Would you travel longhaul with young children????

[backpackermum]

Hello,
I'm thinking of starting a new travel business for people to go on exciting holidays to Asia, Africa and the Middle East with kids. Not to stay in resorts but travel around and see the sights.
BUT would anyone actually consider doing this with their kids?
Any ideas?
Thanks so much.

Wow great that you are so inspired.

In principle I would holiday like that but don't think I would have when DS was any younger (nearly 7). Before that I would have worried more about health issues & frankly he wouldn't have remembered the experiences. My main concerns now would be the political stability of a country & malaria.

Good luck !

I would have hated that. Travelling round every day would have meant an awful lot of disruption to routine, not that I was a mad routine person, but it's hard to get kids especially toddlers, to settle in unfamiliar places, so if you were going to be somewhere different every night that would put me off.

Also, like munsers says, I'd be worried about food/malaria/political situations.

And how would you manage a cross two year old, a buggy, bottles, nappies, all that? Practicalities I mean? Especially if you were travelling around every day and didn't have a "base" as such to dump stuff?

"BUT would anyone actually consider doing this with their kids?"

I wouldn't, mainly for the reasons that have already been stated. I would have found it a drag to cart a young child around with all the paraphernalia it entails, packing and unpacking every night plus the worry about tummy bugs etc. I'm sure it would appeal to the more intrepid traveller, but I'm not sure how much of a market there would be.

Besides, I think small children would get bored and fractious, they would grizzle and whinge and would spoil the trip for other travellers.

We have done it. We were fortunate enough to live in the ME and be able to travel relatively easily to India and Sri Lanka as well as the Emirates.
When we lived in Thailand, other places were accesible too.
I agree with the former posters who said children get bored and fractious. Our answer was a portable DVD player from the age of about 2.

Only if I had to.
Depending on age of kids.

9/10 yr old not too bad for a long haul flight.....anything younger.....a nightmare!

We did it. I travelled more in the first couple of years of my kids' lives than I do now they are at school. We went to China, India, the Caribbean, Thailand, Australia and NZ, the US and Canada. Fabulous experience and really not as hassly as people make out.

There are travel business doing this already. Responsible travel.com for instance and a few others.

I would do that on my own, but I think a group with several children would be a nightmare! I went to Amsterdam with a group of friends, we were 7 adults and 3 children and everything was so complicated, having to deal with buggies, loads of bags, nappy changing, etc. Much easier to travel only with DS.

I have travelled a lot with dd. But assuming you had people that did want to travel what would you be offering that the savvy traveller couldnt sort themselves ( ie travel accommodation)? Or isn't covered by travel guides or the net (ie stuff to do with kids, food, nearest medical facilities)?

just come back from the Maldives with our 3.9 yr old DD who was great on the flight there and back thanks to a good entertainment system and her dvd player. I would probably only do it whilst she is an only child - a situation which will change in 7 weeks!! eek.

Oh goodness, we went to France with DS when he was 10 months old, and Italy when he was 18 months. Flights were hell. Long haul would be horrendous!

It would be the flights that would put me off tbh.

I think it's a great idea, once you've done it you get hooked, while I can understand the obvious issues of travelling with tiny children, I still worry despite mine being 12 and 15 when we go somewhere different, however we had a fab time in South India on a driving holiday, 10 days across Tamil Nadu and Kerala, it took loads of research but remember private cars and your own driver cost a fraction of what they would in Europe, and we stayed in some characterful boutique hotels (one a converted mansion in Chettinad) where nothing was too much trouble, and again things like laundry etc costs so little in these places (I'm not talking about big places in Delhi and Mumbai tho) Malaria tho would be a worry, but prevention ie spraying your mossie nets and wearing long loose linens every evening is good start for you and the kids.
Here are a couple of reviews of that holiday on the following link if you want to find out the details. We travelled from Dubai so much shorter flight times of course, is doindubai.com/travel-related/

I'd do it, we have lived in the ME for the past 5 1/2 years and have travelled a lot. Took DC4 to the malaysian GP when he was 6 weeks old and have done a lot of travelling, sadly not as much as we'd like. We now fancy doing the camper van thing around Australia/NZ.

Kids used to flying, DD flew 16 times in her first year, shame little ones don't get airmiles!

I am lucky to have kids who are good travellers and will sleep anywhere but several things would put me off. Firstly hygiene worries about water, food safety etc if i went somewhere far flung. 2nd as my old nan used to say taking kids on an exotic foreign holiday can be a bit like giving a donkey strawberries! What do small kids want on holiday? your time, a beach, other kids to play with. From the age of around 7 onwards they are interested in the history and culture but any younger and you are going for you and not for them so would prefer to book a holiday like this with just dh. had you thought about unusual holidays in the UK? loads of yurts, railway carriages, barge boats, oast houses etc out there but not all listed on one website. Hope this helps.