Holidays with kids? How?

[Sleeplessemma]

Hi all,

Odd question but how on earth do you go on holiday with young kids (like 18 months/2 ). I’ve found out I’m expecting again, so obviously won’t be going abroad for a while, but in the general sense, what do you do?

Get a separate kids room? Call it a day at 7pm or whenever the kids bedtime is? Do hotels have baby sitting clubs? Do you just return to the room for naps? Or just Chuck the routine out of the window for hols? But then how do you avoid and overtired and over cranky toddler? Overall hubby and I had no idea how to manage it or what people do?

Love to hear suggestions for when the time rolls around

We only stay in hotels for short breaks. Holidays are in villas, apartments, campsites. When kids were that age, we’d let them sleep in the buggy in the evening or have a late nap and then be able to stay awake later. Routine definitely out the window on holidays!

While we stay in self catering accommodation (for the space) we’ve never cooked dinner and always eat out. I’ve fond memories of a holiday in a quaint town in Majorca when DD was 18 months and after dinner one or us would walk around with her in the buggy while the other stayed sitting on square having a drink.

As a single parent I've taken mine on holiday since eldest was a year old. The hardest time was when I had 3 under 4, however it was still great. Holidays with dc are not like holidays pre dc.
The best holidays I've had were UK self-catering or apartment in a hotel abroad (so there's somewhere to sit when dc are in bed and can cook your own meals for dc). Also you just relax the routine a bit and they go to bed a bit later (which is easier when they are in a pushchair as they'll just fall asleep) . Be prepared, have everything to hand you need and relax you'll enjoy it more.

We always did self-catering apartments when they were little. That way you can eat when it suits everyone, you aren't tied to restaurant meal times, and don't have the bedrooms problem. You don't have to cook every evening - we used to get deliveries or takeaway.

We did a lot of cottages/villas when they were that age. They’d stay up a bit later but not much so it was good to be able to put them to bed then have our own space. We only really used hotels for 1 or 2 nights and then we tend to stay in the room even now at 9 &7, we go up about 9/9.30 get them to bed then watch tv or read.

It depends on your children: some cope well with shift in routine/staying up late/napping in buggies in the evenings. Some do not! DS1 was one of these: even now at 8 he can't stay up late- he'll still be up at 6 on the dot, just grumpier. If you have this kind of model, then self catering is the key. We used to eat out at lunchtime, then in the evening we'd get the DCs to bed, then have cheese/olives etc and a bottle of wine.

Not hotels! Cottages or big static caravans so you aren't cramped in a room wishing they would go to sleep. Self catering so you can cook what they eat when they want it. Check places have dishwashers so you don't have added work. Eat out as often as possible or buy good ready meals so you get a break from cooking. We stayed in UK when they were little. Just riding on mini steam railways or building sandcastles was enough. Save Disney/Legoland and going abroad for when they are older.

Routine goes out of the window, have a nap in the buggy on an eve, never in late anyway usually no later than 9.30-10pm.

We’ve been abroad with kids since they were babies/toddlers, we usually share a room, 1 in cot and other in pull out bed when they were little.

Took it in turns to walk baby in buggy in shade whilst it was hot.
Never a relaxing holiday as such but made the most of it.

When our kids an older baby and a toddler we spent the budget of a family holiday on a posh hotel with a pool for the two of us for two nights while my parents had the kids. Pointless taking them they were tiny.

Pre schoolers England wakes beach breaks. Once younger one started school ventured abroad. Not much point til then!

We have 5 kids aged 12y - 2m. We generally get a villa or we did an all inclusive with a mini apartment type room - older kids in one room and babies in with us. Both worked well and we would often get the babies to sleep in the pram for naps if out exploring or having a meal out. I find villa holidays easiest with toddler aged kids - I wouldnt personally use any kind of babysitting service or kids club so they can be stressful at times in a crowded complex especially aged around 18m - 2.5 when they have no sense but they're super fast and there's pools everywhere! Next year we plan to have my parents come for part of our summer holiday so they can babysit a couple of nights, take the older kids out for a trip etc - thats what I did when my oldest was tiny and it worked really well.

