Lessons from a holiday with baby

Check, double check and then again for good measure. Call your hotel direct to be on the safe side. Ensure your travel agent does her job right, and make sure you have enough credit on the credit card. Are we the first couple, travelling with a baby, to learn those lessons slightly too late?

In our life pre-Little Miss, we were seasoned and worldly travellers.  Luggage would consist of a shared suitcase and handbag, and our accommodation would be decided either on a last minute website, or upon arrival at our destination.

Oh how life has changed! Travelling with a baby requires a dossier of organisation, and a few days of planning and sorting to keep our bags light enough to meet the airline's rules.

And I thought a holiday was supposed to be stress-free.

So, we arrived at the airport sure that our six bags were within the weight limits for our flight to Australia. Mistake number one. The lady behind the desk announced we owed $224 in extra weight costs. It seemed each adult passenger was entitled to 23kg of luggage, and the baby 10kg. That's right. Ten kilos. In total.

The look on my face must have been enough for her to kindly combine our three allowances, so we scraped in. She obviously knew what it was to travel with a steriliser, breast pump, bottle warmer, Portacot, pushchair, Bumbo seat, nappies, clothes and the remaining "essentials" - weighing well over the 10kg limit.

So began a 16-hour journey consisting of a car ride, two flights, a bus ride and a taxi. In the 12th hour of our journey, I cast my mind back to the booking process - how could I have missed that we had a five-hour layover in Sydney airport before heading on to Port Douglas? That day must have been incredibly sunny, and my energy levels high. Mistake number 2.

We finally arrived at our apartment at 2am, and Little Miss transferred well from our arms into the Portacot. We crashed and slept until light and the tweeting of birds crept in four hours later.

It wasn't until this time that we were able to take in our surroundings. I first noticed the hard, echoing tile floor as Little Miss's cry for her morning milk resonated. This is probably an excellent choice of flooring in a place where the summer heat can top 50 degrees, but not so good for a baby learning to crawl.  Within minutes, we had tears as she banged her head on the hard floors - quite a different experience from her usual roll around the forgiving home carpets.

Again, I cast my mind back to the booking process, when we talked to the consultant about places to stay. She was a mother of two so we assumed she'd check that we were booked into a child-friendly one-bedroom apartment, suitable for both "daytime-baby-time" and "evening-parent-time". Mistake number three.

The apartment resembled an open-plan studio. A couple of sliding slat doors created a partition, which we later learned technically created the "one bedroom apartment".  In fact, you couldn't even really call it a bedroom - it was barely larger than the bed. A portacot would never fit beside us, meaning we had to set it up in the entrance hallway. A sharp lesson on how sold expectation does not match paid reality.

Next morning, we contacted our travel agent to tell her the room was all wrong for us and asked to move to a more practical apartment. Surely she'd understand that it wasn't what we'd asked for.

She replied that there was nothing she would, or could, do. All we could do was leave the apartment, forfeit the money paid and re-book at another place. We told them we couldn't afford to walk away, and pleaded for alternatives. Our pleas fell on deaf ears. There was no offer of support or help. It seemed they had received their commission and it was now our problem. What could we do?

But at least we were on holiday - in 28 degrees most days - and for that we were grateful. Our evenings were compromised by dimmed lights and sounds turned down, and communication via whispers and sign language. Sigh.

But our days were spent enjoying the sights and sunshine of a tropical paradise. Little Miss was in awe of the sea and loved digging her pudgy little toes into the sand and chasing the waves as they broke before her. 

Our lesson has been learnt that when travelling with a baby, to get a job done right, do it yourself. And don't just check the details: check twice and check again.

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Picture: Fairfax

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angela   #1   09:02 am Aug 20 2010

I am so grateful that most places here have excellent websites with good photos of the rooms so we can really see what we will be walking in to. Still, have had some nasty surprises, like a spiral stairwell to the mezzanine floor that had no security barrier at all and an outside deck that the wooden slats were further apart than the width of my kid´s foot and the guard rail just a bar at waist height for an adult. Luckily, I am one of those people that really enjoy the organisation of the holiday, so checking out in detail the flight schedules, distance from beach - shops, size of accommodation, availability of kid´s play equipment is all just part of the fun for me.

My 2 cents worth   #2   09:19 am Aug 20 2010

Travelling with baby/child does NOT have to be so high maintenance - and changing apartments because the floor is hard??

You will want your darling daughter to adapt to differing situations as she grows older - how will you equip her for this when you change things to accommodate problems that YOU deem as problems. I bet she would have surprised you and coped rather well.

I normally follow the 'whatever way we do things mantra' and 'each to their own' but this is all a bit precious really!

Andrea   #3   10:00 am Aug 20 2010

@My 2 cents worth

aaahhhhh!

See all previous blog comments about negativity & trolling!

okay   #4   10:12 am Aug 20 2010

ahaha

what on earth? a bit precious me thinks

norris   #5   10:18 am Aug 20 2010

I have two toddler girls and try and avoid taking portacots if at all possible, as you could imagine. Almost all hotels would have them and you could take your own bedding. Good on you for doing a reasonably long flight. My sister-in-law had a nightmare return flight from Oz with her 3yr old son crying all the way back to Wgtn.

omg   #6   10:18 am Aug 20 2010

Gosh #2, was there really a need to be nasty?

Totally understand Melissa - my first train trip overseas with two kids in a pushchair was a nightmare in terms of organisation. What to take and what not to take - bearing in mind whatever I left behind I would probably want, and whatever I took had to be lugged around all day!

Geriatric first mum   #7   10:24 am Aug 20 2010

So understand your blog!

As I travel a lot for my job, the kid and I travel very light, one bag for the two of us. Anything else you need? Well there are always shops.

Having an unexpected baby later in life freaked me out and being prepared gives me sanity and at least some control. Main thing is to have accommodation with our own sleeping space, the rest? Not that important as long as we're happy (o:

Tahlia2   #8   10:38 am Aug 20 2010

@ Melissa - such memories you will treasure. Sorry to hear you had such a time from your travel agent but one day you will smile at that and of course seeing your little one chasing the waves must have made it all worth it. Ahh the stress that can be lifted simply by taking your child to the beach...surely one of life's greatest pleasures.

rmb   #9   10:43 am Aug 20 2010

Different kids adapt to different things. Some are cruisy others not so, even in same families. My girl had a heck of a time at her grandparents with a tile floor when first crawling, over time she got more ordinated and is fine, but it was a shock at first. She's very alert and curious and would have as an older baby struggled with us right there in the room at night. We haven't taken a long haul holiday yet - maybe next year when DD can walk and talk and is up and about for most day - more fun for everyone.

My 2 cents worth   #10   10:48 am Aug 20 2010

Wow - I am so sorry that my opinion was taken as nasty - there wasn't even a hint of that in there, and I still stand by my comment. It is my observation that while tending to the needs of our children we are totally underestimating what they can cope with.

I actually have to suggest esp to Andrea who nastily calls me a troll just from having an opinion she obviously disagrees with - if you can't cope with varying opinions - don't damn blog! This is outrageous, it is meant to be a blog for parents, but as soon as someone says something 'unpopular' you get called names!

Andrea & OMG - don't be so nasty and small minded yourselves, your reaction was childish and unnecessary.

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