Vacations after baby

[pugz]

we pretty much have only done domestic trips since we got married as we are kinda cheap Money will be tight for us after baby as I am cutting back to relief work only so we will be on one income.

however I hope to take a girlfriend's trip in 2014 when we all turn 30, and also want to do a weekend trip to Chicago with dh for that birthday. Until then I don't imagine we'll travel other than to visit the ILs

[auberge]

We've only taken our son on two big trips since he was born. To my inlaws in NY and to Seattle for a wedding. I hate to say it but sometimes its just easier and more relaxing to stay close to home.
He's 2 1/2 right now and we are planning to go to NY in June. I'm nervous about having my very active toddler on the plan for 5.5 hours. HELP ME baby jesus.

[whitterbugk]

We've tentatively planned on going to Frontier Days in Cheyenne, WY next year (baby will be 1 y/o). We would fly and there will be plenty of hands to help, since we'll be going with my family.

[Deleted]

DD is almost 2 1/2 yo. We've only gone on vacation 2x since I was pregnant. H hates flying because of the carseat (we use it in the plane). He said definitely no flying with 2 kids (we're TTC for #2). I guess we'll see.

[Deleted]

Well my personal experience has been that it's kind of a hassle to travel with little kids. Remembering to pack all of the endless things they need (bottles, breast pump, pnp, baby monitor, baby food, diapers, wipes, special toys and books, car seats, stroller, ect. ect.), carrying it around with you, dealing with the crankies when they get off their schedule and overtired, finding restaurants where they will actually eat, keeping them entertained on long car rides or plane trips, keeping them entertained all day away from their normal routines and toys, trying to find babysitters...well it's difficult Frankly, it's kind of exhausting and I usually feel in need of another break when we get back.

We do take them places though, typically to "family friendly" locations like the beach. We've found that it's much, much easier to bring family members along to help us and to stay in a place with at least several bedrooms and a kitchen. So for the past few years we've been doing an OBX trip every year with DH's parents and brothers in the summer and a trip on our own to FL in the winter. Staying in a hotel with a suite is a must for naps and early bedtimes. We usually fly although this year we're going to try driving to NC. Not sure how that'll go!

I've also found that it's much, much easier to travel with a baby than with a toddler or small child who is really dependent on their routine. I would say 5-12 months is the easiest (most babies are STTN by then and on a predictable nap schedule) and then it gets progressively more difficult until the child turns 3 or 4. But that's the time when many people have another baby so it gets trickier again! lol.

[h]

Since my oldest was born 4.5 years ago, we have taken him on several long weekend ski trips (about a 2 hour flight), a bunch of trips to DC where my ILs live (about a 3 hour flight), three or four trips to the closest beach (about a 3.5 hour drive), dozens of trips to my parents’ house (a 7 hour drive), a trip to Disney World (3-ish hour flight), a family vacation to San Diego to do the beach/Legoland/Sea World/zoo thing (about a 3 hour flight), and a few other assorted domestic plane trips. Since my youngest was born 2 years we have taken him, too. We have not taken the kids anywhere international yet, but that is largely because about the time we would have otherwise started traveling more extensively with DS1, we had another baby and started over again. My husband and I did go to Costa Rica for 6 days without kids when DS1 was almost 2 (I was pregnant with DS2 by the time we returned).
Our boys are now 4.5 and 2. This summer we are planning on taking them on several long weekend trips (the beach 3.5 hours away, their grandparents’ house in DC, an awesome local family friendly resort, etc.). Then DH and I are leaving them with the grandparents and going to Belize along for a few days. Next year we plan to do our first big trip with both kids—probably Mexico, the Caribbean, or Central America.

[Wines Not Whines]

You can definitely travel with kids, but little kids have a LOT of gear (stroller, carseat, pack n play, etc.), so that makes it a little harder to fly. My son is almost two. We've done several short trips (3-4 hour drives) and a few longer trips with him that involved flights. We haven't done any international trips yet, but I'm hoping we'll be able to do that in a couple of years.

[brit1017]

The last time we flew was to Disney when DS was about 15 months and I was pregnant with DD. Since then, we have only done vacations that we can drive to (though we have done 8+ hour drives). With two kids, especially two mobile ones who like to run in opposite directions, the thought of going through an airport and getting through security just makes me break out in hives.

The $$ tickets are another factor. We generally don't have a lot of money to spend on vacations, and once DD turned 2, having to pay for 4 seats makes flying become too much of the vacation budget.

Plus as PP mentioned, there is so much "stuff" that goes along with kids that it is easier for us to just throw all in the car and go.

