Sri Lanka with 9mo

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Has anyone been to Sri Lanka with a baby?

We're going for our honeymoon in sept and taking DD with us and looking for tips!

My main concerns at the mo are whether to take her car seat (can they go on planes) and whether a maclaren type buggy would be ok??

Thanks! I'm really excited!

We were going to get a fold-up maclaren or something as presumed that would be easier than our bugaboo (cameleon). But if we need the car seat perhaps taking the bugaboo would be better - just the carry case is effing enormous!

Ha ha. We took 2 carseats for our two youngest all over Sri Lanka and never used them because very few of the cars we were in had working seatbelts!
The driving around colombo had us truly terrified. I think my MIL even screamed at one point but it was a bit better further south, near Mirissa. Or maybe we had got used to it. I'd take a sling rather than a buggy tbh.
Have fun though, it was a wonderful place to visit and we hope to go back again sometime.

BTW- I think it is normal to just stay in one place and go on trips, we did the same but the place we stayed was a villa in the south of the island. We were in Columbo for a couple of nights first, and then were driven down to the villa. We were driven around by a couple of locals and got to see where they lived, went to school etc. It's a good way of doing it if you want to get off the tourist track.

So where did you put the kids? Just on your laps?

We'd planned to move about a bit staying in a few different places - Colombo-Bentota-Galle-Tangalle-Ella-Kandy-Colombo. We'd probably have a driver until Kandy and then get the train back to Colombo.

I've seen on another forum that you can hire baby car seats so perhaps we'll try that.

FiveHours - would you recommend your villa? We're about to book our accommodation in the next couple of days, so still some time for some recommendations!

The kids sat on the normal car seats and we just kept our fingers crossed! It was definitely not ideal.
If you are going to use a baby seat, I'd def take your own. Just make sure your driver knows you need a car with at least one working seatbelt!
We stayed here

I did blog about it too if you are interested!

Thanks... At 9 months I think DD might be a little bit too little just to go on the seat.........

Blog looks great, really excited about going - we toyed with the idea of the Maldives too but will save that for when DD won't get caked in sand crawling!

You will love it. The people are so friendly but if you go outside the tourist trail, be prepared to be a little shocked at how little some of them have.

Can't comment in the child issue as had no DC then, but just wanted to say what an amazing place SL is!!!
We went for our honeymoon. Hotel and then 5 day tour with trailfinders (southern swing I think it was called...)
We stayed at saman villas. It was GORGEOUS. recommend!!!

We went with our (then) 3 month old. We took our own car seat - had to go in the plane hold but I bought one of those bags from Kiddicare and packed it with loads of bubble wrap. We were very glad we took it. We just contacted the travel agent and said that we would need a car with seatbelts in the back. I also bought a white towelling seat liner for the seat which we were very glad of, as our seat is black and it was hot, hot, HOT. DD spent most of her time in just a nappy!
We also took our travel system - used it a couple of times but probably didn't need it tbh as didn't walk any particularly long distances. It was too hot for much mooching about, and the roads/paths aren't that great anyway. Most locals just carry their babies, you won't see many pushchairs. I think if you've got a lightweight one it might be worth taking. We did find the carrycot part of our travel system useful but if your DC will be 9 months then I guess they'd be too big for that anyway.
I've been to Sri Lanka a few times (only once with baby!) and happy to advise if there's anything else you need to know. Would recommend it!

Thanks again, this is all really helping.

I'm investigating drivers with car seats, and if we can find one we'll just get a foldy/umbrella buggy to take. We'll deffo take the sling too, but I'm wondering whether that would make DD too hot??

When I was pregnant I was naively insistent we'd use cloth nappies... Of course I never ended up buying any preggo brain couldn't cope with the reusable nappy minefield so DD has pampers, but I'm wondering whether now might be a good idea to get some reusables to save space in luggage (thinking of dusting off our backpacks rather than taking suitcases). Any thoughts on this?

What jabs did you guys have? And any mozzie repellant recommendations for babies?

Can't remember jabs for us but baby was too young for them (I wasn't too worried as I was BF so guessed she'd get some immunity from me)
Mossie repellent - interesting one - all the ones of any decent strength say that they are not suitable for babies/young children. However check this link out
www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/at-play/Pages/Insect-Repellents.aspx?nfstatus=401&nftoken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&nfstatusdescription=ERROR%3a+No+local+token
This is the American Academy of Paediatrics and they say that DEET of up to 30% is ok on babies over 2 months. So I went with that, and got a bottle of Medium Jungle Formula (which is 20% I think) - although the bottle does say its not suitable, I used it anyway, her skin was fine and more importantly, no bites!

Oh and I took 3 packs of nappies, they were good cushioning for the car seat! I think you can buy pampers in SL but they are likely to be quite expensive and only available in larger towns.

I'm a Sri Lankan born Brit and we're going to SL on Monday. My little ones are 6 and 3. But we have been before when they were younger.

• I would definitely take the car seat.
• Talk to the nurse about mozzie repellent. It's so important to be bite free 'cause Dengue has been an issue in some areas this year.
• Nappies - I would take them from here. They're expensive in SL and I don't know how practical it is to take cloth nappies.

Last time we went, we did take our buggy but we didn't really use it that much. Saying that we're taking our buggy this time 'cause my 3 year old is a very active toddler and I will worry about him running off!

It's an amazing place and people are so relaxed about children.

yes sri Lanka is the best place all over the world which full of natural beauty and full of culture.I like to stay there.....

We went with 2 1/2 year old DD - just had her on the seat in the back of a taxi, hoping we all survived the mad journey south from Colombo to the beaches. I think you're right - 9 months is a bit small for that. We have booked taxis online in Thailand with car seats and the car seats seemed decent.

I would recommend a mclaren - folded up they fit perfectly on the shelf above the back seat of a tuk tuk! I would take disposable nappies - do you really want to be lugging smelly nappies round in hot weather? Not to mention having to wash them or arrange for them to be washed.

I know what you mean about rucksacks rather than suitcases but with a baby it is probably easier to pull a couple of cases than each carry a rucksack.

You might want to rethink how many places you are visiting. I did a similar circuit with DH before we had DD. With a young child I don't think I would want to travel around that much - all that unpacking and getting used to a new hotel every day or two seems a lot of hassle with a baby.

I wouldn't bother staying in Colombo - there really isn't much to do there. How about going to Kandy and doing some trips from there, then getting the train back through Colombo down to Bentota then doing some trips to eg Galle from there?

Just find a driver with seatbelts in the back. Wasn't an issue for us. Definately take the car seats although the speed of driving is quite slow. I would expect you'll pay a massive premium for a driver with car s

I'd recommend a baby carrier though and agree that you're visiting too many places. We've always found the packing (and unpacking) is the most stressful bit.