Holidays without kids

[ElleDubloo]

My husband and I are thinking of starting a family soon.... and friends have told us we should get some serious travelling out of our systems first, because it'll be harder once we have babies :D

So, can I have some ideas?

• Have you been on an amazing holiday/trip that you wouldn't have been able to do with babies/kids?
• If you could turn back time and squeeze in another adventurous holiday before your kids arrived, what would you choose to do?

Skiing, Scuba diving, anything with a lot of kit.
Of course you can do these things when you have DC but it's much more hassle.

Safari - most companies only allow children from 8-10 onwards

Backpacking - I wouldn't want to drag a toddler or under10 with me.

Cultural trip with a guide - I doubt they take children and if most children will be bored going from monument to monument or lengthy trips through museums and galleries.

DD is now 6.5 and we start to think ahead of trips we can do in 2-3 years. I personally suffer from jet-lag quite badly and don't want to have a mini-Person relying on me. An older child understands and can help himself if I am dead on my feet. And a child costs a lot when flying long-haul so I want to make sure she remembers it.

Anything long haul, plane journeys with small children are best kept short.

City breaks such as New York, of course they can be done with children, but you can't spend time mooching round art galleries, or hanging out in bars chatting to the locals.

Backpacking round the Far East, or crossing the USA on a motorbike!

Depending on your budget, a stay at a high end, luxury hotel, as you may not be able to afford this once you have a family, or even if you can, it may not be the best place to take a toddler.

Anywhere with terrible medical facilities, a long haul flight, only spicy food to eat, and that requires kit. Plus a couple of cultural day trips with 2 hour+ bus journeys each end.

Scuba diving in the Far East ought to cover it.

Also skiing in term time when it isn't astronimically priced.

Well jel

The Antarctic. A walking safari in Zambia. The Okavango Delta in Botswana. Wine tasting in South Africa. Moscow and St Petersburg. The Amazon Rainforest. Peru and Ecuador, the Galápagos Islands. India ( other than beach resorts). Most cities.

Anywhere with terrible medical facilities, a long haul flight, only spicy food to eat, and that requires kit. Plus a couple of cultural day trips with 2 hour+ bus journeys each end.

Well put!

I would recommend India before kids. We haven't gone and now it's going to be a long time because there's no way I'm going to travel many, many hours so I can nurse my children through vomiting and diarrhea.

We took a kid-free trip around Asia a couple of years ago (Cambodia, Laos, etc) and it was honestly so kid-friendly I wish we'd taken then. I would definitely suggest Burma/Myanmar instead.

From another point of view I found once the DC were over 5 travelling on adventurous far away holidays can be great fun. Apart from the backpacking and term time skiing I have done quite a lot of the above suggestions with my DC.
When the DC were pre school age we stuck to European holidays and I remember thinking is this going to be it for years? But before I knew it we were of doing long haul multi centred holidays.

A mini cruise round Indonesia

A walk through the forest on Komodo with a couple of guides with just forked sticks to fend off the Komodo dragons was absolutely thrilling. We also visited Sumbawa where it had hardly been touched by tourism.

Great ideas guys, thanks!

Planning a trip around Northern India with Exodus now.

Nice. Nepal?

We did a Guided tour round Japan or New York. None of those would have been suitable for under 8's.