[h]

We have done plane travel with two kids several times (we have to, or we would never get to spend a holiday with my ILs). It is not a picnic, but it is doable. For us, traveling with a non-mobile baby hasn't been too bad, and traveling with a kid over 2 (aka, a kid old enough to fall into a zombie like trance over an ipad or DVD) is really pretty easy. It is the 9 months to 2 years window that really sucks. I suspect travel will actually be pretty fun once my kids are about 3 and 5.5.

[lishie]

My boys are 3 and 1. Since we had our 3 year old, we've done three child-free trips to Vegas and the DR.

We've also done 3 disney trips, 4 NYC trips, a vacation to San Antonio and a beach vacation to Sandbridge Virginia.

Next month we're doing a week-long trip to Riviera Maya, Mexico. I'm also in the planning stages for an Alaskan cruise for when my youngest hits 3.

It's more work, but we definitely haven't stopped travelling.

[mollybrown]

You can definitely still travel! We've taken DS across the country to California and Florida, along with trips that we did by car. It wasn't bad at all. We took an umbrella stroller, car seat, and an Ergo. That was totally manageable between 2 adults at an airport. Just remember, you can always buy anything that you forget at your destination. We actually bought a $50 pack n' play in Florida and donated it to a battered women's shelter when we left to avoid schlepping ours across the country, and paying United $50 for the privilege. You can also rent a car seat if you don't carry your own, or even buy a $40 Cosco Scenera at your destination. Being willing to pay for convenience is key for us.

We're actually taking the toddler and the baby to Mexico next month, and to New York in September. We love travel too much to put it off until the kids are older.

[h]

Does anyone have experience traveling with three kids? Fear of not being able to travel is one of the issues holding us back from having another child. I can do two, but I am afraid the logistics (not to mention cost, to make it MM) of traveling with three kids would kill us.

[partiallysunny]

I think vacations are very do-able with children, depending on your own personality and that of the children. Many families vacation and travel with babies and toddlers. It's what you make of it.

That being said, I've never travelled internationally or been on an airplane. I prefer sticking close to home.

[partiallysunny]

May 11, 2012 12:11:11 GMT -5 h said:

Does anyone have experience traveling with three kids? Fear of not being able to travel is one of the issues holding us back from having another child. I can do two, but I am afraid the logistics (not to mention cost, to make it MM) of traveling with three kids would kill us.

Things like this has me debating having 2 vs. 3 children. Not the logistics of it, but the cost. A lot of things (not just vacations) are prepackaged and advertised for a family of 4.

[Redpoppy]

We still travel with DS but cut down on international trips. We fly a few times a year with him to Florida and also took him to Texas. I don't find the travel to be that difficult but we never had a great routine with DS do he wasn't missing anything when traveling. We've also done week long time shares that are in driving distance which are nice. Long road trips have been the least fun to be honest. We drove to the Bay of Fundy and DS was not a peach in the car.

[Mushe]

I'm a new mom (DS is 5.5 mo) but we're still traveling. We went across the country at Christmas (4 weeks), to Hawaii (11 weeks) and have plans for other trips at 8 mo (domestic), 14 mo (Mexico), and 20 mo (Europe).

We just adjusted our expectations of what we could do. Instead of getting to do hiking in Hawaii, it was more low key drives and hanging out around the pool and beach.

We're taking family with us on the next 3 trips so we'll have extra hands and someone to give us a night off.

[af1212]

I don't go on a ton of "vacations" with my DD, but we do travel quite a bit (mostly to visit family and friends). We have been from the East Coast to CA about 5 times (twice with my husband, three times by myself), to Florida 3 times, and up and down the East Coast on little flights a bunch of times. She is 2 1/2 now but we got her on her first plane at 2 months.

I usually travel by myself since I'm not working, and honestly I've gotten into such a routine that my husband just gets in the way when he joins us. I think that if you are used to and comfortable traveling, you won't find it hard to incorporate a little one into the mix.

[mrshandy]

I agree with PPs vacations after a kid are no picnic. Personally, I have no desire to spend a ton of $$$ to travel internationally if I can't enjoy my vacation to the fullest. A toddler really limits your ability to do that.

We've taken a few "vacations" but mostly just visiting family. It's so funny how nowadays I really just want to be able to do nothing on vacations as opposed to before when I wanted to see/do as many things as possible.

DH and I are going to Mexico for friends wedding in less than two weeks and I'm sooooo excited. But DS is staying home and our MIL is coming into town to watch him. ;D

[BAMFMrsB]

We're going to WDW in Jan with our 4mo old

That's the PLAN, anyways. DH ran the WDW marathon in '12 and its a lot of fun! I'd like to go again in '13 and take the babe with us... and a parent or 2 (ahem. MINE) .... if they want to go and help out. We'll see how that plays out. We'd go for less than a week, prob 4 days in the park, 1 day rest, 1 day for DH to run.

