Advice with travelling with a young child

[ldsparrow]

Hi there once again.

We are looking at the option of bringing our trip around Australia forward by 6 months to March 2012, rather than August 2012, meaning our boy will be 18 months old rather than 2 years. Does anyone have any advice on travelling with young children? Is 18 months a good age to travel or is it to young?

Thanks for everyones feedback in advance.

[pajnmaj]

I am very envious about your Australia trip!!

We have travelled with our 3 kids (4,2,1) We started camping when we only had 2 so our 3rd child started at 4 weeks of age.

Being 18 months the downsides I can think of would be you may still need a porta cot, toilet training may not have taken effect yet, he probably won't remember it (that is what photos are for).

I wouldn't really worry. We have done several 4 weeks trips with the kids and 2 sleep on a matteress whilst the youngest is still in a porta cot and we aren't holding back. I think kids adapt to any situation and we don't give them enough credit (Our 2 and 4 year old can climb up and down gorges.....slow trip but they do it) for doing their best. We are going on an 8 week trip in August and our youngest will be 20 months - we won't be packing the portacot, he will join the others on the matteress.

Have lots of activities for him in the car and invest in a DVD player - great car aid.

Our kids were the grumbliest when we had to unpack or pack at a campsite. They were in charge of pegs and poles and setting up their chairs. Your toddler may just want to hammer in some pegs while you set up.

Just go....have a wonderful time and you will run into many families with kids around the same age.

[D4D]

http://myswag.org/forum/index.php?topic=8485

[SteveandViv]

Pajnmaj, great comments.

Idsparrow. I think people are maybe a tad to cautious these days. yes there is always the thoughts of what if but I think you can adjust your plans around say teething or other such things. we set out when our first was 3 Months old. We did some good sort of remote stuff and had a blast. Yes Cam does not remember any part of it but he likes looking at the Pics...

My vote is for you to get out there and have fun.. You will be fine.

[dazzler]

We did 4 months with a toddler - about 2 I think.  No worries at all.  In car DVD player is a must IMO for entertainment - there are just so many sights that an 18 month old really couldnt give a rats about 

[9775Andrew]

we have been blessed with a bub that travels so well. sometimes we are forced to push her limits at 18 months old, but we try to break up the trip where can and limit to the length between stops to a few of hours.

So far our travels have been on time schedules and that is something we really want to change so everyone can have more time out and enjoy the journey, not the destination.

I've always said I wouldn't have DVD player, but I think kids just have a different perspective on things and as dazzler said there are only so many times you can LOOK ..... COWS

[ldsparrow]

Thanks everyone for replying, its good to hear plenty of people have travelled with kids the same age or younger. March departure date is looking good at this stage...

[peteandkyles]

We travelled with our oldest when she was 18 months old around Australia. Only about 1/2 the trip was camping in a tent. We didn't have a DVD player as she was still at the age where she wasn't really interested in watching more than 10 minutes. We broke the trip up into 200-300km trips with playtime in between. Biggest day we managed was about 900km, but after a big day we gave Amy at least 1 days break and plenty of play. Most of the driving time, Kylie sat with her in the back seat and read stories and played games.

To break the trip up a little we caught the train from Perth to Adelaide. On the second day on the train, someone said something in the dining room about looking outside, and Amy started sooking wanting to go outside. From then on we ended up spelling everything to do with outside. Being an outdoor kid, she did not like being trapped inside for such a long time.

Here is our youngest daughter camping at 9mo. It's bath time...


Good luck with the trip

Peter

[spargo]

There's been a few mentions of porta-cots in this thread. My daughter is 20 months old and instead of hauling the porta-cot on trips and stays away, we got one of these last year: http://www.kidco.com/main.taf?p=4,5

Ours has a self-inflating mattress, and is well under half the size of a porta-cot, and weighs nothing. We just throw it in the walkway of the CT and it is there straight away as we flip out the tent and is the second thing we put up. She can be asleep in minutes after setting things up if need be.

It also has the added bonus of being completely enclosed and secure from inspects and crawlys/reptiles.

Highly recommended.


*Note, that is not my small child and kitchen.

[dazzler]

T


*Note, that is not my small child and kitchen.

Someone needs to design one in a backpack - get drunk, fall down, tent pops open, have a kip!

[D4D]

Hey Spargo, do you remember where you bought the peapod from?

[GGV8Cruza]

We had one of these and they are great, search for Kinder Kot, we almost sold it secondhand for as much as we paid for it. I think we got it at Baby Bunting, a place for emptying parents wallets

GG

[ldsparrow]

Thanks again for all of the advice. Peter, its nice to hear you travelled with your daughter who was a similar age. We have wondered about travel distances and recovery / playtime after a long day so that gives us something else to think about.

As far as the portacot, we actually bought the Phil and Teds portacot a couple of weeks ago after an evening at a friends place where he just wouldnt settle in something that didnt represent his bed. We looked at the Kinder Kot also but decided on the Phil and Teds to allow him to stand up in it when he was at that stage. We have tried it a couple of times and it works well, its nice and solid when put up, and extremely light when packed up.

[peteandkyles]

Thanks again for all of the advice. Peter, its nice to hear you travelled with your daughter who was a similar age. We have wondered about travel distances and recovery / playtime after a long day so that gives us something else to think about.

As far as the portacot, we actually bought the Phil and Teds portacot a couple of weeks ago after an evening at a friends place where he just wouldnt settle in something that didnt represent his bed. We looked at the Kinder Kot also but decided on the Phil and Teds to allow him to stand up in it when he was at that stage. We have tried it a couple of times and it works well, its nice and solid when put up, and extremely light when packed up.

One thing that I forgot to mention is that at that age they get upset quite easily by little things and mum had to distract her while I packed up the tent each time as she was getting upset with her home being packed up.

A trip definatelly worth while. A couple of pics from our back in 2004
Having a rest in a creek on the Gibb River Rd

Travelling across the Nullarbor on the train

Picking straberries in Tassie

[spargo]

Hey Spargo, do you remember where you bought the peapod from?

We got it near-new second hand from a mate, to use on an overseas trip. Trip didn't eventuate so its had its most use in the CT.

I will check the brand on ours (ours is not the brand I posted the link/pics to), but it is basically the same. It was definitely originally purchased in Qld. I'll suss it out and get back to you.

Our little one loves it, but then again, she announces when it's time to go to bed and will just walk over and crawl into the tent and wave 'bye', then goes to sleep. And at 18 months, I am not kidding you. 

[cruisindub]

Hi Mate,
One of the big camping shops stock them.
(Somebody help !!)
I for the life of me cant remember the franchise name. I know its not Rays/BCF/Anaconda as they are all on William st in perth, but further down Albany Highway on left hand side heading north, past the Carassel(sp?) shopping centre there is another big franchise camp store.
Hopeflly one of the Perth folk might know the name of this store.
We were just killing time before our flight browsing some of the camp shops around that area and we saw these only in the one (brand) shop.
The wife was getting excited and waas ready to buy one. (we dont have kids at the moment, but she is always preparing to take them travelling as well)
They are quite expensive, they were all around $250 plus.
I couldnt argue with her, as I thought myself, how convenient it would be travelling with one of these with kids. Just another reason to get on out and about with the little tykes and not make excuses about how difficult it 'might' be to get around and travel with the littlens.
Cheers Paul

#Edit, #
Ranger outdoor have a good selection of these 'kids cots'.
Cheers

[Paul and Bern]

  If you use a porta cot you can buy a mossie net with an elastic edge so you can midge proof the cot.... works on prams too.
We only did a short trip with our 1 yo but it was keeping her cool which concerned us the most.
Paul