A month in January in Spain with a 4-month old baby, is it realistic?

[mapotofu]

We are expecting our first baby, due end of August. Past January has been really rough for me with the first trimester pregnancy + dreary weather in the UK, and I'm planning my escape for next January (2026). The baby will be 4 months old by then, and I want to spend a month in the south of Spain (maybe Saville) during our parental leave. It will be a rare treat for us since we've never taken a break longer than 2 weeks in the past 15 years!

This is our first baby, so I have no idea what a 4-month old is like. I imagine we will be mainly staying in one place, maybe reading a book and enjoying the sunnier weather, whilst taking care of the baby?

Is it a realistic plan? Is it too risky regarding limited access to healthcare?

PS: We don't have any family/friends in Spain.

We went on our first abroad holiday with our 2 year old and 6 month old in January this year, the baby was much easier than the 2 year old!

Make sure to apply for a passport as soon as you feel able to in case it takes a while and if you have a sling I found it really useful to get on and off the plane, meant I had a hand free to hold the handrail if there's stairs off the plane. Also check if you can take your buggy to the plane, we flew with easyJet and could take the double buggy right up to the door of the plane, so useful!

Depends entirely on the baby. Ours was a dream at 4 months, sleeping long 7-8 hour stretches overnight and no sign of any regression.

Got to 6 months and the wheels came off entirely with weaning, starting to sit up and want to move, teething... he's 8 months now and we're lucky if he sleeps 3 hours at a stretch.

It's impossible to know, so if January works for OP then January is when they should go.

4 months is the perfect age. I did similar with my 4 month old and it was great. 6 months would have been much harder as he was crawling by then.

That will cover emergency care only, you must also get good travel insurance.

I took ds to Italy at 5mo. That age its very doable to have a break with baby. You don't gave to do anything child friendly because baby just comes with in the pram. You can even get them sleeping in the pram so you can go out for an evening meal. Unless you have one of those bad sleeping babies then you end up walking them round to settle whilst the other person eats.
I reckon a great idea. Where will you go?

Every single baby is different.
my first would have been a nightmare to travel with. He cried at everything for a while. Altho now a lovely toddler.
my second would have been a dream. He’s 3 months, apart from a little bit in the evenings he’s extremely chill.

ps, you don’t need to wait until vaccinations to swim. It’s an incorrect rumour that you need to wait. What they get vaccinated for is not caught in swimming pools.

Dd1 has a 9 month old dd and they first took her abroad when she was about 11 weeks old to Cyprus. Then when she was 5 months old they took her to New York, Washington and Niagara Falls. At 8 months they took her to Malaysia and Singapore. She is breastfed and they have had no issues. Already planning their next holiday in a couple of months. These holidays have been a mixture of beach and cultural.

Dd1 said that according to research 18 months to 3 years is the worst time to travel with a child so she's trying to do as much as they can before that! Her and her dh are both doctors and the baby went in the pool at 11 weeks abroad.

Absolutely go for it!

Do it!! I did a 5 weeks abroad with a newborn (my 3rd DC) last summer. It was to visit my DH’s dying relative, but it was the most fantastic time spent with his family.

The best thing I can advise you to do is get a really good baby wrap. My baby lived in the wrap the whole time. I would wrap him up and take long walks along the beach, drinking a coffee and listening to a podcast. Absolute bliss! Much easier than fussing with the pram all the time. We also bought a baby camping bed, which was easy to transport and meant he could sleep right up close next to our bed.

However, I didn’t breastfeed DC3, so finding the equivalent formula was annoying. Also, we stayed with family and they are definitely not used to kids waking in the night, so that part was a little stressful.

We got his first vax done before leaving, and we’re lucky he didn’t get sick. We had access to medical care there, but it’s a different system to ours, and I’m glad I didn’t have to navigate any hospitals or doctors appointments. Make sure you consider that possibility.

Perfectly fine! I did it with my first; although my month was in the less glamorous Benidorm.

Oh gosh do it! Baby won’t be too mobile, will nap regularly (contact/pram/car) and the Spanish LOVE children! Absolutely bloody go for it, it will be fabulous.

I like Saville but would rather go somewhere warmer. A month in Spain with a 4 month old should be no problem though.

Good point. Definitely don't go to Spain if you're one of those people who don't want people to touch your baby. In Spain it's normal for complete strangers to interact with, touch and hold babies. Doubly so if baby is blond.

Yes absolutely 4 months is the perfect age! Anything after they start crawling is a nightmare

Check out the tourist tax for Spain as it could get expensive! They have brought new rules in about how much money you need to have access to as well.

make sure you have proper travel insurance that covers the absolute worst happening. Don’t just rely on GHIC card or you could end up with a big bill to pay.

Seville doesn't currently charge tourist tax. Very few places in Spain actually do and where it is charged it's something like 5€ per adult per day, so relatively little compared to all your other costs.

Try to learn some basic Spanish before you go and take basics to start with like calpol, any medicines. Etc.

Familiarise yourself with nearby facilities, you can get most things from El Corte Ingles. Maybe taking a trip whilst you're not heavily pregnant before baby's born so you can have a better idea of what's what, but also remember if anything happens, you can hop back on a plane straight away! Enjoy!!!

Check vaccine schedules and get those done before you go. Do what you can to protect your little one from catching an infection whilst you're there. You can get portable HEPA filters for the plane (check they will allow it). Would also recommend parents wearing masks on the plane. Have a lovely time!

Do it. In fact if possible I’d say you can coast through January on post Christmas vibes but February is shite. Can you go in February?

I agree with PP - sounds like a lovely plan 😊

I would, however, aim to go when baby is 17w or older so that he/she can have their 16w jabs before you go. They’re important to finish the course and better not to delay them a month unless you absolutely have to!

I would also make sure that anywhere you book is not too rural so you have easy access to healthcare for baby if they need it.

Hope you have a lovely time!

Great idea.
Make sure you've all got a GHIC and decent insurance.

According to research (my own) - I agree!

Travelled quite a bit with baby one. Lovely, and especially easy before they started weaning (messy) and then became very mobile at 6ish months (dangerous!). Still nice afterwards as we had a 2:1 adult to child ratio. But four months would have been a sweet spot!

Not quite as chill after baby two arrived. 5h flight with a just-turned-three year old and a 16 month old left me wanting to skydive out of the plane window 😂. Holiday was still lovely but definitely did NOT involve reading any books.

OP your plan sounds great!

Interesting see the ages recommended on here. My eldest was an early crawler and walker so was fully mobile from about 4 months and full speed from about a year. He also climbed. My next child was lovely to travel with at nearly 3 but would have been horrendous before. Last was a total babe to about 10 months. Every child is different, hence my recommendation to plan based on the things you know will happen at set times.

We still did trips, just accepted that they're different with young kids and some bits will be awful. They're still worth it!

Sounds brilliant.

Make sure your health insurance is up to date, plenty of hospitals/doctors in Spain, don't rely on any free reciprocal healthcare.

I would get an apartment.

Seville is lovely and won't be too hot in January.