Long haul holiday with little ones

Smoggy

We have two kids, 3 and 1 years.

We were looking at holidays for this summer and thought we would love to go back to Thailand, probably somewhere for a beach holiday.

The question then was raised, are we mad / selfish considering such a holiday with such small children.

My main concern is the flight, but there will be issues of food, finding plain enough food, the humidity, traveling around in safety. The list goes on and my gut feelings that it's a bad idea. But I would like to hear if anyone else has done a similar trip and if it worked out?

Mink

Definitely people HAVE done it.

My personal instincts would be not to bring them and try and go somewhere that's a short flight - ie 2-2.5 hrs and where you know your usual food is available and no need for special vaccinations etc.

But then I'm not the most adventurous...

ceadaoin.

I would find an all inclusive resort, that way you wouldn't have to leave the hotel too often if you didn't want to. I wouldn't be too worried about the food. There are always omelettes on the menu in Thailand, or at least there was when I was there years ago and plain rice, noodles, steamed veggies or fish, and tofu would all be suitable for toddlers.

The flight will be fine. I've flown long haul with my toddler numerous times and there has never been any problems. Entertaining 2 kids for that length of time might be tricky though!

I'd be worried about how the one year old would cope with the heat and humidity though. It can make them very grumpy.

I don't think there is anything wrong with bringing kids on a long haul holiday. In fact, I think it's great for kids to experience a completely different culture. I do think you should test the waters first though by holidaying somewhere a bit closer to home

Smoggy

The jabs and a potentially cranky one year old are putting me off.

I think we will leave it for a year or two, maybe that way they will at least remember some of it !

Thanks for the input.

dublinlady

Yeah - whilst I think travel is great - they are too young to comprehend where they are going and what they are doin so it might be easier for u to just stick with short hall? You can have lovely holidays everyone can enjoy within 3 hrs?

How Strange

We did 4.5 hours with a 1 year old and that was really stretching it. We went to Italy last year which was 2hours and it was just enough for everyone. I wouldn't even consider long haul with very small children unless it was to visit family but definitely not for a holiday.

Also we found with our then 2.5 year old, 10 days seems to be what they can manage and after that they get home sick and want to see their friends etc again. Our son pined to be home after 10 days. We're doing 2 weeks again this year but its something to bear in mind. Other parents said the same thing about their kids so it wasn't just our little fella.

vibe666

We're going to Perth with what will be an 11 month old girl and a 3 year old boy in October, so I'll let you know how that goes.

There will be a 12 hour stopover in Dubai with a hotel stay in the airport to give them a bit of rest so they aren't too cranky during the flights and both kids are very well behaved, so fingers crossed it won't be too bad.