What’s your approach to travel when you have a toddler?

[POWdone]

We’ve just realised that it’s a completely different ball game than travelling with a baby so trying to figure out how to approach it.

Do you go to the places you like anyway even if it’s challenging with a child?
Do you pause travelling for a while until they can meaningfully engage?
Do you go to other places even if it’s not somewhere you’d go because it’s easier with a child?
Do you leave them with someone you trust and go for a shorter break so you can have a rest?

Curious to hear your perspectives as there are so many different ways to go about it!

I think it depends on the child. My first was an up for anything, go anywhere child-we just went whatever we wanted and she came too. Our second was more-not sure how to put it-liable to culture shock. He could manage and enjoy a few hours of new stuff, then needed some downtime to reset before he was up for more.

I suppose there are unicorn children who will sit quietly on a plane for hours, adapt happily to the new time zone (even an hour out can take some adjustment) nap on the go or a sun lounger and sit in a restaurant calmly but honestly I don’t know any. I know a lot of well behaved, well brought up toddlers and I’d like to think mine falls into that category but we’ve just done Center Parcs or holiday cottages in the UK holidays and don’t see that changing for at least another year!

Pre-kids we'd do city breaks or travel around and stay in hotels. Now with two young kids we tend to do self-catering holiday parks - generally eurocamp if we go abroad and haven in the UK. Been to Butlins a couple of times and it's DD's favourite place on earth. Still fun, just in different ways - they tend to have pools/playgrounds/entertainment, we go out for a day trip or two to explore the area.

We took ours abroad when he was two. We only booked a week as we weren't sure how he would take it, and he was quite an odd toddler (autism although we didn't know at the time) so it was a bit up in the air. We booked a rather tame holiday more geared towards managing him, incorporating aspects that we felt instinctively that he would like or be able to cope with, but tbf we were desperate to get away to Greece again so we would have managed somehow!

I do think that while the dc are very young, it makes sense to ensure that the holiday is centred around keeping them within their comfort zones whatever that looks like. As they get used to the differences you can expand into doing things that are more in your line, but softly softly.

Our toddler actually was a dream on that first holiday and actually on every one since. He's 17 now and LOVES going on holiday, every aspect of it including the journeys. We got lucky!

For us, self-catering, somewhere near a beach. We always went to France so we could take our own car and fill it with lots of their toys etc and hired a place with a garden. Eurocamp type places also worked.

Before kids we went abroad twice a year now we go holiday cottages in uk until we feel they will appreciate it more abroad maybe another year or two since we have 4 under 4

Campsites but near a place of interest- go there for a day or two on say trips. Campsites are great because everything is on site and geared towards children.
Plenty of new cheap toys for plane, snacks and flight near nap time.
Just go with the flow don't have plans as such..
Don't stop your travels 😊

We went places we wanted but put in stuff for them, so safari, low grade white water rafting, water parks, animal related stuff and limited culture stuff. We did bits we wanted and said you behave this morning and we’ll do x tomorrow. We only had one awful flight back from Delhi.

We went once and its was so shut we paused until older

We mostly did U.K. seaside self-catering for a few years.

I went on trips I wanted to do. Small children are pretty adaptable. We chose road trips mostly as we live in the USA, makes it easier with gear but we did backpack as well. Kids don’t do sitting still whilst you bask in the sun so active trips seemed to work well - best one was backpacking around Alaska by public transport.

We drove to France every summer, could bring exactly what we needed for twins and a dog. First ‘big’ holiday was USA at 2.5.

We did city breaks and Lake District mostly. I don't like organised activity holidays or holiday parks and I don't feel the toddler age would work well with that anyway.

Lake District was in holiday cottage and city breaks in hotels. The only things I remember DS struggling with were grapes with pips in in Paris and breakfast orange juice in wine glass in Nice. With the latter we asked in French for a different glass for him, but they just said they didn't have any, which was annoying because they had different glasses on every other day during the break.

I tend to feel being able to get out of routine, nap on the go etc. is a skill to learn as early as possible.

Go with the flow, do what works for your family and ignore others.

We found hotels hell so we did caravans abd camping.
But happily moved countries several times.

We just took ours wherever we wanted to go. We weren't doing full on crazy days of sightseeing when they were tiny, but we still went to interesting places like Indonesia and Easter Island when they were small, we might do some sightseeing in the morning and chill a bit more in the afternoon. The kids themselves obviously have no memory of seeing the moai or Borobodur or the Statue of Liberty, but my husband and I have very fond memories of these trips. We travelled extensively before having kids, and I was an expat so travel is an integral part of our life and the kids were always going to have to fly long haul from an early age.

