A quiet moment under the tree in the park
We knocked our goal of a spring getaway on the head! Despite CJ teething (a grand total of four teeth now) and poor Papa M recovering Hand, Foot & Mouth disease (what a trooper!) we managed to have a lovely, relaxing time. Here’s a few tips from our experience:
1) Plan for your travel to take twice as long. This might seem like a no-brainer, but we really misunderstood how much a wee one slows down your pace when traveling over long distances! Poopy nappies, bottle breaks and even lunches take far longer when you have a wee one in tow!
2) Pack for every season. While I love this idea of packing each outfit separately, it’s simply not practical in a NZ spring which saw us tackle everything from fierce winds in Russell to icy rain in Wellsford to blistering sun in Matakana. I packed each type of clothing in a separate labelled bag (long-sleeved onesie, short-sleeved onesie, trousers, shorts, etc) and that way it was super-easy to find items to build an outfit each day.
3) Have at least one “normal” part of each day. For us, that was breakfast. We would get up and do pretty much our normal morning routine, eating breakfast at “home” and on our non-travel days having a morning nap before exploring. CJ has quite an early morning nap and so getting that out of the way allowed us a lot more flexibility with our afternoon nap and evening.
4) Set one goal for each day and anything else is a bonus. This worked really well in my first days of parenting as I was learning how to get out of the house. One of my goals for this trip was to take CJ on his first boat ride. As well as this we managed to have lunch oceanside, afternoon tea in an historic hotel and dinner at a street carnival but if the boat ride was all we had managed that would have been cool too.
5) Relax! One of my wonderful mummy friends did a road trip with her British inlaws, her husband, a toddler and a baby. She gave me faith that I could do it too! If you are in holiday destinations you aren’t going to be the only parent sitting at dinner trying to soothe a teething child or changing a nappy in the boot of the car. Restaurants and cafés were so accommodating and people were so friendly – it makes us really eager to travel again!
I’m looking forward to sharing some of our experiences in more detail but let me know if you have any other great tips!
Sweet Mama M 
“Set one goal for each day and anything else is a bonus.” – Love that. Wise words indeed!
My advice is to not be afraid to ‘break the rules’. Your child knows you’re in a different place and it’s not going to wreck them for when you get home when they’re little, so relax and have fun (as long as you’re not asking TOO much of them). They’ll settle back into routine quickly enough in familiar surroundings 🙂