Holidays with a toddler - tips

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He’s clearly my first :D 15 months, fully mobile, into everything as they all are.

I started thinking about a holiday if we could swing it, but was thinking I have no idea about what might work best with son in tow! We’ve not done loads of travelling but the holidays I liked best pre travelling were multi- location and included a bit of exploring. We usually do self catering.

I keep find myself looking at all inclusive sun holidays thinking ‘would we like that?’. What do you do for dinner? Eat early and then sit in your room with sleeping child (he’s usually in bed around 7). And maybe I don’t want to take him on a plane...

So maybe self catering uk is better.. what do other people do?

We stuck with self catering and lots of little day trips till DD was 7. Didn’t matter where, we did UK, Germany, Spain.

It gave us more flexibility with DD for nap times and meals. No room sharing, peace in the evening.

We often ate out for lunch when DD was a toddler and had cold dinners so no problems with too much work for us.

We did eurocamp style holiday when ours were that age (but don't book with them their accommodation is v tired, book with the campsite direct for the best accommodation and pitches). A cottage or gite would work equally well. It's. Nice having a pool. We ate out at lunchtime and did bbq in evening. The eurocamp reps babysat for us some evenings.

Oh yeah! Cold picnic dinners! I’m so programmed to always cook. That sounds like a good solution.

Sounds like staying at a comfortable home base is a good idea too

We did AI with dd at that age. It was easy. We took a few pouches for breakfast (dd woke at 5ish back then and breakfast didn't start until 7) and she snacked on Yoghurts, fruit and biscuits I stashed from the buffet (you can also get bits from snack bar). We had a 1 bed apartment so went straight to dinner when it opened, had a drink at the bar afterwards then back to our room,bathed dd and put her to bed in the living room. We brought drinks to our room from the bar and watched films on our laptop. Given at the time she use to go to bed at 6pm it worked surprisingly well.

Plus if you stay in UK if anything goes wrong it's easier. Less heat depending on where you go too.

DD is 19mo and we are sticking with self catering uk holidays for now. Can't imagine taking her on a plane when she won't sit still! We've been on two so far, staying in cottages. We eat out some nights and cook on others. When she's in bed we can watch tv in the living room

I did a couple of villa and hotel holidays when we had one DC of that age: enjoyed the hotel much more because I found cooking and shopping in self catering a PITA.

Staying in the room thing was fine for me as I like quiet, early nights!

Sleep deprivation was still shit on holiday, and DH and I took turns having DC all day so the other could relax.

Lots of hot places had unheated pools that would be no good for small DC.

We used to make the buggy as comfy as possible sheepskin liner etc... and we would walk around for a bit til they fell asleep then have a nice dinner out.
We found apart hotels, having a kitchen and living room was great.
Mine are 14,8,5 and 4 now but the hardest time to take them was between 1 and 2 years old.
Into everything and no fear!

These are all great, thank you. I know it’s the bleeding obvious but really useful to hear how other people have done it.

And on the spirit obvious questions: how did you choose the accommodation? Did you look for specific child friendly, or just go with what looked manageable and travel with all the things? We are very much in the mobile, into everything and no fear stage!

We try, depending on where we are, to book a room with a view and ideally a balcony. Then once toddlers in bed we sit outside or inside, enjoy the view and a couple of drinks.

We did self catering with twins in Spain (free accommodation)
Had a ball. Children adapt
But one struggled with heat so I highly recommend piriton before and get there is a prickly heat spray from Amazon that was fab. Second year with the spray we had no problems
Wrap presents from Poundland for plane and take a bag of balloons. Small and easy and download stuff from I player to help with waiting
But if we can do it with 2 same age it is grand. We aren't late people anyway at night but I saw lots of children sleeping in pushchairs and abroad is so family friendly

Jay be sensible with heat, get cheap car seat of hiring car, cheap buggy and enjoy

I always was jealous of the people with babies or toddler sleeping in their buggies, DD never did this in the evening. Napping during the day, no problem but bedtime meant bed or she would scream off her head.

We always put down the same requirements, dishwasher, washing machine, quite comfortable and two bedrooms.

We had one cottage where the owner had high chair, cot, stair gates and little toys ready for us. But as we travelled a lot to the grandparents abroad we already had all of the usual stuff in travel sizes anyway so it wasn’t something I would look out for especially. In Spain you will find no carpet in the house, all is tiled and one of my friends freaked out and envisioned that her baby, just starting to walk, would have one concussion after the other from falling. No, didn’t happen, it was her DH who slipped and bruised his bum...

We even had villas with unfenced pools. This is a major concern and you need to be glued to your toddlers side if you have them outside. So DD had to go back in with me or DH if there was just one outside even if just getting a cup or something similar as you cannot leave them alone at all,

With AI we specifically chose hotels that said they were family friendly. We took the view that if dd was difficult it wouldn't matter here because there would be loads more toddlers being difficult too. Our requirement were 1 bed apartments, kid friendly pool and playground but most importantly a place where the food had good reviews.

@reluctantbrit oh good point re pools. That would be too stressful for me. He’s at the stage where removing him or the hazard is most effective strategy. Otherwise it’s like a bloody beacon as to ‘what can I injure myself with next’.

@fabulous01 I am mad impressed with toddler twins abroad. Sure children adapt but their wimpy parents may not .. if they’re me anyway. Good point re prickly heat. Over Easter weekend he had an afternoon in the park. Lots of running about despite drink/ let’s sit in shade breaks and came out in bumps, this is in 20 degree temps so I’ll possibly be avoiding very hot locations.

Oh and @pariswilton yes good food. Surely my no 1 criteria

in the UK we've done a lot of caravan holidays - separate bedroom for dd and living room for us. eat out or takeaway if don't want to cook. swimming pool on site and lots to do locally.

We self cater, last summer it was to the Algarve and we rented equipment and toys from a hire company (best thing ever) called Tina's Holiday Extras.

Toy and equipment hire? I’m so glad I started this thread!

Our first holiday with DD was when she was 15m. We did Munich, train to Innsbruck, train to Verona with a day trip to Lake Garda. If those are the holidays you enjoy, it can be done. Both DC are brilliant travellers now and we're planning a big interrail trip for when they're 5 & 8.

If you'd rather stay put, I'd recommend Airbnb for flexibility. Own bedrooms, eat when you like, keeps costs down.

Definitely self catering here. I couldn’t be doing with sitting whisperinh in a hotel room after bedtime (DD aged nearly 2 is a great sleeper but won’t sleep in a pram at a restaurant etc).

We’ve been to a few UK places in self catering cottages (Yorkshire, Cornwall, Norfolk etc) and it was brilliant. No stress at all, lots of exploring and fun, and DD loved it.

Went to Mallorca last year in a self catering villa with a pool and it was great! DD could nap / sleep in her cot as usual and we could have lovely bbqs in the garden by the pool, watching her on the monitor. We went out and about during the day and had lunch in restaurants. They provided cots and highchairs on request.

We were always together and DD never out of sight, so she couldn’t fall in the pool. Obviously we had to keep our eyes on her at all times.

I’ve done loads of different holidays. Portugal menorca. Devon Lake District. They European ones were always may or June before the heat really kicked in. And self catered.

Day trips were short. Nothing too long winded unless it was a child oriented place like a zoo or farm park.

If you go abroad take medicines. Calpol nurophen a thermometer plasters antihistamine sting bite etc. A lot easier than trying to explain to a chemist what you need and chemist abroad are very expensive and don’t open as good hours as here.

Keep the flight short if it’s your first.

One we really enjoyed when we could go out of school hols and was affordable was centre parks.