To not enjoy holidays with babies / toddlers?

[Mountainbear]

Planning to go away in September with a one year old and three year old and my DH really wants to go abroad.

Basically, I find holidays with small children stressful. You're away from home, without all of your baby stuff, their routine is disrupted, you're dragging them around all over the place, you can't go out in the evening etc. In no way is it really relaxing.

So, how do I make it better? If you enjoy holidays with little ones, what is your secret??

I'm thinking of trying somewhere a short flight away, but which is still warm in September and has nice beaches / national parks, but also interesting places to visit - they're too young for lots of kiddy attractions, but somewhere with a nice aquarium, museum, archaeological remains, caves etc., would be good. Thinking about Mallorca and wondering whether to try one of those all inclusive resorts with a splash park, play area, kids' club etc., or whether it'll just be horrendous and we'd be better off with a villa / air bnb??

Any suggestions welcome.

Also, I do know I'm very lucky to be able to go on holiday, and I am grateful.

You need Martinhal or Ikos resorts. We had a two bedroom house at Martinhal Sagres so lots of room and could chose to eat out or self cater. We did a mix of the two.

Forget about the sightseeing until they are older and just chill on the beach for a week.

They’ll need a bottle/cup for the plane anyway, just take one each. You won’t need cutlery at a genuinely child friendly place, they’ll have it. Pack a small rucksack with books and small toys. Stacking cups are my go to for travelling, they work as beach toys, bath toys and hours of fun building towers in the apartment.

It’s really not a hassle to pack a monitor, but you do need to remember adapters.

@Mountainbear, I'm going to go against the tide and say why not take what you need with you? We took everything you listed (other than the white noise machine because we never used one) and actually it was useful to keep things as familiar as possible. Wouldn't have dreamed of traveling without the baby monitor or the baby's own bedding they were used to. Did mean there was a bit less space in the suitcase for other things, but we managed with strategic use of hand luggage and tricks like sticking nappies inside the pram travel case.

We're also not beach people and resorts haven't appealed, but European city breaks are perfectly doable with kids so long as you have the right accommodation and are prepared to dial down the pace a lot from pre-child days.

Plenty of places have kids clubs for your age group. You just need to do your research.

Off the top of my head check out - Domes of Elounda in Crete, Martinal in Portugal, Sane Beach and Almyra in Cyprus...

familyresort.cambrilspark.com/en/

We've been here so many times. Perfect for young children. Self catering, so can plan meals to suit yourself.... or go out... or get takeaway. My two are 24 months apart.... pop them in the double buggy (or bike with a trailer once your youngest is a little bit older) and walk into Cambrils/Salou. Trip on the train and a day out in Barcelona... double buggy; perfect! With the villas you can have a few drinks/sunbathe/relax whilst they are sleeping in the afternoon/evening in their own bedroom/cot. Other families around so the toddlers can make friends. Admittedly not very cultured... but can be relaxing if you tire them out enough!

14 months apart...

@thebestspoon No, I suppose I agree with you. I think people were just pondering how they make it easier, and essentially I think it's easier because I just pack a couple of days clothes and go. But I think it's unlikely that you go from the sort of person who posts this thread to someone who travels with just a backpack (which isn't a neg on being an organised mum, there are aspects of being me that I find absolutely exhausting and every time I'm running round the house looking for passports I wish I was a different person!). So it probably is better to just pack the things you need to be happy!

I agree that cities are doable too. I suppose a nice pool/beach just adds a built-in, almost guaranteed to be popular toddler activity.

City trips are totally great with kids though too! Why don’t you go to Rome or something?

There’s always loads to do in cities if you’ll find the pool beach holiday boring

Honestly can’t you just put white noise on your phone ??

Sleeping bags take up no space in your bag, neither do bibs

Surely 2 supply cups is enough you can wash them and always buy a new one while away if you needed it

You really are sweating the small stuff

I think you over-think what you need. When went the first time, yes we had everything with us and hardly used most of it. Since then we cut down on what is really required. One cup each, some bath toys for a pool, couple of books for bedtime, cuddly toy if they need one in bed and you are actually sorted. A sleeping bag doesn't take a lot of space in a suitcase either.

We take DD to museums and city trips since she is born. Yes, it's a different feeling but I still remember her standing in the cathedral of Palma in front of the huge stained glass window with the sun coming through and being utterly amazed. She was 2 then. I found I see a lot of things very differently since having her.

I always enjoyed most of my holidays with the kids when they were small. I had a few things I always did to help things go smoothly.

