Holiday with a baby

[edition]

Hi,

We are wanting to book a holiday and have a 2 month old at the minute. Thinking September where she will be roughly 5 months.

We have spent a fair bit of time in Nice/Cannes area but thinking maybe a change would be good. We're after going for a week and flights and accommodation roughly 1k.

Are we being abit too soon in taking her away and will we have a crap time!!!


Any advice would be great!

[Efbe]

my advice is to get a nice relaxing holiday in that you and the mrs really enjoy.

for the next 16 years you are going to be stuck in 'family' resorts purely doing things this child will enjoy.

This is your last chance to actually enjoy yourself on a beach for many many years. Babys are easy to take on a plane and on holiday

[tenohfive]

We went away whilst ours was 2 weeks old, then again at 3 months. Baby will be fine. So long as you can keep your routine up then go for it.

[LuS1fer]

We took ours at 6 months. It's really not an issue. Just utilise the pushchair to the plane steps and never go anywhere without it once there.
Babies don't understand the pressure change so can sometimes cry if their ears block so have a drink handy.
I would limit the flight time to about 2 hours as you'll have the baby on your lap.

Hire car baby seats used to be really rubbish but they have improved vastly recently.

[schmalex]

We took our lad away at 6 months old.

My advice would be to book a villa somewhere, as you will have washing machine / microwave / fridge etc at your disposal, as well as plenty of space so that you are not squeezed together in a hotel room with a small balcony.

[Miguel Alvarez]

The missus took my daughter to Jamaica in Jan to visit her aunts/uncles/grand parents etc. Ok when they got there the family kicked in and dealt with looking after the new family member which is different to a regular holiday but the flight was fine apparently. She was 6 months old and is an alert child so spent most of the flight awake there and back.

The only real advise I've heard is to book a night flight so that (in theory) they'll sleep their normal time so you can have some peace on the plane.

[SlidingSideways]

Go before they're starting to walk. The (usually) highly polished tiled floors of continental hotel rooms + kids starting to toddle aren't a great combination.
Other than that, go for it. We took ours from a few months old and they coped fine.

[dave_s13]

We took ours away at 18months to menorca (this 3 years ago now), this was in an all inclusive typical hotel with pool type scenario.

After a week of constantly trying to keep her entertained/stopping her commiting hari kari in the pool I was ready for a holiday, never again. It wasn't horrible or anything but wasn't much fun either.

So yeah, at that age, a doddle. A bit older and Meh...A private villa would've been lovely though.

We're off for a long weekend in a static caravan in filey this year. With a 4yo, 19month old and another in the oven it's all we can be arsed with really.

[havoc]

We took our boy to Lanzarote at 4mths old last year. On the flight Becs fed him on the way up and down (swallowing reflex to sort out the air pressure changes), and the only time he kicked off was when the 2y.o. girl across the way had been screaming/throwing a fit for about 10mins+ and had already set a couple of other babies off...

Beyond that, it was OK. Hard work, esp. first couple of days getting him used to new place, new car, new car-seat, new cot and a new (cheap, collapsible) pushchair. But glad we went - ate out at lunchtimes (properly), with him sitting facing us in his pushchair, then did BBQs or got takeaways in the evenings so we could stay in the villa.

(Self-catering gave us a lot more options than being in a hotel complex...slightly less social but worked for us)


Definitely easier before they're crawling lots...we're planning another hol later this year and are wondering what we need to plan for...