What age is good for a holiday with a baby?

[evuscha]

We’re planning a family trip with extended family, mostly sun and beach but also a little bit of driving around exploring, hopefully some short easy hikes…
We’re either thinking of going when baby is 3-4 months old, or something like 10-11 months old.
What is your experience, what’s easier?
I’m thinking the younger baby won’t get much out of it (it’s more for us anyway and the older DC is 4), but might be easier as she will sleep a lot (on the plane or in a car seat) rather than screaming and not wanting to sit?
I didn’t travel with my first born at this age due to covid so honestly not sure.

3-4 months for sure. It will be much more relaxing for you

This!, I would either do then or more like 2ish when you can let them have a little freedom to wander around and not feel, in between is a pain

I got great advice from a friend who say to get in holidays and travel before 9 months because they are pretty portable and sleep loads. We took our 6 month old long haul and I agree it was pretty easy. A couple of years later we took our 10 month old away to Tenerife with our nearly 3 year old and it was mega stressful…nobody really had a good time. I’d go earlier rather than later and then do Center Parcs for a couple of years to get over the hump before going away again. Travel with 4 and 6 year old was back into fun territory.

Thank you everyone so far for confirming what I suspected! We’ll do the trip when the baby is little.
Due to lockdown etc we didn’t really travel by plane with the older DC until she was about 2 ish so I have no experience with that younger age. 2 was still a bit of a pain, significantly better at 3, and 4 is a breeze now!

I do think there is another sweet spot around 18 months reasonably steady on their feet but still relatively biddable and eat normal food without the faff of sterilising and/ or mushing stuff up. Remember wonderful holidays with both DCs around that age.

I did not experience any trips with my DD at that age. Are they still quite compliant/able to sit when needed and not scream on a plane?
Our first long haul trip (10 hour flight) with DD was around age 2. Probably much better than a one year old (I always see those poor parents walking up and down the aisle) but her attention span was short, she would watch iPad or colour for 10 minutes and be done with it, at the same time she wouldn’t nap much so it was a constant effort to entertain her.

When they're old enough to be lect at home 😁

When they're old enough to be left at home 😁

Haha I don’t disagree 😄

Both of ours were 10 months for first overseas holiday.

Both breasted so no need for bottle faff.

Went all inclusive so fun and easy for weaning.

Old enough to enjoy swimming pool etc.

Worked for us.

About 16 years old.

We traveled at 3 months, 6 months, 12 months and 17 months. In my experience it gets easier everytime. Currently pregnant with baby number 2 and we'll probably wait until 6 months to go away this time.

We took our 11 month old with us on a big family trip to Disney World Florida for 3 weeks, he was fantastic and would highly recommend that age. He is now 18 months old and there is just no way we could take him now - it would be very challenging. When he was 11 months he was happy to sit in the pram and take in the sites etc but now he is in the move it would be a lot less relaxing!

I can only speak from my own experience, my children were on a cast iron unshakable schedule by this age and reliabley slept for 1-2 hours in the afternoon and 10-12 hours from 7-8pm. We very much arranged travel around those times. Also just my opinion airports are a fantastic environment for practicing walking- long flat walk ways and lots of aeroplanes to look at. So by the time we took off they were often ready for a rest. A British Airways play set was my son's favourite thing for a very long time. He is 19 and I think he might still sleep with " planey" a bizarre plane shaped plushy.

I think this is it

We have a version of that where you pull a string and the plane vibrates! 😂😂

with all 3 of mine I found 18 months - 2.5yrs the worst. Mobile but with limit3d understanding that they had to mostly stay in their seat.

We're currently abroad with our 10mo DS. Don't get me wrong, it's been lovely, we've had a great time, but we are pretty stuck to nap times and if he doesn't go to bed at a certain time, then he doesnt sleep at all 😂 he's BF which makes life so much easier and he's a very chilled baby in general, but he's also teething so more grizzly than usual. I think he's a good baby now but at 3-4 months he was an absolute dream. At least when I put him down he stayed still 😂 now he's trying to roll off sofas onto the tiled floor, off the makeshift changing table onto the tiled floor, off sun loungers onto, you guessed it, the tiled floor 😂 the kid's a living hurricane and is also learning to crawl. Maybe 3-4mo would be the better option 😂

It really depends on the type of baby you have got, some are super chilled and happy to sit still, others (like my DS) will refuse to sit still for longer than 1 second. He started walking at 8.5 months, so I'd be wary if you're planning on going when the little one is 10/11 months, as you may find you have a walker which would make the holiday a different challenge! 😊 I'd say go while they're 3/4 months.

We've stupidly booked an abroad holiday for when he is 17 months, it is going to be carnage 😂

I don’t have experience of taking a very young baby abroad - our dd was 16 months old when we went and it was a great experience.

She would still sit in her push chair happily at that age in the day and nap when out & about but she was also old enough to enjoy the beach, playing in the sand, walking & dipping her feet in the sea. I was still breastfeeding but she could go longer stretches where as I was feeding her every 2 hours up until 8 months old, plus she wasn’t a good napper until she got a little older.
Our ds is 5 months old and we would probably be ok if we all went abroad now, since he likes his naps , but we are going to wait till next year based on our experience with dd at that age 😄