First holiday with LO - WWYD?

[MumtoRu21]

Morning

Looking for inspiration... first holiday with little one who will be about 9 months when we're looking to go on holiday (sometime between July and October).

So what would (did) you do for your first holiday? Where would (did) you go? What worked well? What didn't work well in hindsight? Would we be silly to consider a long haul flight, or a cruise?

Any advice or suggestions gratefully received 😁

We always drive to France when they were small, we have a mobile home there. It was so easy because you can load as much crap as you need want into the car and mine off the airport faff.

Long with a wriggling crawling baby would be my idea of hell.

We took DS to Orlando when he was 8 months and it was no bother at all. 8 hour flight and another 3 hours connection. He slept the entire time and only woke up in between to feed. Only thing Id probably do different is buy another seat for him so that we can get a bassinet for him to sleep in but we took turns carrying him so not a big deal. He was both breast fed and bottle fed but mostly bottle. We took a flask of hot water with us on the flight and just normal bottles of water to make formula.

I'm telling you its much easier traveling with a baby than you think, its the toddlers who are monsters lol. He's 3 now and end of this month will be the first time we take another long haul flight due to the pandemic and I'm dreading it.

Somewhere where you can have all the paraphernalia that accompanies a baby, and probably in the same time zone. I mean, your routine will be the same, you’re just somewhere different and you’ll eat out more. So somewhere that’s nice for that.

You know your own baby. If they're the flexible easy kind who will go with the flow & nap in the buggy, great. If they're not like that, then maybe you'll have more of a challenge. Our first 'family' holiday was a huge learning curve! Our newly crawling baby was not into being in the buggy so we spent a lot of time walking slowly behind him in hotel corridors!

Either way, keep your expectations low. You're probably not going to be able to have long luxurious meals, relaxing drinks etc. If you're happy to just relax by a pool and enjoy some sunshine, you might have a lovely time! Definitely villa or self catering. Nothing worse than baby asleep by 7 and you're stuck whispering to each other in a hotel room.

I took my daughter to Ibiza when she was around 8 months old. It was such a lovely holiday. We didn’t go to a “mainstream” busy place but a smaller resort which had enough to keep us all occupied. It was so nice strolling to the beach, having nice meals and generally just relaxing!

I suffer badly from jet-lag so the idea of being overly tired and having to deal with a cranky baby was my idea of hell. So we stayed in Europe until DD was 7.

We did self-catering for years, DD wasn't a baby or toddler who coped well with being out in the evening and never slept in her buggy outside naps during the day. We did lots of trips during the day with a picnic lunch or a restaurant and did a cold dinner with wine or a BBQ at the villa. It also meant no issues with bottles or breakfast when DD was up at 6am ready for the day.

Friends went several times to Kinderhotels in Austria, temperatures are better than the Med, the hotels are set up that you can book everything you need.

We did a mix of England, Germany and Majorca (but early June, not high Summer).

We took ds self catering in this country & also to our caravan nearly every weekend from 6 weeks old & to Spain at 18 months, he was no problem at all. Just get a folding buggy, book to take it to the steps of the plane & it's usually first off at the other end.

Spain or the Balearic Islands would be ideal. Menorca is particularly lovely and only a 2 hour flight.

We went to a caravan in the UK

Between July and October can be a huge difference in terms of baby’s mobility. If they can crawl long haul might be more difficult. I have taken my DC1 long haul from 12months and will take DC2 long haul when he is 11 months. I don’t think it’s an issue per se, I prefer flying to a road trip. You can get up, feed, play, change and cuddle a lot more easily.
get the right equipment eg travel stroller, snooze shade, etc and book right accommodation that suits you and the baby. Personally I hate self catering with small children so we go AI. Some
people love the flexibility of self catering. Have realistic expectations and give baby time to settle in and adapt to new temperature.

Also re baby asleep in Hotel room at nighr, maybe they can sleep in sling or buggy and you can have a drink. We always book somewhere with balcony or patio so we can sit outside if we want to when baby is asleep.

Avoid school holidays (obviously), stay in the UK, invite your parents or PIL. It will be a proper holiday if you have extra hands to help. Maybe they can babysit while you and your partner go out. We almost always go away with family now because it’s far more enjoyable.

Years ago MN Towers did a book of parenting bon mots and quotes, I was quoted as saying there was in reality no such thing as a holiday with littlies, just childcare in a different climate.... Once you get your head around this, it is fine.

not gonna lie I kinda agree but we make the best of it haha

Definitely self catering.

inviting parents or PIL is not a holiday for me but just stress. Lucky you but 2 weeks in close contact and I would murder someone.

and I do like them, but only in small doses.

Holidays with babies are fab, and far easier than with toddlers! I would fly east rather than west and not go further than 3-4 hours time difference. We liked to stay somewhere with a crèche so we could have a few hours to ourselves. Take a snoozeshade for the buggy and try to time naps for mealtimes so you can enjoy some nice meals together. We did Malta/Gozo, Dubai, Turkey, Egypt when ours were a similar age and all of them were brilliant holidays.

We’ve taken ours long haul at that age with no issues. We did have a cruise cancelled this year as they weren’t allowing unvaccinated passengers but that may of changed now.

Self catering and grandparents would be my nightmare holiday. I love a place where I don’t have to worry about cooking/cleaning/where the local supermarket is and what time it closes!

I’ve done a lot of travel with mine and 9 months is the absolute worst age to travel with by a long way. Younger and it’s fine- they aren’t mobile yet and sleep a lot. Older than 1 and they can watch screens for a bit and theyre on normal food (no mush or formula). I honestly wouldn’t voluntarily travel with that age. But that aside I’d stay in a suite in a hotel so you have space when baby is sleeping. No thanks to cooking and cleaning in self catering.

Oh not 2 weeks! I couldn’t manage parents or in laws for that long either. We only ever go away for 1 week.