Advice on taking 2 year old to Oz

[zzzmumzee]

Some very close friends who live in Australia are getting married next year and dh and I have every intention of going. dd will be 2years by then and already there are lots of decisions to make, so I'm hoping some of you well travelled mum's can help as it'll be the first time we will be flying!
First of all what time of day is best? We are planning to stopover somewhere like Singapore for a couple of days so it's a choice of evening flight out/arriving late evening or midday flight out/arriving earlier?
Will we be needing to take the buggy? Not sure if she would still need it or could get away with using a totseat if she does get tired.
Finally what is the policy on car seats and toddlers? Last time we went we took cabs to/from airport etc but just wondering what happens with car seats.

I know it's a long way off but I like to be prepared!

hmm, I'm sure more experienced parents will come along but I will share our experience so far.
went to Australia with 10mo last year - took late flight out so that he would be tired and sleep, it did work quite well, but then we were going straight on. I would probably still recommend it though as we were all pretty tired by the time we got to Bangkok, so if we had been staying a couple of nights there, arriving in the eve would have been perfect!

Can't help you much with carseats/taxis - I think you have to book a cab that has a carseat (we used a family member so they had our carseat) - phone a cab company and ask them what their policy is.

I took my Ds when he was just 3 and we took 8 or 9 flights over a month, so travelled at all different times. We took a night flight to Singapore first and Ds slept for a lot of it, though of course it did creep into the day. The airlines are pretty good with kiddies on long haul and although I'd think twice about it again, it wasn't that bad really.

If you do stop over in Singapore, we stayed at the Miramar hotel which was lovely and not too too far froom the airport, but quite close to the harbur and various places to visit ~ and if you have a spare couple of hundred pounds, you could take a taxi to the local gem and jewellery place. It's fab and very cheap!

I think the time of flight is very personal and depends on you and your dd. I personally hate night flights and always when I can choose day flights. I don't do well on very little sleep and can't sleep on planes so even on the rare occasion the ds's have slept I've been exhausted and found it really hard when they are bouncing around on arrival and I feel like eurgh. It's also a nightmare (think flight from hell UK to Hong Kong then onto NZ) when ds2 didn't sleep at all for about 48 hours. He screamed, wanted to run up and down the aisles etc etc.... Personally I can cope during day flights when as long as they're not kicking seats or throwing things over the seats in front, noise is just part and parcel of taking children on planes. I have friends though who swear by night flights, get on, have something to eat, give the littlies milk, their cuddly toy and blanket and everybody sleeps for the 10+ hours.

I would take the buggy unless it's going to be a pain. Even if they don't usually like them (ds2 hated his from the minute he could walk) they are great for tired/jetlagged children and saves you carrying them, especially in the Singapore humidity. Experience there again, took me about 3/4 hour to do a 10 minute walk once in Hong Kong with ds2 (6 months at time) in a sling while giving ds1 (5 at time) a piggy back as completely overcome with tiredness his little legs just wouldn't take him any further. I think I lost about a stone in sweat

Re. car seats in taxis can't help we usually hire a car where you can either take your own or hire one as it is law that they use them.

HTH

Oh yes! taxi's. We took quite a few taxi's in Oz and none of them had child seats ~ not one! Ds was big for his age(looked about 5)but even so...it was never questioned by a driver. Might be something your friends out there can check for you. Laws change from time to time don't they?

(Same in Singapore too)

We travelled between OZ and UK last Christmas with a 2 year old and a baby. The flight times were irrevelant for us as from experience our 2 year old was so excited about everything he wouldn't sleep even though really tired on a night flight and jus wanted to play, but was sooooo grumpy. Gave up planning this way and looked at other factors instead.

We had a buggy for the baby with a buggyboard attachment for 2 year old and often put the baby in a sling and 2 year old (who loves walking everywhere usually) in the buggy. So I guess I am saying take one with you if you can.

