Is there a good age to take kids abroad or is it always horrible?

[FallOfSloths]

My kids are still fairly young (oldest still in infants) and we've not tried an abroad holiday, as it just seems they're too little to really care/get much benefit out of it to justify the price. I was thinking that this would be something we'd enjoy when they're older.

However, my friend has just come back from a winter sun thing with her kids (13 and 14) and says it was awful, they just fought the whole time and also just spent the whole thing rolling their eyes at her and her DH and not wanting to be near them. Before anyone says they're just spoiled etc, I have known them all their lives and they are generally decent children. My friend said she thinks the proximity just causes the arguing and that maybe it was just too intense (whereas normally they wouldn't be together all the time with school, work, activities etc).

Anyway, just curious to know if there's a golden age where abroad holidays really work? I'm particularly thinking about beach based AI type stuff as that's what I liked doing pre children, with a little bit of sightseeing.

Or do you have to wait until they leave home to properly enjoy things?!

For beach based AI, everything I've heard suggests golden period is about 5 to 14ish? It's a particularly sweet spot when they're eating adult sized amounts but still being costed as a child.

We never went abroad with ours when they were little though, so this is just observation and speaking to others. It probably would've been fine, people I see with preschoolers usually seem to be enjoying their holidays. But for me it was too much of a risk because with small DC there's always a realistic chance they'll be ill and fuck up the week. I didn't mind that so much with a cheapo caravan a couple of hours away, but I wasn't schlepping abroad with that hanging over me! I also thought it would be frustrating to be somewhere I really wanted to be and couldn't often get to, but be tied to a toddler's schedule. YMMV.

I find the great joy of AI is not having to do the mental work of organising the food and also the drinks, and the latter was a bigger deal than I'd expected in hot weather. That would still be attractive with younger DC even if they weren't eating that much. I really appreciate not having to do the thing where you sit and wait for your food in cafes too, buffets work much better for mine.

Oh yes I hadn't even factored in the illness thing, that would be awful.

Ours were 4 & 8 on first full family holiday to Spain. It went really well.

Before having DS we'd taken DD to Germany aged 2, and Ibiza aged 3 and she was great on both.

Depends on the individual kids really. Agree that teens can be a bit hard on holiday - DH took both kids to Ibiza a couple of years ago (15 & 19) and DS spent most evenings alone in the apartment on Snapchat with his mates.

We’ve done a villa holiday every year since they were toddlers, both at uni now. They’ve argued like drunks since they learnt to talk, so only difference was that on holiday they argued in the pool!
They’ve always been okay in public though - they save their bickering to behind closed doors like an old married couple.
Family holidays with young kids are overrated really - same shit different location mostly. Skiing was always successful though, all too exhausted then!

We only have the one DS and we've gone abroad most years since he was 2. We always rent an apartment or villa and visit other places in the locality, a mixture of child friendly such as animal parks, theme parks, plus days out just visiting places, playing on beach or just walking around. Always made sure there was a TV with the ability to play English channels or DVD. We still do the odd holiday together now with his GF (both early 20s)

Just looking at what you say here

I think the pressure thing is really true. We don't have the budget to be going abroad several times a year or even necessarily yearly so I do feel concerned that they would be happily colouring or in a playground and I would be thinking 'I've paid ££££ for you to be doing something you could be doing at home!'. I'm not sure how to get out of that mindset unless just thinking that at least it's going down the slide in nice weather rather than rain.

I think a lot of our holidays actually were like that, very simple, visiting local playgrounds, kicking a ball around on the beach like we would have done in the UK. We normally travelled pretty cheaply and that does take the pressure off.

I think the pressure thing is really true. We don't have the budget to be going abroad several times a year or even necessarily yearly so I do feel concerned that they would be happily colouring or in a playground and I would be thinking 'I've paid ££££ for you to be doing something you could be doing at home!'. I'm not sure how to get out of that mindset unless just thinking that at least it's going down the slide in nice weather rather than rain

My DC are grown up now but what I found worked was the mindset, my DH and I really want/need a holiday, we have DC now so we’ll find somewhere that works for us all but the holiday isn’t only about the DC.