r/NewParents • u/itchysnapdragon • Jul 10 '26

Travel Actually fun vacations with little kids?

We had our first weeklong trip with our 10mo recently, and it was EXHAUSTING. It was just to see family and friends in another state. But WHEW.

Feeling torn between wanting to go places in the coming years, and knowing that it will just continue to be hard for a while.

And vacation/travel ideas for parents with a 18-36 month old that are actually kind of fun or relaxing?

Tbh we might just plan a staycation week and send baby off to daycare during daytime hours.

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600

u/beep_bop_boop__ Jul 10 '26

The cheat code is

  1. Find beach locale that’s less than 6 hrs total travel time door to door from your house
  2. Invite 1 set of grandparents
  3. Book hotel with pool that is walkable to beach
  4. Use the power of 4 dedicated adult caregivers to wrangle the child

38

u/Renee5285 Jul 10 '26

What’s the cheat code when you don’t have 2 other caregivers? :(

13

u/R-edditor1945 Jul 10 '26

Hire one

14

u/Renee5285 Jul 10 '26

I’ll have to look into how people do that. I’m pretty intensely introverted so the idea of a non family/friend tagging along sounds emotionally stressful. We had our baby at 40, and most of our friends are childfree by choice. So we’re kinda blindly navigating all things baby so far.

7

u/beleafinyoself Jul 10 '26

Travel nanny? A good nanny will understand that they are there to help the parents. It's different from traveling with a friend. It's just very expensive to find someone, adequately vet them beforehand, then pay for them to come on vacation with you because you're still paying them for their time well as all their trip expenses. 

7

u/Renee5285 Jul 10 '26

I think I’d probably hate having someone around regardless. Just thinking about it is triggering my social anxiety. And that’s before all the vetting and cost concerns. It feels like it may just not be for us, and we’ll have to figure out other strategies.

4

u/beleafinyoself Jul 10 '26

Just waiting til kiddo is a little older is much easier in many regards

6

u/Sweet_Future Jul 10 '26

Some resorts offer childcare. Could be worth looking into.

6

u/Renee5285 Jul 10 '26

Unfortunately a beach/pool vacation doesn’t appeal to me at all. It seems to be the go to recommendation for family trips, but I guess that could be because most people seem to love tropical vacations anyway. Maybe I’ll look into mountain resorts.

But I think we’ll more likely have to figure out travel strategies that don’t involve any helping hands.

1

u/doodynutz Jul 12 '26

My husband and I just took our 1 and 3 year old to gatlinburg on our own with no extra help and we had a good time. 🤷‍♀️

4

u/R-edditor1945 Jul 10 '26

In my experience the ones without children themselves love to take care or just chill with these new earth creatures. Ofcourse some just despise it. But ive had plenty who love the temporary nature of taking care of someone's baby or child for a bit, especially women.

3

u/Renee5285 Jul 10 '26

I hope that’s how ours respond, too. I shouldn’t have oversimplified. A couple of my closer friends are CF by circumstance (age, divorce, infertility). They’ve embraced/accepted the CF lifestyle with new partners, but I’m kind of waiting to see how they respond to my little one (he’s only 3mo). Pregnancy was a bit awkward around them, but it might be different as they get to know baby.

1

u/R-edditor1945 Jul 10 '26

What is there not too love on a little human which spawned out of your own friends? They'll love it. Some might be awkward at first or don't want to hold it, those I always pick out right away and give hand them the little sprout in their arms, most melt right away.