[Closed] 18 month old on holiday abroad - hotel do-able or apartment needed?!

Definitely apartment/aparthotel, or if you're flush adjoining rooms.

Did the one room hotel thing for a night once, basically put the boy to bed, hid in bathroom until asleep. sat very quietly on bed for a bit, went to sleep. Would make for a shit holiday.

^^

Yep we've done this on occasion but usually at weddings when we're ready for bed ourselves.

I've found some cracking deals on hotels but I think you're right - it could end up being an expensive and tortuous 14 nights..

Did it with three kids while on a 2 night stopover in Singapore a few years back. Never again. As soon as they wake up (4am!) and realise you are in the same room it's playtime!!!! And if you don't have a hotel room with a separate lounge you end up reading a book in the bathroom in the evening, while the cherubs are asleep in the bedroom.

My advice - get an apartment or even a hotel room with a separate lounge / bedroom.

And Puerto Pollenca in Majorca is my recommendation. Lovely, civilised, family friendly place with fantastic (mainly road) cycling all around it. Full of poms like us though, but you can't have everything.

Stop worrying. We had our second in St Lucia at 6wks old. Worst holiday ever (I was forced). However, it wasn't down to the baby, that was down to family and tiredness.

Whats the issue. Millions of people take babies abroad. I would rather sit next to a screeming baby than one of the thousands of brits who take being abroad as a signal to chain smoke when sat next to non smokers at every opportunity.

The only issues I have ever had with having a youngster abroad is keeping said toddler amused all the time is hard work. Take a nice light buggy with you and enjoy the long walks to get him/her off to sleep. Then you can enjoy some peace.

Some of our best holidays ever have been at that age abroad with my kids.

Also consider that a other kids keep little RRR amused so it takes a little bit of the burden off you to be entertainment 24/7.

You may need to calm the bedroom Olympics down so not to wake him/her but no big deal. My wife wouldn't let the baby out of her sight so baby was in the cot in our room but it wasn't too bad.

Our first trip abroad was at 10 weeks, you just get on with it. Don't worry about other people, if they wanted seclusion they shouldn't pick a hotel full of tourists or a scheduled flight in summertime.

Just to say, our kids have always been excellent sleepers and 99% of the time we would put them in the cot asleep and get a good nights kip.

Even when we had separate rooms for sleeping our kids at that age slept in our room regardless.

I've overcome the general travel worry now so am not too stressed about the flight.

I think that younger sproglets (under a year) are probably a bit easier to get to sleep in that they're not as aware of the change of environment. Mini RRR will almost definitely not go to sleep if he can see us I reckon ..

Minimum of two rooms for us. Don't particularly mind sharing bedroom with toddler, but it's a holiday - you've got to be able to kick back and have a few beers, listen to some music on the balcony etc etc in the evening. Location may dictate you have no choice but to hang around your room in the evenings anyway. So go for apartment. As someone else said, two bedroom apartments are even better.

Mrs RRR and I have decided that we're going to be brave and take mini RRR on a plane with us, somewhere warm ish.

I much prefer taking the car & ferry and a nice gite in France. More space, more sleep, no airport stress, can take the bikes.

^ we had thought about this too but I haven't a clue about where to look or how far south you need to go to get nice weather?!

Hi RRR, I think you posted previously looking for flying tips and accommodation suggestions.

We have been away twice this year with our 4.5 year old and 14 month year old girls, getting our holidays in now prior to being subject to school holidays.

We were in Tenerife in March and had a double-buggy for both girls. After an (early) dinner, we would change our youngest into her pajamas and take her for a stroll and stop off for a wee refreshment if and when she fell asleep. We would sometimes have a drink in the hotel lobby and transfer both girls into their cots and beds, and either read and have a drink on the balcony or lounge. Our hotel room had a separate bedroom so we all slept in it, but had a lounge / kitchen so we had some space to chill out once our girls were asleep.

On previous holidays, I have seen plenty of kids either staying up late (why not they are on holiday), or fast asleep in a buggy in bars and pubs. So your night does not necessarily have to end when your child goes to bed, but apply common sense and obviously you know your own child.

You might want to avoid Brits, but are Dutch, Norwegians, Germans and Russians etc ok :-)? I'd recommend finding a family friendly hotel and resort, that cater for the above and that will make your holiday so much easier and relaxing for you.

I'd highly recommend Hotel Isabel, Costa Adeje in Tenerife but that will involve a 4 hour flight.

RRR - France, like the UK isn't a safe bet for Weather - we went to Loire for a week a couple of years ago in June and it rained every day and was cold and windy, but it's 30c there today and sunny.

We took our little one to Morzine last summer - she was only 11 weeks, the drive was a mistake - she ALWAYS sleeps in the car and at that age was sleeping most of the day anyway - but her tolerance level ran out about 2 hours north of Morzine and driving up the mountain, pitch dark, exhausted and stressed by a crying baby way hell - suffice to say they went home via Easyjet.

We've been talking about this year - wherever you go, unless you like reading a lot I'd insist on an apartment, with decent internet.