We have centered our holidays around the children, for an easy life. We had many years of holidays before dc, and hopefully many years after they are grown. So this is a period of things I would never have done without DC, but have grown to love.

So AI waterpark holidays, Centerparcs, themeparks, etc. DH and I tend to try to give each other time to pursue activities on our own during holidays also, so we both get a break.

We did holidays as normal but obviously they were different in content. We didn’t go out late for example , and found that one four hour excursion in the morning then afternoon by the pool (or whatever the hotel has) worked best. Otherwise the kids get cranky and that’s no fun for anyone!
Our biggest trip was Australia for a month when kids were 20 months and three years. Timing not great in terms of their ages but that was the year my DH had to take his sabbatical. We adjusted as mentioned above, and while we missed not being able to go out for nice dinners we had a great time. We also did a few more holidays within the UK while they were small, like the Isle of Wight and Lyme Regis. This cut out the stress of flying and the kids were happy on the beach after a walk around in the mornings. You just have to accept their needs come first as an overtired toddler can ruin any holiday.

We have foreign holidays a miss for a few years and did UK breaks instead.
We went abroad with DD when she was almost 3 but she was quite a sensible child and also we went out of school holidays so it was quiet.
Didn’t take both together until youngest was 6.5 (partly due to covid)

We travelled to the US once a year to visit family, we often visited big theme parks like Disney/Universal. We didn't do any other flights until the youngest was 4, but that wasn't hugely restrictive as we live near the Eurostar so we travelled to Europe a few times a year, and did some UK holidays. We did Eurocamp, DLP, a Disney cruise, city breaks, some cottages/air bnbs, theme park breaks, Butlins, lots of travelling on foreign public transport and long days out. No AI resorts. I've never left them at home to go on holiday on my own, it never appealed to me. We used some venues with free kids clubs where we could have left them, but we never left them there until they were about 3.

My sons a good traveller but I wouldn't do long haul or anything like that, nothing that takes ages, where he's stuck and bored. We haven't got a tablet or anything for him, we buy a Thomas the tank engine magazine usually and toys and books, and chat to him or play, or he looks out the window etc on trains.

We just make sure there's lots for him to do where we go and he's a happy little buddy just with us as we travel about, but we make sure he's got his bedtime routine still, and bring a stroller style pram if we know we will be out so even thkigh he doesn't nap he will have one then as he's super stimulated in new places l.

The holidays my husband I used to have aren't chikd friendly, like hiking in remote places etc so we've adapted to him, they change so fast so it's not forever. We've been to Berlin and he had a blast just coming along with us and then lots of play grounds too, London similar. Caravan hols have been great, we hasn't done any before having a kid but love them.

We have stuck to European beach holidays since having a baby but she’s only 2. Once shes a bit older we will do longer haul or more multi stop trips (only having 1 child).

We used to stay with relatives in Spain when DS was a toddler, so I'd say self-catering in a warm country with a garden and a sandy beach nearby works well. We had a nice time with him in Malaga too.

Our girls are now 6 and 4 and we’ve gone abroad with them since dd2 was 6 months.

we’ve stuck to AI resorts in Greece and Turkey so far. Flights are around 4ish hours and our girls have handled them well (sleep, snacks, iPads and colouring)
the resorts we choose have decent kids club offerings that our girls enjoy going to for a a couple of hours each day or a session of 2-3 hours 2 or 3 times a week. They also just love being in the pool or on the beach.

maybe we’re lucky our kids don’t mind a flight and aren’t generally too wild when eating in restaurants, etc.

we’ve also done lots of weekends and over nights in the UK with them to break up half terms and they love a hotel stay!

we’re visiting Florida for Disney/Universal in October so that will be a huge change in terms of flight length and type of holiday but we’ll make it work. If they get too tired or overwhelmed, we’ll cut park visits short, add in extra “down” days. Just need to be flexible with plans

We just crack on and hope for the best 😂 when my first was born we did loads of UK breaks and took him to Majorca at 7 months, had no idea what to expect but had an amazing holiday, he was a very easy baby though. He’s now 2 and we now also have a 10 month old who is the opposite, very highly strung and demanding! Since she’s been born though we’ve done 5 UK breaks and we’re taking them both abroad in September. Don’t overthink it, just find someplace that you’d enjoy and make sure you’ve got ideas to keep your toddler occupied! We’ve only had one nightmare break but they were both ill and teething, you can’t prepare for those things though so you just plan it and hope for the best!

So interesting! Thanks so much for sharing everyone.

Lots of good stuff for inspiration! Had not considered caravans for example and I like the idea of active trips. The “we went places we wanted but put in stuff for them” sounds like a winning combo too. Will give it a go, thanks folks!