Its definitely a different kind of holiday with young kids but I've had plenty of party / relaxing holidays when I was young and I've plenty of time for more when the kids grow up. I actually love our crazy non stop exhausting holidays

We would just head to bed and read when it was time for dd to go to bed. Nice downtime.

So we've found a few ways that works - self catering apartments /cottages, so the dcs have their own rooms, going to hotels with family interconnecting rooms/a screened off area for the dcs (you end up sitting on the balcony in the evening if its not 2 rooms), and hotels that do evening kids clubs /child care - Mark Warner and neilson do these. Both of those also do the interconnected rooms, usually you can lock the kids door so they have to come through the interconnected door to get outside.

You self cater to fit in round them and yes put them to bed at normal time and sit with a glass of wine and enjoy a different view.
In the day I always let mine nap in the buggy during the day whether on holiday or not so I wasn’t tied to the house at a certain time.
I imagine hotels would be a nightmare for this age group but didn’t do it till they were old enough to enjoy the breakfast buffet.

We have always gone self catering as our kids always needed some kind of routine and would not have coped with staying up super late. However we gave friends whose kids easily adapt to staying up late and they are able to take them out for later dinners etc

Routine out the window (I’m not a big routine-y parent anyway tbh), everyone back to the hotel room to nap together in the air conditioning to escape the afternoon heat then back out in the cooler (but still warm) evening for food, toddler in an umbrella stroller type buggy chomping on bits of tapas... love it.

We went for a holiday with our 1.5 year old and 2.5 year old.

Long pushchair walk in the late afternoon for them to nap. They would wake around 5pm. This would allow them to stay up until ten ish.

We push all beds together and slept together early. Then I woke first and dressed and went downstairs quietly. Left husband sleeping with the kids until around 9am.

It worked really well

We always stayed in cottages or static caravans in the UK.

We took ds abroad for the 1st time just before he was 3.He slept all the way there ibthink the planes engine must have been like white noise or something.We usually went back to the room around 8pm and took it in turns bringing drinks from the bar

Self catering. It's much less stressful being able to feed the kids what we want, when we want (and as PP said we can still eat out or get takeaway if we want). All being in one hotel room is no good as you're then stuck in the same room as DC after putting them to bed. With self catering you have more space to chill.

The ideal is going on holiday with extended family who can help with the kids and maybe babysit one or two nights so you can go out... obviously not possible for everyone. You could also use a babysitting service or kids club if comfortable with it, I've tried a crèche before but felt a bit anxious about it - would probably be more comfortable as they get older.

As for naps I guess you have to choose between pushchair naps while out and about (and risk suboptimal nap), doing outings around naps so you can be back at accommodation for them, or mixture of the two. A friend of mine gets a self catering villa right next to a pool so she can sunbathe by the pool with monitor on while her DD naps.

Have 2 DC (currently 6 & 2) - when we have to stay in hotels (usually when visiting family in London) we get a two room suite or interconnected rooms so the kids can be in one & we're in the other. Before that we'd basically have to either go to bed at the same time or just read, watch tv very quietly!
Once with DD (then aged 2) we went to Italy & had a self-catering apartment- she slept in a travel cot in our bedroom but we could shut the door & stay up in the living room.
Then a couple of years ago we went to Lanzarote & had a villa. DD had her own room & DS slept in our room but we then had the living area, terrace etc to use whilst they slept.

I travelled a lot with mine as little ones, so easy. Mostly road trips and backpacking. You need to adjust your expectations though. We would eat out around 7pm, bribe them, entertain them etc to get to around 9pm then all back to the room - hotels thankfully have TVs and kids sleep through anything. No iPads or smartphones when mine were small but they should help. The double buggy is your best friend, if you are really lucky you can run them around late afternoon, feed them a sandwich and they fall asleep in the buggy - your passport to a night out. Mine really did sleep through anything even a jazz club once in San Francisco.

Babies were easiest because no food needed and they would feed and settle easily