Canada with toddler and baby

[Mothership2025]

We are planning a 2 week trip to Vancouver Island this summer. We’ll have a 3 year old and a 9 month old. We’d be flying from Heathrow. We would love any advice on:

1. Jet lag - best way to navigate this with kids/baby so the holiday isn’t wrecked? Vancouver is 8 hours behind UK.

2. Vancouver island - best spots? Must-sees? Fun places for parents AND kids? We are thinking 1 week on east coast and 1 week on west coast.

3. travelling long haul with kids generally

TIA!

Used to do a lot of 8 hour ish flying with wee ones, back and forth from Middle East to UK, plus holiday flights to US/Caribbean.

Don’t wear anything special for the flight - one or both are bound to be sick on you, or wee on you, or both, and the toddler will almost inevitably manage to smear food/spill a drink down you. A spare top to change into on arrival isn’t a bad idea, if you want to look halfway presentable.
Obviously a change of clothes for the toddler, if not for both.
Can you tell I’m speaking from experience?

Take some sort of food you know your toddler will eat. My go-to (aeons ago) was Marmite sandwiches.

Jet lag, can’t really help there, you just have to grin and bear it. If staying in a hotel sure you have some sort of food available for when they wake up at 3 am wanting breakfast!

Some people find a night flight easier with very little ones - in which case take toddler to the airport in pyjamas.

Have you researched Vancouver Island? First of all, the west coast is a wilderness. There is little to do - it is a place to explore nature and hike. You would be better off spending time in Vancouver and then spending a few days on the island. but be warned, our boat back was cancelled due to the weather.

For jet lag, there’s no way to avoid it completely so plan to take it easy the first few days and have lower expectations than usual. You can help minimise it by adjusting sleeping patterns gradually in the build-up to the trip, exposing yourselves to sunlight asap on arrival, and adjusting your meals/snacks as soon as you arrive.

We flew with baby and toddler to san francisco with BA. Check out your airlines policy but ba let you book the seats with a bassinet as soon as you've booked your flight for free. Worth doing as the fill up. It also gives you a bit more foot space. You also had option to order a toddler meal.

Pack yourself a spare outfit as well as one for the kids (daughters nappy leaked). Also useful in event your luggage goes missing (1 suitcase and our travel cot).
We got our eldest a new rucksack with colouring pencils, books and things to do so it was all new and exciting. I got a sticker book about airports. Think about how you pack your hand luggage. What do you need easy access to? If you are in bulk head seats you will need to put everything up for take off and landing. Have a few familiar snacks as they might not like plane food. You can order up stuff to pick up on airtime boots such as formula to save you taking it through screening.

As for jet lag, eldest switched easily over, baby (and me) went on to her own time. We were doing alot of driving so this didnt help establish pattern.

Also good to chat to toddler about scanner. Think there is peppa pig episode where teddy goes through with luggage. Our toddler had to walk through scanner by herself first time.