Holiday Advice with an almost 2yo and an 8mo baby

[Mrsbjohnson]

Hello! This is my first post here; I'm looking for some advice and recommendations for holidays with little ones. I have 2 under 2 and they will be around 23m and 8m when we (DH and I) travel hopefully. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on baby/toddler friendly holidays in Spain/Portugal etc, and any advice for travelling? Baby is bf so no issues with milk but I am worried about the flight with two small ones and also transfers. Any and all advice is most welcome!

We used this website Baby Friendly Boltholes for the vast majority of our holidays when our kids were little. We never had a bad property - they were all safe for small DC and provided cots, stair gates, high chairs, baby cutlery and crockery, etc and you could pick which country (inc. UK), you went to.

Other good holidays were at La Grange du Moulin near St Jean d'Angely in France, Emerald Coast Gites in Brittany, and Sun Parks de Haan in Belgium (near Bruges).

We're thinking of going away this year with DD (4y) & DS (11mth). We've been looking at totstotravel.co.uk & the Canary Islands as it's only a few hours away, sunny & warm, small & same time zone.

If you want Spain, then Caserio del Mirador always had great MN reviews (the review bit of the website seems to have disappeared, sadly). They feature on the website I linked to above. Also Martinhal in Portugal.

Some great sites to check out there, thank you all!

We have booked the proture bonaire hotel in June for our first family holiday with a toddler and a baby.
I spent bloody days researching and it came out really with the best amenities and flight times and facilities etc. They have loads to do for young kids with splash pools, pirate ship, kids clubs and rated about 4.5 on trip advisor
Cost us 2k for 1 week
Hope it's as nice as we are expecting!

Look also at Kinderhotel. These are hotels mainly in southern Germany and Austria but set up in a way that you do not have to carry everything from home.

www.kinderhotels.com/en/kinderhotels-family-holidays.html

www.martinhal.com/sagres/

What do people do about coach transfers with little ones in terms of car seats? My worry is transporting two car seats which are at risk of getting damaged, to find that they don’t fit it or the baby hasn’t been allocated a seat.

I remember this place in Portugal also used to get rave reviews from MNers: www.tocadomocho.com/

We didn’t have a universally great experience at Emerald Coast Gites. The accommodation is nice if a bit shabby in places for the price and the set up is brilliant. We enjoyed being able to get meals on certain nights and it was safe and friendly for the kids. But we found the couple who ran it a bit odd and standoffish and the teenager children were surly (fair enough..they are teenagers). It spoiled the experience a bit for me.

Another vote for Martinhal Sagres. Short flight. 50 minute straightforward transfer in a hire car once you land. Baby and toddler facilities galore but still feels very grown up. Best place we visited when the children were small.