Sun holiday with 8 month old?

[Alicia870]

We were thinking of a sun holiday for a few days with our little girl who is currently 6 months but prob would be 7-8 months if we went.

I am so clueless about how to do this. Any advice would be appreciated as she is our first. Assuming we would need to hire a car? She is also bottle fed so would need to be carting this around. Any ideas of places that would be suitable where we could go and enjoy pool and beach? Thanks

The Costa Del Sol is a cliche but nice and easy.
Trains run from Malaga airport along the coast, so you wouldn't need a car.
We've stayed at the Sahara Sunset in Benalmadena, which was nice.
Make sure you book somewhere with a living room or balcony so you're not stuck whispering once DD is in bed.

My friends took there 8 month son old to the Maldives without any problems at that age you can put them in the shade and they won’t wonder off into the sun.
He even went to Turkey at8 weeks old.
Turkish and Greeks love kids so your child will be well looked after.

Obviously it's going to be different to previous holidays but I'm sure you know that
I have four dc and I think it's a great time to take them hopefully not quite crawling and starting to love food!
I've never hired a car on holiday but that's because we like to have a couple of glasses of wine in the evening and neither of us particularly keen on driving.
My youngest is four now so some things may have changed but I used to take sterilising bags you just left the bottles in over night you filled them with water and a sterilising tablet, apartments are easier than hotel rooms as you have fridge/kitchen and some where to sit if she's napping, a fold down buggy with a hood that comes right over was a god send, we used to either take or buy a little paddling pool so they could splash in it next to our sunbeds the pool was great but they used to get cold quite quickly.
Maybe a few pouches of food for emergencies you can order milk that you can collect at boots once you're through security.
We always pre book a pick up from the airport when we land that way we request the car seats we need.

Oh and regarding where to go... anywhere you fancy!!
We've done Turkey, Spain, Italy, Egypt, Dubai when they were little. I'm biased as my family are Italian but the Italians absolutely love babies so she would be spoilt rotten there!

We went to the Caserio del Mirador (Spain) when DC1 was that age, it was absolutely perfect for us as rather nervous first time parents. All the baby kit was provided, home made purees, other parents with babies and toddlers to chat to if we wanted, nice dinners available onsite without needing a babysitter. Play area, toys and animals to entertain DD. Day trips with the car though tbh we stayed by the pool a lot.

With hindsight yes we could probably have taken her lots of other more adventurous places at that age, but the Caserio made it so easy which was what we needed.

PS Have a look at websites like babyfriendlyboltholes, TotsToo or i-escape with kids for ideas.

That's sounds good minipie maybe somewhere like that would be better it's a while since my eldest was a baby and sometimes you forget it's quite nerve racking taking them away! Apologies if I sounded blasé!

We went to the algarve when my DS was a similar age.

We purposely picked somewhere that wasn't a long flight, transfers from airport were short, and it wasn't too hot.

The hotel we stayed in had huge parasols and my baby and DH used to have siesta's a few times a day.

troppi we may have been unusually nervous as DD was a spectacularly difficult non sleeping baby! The OP may be less nervous than I was especially if she has a good sleeper so the more ambitious ideas are good too.

Buy a UV baby tent from Asda or Mothercare etc, keeps them shady and stops them eating lots of sand!

I'm going to Italy with my 9 mth old in two weeks and very nervous. So very interested in answers!

Anywhere all inclusive, or where babies live 😄 there will be formula and car seats and all sorts in other countries. That’s a great age to travel too as not so mobile and not eating loads. We didn’t travel with DC1 until he was 1 but in that year we did Italy (13 months) Dominican Republic (18 months - not worth it, rained, too far, can get same stuff in Europe!) and Greece (Sani club, really recommend! May was a bit too cold though!)

Formula - took dc2 abroad while he was still on formula, you can either take perfect prep and steriliser and the right adaptor plug, or use a flask of boiling water, add powder, then top up with drinking water. We’ve used the room’s champagne cooler before to cold water sterilise (Milton tablets) but you could ask the reception for a big tub or even take one, would take up much room in case as you would obviously pack stuff inside it.

Carrier or cheap umbrella stroller - our pushchair is suitable for carry on but we couldn’t find an airline who would allow it in the cabin so take a cheapie as they get thrown around in the hold!

We’ve done a mixture of hire cars and transfers, and taking our own car seat and hiring car seats. Hire car seats are a bit hair raising in our experience but when you get off a long plane ride in the middle of the night do you really want to be installing car seats? If you’re just using it for transfers and then staying at a hotel for the whole holiday id not bother taking your own car seat. We did a lot of driving in Italy and were glad we took our own, though.

*wouldn’t take up much room in your case

We once saw a couple checking their actual wooden cot onto the plane 🤣 thought that was a step too far to be honest 😄

Thanks so much for the great suggestions! Have looked up caserio del mirador- looks fab has great reviews. May be a bit pricey for us while I'm off on mat leave but it's got us thinking that we could possibly extend til October time. I like the idea of having a really baby friendly place especially as we're a bit green and don't know what we're doing! Does anyone know do taxis or transfers offer car seats also? To save us having to hire a car as it would be unlikely we'd use it. We really just plan to have some sun and lounge around the pool

If you pre book a taxi to take you from a private transfer company then yes. Transfer buses don't and nor do taxis that are waiting outside the airports. That's my experience anyway.

You could bring your own car seat. 2 items of baby equipment are always included with baby flight bookings.