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Booking a mini break with twin toddlers

Booking a mini break with twin toddlers

Long gone are the days when I can book a flight for the same day, ride my motorbike to the airport, hop on a plane, and then sleep in the airport if I need to. Now, travelling looks very different thanks to both the pandemic and twin toddlers. The pandemic has meant that we haven’t travelled outside of the UK for a few years – I see this as both a blessing and a curse. I miss being able to experience different cultures, climates, foods, and languages, but it’s forced me to take a really good look at all of the amazing places in the UK, and we have a LOT of them here. As it happens, just from visiting new parts of the UK, I have actually still experienced new culture, climates, foods, and languages – just not as extreme as overseas! 

While I’d like to think that I’m still quite spontaneous, a certain level of planning now needs to go into trips away to make sure my children are always safe and have everything they need. Honestly, a little planning never hurt anyone anyway!

Last week I decided that I wanted to spend a few days in North Wales – a place that I hold very dear to my heart. My husband had our first home together in North Wales and we made many happy memories while we were there – returning to the area for a few days with my twins will be lovely. I ended up booking a cottage to stay in for a few days, but there were a few things I kept in mind when I was planning the trip;

  • Destination

I knew we wanted to visit North Wales, but when it came to the specific location, I had a close look at how long it was going to take to get to various different places. When it comes to any journey over an hour, I like to see where potential stopping points are, just in case we need to get out and break up the journey for food / changing stops. In the end, I found a beautiful town in Snowdonia that will take about 2 hours to get to – I’ve mapped out a few stopping points along the way in case we need a break at any point of our journey! 

Ultimately, you know your children and how they travel best, but for us, the distance we travel impacts all kinds of things. For example, we wouldn’t want to travel any more than 2 hours unless we could travel at night when the twins could sleep. 

  • Accommodation

Accommodation was something that I thought long and hard about. While hotels with breakfast included often seem like a good idea, a self-catered cottage ended up being a better option for us. For a similar price, we will have much more space including a garden, and a fully equipped kitchen. I messaged the property ahead of time to make sure it was going to be toddler friendly, and the host has organised cots, highchairs, and baby monitors for me! While not every kind of accommodation will have what you need to hand, I’ve found that it’s always worth messaging to check. The fact that I’m not going to have to take 2 travel cots with me to Wales is a bit of a game changer and will free up car space for other stuff! 

  • Activities

Before I booked our accommodation, I made sure that there would be plenty to do and see. The surrounding towns and villages are full of wonderful gems, and being in Snowdonia means that we’ll have hundreds of walking routes to explore too. We don’t need to go much further to find miles and miles of beautiful beaches, so we are totally set for toddler friendly outdoor activities! The fact that the cottage I’ve booked is spacious means that we’ll have plenty of room for playing in the evenings too, so I’ll make sure to take some favourite toys with us! 

  • Food 

To be honest, even when I travel solo, I tend to have a bag full of snacks, but it’s even more important now with children. Before every trip, I make sure that I have a fully stocked snack bag in the car to keep everyone happy for the journey! As our accommodation is self-catered too, I’ll pop to the supermarket the day before we leave to get a few essentials to take with us in a cool bag. There’s nothing worse than having to deal with hangry toddlers on a journey, or arriving in your destination with no food!

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