First beach holiday with a young child

kuczer2

I have seen a stonking deal on a hol to the Canaries in December for myself, the missus and our baby boy. I reckon this would be an ideal time to travel with a young child given that the weather is warm but not blistering at that time of year.

We have been to the Canaries before on beach holidays a number of times but on this occasion my OH is very apprehensive about going given that we have a child with us this time. She is worried how he may cope with travel, staying in a strange place and all the extra gear we may need to take. She is very protective of him and with good reason and is just generally worried about the whole thing.

Our little boy will be 11 months old at the time of the holiday. For the record, he is a fun loving type, loves people, is crawling and will easily be walking by then I am sure. He has no problem at all with water. He is still breastfeeding and having plenty of solid food on top. I think we should be ok to buy him food while we are away but the OH is worried about availability of food, etc.

I promised my OH that I would do some online research while she mulls it over herself.

Basically, I am looking for people who have experienced a beach / sun holiday with a child under a year old and can offer advice. I am looking for all possible pros and cons so we can sit down and make an informed decision.

Thanks in advance. :beer:

richardw

There might be other destinations with stonking deals with warm but not blistering weather with shorter flights in say early November.

kuczer2

richardw wrote: »

There might be other destinations with stonking deals with warm but not blistering weather with shorter flights in say early November.

Thanks, any suggestions?

richardw

Perhaps consider Costa Blanca, Costa Calida, Costa del Sol, Algarve, Malta.

stephb34

I have been taking my 6 year old daughter since she was 4months old never had a problem at all. When i was breastfeeding that was easy as she had food on demand, when she moved onto solids great we were half board or all inclusive there was always something she liked but then she's a good eater.
The most important things after that are suntan lotion and a parasol for your pushchair. We did stick to spain, balaerics and the canaries whilst she was under 5 as they're not too foreign if you know what i mean.

wookeyhole1

my daughter is now 2 but i have been taking her abroad since she was 4 months old.
our first holiday was to gran canaria and it was lovely. she slept most of the flight so that was a bonus. on her 1st birthday we went to majorca (end of march) and she loved it. she loves water and we had a indoor pool so went swimming every day. the weather was cool but when we had the sun out we were at the beach and again she loved it. there was lots of supermarkets that hat baby food readily available. we went to cyprus when she was 15 months old (june) and found this to a bit too hot for her and us although the place we stayed at had lots of kids water features/sprays so that cooled her off.

we also went to lanzarote with her in december.

a few things i would say is:

try to get an evening flight/night flight so little boy would sleep most of the flight
expect to pay double if not more for baby food over there
dont expect the pools to be warm even if they say heated.

other than that i think you will have a great time. all the locals love the kids and will make a fuss over them.

hth

Becles

I've taken mine on holiday when they were babies. My eldest went to Majorca when he was 10 months, the middle one went to Menorca at 8 months and the youngest went to Turkey aged 12 months.

I've never bothered taking much baby food. They were all good eaters and there was always something available that could be mushed up with a fork. I used to give them bread or fruit to munch on while I ate mine. Baby food jars are handy for travelling and if you go out on trips in case meal times don't coincide with when baby is hungry!

I took nappies but bought a big carry pack and sellotaped a piece of paper with the flight details on, then checked it in with the suitcases. It saves masses of room in your cases.

I took sterilising tablets for bottles, and just left everything soaking in the bathroom sink while we were out. You might need a travel kettle if the hotel doesn't have one in the room.

Never really had any problems and we had lovely holidays.

davidlizard

We have been taking our two to the greek islands since they were 6 months old, and have found it no problem whatsoever.

Re food: There will be food they can eat out there - the locals have babies after all. Yes, it might be a bit more expensive but thats holidays.

One thing I do recommend is going self catering, in that its easier to knock your own food up and give it to them. With eating out, there is a delay between ordering and the food turning up, and then what turns up may not be what you had in mind. We have always found it easier cooking something in the room - its amazing what you can knock up on just two rings.

Also recommend getting a beach tent if you are going to spend much time on the beach - a proper UV one, to give them both shade and shelter from the wind, and being more enclosed, they might actually go to sleep. And it soon pays for itself when you don't hire sunloungers. And put them in a sun suit for the beach so you don't have to spend ages putting sun tan lotion on them. And get them used to wearing a hat.

We have a travel cot, which is enclosed so they do not get troubled by mosquitos, and also are unable to escape and crawl off round the room. Most places will provide a cot anyway.

rome1067

We took our son to Tenerife when he was 11 months old and he loved it. I took some little cartons of made up milk so he could have one before bed and bought a bottle from Mothercare that you steam sterilised in the microwave as we were in an apartment. I think I took a few jars of food and rusk type things but he also ate some of our meal as he was a good eater.

We took some nappies and bought some out there but they were very expensive and very strange, almost like a thong nappy! Not good, take plenty:D

I would recommend an apartment or hotel that has fridge in the room when you've got children with you. We also took our listener with us for when we sat on the balcony.

rome1067

Forgot to say that we went in November and the pool was FREEZING! Although its warm its not warm enough to heat the pool so he wasn't keen on that!

kuczer2

Thanks to all for your kind advice. Not many cons in there and I am sure the worries are for nothing. We've had a sit down and decided to go for it. My OH has a small hand blender and is going to buy raw materials for some baby food.

Good advice re the pools, travel kettle and beach tent. I am sure he will be fine. He loves attention off others so if there are lots of people about he should have a ball.

We are going to book a week to Lanzarote in December. I know the flight is 4 hours but we can get up and down with him and take some food to feed him in his seat.

I took him to a football match the other day and he sat there for two hours straight shouting at everyone in site and laughing his head off so if he can cope with that then I suppose there is some hope.

Thank you all so much.