I've always loved an adventure and before I decided I was ready to 'settle down', I lived in six different countries, including Australia, Malta, Ghana and Grenada.
When I met my fiancé Alex in 2021, the travels we’d been on were our first topic of conversation and we quickly planned trips to Budapest, Thailand and Cyprus.
We had the best time in Thailand riding around on a moped, eating incredible food and seeing elephants, and we knew that travel was something that would continue to be important to both of us as we started a family.
I got pregnant in late 2022 and we learned that Alex had six weeks of paternity leave, so it seemed the obvious choice to use his time off to go travelling.
Nobody believed us, thinking once we had a baby, adventures would be a thing of the past and we’d change our minds once we realised how difficult it would be to travel with a baby on board.
Everyone, that is except Alex’s aunt who had traveled to Nepal with a baby and rather than doubt us, gave us the top tip to go before the baby started weaning.
Shifting priorities
Our priorities in life have changed since welcoming our son in August 2023, but adventures and babies are not mutually exclusive.
There was definitely more research than usual when it came to planning our trip with our baby. Bali was off the cards because it was rainy season, and we decided Vietnam may be a little too rural for us, when we needed to consider healthcare if anything was to go wrong.
We eventually settled on Malaysia due to the combination of good food, great beaches, direct flights and a reasonable healthcare system (as a paediatric doctor this was very important to me).
We were a bit nervous about travelling with our baby, who was five months old at the time - mostly about the flight, but also what it would be like to have a baby in another country.
Was it okay to breastfeed? How would he cope in the heat? Would he be safe? What if something went wrong? And I’d be lying if I said it was all smooth sailing.
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Holiday troubles
We forgot his mosquito stickers, the pram fan ran out of battery on a very hot evening and there was a very hairy moment when we found ourselves in a very quiet town with no wifi or data walking along the side of a road with our backpacks and pram, regretting not booking a taxi for the next part of our journey.
Every small mishap made me feel like I was a terrible mum for bringing him, but most things are fixable and people will go out of their way to help you when you’ve got a baby.
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We bought some mosquito stickers, found an aircon restaurant for dinner and a very helpful local hotspotted me so I could book a taxi. Even the flight wasn’t as bad as expected.
The holiday was worlds apart from our solo trip to Thailand, but it brought a whole new world of experiences.
Waking up and being first to the beach as the sun was coming up to avoid the heat of the day was stunning, spending afternoons having some solo time for a massage or pedicure as a first-time mum was refreshing, watching him be carried around a restaurant by a very helpful chef was an incredible dinner view and above all having the opportunity to spend time as a three without all the admin of being at home allowed us to really enjoy our little family bubble.
Having a baby to think about brings a new spectrum of worry to a holiday and you may argue that he won’t remember it anyway so what’s the point? But think of the stories we can tell him!
He sat for the first time in a hotel on Langkawi island, we decided our first dance song for our wedding as he slept in his pram in a bar in the highlands, he had his first ever swim in a rooftop pool in Ipoh and his first pedalo outside a cave temple.
He won’t remember any of this but he will grow up in a family that loves to say yes to things, to have exciting adventures and experience different cultures and that’s something he will always know.
Read on for my advice for travelling with a baby...
- Take a bottle (if your baby takes one) on long car journeys so you can feed without having to stop
- A spinner is magic for distracting a young baby or avoiding a meltdown
- Ask for an extra seat to be be blocked on the plane if you can't have the bassinet seat. We had a row to ourselves both ways and it was so helpful to have the extra space and somewhere my baby could play
- You can get a sleeping bag for travel that is car seat compatible (for those early morning flights)
- Doona for travel is life-changing. It's a car seat that is also a pushchair so super convenient. We took a lot of taxis to avoid the heat and the drivers were amazed when we packed up our buggy every time
- Get a pram fan
- Walk around the plane, make friends with the crew and hang out in the galley as there is most space there
- Mosquito stickers are good (stick on baby and around pram)
- Screen record dancing fruit (or other sensory videos) for emergencies
- Train is the best way to travel even if it's a slightly longer route. It means you can get up, walk around and have more space
Visit our article on the ultimate tips and tricks for travelling with a baby for even more holiday advice
