Babys first holiday tips!

[Flower35]

Hi all, just after any tips at all on taking baby on their first holiday. My DD is 13 months and not quite walking yet, she's not far off though. Does anyone have any recommendations on where to go? Also how do you go about the transfer from the airport? Did anyone take a car seat with them or hire one once you get there?! Any tips at all (especially on keeping baby entertained on the plane) would be much appreciated! Thank you so much 😊

We took DS 11 months on a 4 hour flight to Fuerteventura recently. The flight out was 6:30am and he had been awake since 3:30am at the airport so bottle for take off and then slept for an hour and a half. We bought him a box of hide and squeak eggs which kept him entertained for a fair while, plus lots of snacks. We'd downloaded some programmes on the I pad though he didn't watch these much. He was very amused standing on the seat and laughing at the people sat behind and we did let have a crawl up and down the plane a couple of times. We were also lucky enough to have a spare seat on a row of three. We'd arranged a lift through friends so they had a car seat. Previous holiday we had coach transfer and baby on lap. Also the taxi's didn't provide car seats as not a legal requirement I believe, though I'm sure some companies would do this. Most airlines allow you to take two pieces of baby equipment free of charge so you could take a buggy and a car seat. We were staying in an apartment so had to take buggy and travel cot. The whole holiday went much smoother than I was anticipating.

We travelled with a spare car seat. If you can choose a light one. If possible I would have rented.
We had a travel stroller. It could go as hand luggage at most planes. Still ok for napping.
A baby sling is nice.

We always bought UV swim wear, their blanket, sun protection, nappies, paracetamol and a baby first aid kit.

Our children haven't been fuzzy eaters so never bought food.

You come a long way with snacks, an Ipad, books and small toys on the plane.

Have a nice trip!

I recently got back from the Caribbean with our 11 month old. We took lots of snacks for the plane journey, and downloaded shows to the iPad for her. She was very well behaved.

We pre-booked a taxi company and they provided a car seat. We asked them to send photos beforehand.

Top tips would be:

• take long trousers/leggings as well as rompers. It helps to shade their legs as our pram cover didn't reach that far. Also keeps their legs safe from mosquitos if you're out in the evening
• take a fan that can attach to the buggy. We got one from Amazon that had three "legs" so you could stand it up on a table, or wrap it around the side of the buggy
• take a white noise machine if you want to stay out in evenings while they snooze in the buggy

I would go for a city break in Europe after the heat of the summer has died down. The classic boozy AI resort holiday is not enjoyable with a baby. I took mine at a similar age to Barcelona and it was great. It’s very pushchair friendly. No need for a car seat as we took the bus from the airport so just stayed in the pushchair, same as you would on any city bus.

We did museums and parks, lots of playgrounds, cafes and restaurants, markets. There’s lots of interesting food for them to try and Spanish people are very welcoming to children. It was really lovely. We took a siesta every afternoon and then stayed up late going to dinner and a night time stroll.