Is it possible to have a good holiday with a toddler?!

[lumberjackie]

Tell me about your holidays, preferably abroad, with 2-3 year old that were actually enjoyable and not just 'same stress different location'.

Thinking about things like balcony safety, pool safety, constant vigilance, airports/planes etc....given that holidays aren't cheap is it worth it or better to wait till 4-5?

What is your definition of a good holiday?

We found we needed to revise what a 'holiday' meant to us.

Perfectly possible to have a break from home, and have fun away.

Toddlers just love being with their parents. Just choose something simple and enjoy. A mobile home in the U.K. next to the beach? That kept mine entertained.

I think it depends on the child.

With mine at that age going somewhere to sit down and eat or even just to the shops was a challenge and it usually resulted in meltdowns, screaming and crying.
So there is no way in hell I would have gone away on holiday as I know it wouldn't have been fun.

A friend had no problem going away with her toddler even though toddler wouldn't sit still for more than 2 min. For her just being in the sun and away from cloudy UK was worth it.

I recently went out with a big group of people and one of the couples had the most well behaved toddler I have ever seen. Very obedient and sat nicely on the table.

Take a grandparent, an extra pair of adult hands is the only way to enjoy your holiday if you have a wilful toddler. If you have a very placid one it will probably be lovely regardless!

Royal Son Bou in Menorca is ultra toddler friendly and has a Creche in the restaurant.

We visited the isle of Wight (18 months old) Devon (2.5 years old) and spain (3 and 4 years old) when my ds was younger. Lovely holidays. We're not into drinking and eating out much. We like a pub meal. We don't sun bathe really. We visited slightly more child friendly attractions. Zoos and boat rides. Trips to the park. Ds liked the pools in spain.

We had fun holidays with toddlers. Mark Warner in Turkey and Greece out of school holidays, very set up for toddlers food and entertainment wise, evening babysitting club if you wished to have dinner with no kids.
But also we enjoyed self catering in Cornwall. Nice cottage, beach days and early dinners out. Drinks outside whilst DC slept. You just have to adapt your expectations.

Is it two parents: one child? If so, we didn't find it that tricky but we did throw money at it. AI resort, villa so no balconies, always one of us playing with DS on the beach/near the pool. We kept him up at night so we'd have dinner together and then go back to the room. DS was fine on the plane, albeit sick but we are always prepared for that.

I think it is - but you have to massively lower your expectations and basically focus on what they enjoy. Before having kids we'd travel around while on holiday and stay in hotels/quiet lodges. Since having kids, we mainly do eurocamp breaks abroad or haven in the uk as they're kid focused with pools/playgrounds etc. Self catered means you don't have to always eat out.

Toddlers generally love transport. Airports and planes are exciting. Then inflight it’s unlimited screen time and snacks. Flying when they’re at the older mobile baby stage is really tough and long haul is it’s own challenge but 3YOs are breezy for short haul. Just got back from holiday 2 hours ish flight- DH slept most of it, I had a glass of wine and managed 6 chapters of my book. Then did beach clubs every day, the nice ones where they provide the towels and bring you drinks so you’re not laden down with stuff, and they have clean loos and showers. The kids pottered in the sand with overpriced buckets and spades whilst we watched from our loungers, then lunch and a swim. Staying up late after dinner doesn’t happen now we have a 7YO as it’s the awkward too young for late nights, too old to sleep in the pram stage, but if we just had the 3YO it wouldn’t be an issue! Now we push bedtimes a little bit, eat together, then they go to bed and we do drinks on the balcony/terrace and play travel Scrabble. Bit of a change from pre kids holidays but it’s still lovely in its own way. In the winter we like skiing- ski school/resort nanny and stay in a chalet. Requires more planning and more money than pre kids but also still good fun!

My problem is if i have spent £8k and its not amazing i feel its more than a bit muggy amd am pissed off.

And dragging my 2 yr old and baby through an airport and onto a tin can in the sky is always going to be a stressy mess both ways... i also could just about deal with one 9m old between 2 on laps no way can i handle 2 so you need 4 seats.

We do self catering coastal holidays and i enjoyed them i think because
-they cost less so the bar is lower
-less effort is needed to get there

We do a click and collect food shop and if we want to potter about the lodge it's no big deal and theres lots of indoor amd outdoor options and we have the car

You need to discuss beforehand how you're going to manage childcare so that both parents have an equal amount of proper free time. And check with each other often that both of you are feeling heard and fairly treated. Be honest about this and adjust as appropriate. That sounds a bit soulless, but it is important! Also absolutely drop your standards. They won't come to harm if they live on chips and ice cream for 10 days! Most toddlers sleep happily in a pushchair so park them next to your restaurant table and don't worry about bedtimes.

Campsite in France with static vans overlooking the sea worked well for us at that age. Easy to get to on the boat. Nice place for me and DH to relax with a drink on the terrace when DC are in bed.

It’s all about expectations for you to have a good time. Plan your holiday around their needs and you’ll be successful. Let them do what they need - sleep whenever and eat whenever.
Try to start the day with a good breakfast so if the rest of the day isn’t so good it doesn’t matter. Do anything you can to get a daytime nap even if they don’t get one at home.
Invest in a balcony lock to help you feel better.
For the plane a tablet with videos and very basic games. Stickers, colouring and snacks. Stick to a short flight and transfer.
We have booked a location with a lot to do - so depending on how she is we can either hang out by the pool with splash pad and beach or go on an adventure to the zoo, waterpark, adventure house.

