Sharing hotel room with young kids - what do you do in the evening?

[IlanaK]

If you are sharing a hotel room in a large complex with two young kids (2 +5) what do you do in the evening? I mean, can you go out? We have never shared with them before so not sure what to do really. How do you manage to still hav ea good holiday? I am sure that the monitor will not work as the hotel complex is huge and we can't afford to book a babysitter each night.

does the hotel offer a baby-listening service?

This is why we always make sure we have an apartment or suite, so at least we can watch telly, read books etc etc in the next room.

Is there a terrace or balony where you could drink and chat?

Or truth be told, in our case, we frequently had some very early nights - and slept!!

Have mostly taken DD out in the evening until whatever time suits us to come home - after all we are usually only eating. She sleeps in later in the morning/has a nap in the afternoon.

Stick the youngest in a buggy, drag the oldest around whilst being prepared to carry them home if necessary, eat out in a nice family friendly restaurant be in bed for 10pm ish, if your lucky, they'll start waking a bit later and you can take them out a bit later...

take them out with you and all have a siesta during the day, I wouldn't attempt to use the monitor

but tbh I've not had a whole holiday doing this in one room

it would be my worst nightmare

we've done this and has been said we've just taken the kids out with us.if you are in a familyish resort there will loads of other kids about anyway.last year ds2 used to crash in his buggy and we would carry ds1 back to the hotel.
it was no problem.of course you can't go a disco or whatever but you can still have a nice time.

Yes keep them up later than you normally would, then you get a lie-in in the morning too. Then go to bed early and enjoy yourselves (quietly) in bed

We have always let ours have a long afternoon sleep and then they have stayed up a bit later. How long are you away for ? If you are staying longer than a few days it's worth changing their routines as they soon get into a new pattern.
We would then all eat together around 7:00, have a walk and let them run around and tire themselves out. Then when they go to bed we would sit on the balcony with a bottle or wine and read our books or chat.

I think we may have to go with the afternoon sleep idea. We are there for 7 days and I am not sure if there is a balcony or not. We are not late night people anyway so going to bed at 10ish and reading would work for us.

Definitely take them out with you!

Take a cheap buggy with you to wheel them back to the room in if they fall asleep!

You could get one of those monitors which work via the phone lines - you get a phone call if any noise and you can decide how many noises constitutes an alarm. The phone then acts as an intercom and you can hear and talk to kids. Works at any distance, but need mobile reception where you are!
brand we have is bebtel but I think other companies do them now.

just back from hols with 2 yr old dd reintroduced late afternoon nap then let her stay up later took pushchair out in case she wanted to go to sleep she did a couple of times then she always slept later in the mornings no problems when got home she went straight back into routine and actually started sleeping better

We did this in Venice in January with DD (3). We ate out at 7, came back and put her to bed and then read in bed before an early night. This probably works better on a city holiday, because everyone gets tired from all the walking around.

Are you going on your own?

We have been on holiday with the in-laws and we put the children to bed in one room and as the in-laws are in the next room we go into their room and check on the kids every so often. (I have nice in-laws )

We didn't have quite this situation but when we went to France last year we basically kept the kids on English time but because France is an hour ahead they were doing everything an hour later. So instead of waking up at 7 they were waking up at 8, having breakfast later, subsequent meals later, napping as and when mainly in the car or pushchair, having a bath before dinner then a later dinner and in bed about 9 ish. We would then go downstairs to the lounge (we were staying in a manoir converted to a b&b my English expats that we knew in England) and have a couple of drinks, but would have been happy to have a nightcap and book in bed.

wine and book in bed (chocolate too!!) this was in Dec at Eurodisney but if it was summer I'd make sure I ahd a balcony and would transfer said wine, book and choccie outside!!

My mother has decided to come with us so I will request rooms next to each other. This will definately give us the option of going into her room. There is definately a balcony with chairs so we could do that. It would be nice to be able to go out and around the hotel complex though so maybe I will do the nap thing.

That phone thing sounds interesting, but does it work in other countries?

this would be my worse nightmare as well.
We had to spend a night away recently and booked an apartment (just for one night, in Bristol) - put the DSs to bed then got a pizza delivered and ate in the lounge bit. It was a bit more expensive than a hotel but suited us really well - would deffo do that again.

Sitting on a balcony with wine sounds good too though

the phone works in any country you just need to get the adapter for the local phone lines - tell the company the country you are visiting when buying it. Many countries have the same adaptor.

After a day with ds on holiday I am so exhausted that I sleep for 10 hours and he sleeps for 12. I couldn't be bothered with trying to get him to nap, much better to keep him going and then have a quiet evening.