Holidaying With Kids–My Tips

• Take sterilising/anit-bacterial wipes
• If they offer a baby pack on arrival consider whether you need all the items before paying for it upfront as it may be cheaper/free to wait until you arrive and ask for the specific items. If they don’t offer this, still find out whether they can provide a steriliser/kettle or whether you can get a container & take your own Milton steriliser tablets.
• Take what you can re nappies and wipes – they are expensive (even local brands) in the hotel and there weren’t much in the way of shops outside our hotel.
• Avoid taking any white clothes – any of you! We took travel wash & I tried to wash things as soon as they were stained but even after that & washing twice at home they are still stained!
• Buy one of these:
  An Outlook Solar Canopy Shade. It was fantastic. Fitted easily over our Maclaren Techno XLR pushchair even with the standard pushchair shade extended. Meant Millie was almost completely covered from sun during day and also acted as a curtain at night. We used to use a blanket but this enabled air to get in but shield her too. What’s more is it is super light and folds in on itself to a small tea plate sized circle.
   

• Take a mini bottle of washing up liquid/pour some of your home washing up liquid into a travel bottle. Whenever we have been away & had to buy it they only come in one size…Large! I also took a dish choth & tea towel (actually didn’t get around to decanting the washing up liquid this year so had to buy) – all were essential for washing up the bottles but didn’t mind if got left behind.
• Take some ready made formula packs with you (only if formula feeding of course). We used some on the journey out there, some on excursions and saved some for journey home but didn’t use these. We took 6 200ml cartons in total.
• Pack a surprise goody bag for any children of about 2 or above. Doesn’t have to be expensive, could just be items from home with a couple of new surprises. Unveil it on the plane to keep them occupied. Save a few bits back hidden in the case for the plane journey home.
• Pack lots of snacks in hand luggage!
• Check out facilities before you go & whether you need to pack beach towels – being all inclusive, our hotel provided pool/beach towels with lots of tokens to swap for clean towels. Could have saved us some much needed luggage weight as we took 3 tubs of formula milk with us!
• Don’t forget teething powders, other teething aids, baby paracetemol/ibuprofen!!!
• Consider whether pretty/smart clothes for babies. We usually put Millie in her PJs when we went to dinner so she was ready for bed after dinner (her bed being the pushchair) so all the pretty dresses I took for the evenings were unnecessary.
• Don’t stress about what your children do or don’t eat. It’s for such a short period of time and they will not starve themselves. Even if they eat nothing but chips for a week, they will survive and it doesn’t mean they wont ever eat a normal/better diet again. I spent 2 weeks as a 9 year old on chicken noodle soup when we went on a family holiday to (former) Yugoslavia. My aunt couldn’t understand it but my mum just said it was my holiday too and we’d all enjoy it a lot more if they just let me be rather than forcing me to eat food I didn’t like (I was weird, I didn’t like pizza, burgers, lasagne, bolognese etc like most kids!).
• You can never take too much suncream!
• Don’t forget easily washable & quick drying coverall bibs – I got ours from JoJoMamanBebe but there are plenty of cheaper ones out there. Take a few so you can still have a clean one when others are dirty/drying and we lost one while there.