Inspire me! 4 + 1 year old. March travel

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We were going to Mauritius. We still might. But it's expensive - £6k for 9 days economy. (But it's 5* half board with childcare. )And I'm dreading flight with nearly 2 year old - he's at that awkward stage where they won't watch tv for hours or sleep comfortably in your arms. We can't afford premium economy or business.

We wanted long haul as I love going to far off places plus it's warmer in March. We went to Dubai last Feb. Both Dubai and Mauritius were chosen as time difference only 4 hours. But flights 12 hours and not sure body can handle it at mo as 1 year old not the best sleeper!!

I'm thinking maybe just can the whole thing and go long haul when older. But then we'll have to contend with school holiday prices and paying for two seats as well.

We're both very tired and wanted somewhere that was easy and we could chill out but did have a bit of stuff to do if we wanted to venture out for a couple of days. So we thought let's go large this year before we get to school time etc.

Any other suggestions?
I also thought just go for it or go complete luxury now and go Maldives. Oman or Jordan? Or wait till May and go somewhere like Cyprus or Canaries. Or just have two weeks at home but still have kids in childcare!! Or treat ourselves to soho farmhouse or something?

Complete first world problem - not actually a problem. A nice thing to ponder over really!!

We didn’t do longhaul until younger one was 5. Please do not take a wriggly toddler into Business. No-one will thank you for that if DC is badly behaved whilst others want to sleep. This may not be a popular view but there are great holiday alternatives with shorter flights such as the Gulf states if you want luxury in the winter. I am not sure any long haul flight is enjoyed by young children so we didn’t do it until they could understand what was required and they could be amused for 8 hours plus on the plane.

If you need to wait until school holidays, the Caribbean is low season in July. It can be a bit humid but it’s a bit too early for hurricane season. Perfect at Easter too. That’s what we used to do. We have hired a crewed yacht and stayed in some great hotels. You will need fairly deep pockets though. We started going on more cultural holidays when the children were aged 8 upwards. We are not flopping for 2 weeks people though. Ours lived a safari holiday. We did a beach extension on the first one we did but didn’t bother after that. We enjoyed the safaris a lot more than the beach!

In the summer, when DC were pre school, we went to France. Took the car and rented a house or apartment. Huge advantages in that the French expect children to eat out, you have your own car and can do as little or as much as you like. About 2 hours from St Malo there are great beach areas and lovely restaurants in Brittany. Plenty of child friendly play activities and beaches galore. Ours loved it.

If you want a series of short breaks just for you, then do it. We never had that option at all so we had to think of the children all the time and we wanted them to enjoy a holiday with us but not forcing them to travel in a captive space for hours at a time.