It is possible, but you have to manage your expectations. 😂

I work full time, so all my holidays abroad with toddlers have been amazing and relaxing because I don't have to get up at 6:30am, wrestle myself into a shift dress and have everyone out the door by 8am.

I found when they were very little AI or a big resort was perfect and we'd always try and get a junior suite or a suite so that we weren't all crammed in the same room. At the very least a room with a balcony so we could chill on it while the toddler was asleep.

We try really hard to avoid driving much because DS is chronically carsick after about 20 minutes. 6 hour flight with a 3 year old was an absolute breeze compared to a 2 hour drive with a puking 3 year old.

Abroad holidays with DS when he was a toddler were just awful. He hated the heat (early May) so we spent the days in the air conditioned hotel room.

Great subsequent holidays were in cottages in Northumberland, North Wales and Devon. Lots of toddler friendly things to do, mild weather and NHS GPs in case of illness.

We took our 3 year old to Barbados to a beach-side AI hotel one winter (it ended up closer to Christmas than we'd planned thanks to heavy snow).

We had a balcony (TBF she was used to bannisters as our house is 3 storeys with big drops and risk averse) so we could sit out there with drinks during naps and/or after supper.

It was honestly worth it just to see her face going down to a beautiful quiet, white, sandy beach for the first time (she'd forgotten about the sea as we'd not been near the coast for months and months). We'd head out first thing, stay indoors from 12-3 and head out to the pool in the late afternoon.

She made a couple of toddler friends in the kids pool and was happy to spend time with us.

We hired a car for a couple of days to explore, but otherwise just relaxed in the sun.

We are on holiday on IOW this week (static caravan job) with our 18 month old. She decided she hates swimming, but apart from that has been quite happy to be carted round castles and stately homes and shops, as long as we let her out on her reins and to have an hour at the Park.
Maybe she's not a True toddler yet though, although we do get a couple of tantrums a day. Bearable though.

We had lovely holidays.

DD was used to be taken around museums, stately homes and churches. So it didn't matter if it was in England or Majorca. I have a great photo of her open-mouthed looking at the large stained glass window of the cathedral in Palma.

We did self catering so we knew she would be able to eat when she woke up at 6.30am instead of worrying until the restaurant fully opened at 8-9am.
She had her own room so we all slept better.

We had evenings in peace as we didn't had to worry about her not sleeping in the pram and being overtired while we tried to eat.

With no school holiday, we could go outside the hot season and do activities.

She was used to flying from 9 month onwards to see the grandparents.

I'm currently on holiday with my almost 3 year old. We've gone with extended family and its made a difference with the practical stuff, it's been nice to have someone spend some time with her in the pool or play with her so we can have some down time. That being said, I don't feel like it's been a relaxing holiday by any stretch compared to our pre child life.

Safety wise, we went for a villa with a gated pool and I'm so so pleased that we did because its one less thing to worry about. No balconies but there are a few sharp drops around and the floors and stairs are VERY hard as they always seem to be in Europe so I've barely let her out of my sight to be honest. Even when she's with DH or one of my parents I'm always on guard!

Found the travelling to be fine tbh - she found it all very exciting and even though we loaded the ipad with loads of Peppa and Disney films we've hardly needed it and she's been happy to watch out the window on the plane, chat to us. We are only a 2.5 hour flight away then an hour drive, wouldn't have wanted much longer than that tbh.

Sun safety is also more of a factor - we've kept her out of the sun between 11 and 3 every day which has meant a lot of books and drawing etc inside because she absolutely wouldn't stay in the shade otherwise. We are out in the sticks a bit with not a lot of indoor stuff to do so I'd factor that in and maybe go somewhere where you have options for the hot part of the day!

We has a lovely holiday in Sardinia with our 2 when aged 1 and 3. We stayed in a little house on the beach.

I think so. We've done 2 abroad trips so far with our 22 month old with another imminently. Pre DS we'd book an expensive hotel with a nice pool spend at least half the day by it and the other time exploring locally. We found that a decent large AI suits us well at the moment and our time is spent eating 3 meals a day, going for walks with the pushchair and taking DS swimming. He still has a 2 hr midday nap so we relax on our balcony/read during that time. It's relaxing in a different way to holidays before and during the week we give ourselves at least an afternoon each to have a spa treatment or go by the pool while the other does the childcare.
I think the key is to not expect it to be the same and pick something that suits your family preferences and the age of the child.

We did go abroad when we just had our eldest, once when she had just turned 2 for a family wedding (was fine plenty of family around to help), then went to lanzarote when she was 3 because we thought might as well use her passport. We then didn't go until youngest was 7, in part due to covid and also just the thought of managing two through the airport and flight.
If you don't have to go I would stay in the UK until they're about 5 and can cope better with the travelling.
Kids that age are perfectly happy on the beach in the UK.

Get a cottage or villa or anything self catering. That way you have an evening to relax when toddler is in bed. Don't share a hotel room all together!

When my son was younger, we did UK breaks in nice self catering cottages.

Lake District/Devon/Cornwall. The Lakes usually for winter but Devon/Cornwall for summer.
We had lovely holidays - nice and relaxed at our own pace, using the beaches nearby/pottering in towns etc. I always found cottages with a garden so we could use that.

With covid and some elderly, ill relatives, we actually didn't take DS abroad until last year. He was 9 by then so far easier and we all had an amazing time.