Best destination with a toddler

[user1480880826]

I want to make the most of being able to travel outside of school holidays. My son is 2.5 and we want to go on a big holiday next year.

Where would people recommend? I’d love to go to Costa Rica. Is it suitable for young kids? And if we fly all that way, where else is worth us going to?

How about a road trip around the states? Too much time in the car for a small kid?

Any other recommendations?

I'd probably recommend somewhere with a short flight for your first holiday so your son can get to grips with planes and the whole travelling deal. I'm booking a holiday to Spain for next summer with my six kids (DD1 will be four, DD2 and 3 will be three and DD4, DS1 and DS2 will be almost one by the time we go) and two of my brothers. We're going to find a family friendly hotel with a little water park for my brothers and the kids will have fun on the beaches and in the pools. You could probably find an all inclusive holiday for somewhere like spain quite cheap if it's just the two of you because kids tend to want everything on sight and it's always handy to have access to everything you could need without spending grands while you're there.

Perhaps look into booking tours for places where you go or finding activities for kids. Trip advisor can always find you a few options to do wherever you go. Best of luck looking xx

While Costa Rica is do-able with a toddler, it may be a better location for when he is older and able to take advantage of activities (zip lining etc) and really appreciate the wildlife? We took youngest DD when she was 6, much younger than that I’m not sure she’d have got much out of it. A USA or Canadian scaled down road trip at the end of spring/start of summer might be a better idea if he doesn’t get car sick? I personally avoided longhaul and really hot when DD were toddlers after a bad experience but Canada worked!

Apartments are better than hotels (imo) when children are small, nicer to come back to during the day, more separate space for sleeping & if your child is a fussy eater then you can make them something they will actually eat!

We went to Costa Rica and loved it - would say the ideal age for children there would be tween or teenage so they can do all the activities like ziplining and whitewater rafting and if wildlife approaches them they know not to run up to it. It is a wonderful place though and would show your child rainforest and wildlife and you probably could tailor some activities - we did a hummingbird garden, walks through rainforest, saw lots of wildlife which would be suitable but there would be quite a lot they are not old enough for. The beach was quite wild and the ocean where we were wasn't really suitable for that age group but many hotels have pools. At our hotel it was mainly teenagers / young adults / families with older children and very few under 10s. My DC where 10 and 11 and that age was fine. We didn't do longhaul until the children were older so had a shorter flight and at that age they won't remember it. We also had a family of raccoons approach us quite regularly which was lovely but a younger child might try and touch them, depends how sensible your children are.

Within Europe we went to Madeira which worked well, Italy, Sweden and Denmark around that age - we stayed at a lovely B&B with 50ish alpacas this summer in Sweden, which probably would be good for a young child, Norranges Alpacka, about 2 hours north of Stockholm. Stockholm is nice and Copenhagen is good for Tivoli and easy to get to from Stockholm. I wouldn't do long drives with a 2/3 year old and would go somewhere with things there or very close by.

USA requires long drives so why do that when he would love playing on a beach? Costa Rica is definitely better when DC are older.

We had holidays in Brittany when DC were young. Sun, sea, sand and great food for the parents! Mallorca and Menorca were also firm favourites. If you really want long haul - stay in a decent hotel on a Caribbean island. You could do two centre to change the scenery. Ditto Greece. Or Italy. So many lovely places to stay.

We did 3 weeks in Thailand when DS was 18m, and have done Antigua, Dubai and Jordan since. Thailand is great with young children, I'd say its more suitable than a USA road trip.

We fly a lot anyway but the flights are fine with DS.

Costa Rica is great but like @PandancerandRabbitoplh I would say tween and up is the best age.

You could take your toddler on a USA road trip but I doubt they will get more out of it than a short haul trip.

At that age I would travel short distances for dc and only go longer distance if it was something for the adults.
(Latin American countries are very dc friendly if do really want to do long haul with a toddler)

We took DD as a toddler a few times to Mauritius. It was lovely, not ridiculously hot, everyone made a huge fuss of DD and they couldn't have been more accommodating.

We did a California road trip when DD was 2.5, it was great. There was plenty of beach/park/outdoor museum stuff for her. But she’s always been happy in the car which probably helped. We balanced out our days so there was stuff for her and us (we even managed to go to Alcatraz!), and made the most of nap time for a peaceful lunch!