Depending on where you fly to and where you are staying there may be various transfer options available. We did not have a car seat we could have used so I took the train with kiddies and husband went on a door to door airport transfer bus with all the luggage. This worked well for us with 2 year old in buggy, baby in sling and preoccupied the toddler with a train/metro ride.
You can book taxis with car seats, however (in OZ) it is quite expensive as they calculate the fare based on going to collect a car seat from whence they store them and then coming to pick you up plus the actual journey, returning the car seat and any car seat charge.

Night flights all the way!

We will probably have to go to the UK in the next year or so and will be flying Syd-Sing or Syd-HK overnight, a few days there with friends, and then another night flight from Asia to London.

We have flown long-haul with DD a few times so far and the plane seems to have the same soporific effect as the car.

Take an umbrella pushchair. Changi, BKK and Hong Kong airports are all huge so you could have to walk miles between gates (though they do all have those golf cart things so would probably let you ride on one of those if your toddler were having a meltdown). Qantas will let you take it to the gate and then if the flight is empty, they'll store it on board but if it's full someone will be waiting for you to put it in the hold.

Oh, and don't try to economise by not buying your child a seat. It really isn't worth it to have 12kg of wriggling toddler on your lap the whole way.

We flew to New Zealand with a 2yr old and a 4yr old. It was 11 hours to Los Angeles and 12hrs to Auckland. Very hard work but it got it over with in one go. A description and a few brief video clips is on the site below. It gives you an idea of what fun it will be!

bruntsinnewzealand.blogspot.com/2009/04/very-very-long-journey-continued-how-to.html

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Wow lots of experiences to go on, this has been really helpful. lavenderbongo, your blog is great.
I'm leaning towards taking a buggy - we have a Quinny Zapp which would be perfect as it's compact, the car seat thing might be a bit complicated. We are going to trek a bit around Oz - staying in Perth for a week, then Melbourne and Sydney. We're travelling with friends who are also suggesting a stopover in Tokyo on the way back however I'm wondering whether this is a bit much for dd to cope with! Will deffo have a look at other travel options from the airport e.g. coach, train etc.

I just have to hope that dd will be alright on the plane and not go bananas! She'll be 2 years and 4months by then so is definitely having her own seat. Would your los sleep in their seat?

Something I discovered in Sydney was Phenergan. Australiam Phenergan is stronger than the UK one, but it did endure a bit more peace for us. Unfortunately, Sydney was our last Oz stop, after that it was Bali then Singapore then back home. It did help though.

Don't know about Oz, but daughter and I did a long haul to Terrace, BC in Canada from London. The out flight was a day and the return was a night and trust me, I would choose the night flight anyday. She was just becoming mobile when we left, and wanted to run down the aisles all the time, wriggled like anything and refused to nap or sleep all during the day flight. Having had an exhausting train journey down from Liverpool to London the night before, plus the stress of packing and transport, it just about did me in.

It was a different story on the night flight back... one huge tantrum from Terrace to Vancouver (luckily we knew most of the passengers, so no one tsked at us!)... and that's it. She fell asleep on that flight and stayed asleep all the way from Vancouver to London, and then slept on the train journey into Liverpool. Bliss!

Few things I wish I had thought of, though.

1. I wish I had taken my buggy. Running from gate to gate in any airport is a pain, Heathrow is the worst. It would have been worth it to take the buggy even if it was only used in the airport [we didn't take it because we knew it would be useless in the snow, but I feel differently now)
2. I wish I hadn't taken so much hand luggage. You only need a nappy bag with a change of clothes and a food bag. Everything else just adds to the stress.
3. There is no use waiting in line with the ten other families to board in the priority line. Just relax and sit until your row is called... otherwise you'll be standing in line with 12kgs of baby and 10kgs of hand luggage waiting for ages for all the wheelchairs to board. Ignore this if you are the only passenger with a kid, of course.
4. Transfers are a pain in the butt. I really have no advice on how to handle one grumpy baby and one stressed out mom. Luckily, Vancouver airport were showing cartoons, so I managed to keep her still for an hour. Try to keep stopovers to a minimum if you can. No sense in prolonging the agony.
5. Pack bananas! Really!

I am doing another long haul to India this June with a now-18 month old. Bring it on