Suggestions for destination for first trip with baby

F

FutureHKmom

Registered User
Our son is currently 5.5 months old and we plan to bring him back to Sydney to visit my in-laws at the end of January (when he will be 10 months old). However, before then, we plan to do a "test" trip somewhere in the region to see how he does when he is on a plane and travelling. Any suggestions for a good place in the region (3-4 hour plane ride away) to take a baby for a short 3-4 day holiday? Thanks!
 
Relaxing Vacations can be Phuket, Malaysia, Cebu, Bali all close by and pretty child friendly hotels/resorts
 
Don`t do what I did and take him to a city like Bangkok. I was so stressed out.
I only want to go to resorts now. I would choose Phuket.
 
Our test trip was to Bangkok for the weekend :)

It's a short trip. Baby was 7-months old. He was really playful on the flight. All the grannies wanted to hold him. Overall it was really easy.

2-weeks later we flew to San Francisco and that was an absolute disaster. He started teething, was throwing up on the flight, not sure if it was because of something I ate. He had the runs, and a fever, for the first few days, and by the end of the week, we had 2 beautiful pearly whites.
 
i would not hesitate to take my kids to bangkok. BUT, i would want a GOOD hotel, with a beautiful pool area. i would also look for a playroom in the hotel. (there are a few around.)

curious... why did you find it so stressful? i mean, i'm sure a resort would be less stressful, but just curious what was difficult for you about bangkok? i'm considering a trip there (just returned from a ladies' weekend) with hubby and kids in a month or so. i KNOW i would not be able to do the same things with my kids that i did without. but, overall, i was really impressed with the little bit i saw of it and am VERY eager to return.
 
I used to go to BKK all the time, but that was when I was on my own or it was just me and my husband.
First of all, we stayed in a hotel faaaaar from town (no choice as had to follow the husband`s company), so we couldn`t `go back to the room for a rest` - if we were out we were out, and had to take long taxi rides into the centre.
Our flight was also arranged by his company and couldn`t choose the airline - flew very early(so baby was crabby) on a dodgy airline that didn`t serve meals and had to pay almost 50% for the baby even though there was no seat for him(Orient Thai).
Also, it`s way less stroller accessible than HK. At least at the MTR stations here have a handicapped exit SOMEWHERE. There, no way. You just have to go down steep sets of stairs to get onto to shoddy street. Tons of overpasses to cross the street in many places that also just have stairs.
Many of the restaurants I usually like to eat in were not suitable for a stroller or with a baby at all.

I love Thailand and Thai people, and I even like bangkok, but I won`t be going back there til my son can walk well and we don`t need to bring the stroller around.

Oh, and this has nothing to do with bkk but my one respite of getting a foot massage was marred by hubbie remaining there and letting our baby fuss - real relaxing.
Oh, and my husband`s work laptop got stolen at the airport.
And my high stress caused us to argue most of the weekend...:(
 
wow! that sounds like a TERRIBLE weekend! yikes!
i guess, i would be luckier as my kids are both able to walk (just spent 8 hours at disney with no stroller!).

i did wonder,though, what i would be able to do with the kids as i'm sure they wouldn't enjoy the shopping or massages as much as mummy would!
 
I would take them out of bkk. There really isn`t that much to do for kids apart from a few playrooms in department stores, seeing temples(which kids might like if only for a few minutes), floating market maybe. within a couple hours of bkk (bus) in all directions are great places(Kanchanaburi, koh samet, hua hin and similar lesser known versions of each), and are definitely a lot more low key than bkk - good massage and awesome food abound everywhere, though great shopping is really only in bkk.
 
FutureHKmom, one tip for travelling with baby on a plane if you have never tried before, we went to US back in July for a month to visit my husband's family, my baby girl was 8 months. She was very good on both flights (we need to transit in Chicago), except when the plane started to decend (landing). She just cry and cry and scream, it hurted my heart. She was crying because her ears were hurting due to the change of air pressure, the crew said it is worse if baby was sleeping during flight. On our way back, we decided to buy her a pair of ear plugs, but we couldn't find one for infant, just those for kids and adults. So, we used cotton wool balls. We riped a small piece of cotton ball, wet it with some water, squeeze the water out (just to make the cotton ball more 'solid'), and put it in both her ear holes. IT WORKED!! She didn't cry any on both flights back! And it's cheap! :)
 
Another solution for the air pressure is to give the baby the bottle or pacifier while taking off and landing as the swollowing will lessen the pain. It worked for my child on our flight back to Sydney. Our flight was OK, baby was 12mths back then. BUT the worst thing is the turbulence. Every time there was turbulence, I was instructed to remove the bubs from the bassinet, which means waking him up, and strap him to my flight belt. On our way back on the night flight, this happened 5 times. I didn't get any sleep whatsoever, and baby was crying half the time. Luckily, the humming of the plane engines in the background drowned out some of the crying. AND one more thing, don't feel bad when other passengers start rolling their eyes at you...what would they know if they haven't taken a baby on a flight.
 
One downside about flying with a baby to watch out for is all that travel and getting out of their routine can make a baby very very cranky. Even if you just fly a few hours, if your flight is super early or late, the time to the airport, waiting around, the time traveling from the destination airport to the hotel, etc. Ugh. I`m tired just thinking about it. Am not in a hurry to go anywhere but I think hubbie wants to go back to Japan next month. sigh.
 
Our test trip was to Singapore's Sentosa Island when our son was 8 months old. It's a safe, clean city with great medical care in case of emergency. It's just far enough to feel like a real trip and the culture is so laid back and not stressful
 
My baby girl doesn't like pacifiers so we used the cotton balls. Funny thing is she actually likes the turbulence. On our way to US, we couldn't get a bassinet. My husband and I took turn to hold her on our laps, that's NOT fun. But it was so funny my girl would laugh whenever there was turbulence, she likes the ups and downs. It was so funny. On our way back, we finally had a bassinet, and she was sleeping so peacefully she didn't wake up even we moved her out of the bassinet a few times because of the turbulence.

To me, taking baby on a plane trip is still a hassle to me... all the packing.. tiredness... her being grumpy and cranky... aargh. And the worst is she would not even remember she has been to those places before!
 
i took my two kids to australia for an entire month last november...neither of them remember very much about it! even though we stayed in a motor home the entire trip!
 
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