it up a bit! Also have land train, port and market to visit!

We have holidayed successfully at least once every year ( 3 DC all grown up now). If there are only two children and two full time adults I cannot see any problem at all. It is fun. At that age we did encourage the DC to have a nap( even if they didn't at home) in order to be able to stay up for dinner in the evening. We also kept reasonably busy with swims , sight seeing , parks and ice creams . Sitting by a pool with a toddler is obviously not relaxing but the beach can be fun.we would go to the pool but generally for the purpose of swimming and playing together rather than sunbathing or book reading!