Our little one demands to be in bed, asleep by 7pm - she might sleep in her buggy for a bit, but she's never going to do so in a bar whilst some terrible singer warbles on - (I hate package holidays) anyway - in a hotel room I could look forward to watching infomercials for steam cleaners, in near silence from 7pm to whenever I fell asleep - whilst wondering why I spent £2k to put myself through this misery.

At least with an apartment (which we had last year in Morzine) we could let Baby sleep and using my laptop, a HDMI lead an Hola at least we could watch some TV and enjoy a drink.

Normandy is very nice, and in many years of visiting the in-laws we have only had a couple of days of rain that kept us indoors.
Ferry from Portsmouth to Caen/Le Harve/Cherbourg is approx 6 hours with Brittany Ferrys.
Chez Nous have great listings for gites/holiday homes all over France.

We are going back to Menorca this year. The flights are not too long, and the hotels are generally very well set up with kids clubs and creches. Little ones get to play with other kids which keeps them and you happy.
An apartment is always a must for us, and gives us the option of cooking if we want.

Just go for it. Head to Spain and book into a hotel that caters more for the Spanish crowd, they'll be 100% used to having toddlers up and about past midnight in summer. (And of course this means the kids wake up later, meaning you don't have to be up at 6...)

^ we had thought about this too but I haven't a clue about where to look or how far south you need to go to get nice weather?!

I've just got back from 2 weeks in France - week camping on Ile de Re then a week in the Vendee in a gite. Temps 25-30 degrees. Our youngest is 19 months and I wouldn't want to go anywhere warmer as she gets hot and bothered otherwise.

Getting there was easy - overnight ferry Portsmouth - St Malo then a four hour drive south. I've been to France a lot since childhood and can only remember one holiday that had consistently poor weather.

When the wee one was 15 months old, we took her to Llafranc on the costa brava for a week in a hotel room (Gorgeous place btw, and bugger all brits, which was ace!).

First night there she was still marauding about in her cot at 11 on the first night, we gave in and just went to sleep, she must've followed soon after.

The good thing about being in a spanish resort populated by spaniards, and with a child at that age, is that they eat so late, so you can get the wee one fed and into PJ's and head out for a long walk til sleepies come, then head to a nice quiet intimate restaurant for a nice meal together and a rioja or 2. Bliss.

Then wander back to the hotel, carefully transfer said bundle of joy to cot, and another wee nip of something nice on the balcony.

I loved that holiday.

As suggested above, Majorca fits the bill as it is within your flight time requirement, won't be brutally hot, sandy beaches for the littleun. Small island so anywhere on it is within 40 mins transfer of the airport

The flights, having tried all different times of day I found early morning flights to be the best, take off around 7 - 8 am, that was littleun gets woken up in the middle of the night, excitement of the journey, airport, etc keeps them awake, then when at 6:30 you sit down again on the plane they go back to sleep. Also, if they don't moaning babies are easier to deal with in the morning when you are fresh, rather than at the end of a long day when you are already tired, and....flying back at 10pm so baby will sleep might seem like a good idea, until they wont't sleep cos of the excitement of being out ant the airport, then the flight is delayed, then its 2am and they wont turn the cabin lights off cos they have to go round selling snacks and duty free fags, and the littleun at that age is just a 2 stone ball of angry muscle kicking and punching you whilst chained to your lap cos they dont get their own seat. Shocking journey.

Right accomodation, either look for self catering, or get on the holiday lettings website and rent an apartment. As with someone above, all sleeping in the same room is the way to do it, you just dont want that room to also be your living space. Any self catering place will have a bedroom, and a decent sized seperate kitchen/diner/living space, and weirdly will be cheaper then the hotel room that had none of that and is a quarter of the size.

I liked playa de muro on mallorca, a nothing much there sort of place between 2 larger resort towns alcudia (trashy) and another one, cant remember the name, old people and germans. Being in the middle of those meant you had the choice, but werent really in a town at all. On here its always pollensa that gets recommended on mallorca, I've not been so can't comment

18 months hmmm

Some are great some ruin the holiday. On one hand the hotel staff are there to take care of the chores and meals on the other hand being in one room for two weeks can be enough to tip some couples over the edge without having a child involved

imo there's a lot to be said about breaking the routine. It's a holiday something different so try not to replicate home life in too much detail.

Have endearing memories of a little girl on the last hols no more than two carefully and painstakingly peeling a boiled egg her parents gave her for breakfast. Ours would've been sitting on the floor with a bowl of cornflakes over their head at that age

The general gist of the opinion matches my experience.

Either...
Go native, let the kids have a longer daytime nap than you normally would and let them stay up/eat with you. Have a way of them passing out when they finally drop, this will be later than you imagine. Abandon all hope of routine. For this a hotel is fine and you will wake up in the morning to sleeping children and a relaxing late start.

Or...
Get an appartment. Stick to your normal routine, putting the kids to be early. Again this works but don't contemplate it unless you have a separate living space or you will spend every evening hiding in a toilet or sitting in the dark/silence while a child stands in a cot looking at you wondering why you are all sitting in the dark.

Do not attempt a normal routine with a hotel room, it will be hell or just supremely dull.