Holiday with 8 month old

yourdeadwright

Hey guys
I'm looking at going away in August/September and bringing the new baby with us for the first time,
Just wondering has anyone and recommdations of place that would suit,
Looking for somewhere, with
Sun,
Not to far by plane, (Europe)
Nice family atmospheres
Place can go for walks with the buggy ,
lastly somewhere that won't break the bank,

Any idea's would be great

gaillimh

Well we went to ile de Re (island off the West Coast of France) in September last year when our daughter was 8 months old.
It went very smoothly.
Flight was ~90 minutes into La Rochelle - the island is pretty much right beside the airport.
The flights were very cheap when I booked (less than €200 for myself, wife and baby) and hired a car for the week for €120.
Now I did pay €1200 on accommodation. Could have got a lot cheaper in a hotel but I wanted more space as we had the little one with us so was willing to pay that.

Our accommodation had a private deck with plunge pool and was really class http://www.mv-lodge.com/

I had previously booked this hotel but cancelled in the end.
http://www.re-hotel-ocean.com/

Positives:
Short flight
Flights to La Rochelle are generally cheap from Dublin
Easy driving around island with little traffic
Our accommodation was fantastic
It's a very nice quaint relaxed island
Weather was not too hot for the little one
Apart from the initial accommodation outlay - we spent less than usual in the week

Possible Negatives:
Weather unpredictable at times (it wasn't that warm most days - got to 18 or 19 degrees on certain days).
It can be relatively expensive to eat out (not a problem for us as we ate in most of the time).
It is quite a sleepy place - not a huge amount "going on" but fine for a chill out week.
The town we were in (La Couarde) possibly a bit too quiet from the point of view of not that many eating options.
This holds for most of France - but found very few eating options in any of the villages between lunch & dinner servings (around 2:30pm to 7pm) which snookered us a bit as she was napping during lunch & heading to bed at 7pm (this may turn into a positive depending on your preferences as we certainly saved a lot of money by getting supplies in from the supermarket and eating in the lodge).


As regards your criteria...
Sun - this depends -> you could be lucky or unlucky I think. Weather on West Coast of France is not too reliable. We had a small amount of light rain on 2 of the days. The rest of the time was dry and anything from 15 to 19 degrees and mixture of cloud and sun.
Not Too Far By Plane -> definitely satisfies this
Nice Family Atmosphere -> definitely satisfies this
Place For Walks With Buggy -> definitely satisfies this
Won't Break The Bank -> depends on what your budget is I guess. There is definitely affordable accommodation if you search around and if you are happy with a hotel room then even more so. Restaurants can be pricey but if you are willing to self cater some of the time (as we did on most days) then you won't spend a lot

yourdeadwright

gaillimh wrote: »

Well we went to ile de Re (island off the West Coast of France) in September last year when our daughter was 8 months old.
It went very smoothly.
Flight was ~90 minutes into La Rochelle - the island is pretty much right beside the airport.
The flights were very cheap when I booked (less than €200 for myself, wife and baby) and hired a car for the week for €120.
Now I did pay €1200 on accommodation. Could have got a lot cheaper in a hotel but I wanted more space as we had the little one with us so was willing to pay that.

Our accommodation had a private deck with plunge pool and was really class http://www.mv-lodge.com/

I had previously booked this hotel but cancelled in the end.
http://www.re-hotel-ocean.com/

Positives:
Short flight
Flights to La Rochelle are generally cheap from Dublin
Easy driving around island with little traffic
Our accommodation was fantastic
It's a very nice quaint relaxed island
Weather was not too hot for the little one
Apart from the initial accommodation outlay - we spent less than usual in the week

Possible Negatives:
Weather unpredictable at times (it wasn't that warm most days - got to 18 or 19 degrees on certain days).
It can be relatively expensive to eat out (not a problem for us as we ate in most of the time).
It is quite a sleepy place - not a huge amount "going on" but fine for a chill out week.
The town we were in (La Couarde) possibly a bit too quiet from the point of view of not that many eating options.
This holds for most of France - but found very few eating options in any of the villages between lunch & dinner servings (around 2:30pm to 7pm) which snookered us a bit as she was napping during lunch & heading to bed at 7pm (this may turn into a positive depending on your preferences as we certainly saved a lot of money by getting supplies in from the supermarket and eating in the lodge).


