14m old baby - Christmas - South Africa

[MiPi]

Hello! We are planning our first longhaul holiday since the birth of Dd. Has anyone traveled to SA with a child of that age? Where to stay? What to take on board? Should we ask for basinet when booking our tickets? Any tips or even will be more than helpful and greatly appreciated!! Also, happy to consider other warm weather destination suggestions! Thank you!!

More importantly, check the malarial status of your destination before doing anything. She's too young for the meds and the risk is just too much. Namibia is lovely and non malarial.

Most of SA is malaria free, Namibia is not

"The first thing to know about malaria in South Africa is that it?s prevalent only in the country?s three north easternmost provinces ? KwaZulu Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo ? and only in their outermost regions. See the map (provided by malaria.org.za) for SA malaria risk areas.
You do not need to take precautions against malaria for trips to SA that are limited to Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, or any of the country?s six malaria-free provinces: North West, Northern Cape, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng.
(Note that parts of the North West and Northern Cape provinces, in certain areas along the borders with Botswana and Namibia ? including the Kalahari desert ? sometimes require seasonal malaria precautions. Check in advance with your local contact.)
You do need to take precautions if you plan to enter a malaria-prevalent zone, including the Kruger National Park, during any part of your trip here.
Risk of malaria infection in prevalent areas is highest between October and May.
Kruger National Park malaria information hotline: +27 (0) 82 234 1800."

Hope that helps. I'm looking at taking a 9mo in January

We did this trip with DS at exactly the same age, two Christmases ago. Booked a bassinet as they go by weight as opposed to age (for some airlines the cut-off is 12ms) - I think this was a deciding factor in who we booked with, but can't remember who that ended up being. We did have to squeeze DS into his, but was worth it for the semi-decent sleep we all got for it.

We were visiting family so can't recommend accommodation (although from other trips The Blackheath Lodge in Cape Town is lovely and friendly). Kirstenbosch is a lovely place for a toddling 14m old to visit.

sorry ? taking a 14 month old baby on such a long flight ? what's the liklihood of your LO playing quietly and not being utterly bored and fed up, I'm assuming they are mobile, how are you going to keep them still for such a long time ? what about the other passengers ? sorry to sound so negative but I won't even do a 1 hour train ride with my LO and she's same age as yours, my nerves won't take it and don't see why anyone elses should !

We did this with our DD at 15 months. Firstly nearly every flight to Cape Town is a night flight there and back and DD slept both ways on me no problem. I ran her around the airport before hand, put her in her PJs gave her a bottle during take off she was gone for 11.5 hours each time. Twoofus I think the more you travel with them the easier it gets we have taken DD across the world in the last 8 years you rapidly build a good range of things to do.
It was the most amazing beautiful country to visit with a toddler most of the places we ate were outside so she could get down and play between meals. We stayed in places we found through Greenwood guides (online southern hemisphere version of sawdays). We stayed with the McNaughton family at Graceland vineyard, Sue got her cot out of the loft for DD - they have a lovely pool. We also stayed with Jenni Berisford in Pringle Bay the beach is at the end of her garden lovely wide sandy beach.
Still 6 years later it was our best ever holiday and just writing about it reminds of how lovely it was.