Kuala Lumpar - Sydney - Byron Bay - Am I Mad?!?

[McRobb]

We are travelling to Australia via Kuala Lumpar in December. We are hoping to spend some time in Sydney and in Byron Bay.

Has anybody stayed in any family friendly hotels/guest houses in Kuala Lumpar, Sydney or Byron Bay???

My daughter will be 2 yrs and seems to love flying, tho I'm concerned that this will be a little bit to much, any hot tips for keeping her entertained on the flight?

Thanks

The Ascott serviced apartments in KLCC (city centre) www.the-ascott.com Very central and spacious. Near to big lake with lots of restaurants with babychairs.
Pavements are terrible though. Need one of those 3 wheeler sprung buggies or a back pack.
Take the train from the airport (which IMO is the most beautiful I have ever experienced) to KLCC. It's fast and there's lots to look at out of the window. The traffic jams can be terrible from the airport to KLCC and no one likes to be stuck in a taxi with a 2 year old.
There are lots of serviced apts in Sydney, but make sure they let you have an early check in. When we got to one at 7am, they told us we had to come back at 2pm, so we told them to cancel our reservation and checked in at the Intercontinental instead, which was lovely but a bit of a rash decision as it cost a fortune.
Byron Bay, check out the independent cottages on the web. In my experience, Aussie do independent cottage hire really well and it's the easiest thing with small children. HTH.

Thanks for the tips Eldestgirl, I'll have a look at Ascott. We have been trawling the internet for appartments and cottages and have had a few knock backs because we are travelling with a two year old, I'll just have to keep trying!!

Have also checked out the Lonely Planet site on Kuala Lumpar, will have to check it out for Australia.

good for you!!! have a great time ,i will be taking our family to oz in august our first flight!!

Almostangel - good for you. Our daughter loves flying and we have been able to to break the flights into 11 hour chunks so hopefully it wont be too taxing.

am bit nervous ..dds are 16/14/and 8 so will be exiting for them too ..we are going to port douglas near the barrier reef,,but i will watch your thread with interest for any hnts

Oh how lovely, I did love Byron - there used to be loads of hostels there and we met people traveling with children. If you are on a budget I'd seriously suggest getting in touch with the YHA - it's not just for "youths" and as they usually have more than one hostel in the cities you should be able to find a friendly one.

In the past you joined in the UK and then use membership cards to book with affiliated hostels abroad.

I stayed at the Glebe hostel in Sydney (v friendly and clean - in fact I used to clean it!) and the YHA in Byron as well - which had a swimming pool!

Please bear in mind this was 10 yrs ago (sigh) but I'm sure if you email they'll be able to help

YHA UK

International YHA

HTH, Mia

Plenty of websites with accomodation if you can take the time to search. We got a good deal at the Wentoworth hotel in Sydney - okay it was pre-children but for location it was brilliant. We were a 5 minute walk to circular quay - could walk into the city centre as such.

Byron - been years since I have been there but if you find it hard to get accommodation at Byron - you could try Ballina or coffs harbour, port macquarie - other beaches north of Sydney. Spent every christmas until I was in my early 20s camping for a month with my family just north of Byron - loved it. Brilliant for children and great for relaxing.

PLenty of mumsnetters have experience of Sydney - they will probably be able to help with more detailed accommodation choices

Flying - SIngapore Airlines - we have flown with them when dd1 was about 8 months old and then last year when she was almost 2. We had a stopover this time for 5 days enroute from UK to Aus - singapore airport is brilliant. We did two night flights. from UK to Singapore than short stopover ( first time) and then on to Brisbane. Singapore airlines are very child friendly. We were lucky as both were evening/night flights dd slept most of the time - brilliant.

if you do a search on mumsnet for long haul flying - lots and lots of tips for keeping children occupied.