As regards your criteria...
Sun - this depends -> you could be lucky or unlucky I think. Weather on West Coast of France is not too reliable. We had a small amount of light rain on 2 of the days. The rest of the time was dry and anything from 15 to 19 degrees and mixture of cloud and sun.
Not Too Far By Plane -> definitely satisfies this
Nice Family Atmosphere -> definitely satisfies this
Place For Walks With Buggy -> definitely satisfies this
Won't Break The Bank -> depends on what your budget is I guess. There is definitely affordable accommodation if you search around and if you are happy with a hotel room then even more so. Restaurants can be pricey but if you are willing to self cater some of the time (as we did on most days) then you won't spend a lot

Thanks i'll have a look at this ,really appreciate the info

Cakerbaker

One tip I would give when traveling with a baby / toddler is to get an apartment if possible rather than a hotel room / studio. The extra space for the buggy and baby bits is handy. It’s great to have a separate bedroom so you can put baby to bed and watch tv/ chat / have a glass of wine without being afraid of waking them. Plus having a kitchenette is very handy for prepping bits of food for them as needed.

We went to Monte Estoril on the Lisbon coast when our son was about that age. Was a nice spot, nice restaurants, baby friendly, walking distance to Cascais and a few mins walk to the train station if you fancy heading into Lisbon. It wasn’t cheap though. I’d recommend sept for there as that’s when we went and it was still mid/high 20s. Think any hotter would have been tough on baby.

NIMAN

Not what you want to hear, as no advice from me.

But we made the decision fairly early that we wouldn't go through the hassle of foreign holidays while the kids were small. Too many things to worry about not being 100%.

We ended up doing our 1st foreign holiday last summer, when the youngest was approaching 4.

The Davestator

Bringing an 8 month old is easy - its when they get bigger they become hard! We brought our little lad when he was 8 months and it was handy. Bought a blow up padding pool, put it between our loungers and put an inch of water in it and he happily splashed in it for ages.

Now, he's 3, it's a pain - not one minutes peace!

ncmc

I’ve brought my daughter on holiday at all ages from 4 months to now (she’s 3.5) I never understand people saying not to go on holidays with kids. Maybe we’ve been lucky, but we’ve always had a lovely time with her. Yes, it’s obviously a totally different holiday to one you have as just a couple and each age has challenges. But to me, the slight extra hassle is worth it to see how much she enjoys it.

One place I would recommend is Lake Garda, beautiful scenery, lovely quaint towns and great food. Shouldn’t be too hot in September. I would definitely second the advice to get an apartment rather than a hotel. The extra space is a godsend with kids and it’s nice to have the option of having the odd meal in as personally I get bored eating out the whole time with kids.

Another place we love is Annecy in France. Gorgeous scenery, a lovely clean lake to swim in and a beautiful old town. There’s a lovely flat walk along the lake - very buggy friendly. There’s also lovely day trips if you fancied renting a car. You can drive along Lake Geneva or go to Chamonix to see Mont Blanc. Either of those might be a nice option if you didn’t fancy going the traditional seaside resort route.

yourdeadwright

ncmc wrote: »

I’ve brought my daughter on holiday at all ages from 4 months to now (she’s 3.5) I never understand people saying not to go on holidays with kids. Maybe we’ve been lucky, but we’ve always had a lovely time with her. Yes, it’s obviously a totally different holiday to one you have as just a couple and each age has challenges. But to me, the slight extra hassle is worth it to see how much she enjoys it.

One place I would recommend is Lake Garda, beautiful scenery, lovely quaint towns and great food. Shouldn’t be too hot in September. I would definitely second the advice to get an apartment rather than a hotel. The extra space is a godsend with kids and it’s nice to have the option of having the odd meal in as personally I get bored eating out the whole time with kids.

Another place we love is Annecy in France. Gorgeous scenery, a lovely clean lake to swim in and a beautiful old town. There’s a lovely flat walk along the lake - very buggy friendly. There’s also lovely day trips if you fancied renting a car. You can drive along Lake Geneva or go to Chamonix to see Mont Blanc.  Either of those might be a nice option if you didn’t fancy going the traditional seaside resort route.

Hey can I ask where did you stay around Lake Garda ?

The Davestator

We stayed in Bella Italia in Lake Garda and it was brilliant. Lots of info on boards about it.

ncmc

We stayed in Malcesine, which is to the north of the lake. It’s the most beautiful part of the lake as it’s the most mountainous, but the trade off is that it’s further from Verona airport. It’s still only about 90 mins though, we just rented a car. I would recommend a day trip to Malcesine even if you don’t stay there, there is an amazing cable car up to the nearby mountain and a lovely castle.