[ohgillian]

10 days domestic (flew there) sans baby @ 14 months. It was bliss.

[katrana]

We flew twice when our son was little- once at about 9 months to visit family, we took the carseat along because we knew we would be driving around a lot.

We flew to boston when he was around 10 months, that time we did not take the carseat but we did take the stroller. We took public transportation everywhere.

He did great both times! Both flights were around 2-3 hours. We tried to time them for his normal nap times and he did sleep most of the time for 3/4 of the flights. Bring lots of snacks and some new toys!

The first time we didn't bring diapers along with us since we were visiting family (they bought them for us, we just brought along enough for the day(s) we were traveling). The second time, we took the diaper bag plus we packed one pack into the luggage (it was a long weekend trip). If we were going for longer, I would have purchased them at our destination.

[victoria1212]

Sure you can travel but how enjoyable it is depends on the personality of your kid. DD was laid back as a baby and we took her two many places but once she could walk she wanted nothing to do with the stroller, being contained on plane, etc... It was so bad on our last vacation that we came home early. She is 3 now and we are going to the beach for a week but we are taking my mom and dh's dad for help.

[megs193]

Traveling with 2 adults and 1 kid has not been bad imo. I would definitely do a low key caribbean vacation. I have heard great things about beaches. We have taken our son on a cruise, to disneyworld 3 times, and to Colorado (to see family) 3 times. It is a little more work than traveling without a child but we still had a lot of fun. The iPad is our best friend when we are traveling. We let him watch tons of shows we bought on itunes and play games. I also take a few of his favorite toys, sticker books, crayons and lot's of snacks. I'm guessing 2 kids is going to be a different story but since my parents are in Colorado we have no choice.

[Deleted]

I went to Vegas (without DH or DD- it was a girls trip); and to DC twice with DH (no DD).

We went to Florida (Disney) once with DD right after she turned 2.

[whitepicketfence]

We haven't travelled anywhere since our kids were born. Honestly, it seems like more of a hassle than it's worth. We're waiting until DD2 is at least 3 years old to travel with them. Maybe if we only had one kid we'd consider it but there's no way I'm willing to do it with two, especially at their current ages.

[jacquie]

We have done a combo. We flew down to Florida (from IN) when our little guy was 8 months old. We have driven from 4-14 hours (northern IN, down to New Orleans) before he was 18 months old. We will be flying to Switzerland just after his third birthday next Summer and will possibly be flying to Texas just after his second birthday. I don't really think traveling with a young child is that difficult, but ours is quite easy going.

That said, I much preferred flying to driving. Being stuck in a freaking car for 4+ hours with a toddler made me insane. He wanted nothing more than to get out of his seat and move around. Bless his heart. On the plane, he can get up and walk the aisles and isn't restrained the entire time.

We have still thoroughly enjoyed our vacations, it is just a different type of fun

[Deleted]

we've traveled a ton with baby. 2 Hawaii trips, Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, North Carolina, Utah, and we;re heading to England for a wedding in July.
I think it depends on the kid on how you are as travelers. Yes, you have to bring a ton of stuff, but really if you prepare well then you're fine.
We love traveling with your son.

[hannamarin]

I flew with L at 6 mths. It was fine because we went to my parents in Florida so they bought all the diapers, formula, etc.
I would avoid flying out of your time zone too far. I am scared of time differences and sleep.

[drloretta]

I haven't, but we don't do Hawaii/Caribbean. However, I've had friends who go to Hawaii (from MD) at least once a year with their son since he was 8 months, and another who took their son to I want to say Mexico, or maybe the Caribbean, when he was a toddler.

We have road tripped extensively with DD. No problems whatsoever.

ETA: I got it into my head early that I wanted DD to travel as much as possible (within reason) so that she'd be used to it. My niece and nephews haven't gone more than a 3-hour drive from their house since they were born, except for my wedding. So they never "learned" to travel. hence the reason my family has never been to see us, yet we're expected to schlep DD across the country. Yes, I'm bitter.

[satama]

Since our first DS was born (he is 2years and 4 months) we have taken at least 7 trips. One was a 7 hour plane ride where we took my mom with us and stayed with family. The rest were by car, furthest trip was 10 hours. One camping trips with ILs, and a couple of long weekends at the beach. We did do one international trip, but left DS with my mom. I have a 7 week old now and we took him to the beach for the weekend at 4 weeks. That trip was 3 hours by car.

It is more of a pain to travel with kids, but totally doable. My advice is to only stay in suites so everyone does not have to go to bed at 7:30 when your toddler does.