What do you wish you knew before your first holiday with a baby? - £200 voucher to be won

[MaddyMumsnet]

Where do you begin when it comes to planning and booking your first holiday with a baby? Exciting but also, well, slightly nerve-wracking. There's so much to consider, from packing the essentials to managing travel logistics. That's why we want to hear from you about the valuable advice you wish you had, before embarking on that memorable trip with your little one.

Share your top tips and stories in the thread below. Whether it's advice on entertaining children on flights, managing sleep routines while away from home, or how to actually have an evening together once the baby is asleep, your wisdom could be invaluable to other parents planning their first holiday with a baby.

• Post your stories/items/challenges/tips in the thread below to be entered into a prize draw
• One lucky MNer will win a £200 voucher for a store of their choice.
• Don’t forget to vote in our poll below.

Here’s what Mark Warner has to say:
“Over the last 50 years Mark Warner has perfected the family holiday.
In our family-friendly beach resorts across Greece and Turkey our kids’ clubs are all about activity. Every child from 4 months old to 17 joins a club where they come first, led by qualified and energetic childcare professionals. Babies and toddlers enjoy home-from-home care, while children aged 3-17 learn to kayak, paddleboard, play tennis and so much more.
Holidays that give you a lifetime of memories - guaranteed.”

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!
MNHQ

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Not quite baby, but don't waste money on Disneyland/euro Disney while your kids are too young. We went when our daughter was 4 and she was completely overwhelmed. It would have been much better a couple of years later.

Sleep is the big one. Expect the first night to be tricky and then try and have a routine like at home then on.

Based on what worked well on our first holiday when DS was 2:
UK rather than abroad, meant that we started off early and had time to make stop-offs more of an event to burn off energy and prevent too much boredom (playing in a forest, finding a village playground).
Stayed in a large place with friends, so we got time to go out for walks on our own, or just read a book for an hour while they babysat for us, then we did the same for them.
Took a long list of things to do, indoors and outdoors, but didn't book anything beforehand so we could go with how the kids were doing. We didn't want to end up in the situation where we booked an expensive day out and the kids were hating it due to tiredness or illness. If they got up feeling happy and healthy then we did the steam train or zoo; if they were cranky then it was a picnic on the beach nearby so we could get back for a rest.
Made them part of our interests, rather than only enabling theirs. We love cycling, so we hired bikes with little carts at the front and took them out in those for the day.

Do a self-catered short trial holiday not far from home to start with, it will show you what you need and what you don't and also give you the option to cut the holiday short if it is just not working. This has worked well for us, that first holiday wasn't stressful and the subsequent one abroad was also well informed which served us well.

I wish I had known that it wouldnt really be a holiday! Very different from going just the two of us. Agree with check flight times, our flight was 6/7 in the morning so we were up at 3. We naively thought baby would sleep on the plane (hahahaha) but she had a melt down instead. Aircon didn't work very well when we got to our accommodation and even though it was only may it was still very hot. Safe to say it did put us off going abroad for a while. We didn't go abroad again until she was almost 6 (covid played a part in that too)

I really wish we had picked somewhere with a milder climate, we went with grandparents in July to a rental villa in Spain. I was exhausted from the night feeds, wanted to sleep during the day, but the other children - having a good time prevented that. I did not go outdoors much due to the heat - I WISH I had not tried to please people in going against my instincts in taking a 8 week old baby abroad with family. So my advice is really think about their routine and what you are letting yourself in for on a family holiday,

It's nerve wracking going somewhere where you are not familiar, I was so worried, but I took what I needed for the first few days, they as I had googled that area I bought the essentials from a local supermarket. We went in October when the temperature was less harsh, and it was not half term. If I was to do it again I would have waited until my DC was 9 months so their sleep pattern was more manageable and they were weaning. Going with a small baby is definitely not a holiday.

@ohdannyboy If I'm in a foreign country, it's hot and there's delicious food to eat then it's a holiday for me whether a baby is present or not 😂

Wish I'd known how heavy and bulky buggies are and how awkward they are to fold. It took some time to work out that I needed a cheap,lightweight buggy for travel. Being easy and quick to fold is so important, particularly when travelling. I'd buy one of these buggies to keep as a spare then sell it on when no longer needed.

