Holiday with 9 month old, all inclusive resort

[SophieRules]

What are the must haves/advice? I can’t picture it with him crawling everywhere and it being safe. The pool will be fun but can’t be in there 24/7.

Tbh at that age I preferred a self catering apartment!!

If you're going somewhere hot don't bother filtering by play park. The slide etc will be unusable in the heat. I'd definitely go for an apartment type hotel, so you have a living area and a separate bedroom. Ask for ground floor to reduce stress re falling off balconies, but avoid pool side rooms. We always use one whole suitcase to bring toys with us (including a brio train track for the toddler!) because otherwise parenting is soo much harder!

Get a lie flat buggy for naps, snooze shade to block out the sun and aid sleep. Ensure hotel has travel cot, pool will exhaust little one as will heat if you’re going somewhere warm. My 9 month old slept loads on holidays! All inclusive was great as didn’t have to leave hotel and baby was feeding at that stage.

I’d do a city break. There’s truly nothing enjoyable about the pool or the beach with a 9 month old. It won’t be relaxing.

I took my then 8 month old to Barcelona though and it was fantastic. Lots of walking, markets, museums, restaurants, and playgrounds. Basically, enjoyed the city with him in tow (and I did it solo, just me and him). It was great. But the key was being on the move, lots of interesting things to see, eat, experience (no pool to fall into or sand to eat).

I agree. We only started adding in beach days or renting places with a pool once our son was old enough to actively enjoy/request it. He didn’t like swimming or baths as a toddler. We love city breaks with the kids and have Valencia planned for the summer :)

We enjoy a mix of AI pool holidays and city breaks with our young children. On the pool holidays they spend more time than usual in the buggy as we’ll often go out for a wander in the morning (they are usually very entertained looking around, stopping off for coffee etc) and then spend the afternoon by the pool during which time they almost always nap! Then at some point they’ll go in the pool, they’ll do plenty of crawling around in the apartment/hotel room and on the balcony and then be confined to a high chair for meals. Don’t overthink it too much, it will be fine, you’ll work it out and have a great time!

If you have budget, Ikos and use the kids club or one of their nannies if baby tolerates it. Also enjoy sunbathing during nap times. Ikos is a very easy holiday with young kids. If you are open to a non-AI set up, I really recommend Mousses in Lefkada - lovely, high quality crèche on site (Ofsted standards) and it's very small so you won't be far away from the crèche. Self catering but has a good on-site restaurant and there are excellent restaurants on the island. We have been 3 times - love that place! Early June or September would be lovely.

Don't do a beach, complete nightmare with a baby. Pool is ok if you have a little playmat down and some toys (unless baby is very mobile in which case this is also a nightmare).

Yes!! City breaks all the way at that age. Get them in while you can!

Oh I loved it with kids at this age! Definitely agree with lie flat buggy, and check out photos on TripAdvisor to make sure they have pram friendly paths around the resort, because you'll spend a fair amount of time wandering around getting baby to sleep (or I did)! We always used to take little toy figurines (hollow ones that float) and a little fishing net. Sit baby next to baby pool with float vest on, get them fishing the toys out with the net. Hours of fun!

With that age I’d go self catering in a lovely family orientated resort. Means you can be more flexible around meal times/ naps etc and explore the area, which is quite easy with a baby in a buggy. AI means you might feel tied to the hotel due to meals/ drinks.
AI is great for older kids with kids clubs/ football camps/ nightly shows. When dc was that age we liked to feed dc in room, give them a bath, last bottle then into pram with a black out cover and out for the night. By the time we got to a restaurant dc was sleeping and we had a meal in peace.

We went AI when ds was that age , no trouble at all , played in the pool in a seat with us , had a nap which gave us a chance to read / sunbathe . He loved the evening entertainment would jump up and down on our knees . I always just changed his bedtime to whatever time we went to bed and he just adjusted .

Be aware that your 9 month old may be one of those babies who are pulling themselves to stand (and then being unsteady on their feet). Quite often sunny places have tiled floors. Spent a week carrying our DS around the accommodation as it wasn't safe for him to stand (and fall and bump his head) and not suitable for crawling.

It really depends on the baby, my first we went all inclusive beach resort at nine months and she was a dream. Played in the baby pool or in the private pool we had with the room in the little rubber ring, charmed all the waiting staff with lovely smiles and held our hands to walk around the restaurants between courses.
Second baby was already walking by nine months old and her first holiday was so stressful, always trying to run when she could only just walk, trying to take on all the steps around the resort I felt frazzled trying to keep her safe and she would not stay still.
I think you have to look at the babies personality before deciding what to do.

Do a road trip at that age, they nap in the car, pushchair for sightseeing and make sure it lays flat so they sleep in it during the evening while you eat (or not, one of mine still is a night owl luckily she was very keen on restaurants)