after packing LO's cups, plates, paddling pool, food etc for s/catering holiday AIBU to think a hotel would be better?

[InmyheadIminParis]

We're going on holiday tomorrow - to a lovely cottage by the sea. But with two small DCs I feel as though I might as well have just hired a removal van.
Am I missing something? Or is self-catering actually more trouble than it's worth with little ones?

The massive advantage in s/c is that you have a whole house/flat to be in when you're not out & about doing things, which is a hell of a lot easier than being stuck in a hotel room with littlies....

But why do you need to pack cups and plates for them, and food? I'm sure there will be a range of plates and cups they can cope with there already, and even people in rural areas have to buy food, so there will be shops somewhere...

www.toddlerholiday.com

we went here and it was fab (we went in March with a discount - can be a bit pricey but for family of 4 seems quite good value and they have everything you will need plus previous famililes leave a list of tried and tested local activities for families to do. Plus 2 free nights baby-sitting/baby listening. Perfect)

(edit - you may have too good a time on the local food and wine though and come back preggers.... )

We've been to the cottage before (and Before Children) so we know that although it's lovely, it's not especially well equipped!
It's just that I seem to have emptied the whole house... and tomorrow a.m. will be stuffing the car to bursting point (and I always swore I'd never be one of those people) just for one week! Tell me it get's easier as they get older? Please? Please?

DH refused to go to a hotel abroad when ds1 and ds2 were very small. We spent three years worth of holidays in ill-equipped holiday cottages (usually after a five hour drive with screaming toddlers) asking ourselves the same questions - why do they never have corkscrews and why do they always smell slightly of gas? (the cottages that is, not the toddlers).

We then progressed to villas abroad, and then finally - joy of joys - this year to a hotel abroad (now with ds3 as well). I felt like I'd died and gone to heaven!

Don't get me wrong, I have some lovely memories of our holidays, but they were hard work. The drive ..... the risk with the weather .... the endless packing and provision of food .....

However .... in answer to your question, yes it gets easier!