I would certainly pick a holiday with a 1 or 2 hour time difference - then you can manage the sleep patterns of baby quicker - from experience you go with a 5-7 hour time difference you are up and around at 4 or 5 am with baby, and it takes longer for them to adjust to the timezone, and when coming home it is just as bad with the adjustment. We found going for dinner around 7 pushing baby in the buggy, he would fall asleep long enough for us to enjoy dinner in the buggy against out table. Gave us some very important 'us' time.

My advice would be to go with grandparents if it's your first baby, so they can share the load and give you and other half some respite! But advice really depends on age of baby.. We flew to the Caribbean with my first when he was 10 weeks old and he slept in the sling on me for pretty much the full 8 hours. Now I have two toddlers we wouldn't consider a flight that long and look for 4 hours max - and a hotel with really good kids clubs so we have a choice of spending days all together or having some down time. Have done both Tui Sensatori and Mark Warner and the kids clubs at both were excellent. I would say think hard about what you want your evenings to look like...a friend did a roadtrip across the US with a baby and they ended up eating pizza in the bathroom of their hotel most nights while baby slept in the room in the dark!

All inclusive is best! Never thought I’d say this pre children, but it takes so much of the stress away. Self catered is just home but a different location!

Start by making a list of what you need, both for travelling and at the hotel. Review this many times so that you don’t forget anything essential and learn from your packing for the next holiday and keep the list in your suitcase as next time you might have forgotten what you forgot this time.

I took a Milton Solo Travel Steriliser for my first holiday, as that was the issue which I was most worried about with a 4 MO, and I made sure he was feeding when the cabin pressure was changing, I had borrowed a Lejoux Go Baby Stroller- I highly recommend this as it made getting the stroller around much more easy. Also don't forget a sun parasol - light colours so they don't absorb the heat.

My tips are pack food they like, I went away with my sister and brother-in-law with their 6 mo and they thought they could get something in their resort - they had to travel to the next town and get a supply of baby food from a brand they could trust. They were stressed out over several days. I took my DS and took a decent supply of baby food, and where baby could not eat the food we had in the all inclusive we were able to offer the food we had taken (plus we know what's in it - in terms of salt and sugar).

Keep it simple and if possible go with family who can help. Enjoy it for what it is, time away from home and don’t expect to be able to do the same things as before kids.

Make sure you have at least one days worth of everything in hand luggage in case the nig luggage goes missing!

Bring more nappies than you think you'd need on the plane and at least 3 outfit changes.

Spoken from bitter experience...

Wish I'd known that baby will be happy in vests, rompers and a sun hat.
Day dresses, evening dresses, fancy short sets, playsuits, sandals- baby really doesn't care.
Pack simple is my advice.

My tips are to take enough calpol and a good SPF for baby, I ran out of calpol on day 2 due to DS teething and being in discomfort, (I thought the bottle was full when it was only 1/4 full) It left us in a tizz until we found a pharmacy (supermarkets don't have one)

I would recommend really thinking about what you ACTUALLY need, for a warmer climate it's less clothing, and those made of cotton, vests are good for all day wear, and see if your hotel has a laundry service to wash midweek. Buy your nappies there - avoids taking too much luggage taken up.

Puts embarrassed face on. We took 7mo pfb to Ireland for our first holiday and I wish someone had told me then that a buggy is separate to your luggage allowance. This was in the days when adult plane tickets included suitcases.

Not realising we could take a pram as well as luggage, I bought an umbrella buggy and a sort of golf bag thing to fit it in, then packed a single suitcase with everything else for a week.

• Microwave sterilising bags
• rent a car seat with the transfer/ hire car
• pram clip on sunshade
• pram Clip on fan
• lightweight fold down pram
• blow up Travel Pillow

I recommend making a list of things which are essential (down to baby nail clippers) as you use them 2 or 3 weeks before - that nothing is left behind.
We forgot nail clippers with DS1 and he was scratching his face with some sharp edges- nightmare to find some on the Algarve.

Take your time, read the reviews, ask questions as to what you have in your accommodation in terms of cot, highchair, rental buggies, childcare facilities, look at youtube reviews of the accommodation and you get a feel of what it is like - I would avoid all inclusive as the quality of food is dire, and the queues are often manic, I rushed into my first holiday and the hotel was poorly equipped, noisy and the food was really bad. A smaller hotel, or rental villa with food equipment in a good location can be good value and you can actually enjoy - rather than eating out rather that eating in a 'canteen' environment

Thank you!

Baby nail clippers were not on my list!