Ideas for first holiday with baby

[meow1989]

Hi all,

I wonder if you could throw some ideas at me - wanting to to book a first holiday for me, my husband and our baby boy over the Easter break. DS will be 9 months old and ideally we don't want a flight longer than about 2 hours to somewhere warm but not scorching. DH and I like holidays that aren't just beach where you can explore local life a bit but the last two we went on were a fancy last-before-baby holiday in Crete and before that our honeymoon around the USA, so I'm a bit lost with how much things cost and what would be suitable.
Can anyone recommend family friendly destinations and hotels that will cater for a baby without necessarily being a hotel aimed at families, if you see what I mean. Otherwise thinking of a self catering type place.
Basically where's nice that people have been with a little one?
Thanks

I don't think you will find somewhere with guaranteed good weather at Easter only 2 hours away - if you could leave it until May half term I would suggest Menorca - a beautiful island. Ciudadella and Mahon are beautiful with lots of lovely resorts spread between the two 👍

The problem with places only 2 hours away is that their seasons don't start until May and so there will be quite a few places not open. We went to Mallorca out of season and really you need to be around Palma the capital - we went in March and it was lovely, some days in t-shirts, but it was cold at night, and the apartment felt slightly damp as they don't tend to have heating 😳

Also went to Nerja on the Costa Del Sol in March/April and that was the same, cold at night but nice in the daytime, we had one day where it bucketed it down with rain 🙄

See, I'm clueless!

Thanks for that, maybe May half term would be better then, I've got an image of swimming pools and sun hats so good weather desired!

Will have a look into places suggested

Nice on the south coast of France would be suitable. There's lots of places of interest in the city itself and along the coast (which is easy to travel along by train). It's an incredibly pushchair-friendly city - the famous Promenade des Anglais is an attractive paved walkway lined with interesting shops and restaurants on one side and the beach on the other. It goes on for miles and has lots of benches which are great for feeding your LO or just people watching!

We stayed at Porto Bay Apartments when ours was a baby in an apartment in Maderia:

www.portobay.com/en/hotels/portugal/madeira-island-portugal/porto-mare/

Which was nice big apartments and pools etc. Is quite hilly though so we used sling. Do check weather averages though, think Easter won't be warm enough. Remember being in Cyprus at Easter and was only 20C there and borderline on using outdoor pools but think Easter was early that year, that was Aliathlon via First Choice, also good but more for families.

Pools will probably still be nippy in May half term - does it have to be in school holidays? I think June onwards is lovely weather and by September, if somewhere has a nice beach, the sea will be like a warm bath having had the summer to warm up 👍

Unfortunately it does as DH is a teacher!

Cyprus has an average high of 28C in May so think there will be some places warm enough in May half term for a baby. Easter I don't think outdoor pools will be warm enough. Do check temps as a baby will need warmer temps to go in outdoor pool than a swimmer, maybe 25C or over. An alternative is hotel with indoor pool as well. One we were at in Maderia had both. Normally find May half term is very pricey to go away compared to Easter due to lack of choice in dates unless you go off beaten track. Last year we went to Austria in one of their Kinder Hotels and flight that wasn't too pricey as different to beach.

Lanzarote would have decent but not too hot weather around Easter.