Holiday Accommodation with a baby

Horizon81

Just wondering what families with babies do with regard to holiday accommodation. Our son is 8 months old and we've had a couple of UK mini breaks since he was born, staying in countryside wooden lodges, where there's a separate bedroom, so we can put him in there at bedtime then relax in the living area ourselves... with the baby monitor on of course! He doesn't need his own bedroom, and can share ours, but the key thing is there's at least one bedroom with a door, so baby can sleep in peace while we chill out in the longe.

These lodges (and I suppose static caravans) are ideal, as there's separate bedrooms but they're quite costly so for our UK next trip we're looking at alternatives. Problem is, with most hotel rooms, you just get the room so it would be impossible for baby to sleep unless me and the mrs also turn in for bed at 6pm, which isn't much of a holiday! I know you can get hotels with suites but these tend to cost just as much as lodges. Am I missing something or is it lodges and caravans for us for the foreseeable?!

Alikay

If you need to keep costs down, then yes; lodges and caravans are fairly cheap and suit your needs. Sometimes cottages can be quite reasonably priced too, especially if you book last-minute.

We often had our 3 children in a room with us, and still enjoyed a mini break. We kept them up quite late, often having a stroll on the beach at 8 or 9pm, then went to sleep early ourselves when we put them to bed. It helped us to deal with the sleep-debt which parents of babies and toddlers inevitably build up, and they always settled back into their own routine without problems once when we got back home.:)

missbiggles1

Horizon81 wrote: »

Just wondering what families with babies do with regard to holiday accommodation. Our son is 8 months old and we've had a couple of UK mini breaks since he was born, staying in countryside wooden lodges, where there's a separate bedroom, so we can put him in there at bedtime then relax in the living area ourselves... with the baby monitor on of course! He doesn't need his own bedroom, and can share ours, but the key thing is there's at least one bedroom with a door, so baby can sleep in peace while we chill out in the longe.

These lodges (and I suppose static caravans) are ideal, as there's separate bedrooms but they're quite costly so for our UK next trip we're looking at alternatives. Problem is, with most hotel rooms, you just get the room so it would be impossible for baby to sleep unless me and the mrs also turn in for bed at 6pm, which isn't much of a holiday! I know you can get hotels with suites but these tend to cost just as much as lodges. Am I missing something or is it lodges and caravans for us for the foreseeable?!

Unless one of you works in education, you have the next 4/5 years to enjoy holidays outside the busy period so this should keep holiday costs down, particularly if you go for holidays for 1 or 2 weeks which are pro rata cheaper than short breaks.

Unless you've been going during peak period or staying somewhere like Centre Parks, I'm surprised you've found static caravans expensive, in June or September, I wouldn't expect to be paying more than £150/200 for one week's rent.

onlyroz

We just had the kids in the room with us. On holiday there's no pressure to get them to bed early, and I don't think it's realistic to expect to be up until all hours with a young child anyway. We just dimmed the lights and read quietly until they were asleep.


In any case I don't see the need to turn in at 6pm when you're on holiday with a baby. If you absolutely must have the baby asleep by then why not get them to sleep in the pram and then take them with you while you go out somewhere?

honeypop

We holidayed in hotel rooms fine when ours were that age. Once they were asleep (which usually meant switching tv off, dimming or switching off lights etc while they fell asleep), we could put low lights on, and watch tv and chill out just fine, the background noise would not wake them up.

Once they were a bot older, we stayed at Butlins hotels as they have a separate room for children, and we put a travel gate across the entrance as there are no doors to this bedroom. Again, we could carry on as normal with noise etc without fear of waking them up.

Horizon81

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Unless one of you works in education, you have the next 4/5 years to enjoy holidays outside the busy period so this should keep holiday costs down, particularly if you go for holidays for 1 or 2 weeks which are pro rata cheaper than short breaks.

Unless you've been going during peak period or staying somewhere like Centre Parks, I'm surprised you've found static caravans expensive, in June or September, I wouldn't expect to be paying more than £150/200 for one week's rent.

Ah yes well thats the rub. One of us IS in education so from now on it'll be school holidays only. Where we've been so far averages at £100 per night. We've been with Hoseasons lodges which are at the nicer end of the spectrum, some with hot tubs, well, we do like the finer things in life. It would have to be a 'nice' static caravan to turn me away from these lodges.

Maybe we're being a bit too precious with bedtime, and if we could put it back til 8pm then that may allow a nice walk with the pram after dinner and not be back at the hotel at a ridiculously early time.

sooty&sweep

Hi

On a couple of occasions we stayed in small hotel with bar / lounge. We put the children to bed & went down to the lounge with the baby monitor.
It was a small hotel though & so we weren't far from them & there weren't lots of people coming & going.
Jen

LilElvis

sooty&sweep wrote: »

Hi

On a couple of occasions we stayed in small hotel with bar / lounge. We put the children to bed & went down to the lounge with the baby monitor.
It was a small hotel though & so we weren't far from them & there weren't lots of people coming & going.
Jen

Fantastic parenting advice. Not.

maman

If you travel in Europe at this time of the year you'll find lots of children out and about with their families quite late at night. In many cases they'll have had a nap during the day and many are running about and playing in the cooler evening. They eat out with the family and the really young ones are often fast asleep in the pushchair at the side of the table. Occasionally you might need to walk around a bit to get them off to sleep before settling down at an open air bar/caf!.


If you effectively want to rent two rooms it's always going to be more expensive than one. Another alternative is to rent a s/c apartment or have a hotel room with a balcony but that's not likely in this country.


So there are alternatives but relaxing bedtime is probably the cheapest.

Tigsteroonie

We used to go back to the accommodation and feed/bathe/change our son into his nightwear, then pop him back into the buggy with a blanket and go out again. He'd sit quite happily in the buggy in the pub, restaurant, amusement arcade looking at the lights, until he conked out asleep. Because he was already prep'd, transferring him at the end of the evening to his bed wasn't a problem.

Kynthia

LilElvis wrote: »

Fantastic parenting advice. Not.

If it's a small hotel/b&b then how is it any different from them being upstairs at home or at a family members house? Certainly better than using the hotel listening service as at least it's tge parent listening continuously. Very judgemental.