To not have attempted to go abroad yet

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I’m just not convinced it would be enjoyable with two under 5s. Am I wrong, or would it just be SSDL?

To be honest, while I’ve never been, I find CP mesmerisingly expensive and deeply puzzling. I could absolutely understand its appeal to people who live in a very built up inner city, but when we lived in a village in the midlands, all the elements (woods with walking and bike paths, lovely countryside, swimming pool etc) were all freely available locally, and yet local people still paid vast amounts of money to stay at CP.

As others have said it depends on your kids. I had one that was easy and could go anywhere and do anything, and one who needed watching like a hawk, had constant temper tantrums wherever they couldn’t do something they wanted to eg licking all the bread on display in the supermarket, never settled in a different bed, fractious at a different routine, refused unfamiliar foods etc etc. it really didn’t make for a good holiday. Once they were both over 7, holidays have been great, and they can both remember them!

I flew to Australia with my then 16 months old many years ago. We had no problems with flights or being there and both really enjoyed it.
We did regular flights to Europe on holiday before he was 5 and also Canada as I have family there.

I went with my 15 month grandson and his family to Thailand last year. We all enjoyed it.

We like CP for an occasional weekend, never been for a week.

The swimming pool is totally different to anything available in a typical city. My kids can spend hours and hours on the rapids, lazy river, slides etc.

They also like trying out different activities - archery, falconry etc.

The countryside setting is nice but not really the point.

It is expensive but we always come away feeling refreshed and happy

We took our 3 from age 3 months. Breastfeeding so easier to travel. But it's far easier than a holiday at home: in my case Ireland. There is nothing as nice as seeing tiny tots running into a warm sea and being able to come out and not shiver until they are well wrapped up again. They loved the lrish sea but it's bloody freezing. We absolutely loved our holidays: two weeks every year in warm..not scorching hot climates. Longest flight was to US to visit family which was actually fine. We never did city breaks until they were older and interested in their surroundings.

I would say you would be surprised how easy it is as everything is so relaxed. Just go!

We used to mainly get the ferry to France. That way the car could be loaded up with everything we wanted, book a gite so there's still plenty of space. Go on days out, go to beach, eat french food, drink wine. Space to relax in the evening. Somewhat better weather than the UK. It was a lot easier because we were within a couple of hours drive of the cross channel ports though - if we had been hours and hours away I'm sure it would have been a different story.

But you’ve been to CP lots of times.

My colleague told me how much he spent going to CP, I couldn’t believe it! It was way more than I spent on my abroad trip.

It really doesn’t need to be expensive. There are always bargain flights to be found, good value villa’s and apartments.

Our favourite holidays when the kids were little were island hopping round the Greek islands. We’d stay a few days on each island, spend our days on the beach, maybe rent a little boat for the day, evenings in little tavernas, we’d find somewhere basic to stay. It was bliss.

We live very rurally but that’s why you can’t just go on a bike ride, perverse as they may sound. We live on a country road with no pavements and national speed limit. Cars and lorries and tractors thunder past. But if you go somewhere a bit more built up there are parks and designated areas.

CP is expensive but it is a nice sure thing if you like with very young children. Plus you have things like

getting to the airport
flights
getting from destination airport to hotel or wherever you’re staying

etc

So it does add up.

We took our eldest two abroad from early on, but they were both pretty easy and they both slept well. After we had our third we spent our holidays closer to home because she was anything but easy. So it really depends on your dc.

Fine alone nightmare together 😂

Agreed. As I said earlier in the thread, I can’t quite fathom the appeal of CP. I’d rather get an air BnB somewhere rural and let my
DC bike/run around there for far less. Or even better just go abroad for the same price!

Is it the same price though? CP in school holidays is maybe £1700 for four of us. I’m not sure we could get flights and accommodation for much less than that.

I’ve been taking dd on holiday since she was 3 months. Her first flight was when she was 7 weeks old to visit family. We go away 3-4 times a year. Have always had a great time and it’s much less stressful than home. I’ve always been an avid traveller though and wasn’t going to stop when I had dd.

You're not being unreasonable. You know your children and the kind of holidays you enjoy and should do whatever you want. But I'm not sure why "abroad" is necessarily more stressful than the UK, unless you are particular worried about the travelling part.

I know that I'd have been pretty miserable and frustrated if I'd waited until my children were over 5 before we left the country. But then, my idea of a holiday has never been relaxing by the pool/sea, doing nothing but sunbathing or reading my book, then going out late into the evening. I can see that is quite hard to replicate with young children and could get stressful as a result. I've always seen holidays as a chance to see different places, and I did that with young children in tow too.

By the time they were 5/6, our two had been on holidays to Provence, Belgium, Vienna, Umbria, Switzerland, Paris, Norway/Sweden, Croatia and Japan! Not including trips to the Netherlands to see family. I may have forgotten some others. In the primary school years they got to many other places including South Africa, California, Morocco.

Our most miserable holiday with young children was when I attempted a family friendly beach holiday in the UK. It rained half the time and they didn't much like the beach anyway! I wished I hadn't bothered. In contrast, travelling around Japan with a 5 and 6 year old had it's occasional tricky moments, but I didn't care because I hadn't planned it around being child friendly anyway, and I was loving being somewhere new and exciting. They still love sushi now.

I think if you planned it right you could get flights and accommodation for that. The cheapest way is to book everything separately but that takes quite a lot of effort. I love researching and planning holidays so I’m fine to do that.

Did you travel much pre-kids OP? I think if you’re not used to travelling abroad much then doing it with 2 little children in tow may be quite stressful.

Not much no. Should have really! I’d have to look into it.

Depends on the type of holiday and your kids’ activity levels and focus. If you’re thinking a sun holiday with pool and beach, do you have the kind of kids that will just sit still on a sunlounger in the shade in the hottest part of the day, or the kind that would be racing around constantly and wanting to do impractical things? Yes to going in the pool but they can’t do that all day. Mine are both under 5 and the latter. We don’t want to just give them an iPad each and whilst we enjoyed our holiday it was VERY hard work and we were lucky that our resort had indoor entertainment options to get out of the blazing sun in the middle of the day.

I’m kind of up for anything @Pinkandpurplehearts but I do have to think about what they’d enjoy as well as me. We had a weekend in Manchester where they were a nightmare until we split up and then it was fine. Harder to do abroad.

Why is it harder to do abroad?

I've only ever taken kids on holidays with another parent twice ( they are all adults now) so would've thought it would be easy to divide as such with 2 of you

It’s harder to do abroad because of all sorts, logistics, actually wanting to spend time as a family 😂 money, familiarity of the area and so on.

But I am considering taking them away alone this summer. Weirdly they are better with just one adult than two. Probably doesn’t make much logical sense but few things with children do 😩

Are you on FB? If you are there’s a great group called “Our Tribe Travels - Adventurous Travel with Kids”.

It’s a great source of inspiration, tips, itineraries etc.

Lot’s of very adventurous travel like back-packing through South America etc but there’s also lots of people just going to Austria or Spain etc.

It’s a very friendly group and everyone shares their photos, itineraries, places to stay that’s great for kids, money saving tips, logistics tips, what went well, what went badly etc.

Why not join the group to start getting an idea of where you might like to go and start planning an adventure for in a year or 2?

Thanks, good idea

I’ll let you know when I go with my 4 year old and 1 year old boys next month. I don’t expect it to be enjoyable in the same way it used to be, it’ll be crazy, chaotic, anything but relaxing - but hopefully still lots of lovely memories. Even though I’ll come back and need another holiday to recover!

@StampOnTheGround yes I definitely am familiar with that feeling 😂