What age does travelling get easier? (Particularly camping)

[climbershell]

I have a 3 month and 20 month. Off on a campervan European road trip for 3 weeks next week. I'm under no illusions it'll be easy like it was last year when toddler was 7 months. Baby is too young to really add much stress (other than her extreme upset every evening). It's the fact she loves freedom and if outside will just wander/run off, not sit playing with stuff & explore within a reasonable distance like she would at home, which will be the biggest stress

Next year we're off to Morocco for 2 weeks , travelling around in hire car, so that should be OK as in between exploring can chill in closed off accommodation!

I look at my neices and nephews and think around 2.5/3 they ran away less haha and could wander / play within 10ft of parents and not just run into someone else's tent or up to someone else's picnic etc etc.

We won't stop travelling, but wondering how many years before it becomes a bit less difficult! And when we're on ages. How old before they could go on a donkey or horse without the risk of just letting go and falling off!

Thank you

Christ good luck with that OP!

I'd say 5/6 years old, when they can swim and not run off and sit reasonably in a restaurant.

2.5/3 I still found difficult with tantrums, legging it, waking up early, food ....

5+

Wow. I woudn't even contemplate that!

I went away with 20yo DS this summer. That was OK

18+ 😂

Years, that is, not months 😂

Depends completely on the child! But good luck. We took 18mth DD to Australia hahaha it was hellish she wouldn’t sleep stayed awake 18hrs straight… we had a second child & realised we had to curtail holidays until she was aged 4+ but by age 7-8 much easier on campsites.

I would say after they are 5, so primary school years, are generally easier
they can sit in a restaurant, easier to entertain, you don’t need to ring your whole house every-time you leave the house / hotel
they enjoy kids clubs (giving you some hours to chill), they can carry their own stuff (mostly) - basically they are bit independent

Camping earlier than most holidays - enjoyed bits of it at 2.5, more at 5, getting genuinely ok at 7/8 or so.

I was always very strict about running off etc which meant by around age two I was pretty confident to take kids anywhere (except Venice - I was too scared they would fall off the edge of canals until about age 7)

For camping we used to make a boundary around the tent with windbreaks and they weren't allowed to leave the windbreaks without us.

You do have to plan plenty of child downtime into a trip though. Stops at playparks and frequent treats are important (it's their holiday too). They also need downtime with familiar things - books and toys and even the dreaded screens are really really important

I think it depends on the individual child. Mine were easy- and I genuinely thought but was due to my extraordinary parenting🤣until we went with friends and their children were utter nightmares. So. Child specific.

Christ that sounds like hell and a lot of wasted money for what probably isn't going to be much fun. Sack it off for a few years and then try it again. You've got plenty of time to travel once they are old enough to actually enjoy/benefit from it.

We travel a lot with our toddler and did a big road trip in Iceland when he was 2.5. Actually went really well, decent back carrier and lots of outdoor space for running around! He’s never been a great sleeper but it doesn’t seem to matter where he is so fine to move accommodation everyday. We’re off again on a 3 week road trip in Costa Rica in a few weeks with him at 3.5 so I’m hoping it will be even better than last year.

I'm impressed but think youre brave! Won't you have to stop every 30 mins or so with a baby that young in a car seat!?

We just had a very tricky trip with a 2.2 year old, but suddenly a couple of months later they're becoming less feral so I'm hoping next holiday won't be as bad!

We've only done glamping with dcs, plus Eurocamp in mobile homes, so never done real camping. But we've had holidays abroad since DC1 was 11m, and went on our first UK holiday when she was 3m. Have 2 dcs now and both have always travelled well. I've never been concerned about them running off - maybe they're too worried to go far without us? Plus we've continued to use buggies until relatively old. And both have always been fine sitting in restaurants. DC1 is 5 now and it's certainly easier, but I've never found it too hard even when she was younger. We've always had very child-focused holidays though, and every day was centred around something that would interest them (e.g. we'll skip the traditional art museums that we'd like to see, and take them to the interactive science museum).

I remember DD did a first pony ride on holiday when she was 2.5, but it was very slow and an adult was walking alongside her!

It gets a lot easier when they can swim. That was the deal breaker for me. Being able to sit and watch instead of hovering behind in the pool all day!

4.5 last holiday and slightly better. Only just...

We’ve been camping since ours were babies. They get much easier when they don’t need to nap and then easier again when they don’t need close supervision (around 5/6) now move are 12 and 8 they are actually super helpful and can go and fill up the kettle or do some dishes etc.