Hi Fellow OzBargainers,
Chasing some advice around a family (2 adults + 1 3-year-old) holiday preferably overseas. The budget would be 5k flights included. We would be travelling from Brisbane, QLD.
• What destinations do you recommend for young kids?
• Any advice you wish you knew before travelling with kids?
• Just general advice around the topic
Look forward to the responses 😊
Fiji
Leave kid at home with in laws.
Brave with 3 year old. Although we did take our 4year old to Fiji. I thought it was great. We had a beach hut. The people are very friendly and kid friendly resorts
Family holiday
don't take family
You misunderstood the question
Go on a cruise. Brisbane is the best place to leave from as there's less sea days to get to Vanuatu or New Caledonia. At 3 years old your kid can happily go in kids club on the boat for a few hours and you can relax. The destinations are amazing, beautiful snorkelling, white beaches, other activities like horse riding, hiking etc. If you don't mind when you leave you can wait for a sale and get prices around $80-$90 a day per person - and with your kid being 3 you aren't restricted to school holidays (during which cruises are more expensive) so it is ideal! At a $5k budget you could get say a ten day cruise with 5 or 6 destinations plus drinks packages, two tours per island and lots of souvenir or spa money.
Flying with young kids is a nightmare. Cruising is way way easier - no flying, no paying for food, don't need a babysitter to get 2 seconds to yourself (at 3 you can't really just let them go off and play on their own like you could with say a ten year old), new island destination every day without additional flying or other travelling on your part (which would require organisation and wrangling of the kid)
I agree with this. Cruises have many kids clubs to keep your children entertained for hours. Allows you to relax with your partner most of the time. Plenty of shows/entertainment. Lots of food. Lots of alcohol (if you're into that).
Looking at a random P and O cruise for 2 adults 2 kids to to Noumea, Lifou and Port Vila, a 7 night cruise, you would pay $4178 for the cruise with two drinks packages for you and your partner.
Cruise is good
Or get a luxury escapes to a nice resort with good kids activities. SE Asia can be cheap to get to
Depending on what kind of food you like - Vietnam or Thailand is great. Stay a day in big cities and move around a bit -usual touristy spots and its great fun and heaps cheaper.
We've travelled to a few countries with our 2yo. Cities (bangkok, kl etc) were tiring and beach holidays were more relaxing. Our most memorable holiday was Bali.
Our last trip to Bali was 5years ago and hated it. For our trip w bub, we stayed at nusa dua. It's very safe, there's beautiful private beaches and our lovely nanny($6.50/hr) made it a very relaxing holiday. We spent our days at the kids club, pool and beach. It was nice to have a nanny for the few hours a day to help so we get to enjoy the holiday and have our meals peacefully.
Flying with a kid can be scary but thankfully, we never had any problems. We bring flash cards, colour pencils & paper, toys that are small and light on board and a tablet loaded with games and videos.
Why are you planning a trip based around your kid with YOUR hard earned money. Leave them at home with someone to take care of them and go enjoy yourselves.
"There is no such thing as a holiday with kids, it's just parenting with a change in scenery."
Fiji, i found a tourist trap, definitely don't recommend taking the kids there, i'm not sure how much has changed over the years, i was there 2 years ago.
i can recommend Japan or S.Korea and with the ease of transportation in those countries, you'll have no issue getting around.
other option is the typical aussie getaway, Bali which i say avoid with the kids.
that's a fairly decent budget. i'd go for japan at that price range. just keep in mind that it's not wheelchair friendly. this means lugging big suitcases up big flights of steps!
Just get a tent and take them somewhere where they can spend all day outside. Don’t need to spend money to have a holiday where you can all bond.
Source: I spent my childhood on holidays where we just went camping and it was awesome. Never went overseas until I was in my 20s.
Hawaii?
Flights about $500 r/t each. Accom for a week would be $1500-$2000
There are $800 fares to LA if you want to do a week there Disneyland etc..
Assuming you have a week off work this would mean at best you would have Saturday to Sunday off (9 days). If you depart for LA Saturday morning you would arrive Saturday morning feeling absolutely wrecked, especially if you have just done the 13+ hour plane trip with a toddler. You spend at least Saturday and Sunday jetlagged and probably not wanting to do much. For your return journey I'm pretty sure most flights leave the US West Coast late at night and arrive in Australia in the early AM, except you lose a day this time, so you would have to leave Friday night to get back in time for work on Monday. Once again, when you get back to Australia you'll be feeling like crap because you've just gotten used to US time, so you either go to work feeling worse than before your holiday, or you come back a day earlier (depart Thursday and arrive Saturday). So really you would only have, at best, 4 to 5 days (out of 9) to enjoy yourself over there.
That's just my opinion and some people handle jetlag better than others.
Just remember that the US is always surprisingly expensive once you factor in the exchange rate, tipping and taxes (which aren't normally included in the listed price). The $5k probably wouldn't go very far. Hawaii is probably doable if you got a good deal on flights and accommodation.
I would recommend somewhere closer; NZ, Bali, Thailand, Vietnam, Fiji, Vanuatu or a cruise to make the most of your time and actually have a relaxing week off. Much cheaper too.
If you are flexible with dates use skyscanner to find a good deal. I travel from the Gold Coast (you could consider leaving from there?) with AirAsia and I usually pay between $250-$300 rtn to Kuala Lumpur then fly on from there. They have starting flying from Bris as well to Bangkok. You could start there then go to somewhere like Phuket which is great for kids. Everything is so cheap compared to Aust and you would all really enjoy it. Trip Advisor is great to have a look at accom, things to do and places to eat etc. I travel with my 2 kids and a week away staying at a nice resort with breakfast included and a great pool (our priorities haha), meals, shopping etc comes in about $2000 all up so to me your $5000 budget is huge! You could come back with enough change to have a second holiday
Fiji.
Look for a resort off mainland, but short boat ride. One with kids club that will take a 3 yr old or nanny service you can get if you want so you two can actually relax, go diving, snorkeling, etc
$5k should get you flights, accomodation, breakfast +- dinner included for probably about a week I would think. Would need to factor extra food costs as there would be nowhere else to eat, but most say kids eat free. Just stash some extra snacks at breakfast time for the kid like fruit, yoghurt, bread.
Other option would be Vanuatu, same deal.
Both places offer excellent water based activities for adults and are well set up for family\kid included holidays with kids club, nannies, etc