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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The thing I learned about going on holiday with a baby is that - everything changes - early bedtime, as our DS wakes around 6am, ALL of the equipment you need - it's really NOT a holiday when you are tired and stressed about the change in living environment, wait until they are toddling when you can do more with them, making memories. It will be a UK break for us the next time we go away - just not worth all of the money to be tired and trying to keep cool and have your own home routine - sorry but that's just the way I felt

What do you wish you knew before your first holiday with a baby?
Well.. similar to others have said - forget what your holidays were like before, they were be VERY different - still brilliant, fun & memorable - but in a very different way!
Plan for early nights, take everything you think you might need (& more!), be prepared for you/OH/baby to catch a bug - make sure you have books, games, toys, snacks in stock just in case!
Don't be disheartened if it all goes wrong - it's all part of the experience!

That there are shops and supermarkets where you go - often better than those at home - and plenty of pharmacies - so you don't beed to take 'the kitchen sink' with you.

I wish I'd napped when baby napped in the afternoon instead of trying to please everyone, and being exhausted as I was still exclusively breast feeding.

Allow muuuucchh more time than you think you'll need to get anywhere

Permanent marker! We have just come back from our first abroad holiday and the amount of kids who all had the same pool toys was ridiculous! I am writing their names on next time as a few went missing and we couldn’t say for sure if it was theirs or not.

check your debit card has no loads added - I am with First Direct and so easy to just pay for everything on my card in local currency (not sterling as that gets expensive!). Don’t need to take much cash at all.

I wish I'd bought some travel bottles for decanting baby lotion, bath and travel wipes - I took 'the kitchen sink' and could have used smaller bottles of the lotions and creams in smaller volumes to help with the weight of the suitcase.

I wish I'd known how much people would fawn and coo over my 6 month old, to the point of whipping here away to see the chef, passing here round tables and randomly buying her little gifts. This was in Faro, Portugal. It was alarming at first, but I relaxed into it. Rome a few months later was similar.

Don't bother with a sunhat and baby sunshades - they just get whipped off and constantly thrown out of the pushchair 🙄- buy a good spf sunshade to cover 👶

I wish I knew how rude some holiday makers can be - when you want to get into the hotel lift with a buggy and (All of you necessaries) I was waiting there for 20-30 minutes for a lift empty enough for me to get in. Or of there was just enough space those behind would just run in the lift - leave me waiting (why don't some people just take the lift for one floor 🤐)

I wish I had taken more photographs of our first family holiday of 3, first time on an airplane, first time in a new country, first time with mum and dad sat in the buggy in a restaurant - don't get me wrong I did take plenty, but spent a lot of my time a bit stressed and tired - I wish I'd relaxed and enjoyed it more.

We bought a dry bag to put the baby milk in our hand luggage. It worked well and meant I was not worrying about anything spilling.

Before we went on our first holiday someone told me to remember they have babies all over the world and sells baby things all over the world. Anything we had forgotten or needed we would be able to buy while away. They were right.

I wish I knew I could buy things at the airport, at my resort, and the hotel had so much baby equipment (even steriliser to hire) and I should not have worried so much about what i took - and overpacked for every need.

A lightweight buggy with an spf sunshade which doubles up as a light block in the evenings so your baby can fall asleep next to your table while you eat out (take out in PJs).

And an agreement with the other parent, or other responsible adult on the holiday, to take turns to give each other an hour or two off to fully relax each day.

Pack plenty of wipes!

Our first holiday was all inclusive as it took the pressure of having to think about shopping with a baby in tow. Research a child friendly resort - supermarkets that sell nappies rather than filling your case.

Tag team your partner so you both get a chance to relax.

The best advice we were given was to adjust our expectations. Don’t expect a ‘holiday’ travelling with kids is a ‘trip’ . Trips can be great fun and a wonderful experience but they are not a restful holiday!

I wish I had enjoyed it more instead of thinking I was going to 'the back of beyond' (Croatia) when there were plenty of shops for supplies - so I did not need to over pack.

Often you get a travel cot but no mattress-so always take a mattress just in case!

I wish we had done a driving holiday to France for our first trip away instead of flying to Malta, we could’ve taken breaks where we needed to and packed everything we needed in the car rather than struggling to cram it into small suitcases!

Don't put pressure on yourself, accept it will be different, go at a slower pace and agree shared roles in advance so it's a break for everyone

I wish I'd known just to keep it easy and book an AI holiday with a pool! Instead I tried to cobble my own break together so DH and I ended up still needing to cook, clean, find activities, etc.

@ErnestClementine What did you have to clean though? I'm genuinely curious as I see this come up a lot when people say they wouldn't rent apartments 'I don't want to cook and clean on holiday'... So... don't? 🤷🏻‍♀️

I don't even make the bed when I'm on holiday let alone clean the bathroom 😂 And as to cooking... were there not restaurants near by? 🤔 We just eat out.

We were in a s-c apartment so didn't go full Hinch, but of course didn't do nothing for a week as that would have felt skanky. Eating out also less fun with a 4mo - because we didn't pick a family friendly location. All ties in with things you wish you knew - learnt and made better choices in subsequent years!

I wish we had not gone to America - the time difference - we had not factored in how long it would take to get our DS to adjust to our 'new normal' there and once back in Blighty. We were part of an extended family holiday so could not get out of it - so spent most of the time exhausted having been getting up at 4.40 most mornings.