1. Pay extra for flight times that suit you.(easier flight if kids not over tired etc)
2. Take travel cot (to use by the pool/ on the beach as a playpen as well as for them to sleep in at night. I would buy a cheap beach umbrella at shops on 1st day to keep 'playpen' in the shade, along with a small blow up 'boat' (to put some pool water in) and some small 'beach toys' so kids could splash around safely next to me while I was reading on the sun lounger etc
3. Take reclining buggies (so we can put them to sleep in them if we want/need to stay out later in the evening, or if they fall asleep after lunch etc. It means you're not stuck in your room whenever the kids are asleep.)
4. Buy cheap 'holiday' clothes for kids (and us), so I didn't worry about chocolate ice-cream/ice-lolly stains
5. Take cards/games to play with hubby on the patio in the evenings (plus wine/beer and snacks )
6. Always email the hotel about 3 weeks before you go, requesting a low floor/pool view etc. It's usually accommodated unless it would cost more.

We aren’t beach/pool holiday people either.

But we are absolutely ferry and camping people. No need for baby monitor etc. You can get an air tent with black out bedrooms, pitches in around ten minutes.

Ferry is great - breaks up the journey beautifully. Couple of baby carrying back packs and you can still go hiking although it will inevitable be shorter and you’ll need time to stop and potter. But driving means you can take everything with you - and if camping isn’t your thing then a gîte somewhere might suit you better. Lake swimming and hill walking and if you get them into baguettes before you go then you’ve no worries about finding suitable food.

Switzerland and Sweden were great with small children too if you like more active outdoorsy stuff.

Taking grandparents with us or having childcare available in resort would be my two options!

Otherwise it's same shit different location

I don't get the "same shit, different loction" trope at all. The different location bit of it is massive and the shit bit of naps and food and what not isn't that big a deal that it takes away from the fact of being on holiday.

I think part if the issue is that we've never really been beach / pool holiday people. We like a bit of that, but we've always been more into sightseeing, visiting places, hiking etc. - all of which are much more difficult / stressful with kids.
Sounds like us (bar the hiking). We went to Malta with 8 month old DS and had a fantastic time. So easy to get round the whole island, tons of museums and ancient temples. Made sure our hotel room had a balcony so in the evenings we would have DS sleeping in the room and we could still drink and chat and read our books out there.

The other thing which stresses me out is all the stuff they need - cutlery, sippy cups, baby monitors, sleeping bags, books, a few toys, bibs, white noise machine etc. You don't need most of that. You're not going to be far enough away from them you need a monitor, you can get a white noise app in your phone, they can use teaspoons and other cutlery etc.

We've finally got this down and have learnt to enjoy our holidays with the dc - 5 and 2.
Wherever we go we use the same formula:
2 bedroom serviced apartment with kitchen
Easy walking distance to cafes and restaurants
Decent sized lounge with balcony
On-site pool
In an area that has at least one main thing to do each day, and indoor options in case of rain or extreme heat
We pick up or take breakfast basics and coffee make the dc breakfast when they're first up so we can then move at a more leisurely pace.
If we're walking around then we take the buggy and it gets packed with everything for the day.
We also take a bag of mini toys, crayons and notebooks and the iPad so we can all enjoy lunch or dinner out without too much stress.
Now they're getting a bit older we're starting to expand our options again after the last few trips being a bit more restrictive!

The best holidays we had with ours when they were young were in the UK.

We went rented a cottage that my DH's extended family has a many decades long history of renting so he knew the area and had lots of things he wanted to show the kids. We went for walks in the woods. Soft play. NT. etc. and had lots of time just hanging out in the cottage. Bought M&S food to reheat and drank wine in front of the fire in the evenings.

We also went to a fancy hotel that had a creche and a spa & pool. Just took it easy. Paid for a babysitter some evenings so we could go out for a meal or go the pool without kids. Took it in turns to get spa treatments. Etc. Hung out a lot and read, explored woods etc. Expensive so we'd just go for a few days, but preferred that to a week at something with fewer facilities.

We're not particularly into sun and sand and the sightseeing we would want to do seemed too exhausting with kids so going abroad wasn't a particularly big pull for us. We did take them on a trip to California when they were 6. But by that time things were very different.

We took them to festivals a couple of times, but that was, honestly, exhausting. Some families seemed to do fine but I couldn't sleep well, which never mattered at a festival when I didn't have kids, but it really wasn't what I needed once I did!