Travelling with an almost 2 year old

[OnMyJourney]

Hi!

Me and my partner are hoping to take our baby on holiday next year in September she will be almost 2 (22 months) we're looking at doing Spain but I feel like I can't book a holiday without knowing the safety of my girl in terms of travel, if anyone has any tips on how airport security works with a toddler that would be amazing, I'm also worried about when we get to Spain and need to travel to our hotel will the transfers have car seats or do I need to bring my own or request one? If I need to bring my own how do I go about sorting this with the airline? Will an almost 2 year old be okay on a plane I know they're quite restless at that age! Any help is massively appreciated I've never flown with a baby and I've only done 1 flight on my own as an adult so I'm stressed just thinking about it but I know once I'm there I'll have a great time! Xx

Most airlines have an allowance for infants, whereby you can take a car seat, a travel cot and a buggy, and usually extra weight in the luggage from memory. Our DD turns 2 a month before we fly, so we don't get the extra weight, but with easyJet we can take her car seat and travel cot if needed. I prefer to take our own seat just for peace of mind. For the plane journey, toys to distract, snacks etc

@annlee3817 ahh amazing thank you! I honestly didn't even think about a travel cot but it's good to know easyJet have an allowance for it! Hopefully they'll let us take a pushchair, car seat and travel cot! Seems like so much 😅

Check various airlines for their under 2 policies, most will transport a pram and/or car seat with no extra costs plus a small hand luggage bag.

We fly with DD since she is 8 months, we always take our own car seat apart from two occasions and it was a disaster.

DD was 22 months when we went to Majorca, sticker book, crayons and paper, books, snacks and lots and lots of patience and it will work. She was a toddler pre-electronics so we didn’t have the iPads etc but having one and downloading some cartoons with headphones work as well.

We did s/c at that age, DD was an early riser and I didn’t fancy spending 2 hours in a room before the breakfast was served and she wouldn’t go to sleep in her pram in the evening either. It was a lot easier going out for the day, having lunch somewhere and just snacks for dinner, she was in bed and DH and I had a drink and more food afterwards.

Just don’t expect you have the same kind of holiday you had before baby.

@reluctantbrit thank you! Think I'll deffo be taking my own car seat sounds a lot easier then faffing trying to get one! Will deffo do a bit of screen time luckily the flight to Spain isn't too long so hopefully screen time will keep her entertained long enough

As others have said airlines let you check 2 baby items (pushchair, car seat, travel cot, rucksack carrier) into the hold. With our last holiday with 22 month old twins we took a pushchair and 2 x rucksack carriers. Then hired car seats with our car rental. But previous holiday we took pushchair and car seats, as the hire cost of car seats were over £300 each (would of cost us £900 for a week for our 3 children!) Check online what you can take. And if allowed just turn up at the airport with it.

Security is fine. You can push them up to the scanner in the pushchair. But then they need to walk through the scanner. One of mine wouldn't walk (sat on the floor and screamed) so they let dh carry her through. You can take milk with you on the plane. As we had a night flight and my girls are dairy intolerant I took through oat milk for their bedtime drink with no issues.

Flight to Spain is quite short so you'll be fine. Take a tablet so she can watch some bits. Some books to read to her. A few new toys. And plenty of snacks.

May want to think about ears. My 2 have dummies, so they had these to suck during take off and landing. Eldest sucked a lolly.

Ah just go to Devon 😂

Do you plan on hiring a car once you’re there? If not, look at flying into Malaga and staying somewhere on the train line from the airport.