advice please - our first trip!

[sonnymum]

Hey everyone out there..

We are taking our first long trip! Sonny will be 17 months at the time.

As much as we would love to fly..we thought with all the gear we would need we may have to take the car.. it is a LONG TRIP... 1400km to visit family & friends from far north coast to south west inland.

Please we need some help, advice, tips & hints:

1. Travelling with a toddler.. car sickness, keeping him occupied..etc..

2. Staying at friend's houses with a toddler...sleeping etc..we do have a porta cot though haven't tried this out yet.


Also we would like to stay in Sydney on the way back...

1. Does anyone know of a reasonably priced accommodation in Sydney that won't cost us an arm or leg to stay and is close to the city centre so easy access if we need to take Sonny back to the room during the day for a sleep... etc??

Thank you so much!!

I look forward to your replies.... and please feel free to mention any ideas I haven't asked about or thought of!

[sueb31]

Personally I would say fly if you can. Much easier than a long road trip for all involved. The airlines usually let you take a stroller and portacot for free (or with Virgin Blue the total counts as 5kg of your luggage).
I advise checking the baggage policies of each airline before booking.

With the portacot, make sure it is comfy enough (maybe consider a padded sheet for the bottom) and take sheeets that smell of home. Try it out at home a few times at least so your son is used to it.

Sorry don't know about Sydney accommodation!

Sue

[sonnymum]

thanks for your advice Sue... will check it out!

[Olismum]

Hi, we found our biggest problems with flying were that we had to organise a car seat when we got to our destination. With our luggage as well as a stroller & portacot, plus the babies toys and food for the flight we had way to much stuff and couldn't take the car seat with us. I really recommend getting your baby used to the Portacot before you leave. We didn't do this and our daughter refused to sleep in it. We prefer to drive as opposed to flying. Mainly because my daughter is very tempermental when it comes to flying and I never know what she's going to be like until we are up in the air, sometimes she is a little angel and other times she is the devil child and everyone is asking to move seats, lol. I won't fly on my own with my daughter I always take an extra person with me to help out, lol.

[Jax Tellers Old Lady]

I would reccomend flying. I took ds on a virgin flight to sydney when he was 17 months old I took for ds his jogger pram,car seat, portacot and his suitcase and they classed all this as 5 kg and i was allowed to have 15kg worth of luggage myself. They were great the only thing i learnt from their flights is they dont supply pillows so next time i would take my own.

[dreamer80]

Airlines these days can be very accommodating. We are booked to fly with QANTAS to the states with our bub…(I know not quite the same being international) but QANTAS allows us to take a nappy bag on the plane in addition to the usual hand luggage allowance plus a pram or portacot checked in, also an extra 1 piece of luggage for bub (he won't be talking up a seat) they will supply any baby food we request, we can choose which seats we want (provided they are available) and board the plane last and leave the plane first first. My best advice is speak to the airline and see what their policy have and what they say about luggage allowance for infants.

[biscotti]

Airlines these days can be very accommodating. We are booked to fly with QANTAS to the states with our bub…(I know not quite the same being international) but QANTAS allows us to take a nappy bag on the plane in addition to the usual hand luggage allowance plus a pram or portacot checked in, also an extra 1 piece of luggage for bub (he won't be talking up a seat) they will supply any baby food we request, we can choose which seats we want (provided they are available) and board the plane last and leave the plane first first. My best advice is speak to the airline and see what their policy have and what they say about luggage allowance for infants.

Most of the airlines now allow you to take on a nappy bag etc plus your usual stuff, not just Qantas but what I like about Qantas is that you can ask to be placed next to a spare seat (when you tell them you are travelling with an infant) and if one is available, they do will do this for you (the spare seat is useful when travelling with a bub!).
But dreamer80 - good luck with the getting on first and getting off first - I have flown 4 times with my 8 mth old (with Qantas 3 times, once with Virgin Blue) and this has not happened once yet. Every man and his dog stands up when they ask for people travelling with infants to board.