Before our baby was born we loved traveling. We'd been to Japan, New Zealand, Morocco and so on and enjoyed it a great deal. We haven't traveled since he was born (three months) but have booked a few things to build up to it again.
First off a spa break - a member of our NCT group had one - as she said, good food for the grownups, a bar for daddy and massage for mummy plus a pool for baby was perfect. Consumed with envy for what sounded like a well-earned rest as the initial adrenaline starts to wear off we too have booked one - a two night spa break where we each receive three treatments, some friends live nearby for a pub lunch catchup, lovely local food and of course the all-important pool - baby is splashing way too much in his little bath and obviously needs the next size up! Looking forward to that immensely. The hotel is part of a chain (Shire) and they claim to be very child-friendly with things like teeny tiny bathrobes and milk and cookies at bedtime (not sure the baby can cope with that just yet but we'd like them!).
After that comes a trip to Paris via Eurostar (first proper train journey!), to a close friend whose baby is exactly the same age - we've not seen each other since they were born and it will be great to catch up, although we have only booked two nights away as we're wondering what a house with two babies is like!
Then at some point in the spring there will be a long car trip up north to visit the in laws - I hope the old trick of baby + car = sleep will still be working....
And finally: ta daa, the plane trip - probably the most daunting, when we go to Italy to visit some of my folks. This will be a longer stay, plus it will involve multiple forms of transport to get there... and he'll be weaning. Gulp.
Now I am wistfully looking through travel brochures wondering if a longer-haul trip will be possible at some point. Do you go when they're too small to know what's going on? Do you try to choose a destination that will appeal to them (although to a child under 2 probably anything appeals, it must all be utterly amazing and gobsmacking, even the M1)? Who knows, but it would be nice to get back to traveling again.
So I've found a few useful resources while reseraching:
Travel With Children by Lonely Planet - great book, a gift before our baby was born - to give us hope!
Family.com - oddly run by Disney although they list loads of attractions that have nothing to do with them: brilliant for USA trips, also covers a few other international destinations. Useful as they even have filtering by age of child etc.
Baby Friendly Boltholes - quite high-end but if you're desperate for some luxury!
Baby Goes 2 - very highly recommended in the media etc.
And my favourite item so far for traveling is this travelcot which lasts birth-2 yrs old (there's a bigger one too to go up to 4 but presumably by that point they can sleep in a normal bed). It weighs very little (why do most travel cost weigh 10 kgs? Seriously, that's two-thirds of your travel allowance on Ryanair!), folds into a nice little bag, pops up and self-inflates. Our baby has been using it for naps for over a month now, so is totally used to it.
We'll report back on that spa break....
First off a spa break - a member of our NCT group had one - as she said, good food for the grownups, a bar for daddy and massage for mummy plus a pool for baby was perfect. Consumed with envy for what sounded like a well-earned rest as the initial adrenaline starts to wear off we too have booked one - a two night spa break where we each receive three treatments, some friends live nearby for a pub lunch catchup, lovely local food and of course the all-important pool - baby is splashing way too much in his little bath and obviously needs the next size up! Looking forward to that immensely. The hotel is part of a chain (Shire) and they claim to be very child-friendly with things like teeny tiny bathrobes and milk and cookies at bedtime (not sure the baby can cope with that just yet but we'd like them!).
After that comes a trip to Paris via Eurostar (first proper train journey!), to a close friend whose baby is exactly the same age - we've not seen each other since they were born and it will be great to catch up, although we have only booked two nights away as we're wondering what a house with two babies is like!
Then at some point in the spring there will be a long car trip up north to visit the in laws - I hope the old trick of baby + car = sleep will still be working....
And finally: ta daa, the plane trip - probably the most daunting, when we go to Italy to visit some of my folks. This will be a longer stay, plus it will involve multiple forms of transport to get there... and he'll be weaning. Gulp.
Now I am wistfully looking through travel brochures wondering if a longer-haul trip will be possible at some point. Do you go when they're too small to know what's going on? Do you try to choose a destination that will appeal to them (although to a child under 2 probably anything appeals, it must all be utterly amazing and gobsmacking, even the M1)? Who knows, but it would be nice to get back to traveling again.
So I've found a few useful resources while reseraching:
Travel With Children by Lonely Planet - great book, a gift before our baby was born - to give us hope!
Family.com - oddly run by Disney although they list loads of attractions that have nothing to do with them: brilliant for USA trips, also covers a few other international destinations. Useful as they even have filtering by age of child etc.
Baby Friendly Boltholes - quite high-end but if you're desperate for some luxury!
Baby Goes 2 - very highly recommended in the media etc.
And my favourite item so far for traveling is this travelcot which lasts birth-2 yrs old (there's a bigger one too to go up to 4 but presumably by that point they can sleep in a normal bed). It weighs very little (why do most travel cost weigh 10 kgs? Seriously, that's two-thirds of your travel allowance on Ryanair!), folds into a nice little bag, pops up and self-inflates. Our baby has been using it for naps for over a month now, so is totally used to it.
We'll report back on that spa break....
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