Travelling with toddler - one hotel room or two?

[jennifersofia]

When travelling with a toddler, how do other people work out the accommodation? We are going on holiday and can only afford one hotel room, however I am apprehensive because normally we put our girl down in her (dark) room around 7pm. As I don't really fancy going to bed at 7 every night, but also don't fancy having an exhausted and exhaustive fractious child, I am not sure what to do. She never sleeps in her pushchair when we are out and I don't think she would sleep in a room where the lights were on and we were there doing something. Advice please!

My problem would be the rest of the night rather than the evening - room sharing has always been a complete disaster, we seem to disturb him in the night, he cries VERY loudly, and is difficult to soothe back to sleep (we don't co-sleep and I'm sure he would be even worse actually in the bed).
Jennifersofia, how would you feel about taking a monitor and spending the evening in the communal areas of the hotel?

Many hotels have a baby listening service whereby you leave the phone off the hook in your bedroom and reception listen in, or you can ring your room periodically and listen yourself.
We have put our two to bed (aged 17 and 33mns) and gone downstairs and eaten in the restauraunt, and used the baby listening and our own monitor, which has worked quite well.

The monitor thing worked well for us too, but make sure you're not on 10th floor, cos it won't work that far.

Also, have you tried getting a family room? We recently stayed in a hotel & got a family room which was only a bit more than a double, and it gave us 2 connecting rooms, plus eating area fridge & kitchenette. Really fab. And I cannot sleep in the same room as mine - don't get a wink of sleep.

We've always had pretty disastrous times when we've tried to sleep in one room in hotels or travel lodges. The boys are used to sharing a room, but they don't go to bed at the same time, and they go to bed in a dark room. I won't go to a hotel now unless we can afford two adjoining rooms, I'd prefer to self-cater and have more space.

Depends where you are going and what you can afford.

We've tried from sleeping 4 to a room (not ideal unless you can escape either to a balcony or other areas of hotel with baby listening service), to family rooms / suites which have 2 distinct sleeping areas, giving you freedom to stay in the room if you wish. I don't think I would have felt comfortable with ds as a toddler in a separate room on his own, even adjoining, especially if he had been in a bed or able to get out of a cot.

hth

LizS

Have you thought about changing your daughter's routine?
When I went on holiday this summer dd was 2.5 and we basically got her into sleeping 2/3 hours in the day ( enough to sleep/read/relax etc) and then keeping her up till 9.30/10 when we all went to bed?
Seemed to suit us all fine and got round the sharing rooms business
Otherwise would suggest drinks on the balcony every evening....

I know a lot of hotels ive stayed in had rooms adjoined by a door in the middle. That way you could put the kids in one and have the door open and be able to see in the other room. I have done this a few times myself.

Have the same problem. To date on holidays have stayed in self catered accomodation or apartment and in hotels we have upgraded to a suite where there is a separate lounge where we can sit and have room service when DD goes to sleep at 7pm (in her darkened room). I can sleep in the same room as her but DH is worried he will wake her up and will go so far as to sleep on the floor of the lounge. Not great when you pay so much for the suite!..... Still the sleep routine of 7pm in her own darkened room AT HOME has been great.

I wouldn't dream of sleeping in a different room to my child in an hotel, unless we had interconnecting doors. I wouldn't get any sleep myself, for fear of worrying about fire/kidnap/sickness/burglars (a friend recently awoke in her hotel in Bournemouth to find a man climbing in their window!!) so I might just as well put up with their snoring and whiffling. Ours have always been adaptable and will stay up later so that hasn't been a problem for us.

You don't say how old your child is Jennifersofia but we had a similar situation this summer on a family holiday. Could you perhaps put your daughter in her cot in the dark while you have a drink on the balcony and then once she is asleep, transfer her to her pushchair and venture out? I can only speak from our experience but this worked for us. Ous ds was only one at the time though but he slept through the Airtours disco night after night and didn't wake on being put back into his cot.

My sister's children are older and she did like beejay and got the children to have a sleep during the day and then they stayed up later.

Good luck whatever you do.