Travelling With Toddlers
The clocks have sprung forward. The days are lengthening. You can venture outdoors without a hat, scarf and gloves. All of this means one thing. It’s time to take a holiday! If you have school aged children, you’ll have Easter, May half term and a never ending expanse of summer holidays to fill. However, if you have a baby or toddler, you’re far more free to travel outside of school holidays which means you don’t need to remortgage your house just to stay in a run down B&B.
That is unfortunately where the good news ends. Travelling with toddlers or a baby easily requires a vast amount of tolerance and patience. You will find a wealth of advice and information which will prove to be highly valuable to you!
Where to go?
This will depend on how adventurous you’re feeling. Some people when travelling with toddlers strap their baby into backpacks and hike for miles. However, 99% of parents find a relatively easy long weekend to the grandparents exhausting. So before you go anywhere, do your research. Don’t pick something overly ambitious. Remember, you’re meant to be RELAXING (obviously this is far easier to do if you have a fulltime nanny.)
Taking a holiday in the UK or somewhere on the European mainland that’s easily accessible by ferry, means you can load up the car for any eventuality. Travelling with toddlers or a baby anywhere by plane is a subject worthy of its dedicated webpage.
The type of accommodation you stay in will change the instant you have children. Gone are the days of luxury hotel rooms with private plunge pool. Now you’re down to three options:
- Self catering – examine the fine print closely.
- Hotels that are specifically created with children in mind – Ker-ching!
- Holiday clubs – How sociable are you?
Of the three, self catering is BY FAR the easiest when travelling with toddlers or a baby as it gives you maximum flexibility and costs infinitely less. No need to worry if your toddler will only eat toast and marmite for every meal. You won’t be paying a premium for food that isn’t eaten and you won’t have to explain to fellow diners that your child has been tested for scurvy or apologise for a bowl of spag bol decorating the carpet.
Not all self-catering places are created equal. If it doesn’t have the things you need for your child or toddler, you will end up working twice as hard as you do at home. No stairgate at the top of a flight of stone steps? No high-chair? Only fragile crockery that doesn’t like being flung across a room? No toys? No garden to play in? An unenclosed swimming pool? Research, my friends, is key. Make sure the place you book understands what children (and their parents) need. Make sure that the property has actually been visited by the people selling it – and ideally they should know a thing or two about children – so they know first hand what it’s like and whether it’s suitable for young families.
How to get there?
Are we there yet? That’s what you’ll be asking after travelling with toddlers. Babies under six months are relatively easy. They eat. They sleep. They poo. And critically, they don’t move. The minute they start moving your troubles begin.
Travelling by car is the easiest option when travelling with toddlers or a baby as it means you can pack enough stuff to comfortably equip an Bushman family for a decade. Sure you’re going to be singing ‘If you’re happy and you know it’ through gritted teeth by the end of it, and you’ll be so good at spotting cows in fields that you’ll still be pointing them out to your husband years after the kids have left home, but you’ll get there and the carnage will be confined to your car only.
Planes are different. Planes require military packing and plenty of creative thinking. Top tip: when you get to your seats on the plane, turn to everyone sitting nearby and apologise in advance. Smile, offer round bags of sweets. It will serve you well. There’s only one thing worse than having your child screaming for hours, it’s having loud tutting from fellow passengers to accompany it.
Make sure you have plenty of:
- Snacks and drinks when travelling with toddlers or a baby. Do not worry about causing obesity during the duration of the flight. Snacks are good. When a mouth is full, it cannot cry at the same time. Raisins, bread sticks, rice cakes, rusks, fruit, mini yogurts – all vary in messiness but will keep the mouth busy.
- Nappy changing stuff. What goes in, must come out. Be prepared.
- Spare clothes. And not just for your child. You are quite likely to be covered in vomit, juice, pee/poo, half chewed biscuits within the first ten minutes.
- Toys. Tricky this. They can’t make a noise unless you’ve actually paid off the surrounding passengers in hard cash. They can’t have too many small parts as they will fall on the floor and roll down into the aisle prompting maximum wailing from the small child. Many people suggest wrapping toys up as this passes a few more minutes while your child opens them. But the tiny bits of torn paper will just add to you feeling like a hamster stuck on a spinning wheel. So I prefer not. Opt for finger puppets, a small etcha-sketch or books (lift the flaps are good). If all else fails, use the sick bags and place random miscellaneous objects into it and let your child empty it and refill it.
- Calpol. Because sometimes only pink medicine will do.
Travelling with toddlers continued
What to do once you’re there?
You’ll probably spend the first day recovering from the trip. Thereafter, go with the flow. Don’t overplan. Lying in a hammock (obviously you’ll be taking turns to do this) is a lot more relaxing that rushing around sight-seeing. Try to go for at least 10 days to two weeks. It takes time to unwind and there’s absolutely no point putting yourself through the agony of travelling with a toddler unless you have a decent length holiday once you’re there. Do some research before you go so you know what there is to do in the area and plan a few day trips.
Try to get some time to yourself or as a couple when travelling with toddlers and children. Find out in advance whether your holiday destination offers babysitting, pampering treatments, shopping excursions or anything else that will give you some well deserved time out. If there’s just the two of you, you’ll have to do this in shifts so it can be a great idea to travel with friends or family so that you can share babysitting duties.
But whatever you do, don’t get stressed out when travelling with toddlers to children. If you feel as though you’re not filling every minute. You have the rest of your life to explore exotic destinations and take part in adventure activities. Holidaying with a baby or toddler is about reclaiming your sanity. Anything after that is a bonus.
