Is there any travel that's enjoyable solo with a toddler?

[Anonymous]

I'm a single parent to a young toddler and in pre-pandemic, pre-baby times I loved to travel.

The pandemic started when my toddler was still a small baby, so we've only been able to do three driving trips so far - an Airbnb in the country, an Airbnb on the water and an Airbnb to do an outdoor meet with extended family. And if I'm being honest, all three of them were miserable. I don't enjoy driving, I don't like having to cook on vacation, I don't love Airbnbs, the baby didn't sleep and there wasn't much to see or do in any of these locations.

With vaccines on the horizon, I'd like to plan a trip for later this year, but I'm wondering is there ANY travel that could be enjoyable solo with a toddler?

If so, please give me your best recommendations for where we should go!

I'm assuming it will have to be US-based and that I'll feel safe doing hotels and planes again (can't wait for both of those).

[Anonymous]

How old? Travel especially solo with a kid is not all that fun until at least 3-4.

[Anonymous]

Cruise or resort with babysitting.

[Anonymous]

When my kids were young like yours, we loved Dutch Wonderland. My kids loved animals so we went to a lot of zoos and aquariums. Also visited almost every children’s museum on the east coast. I personally enjoy cities more. Philadelphia’s Please Touch Museum is fantastic. We love Adventure Aquarium in NJ.

During Covid, I took my 3 kids to Hilton Head and the playgrounds were wonderful. It is a long drive though.

I think the easiest vacation I ever went on by myself was a Disney cruise. Disney makes everything easy.

[Anonymous]

What do you like to do? Would a fun hotel on the beach be fun for you? That's what I would do.
Can you bring someone along with you? A grandparent? A sibling?

[Anonymous]

To visit grandparents if they are helpful with the toddler.

[Anonymous]

Sure, but I'm fine with the things you said you don't enjoy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do you like to do? Would a fun hotel on the beach be fun for you? That's what I would do.
Can you bring someone along with you? A grandparent? A sibling?

Good questions. I love cities, museums, good food, interesting architecture and history - and seeing my toddler explore and try new things is pretty fun for me too. My toddler loves playgrounds, people watching, stroller walks and trying new foods. Has only been swimming once.

I could bring family, but it's a tradeoff. Some emotional baggage in exchange for the extra help.

I've heard about some Caribbean resorts with nanny services, but haven't found much like that here in the U.S. Getting some babysitting hours during the trip would definitely be nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you like to do? Would a fun hotel on the beach be fun for you? That's what I would do.
Can you bring someone along with you? A grandparent? A sibling?

Good questions. I love cities, museums, good food, interesting architecture and history - and seeing my toddler explore and try new things is pretty fun for me too. My toddler loves playgrounds, people watching, stroller walks and trying new foods. Has only been swimming once.

I could bring family, but it's a tradeoff. Some emotional baggage in exchange for the extra help.

I've heard about some Caribbean resorts with nanny services, but haven't found much like that here in the U.S. Getting some babysitting hours during the trip would definitely be nice.

If the extra help is not worth it, don't do it. I only asked in case it was a possibility that added to your experience.
Is there a place you went to pre-covid that you would like to revisit? (With different expectations of course) frankly, I'd pick a place you have been wanting to visit and then adjust accordingly.
I will thrown this in though, florida is easy with kids. You can go to Disney's Animal Kingdom, Sea World. My toddler loves the pool and the beach, as do I, so it's an easy and fun way to spend time together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To visit grandparents if they are helpful with the toddler.

This is pretty much it. Travel with a toddler isn’t fun without help (or even with help many times). They grow up fast so in a few years your little travel buddy won’t need a nap, crib, potty seat, etc and won’t be so prone to tantrums. You’ll have more options then.

[Anonymous]

Take a train trip to Baltimore, philly, NY, Richmond, etc.

Pre covid I took a quick easy trip to Baltimore with my 2 yr old. We took the MARC, stayed at a hotel with a pool, walked to aquarium, took water taxis, hit up a couple museums and restaurants.

[Anonymous]

They can have fun with sand at age 2, so a beach

[Anonymous]

Club Med. Find one with a kids club. It's the only way with toddlers.

[Anonymous]

We traveled all over with our kids from birth. One of the loveliest trips was when our oldest was @20 months, Dh was in Paris for work for @ a month and dd and I went over to spend the last week or so with him. She and I wandered around Paris on our own, ate breakfast and sometimes dinner with him, but pretty much I was on my own with her. We stayed at the Westin which is right across from the Tuileries so it was extremely easy to get around. I also know Paris pretty well. We took the metro, went to Luxembourg Gardens several times, spent a lot of time walking the bridges and looking at boats, went very briefly to a couple of the museums (toddlers enjoy sculpture much more than paintings, FYI, we spent most of our time in the Louvre in the Greek and Roman galleries making ourselves look “like” the sculptures). We mostly got food at bakeries and had lots of ice cream. For easy dinners I’d find a “traiteur” or grocery and buy noodles and dumplings, or bread, cheese, veggies, etc, and dd and I would picnic or eat in our room. We did get a babysitter a couple of times to have a nice meal sans toddler.
After dh finished his work we had a few days in Paris together and then rented a car and went to Brussels and Bruges for a week or so, both easy cities to wander with a toddler as well. (You could also take the train if you don’t want to drive). DD loved taking a carriage ride through Bruges, getting waffles and frites from the carts, imitating the Manneken Pis. We also discovered what would become our family’s tradition - riding every single carousel that we find in Europe. We’ve taken our now 3 kids to europe nearly every year (except 2020), they are 11, 8 and 6 now and are all wonderful travelers. I’ve taken them solo a few times as well at other times, and we always have fun.

[Anonymous]

Also - we kept dd more on a split with eastern time so she went to sleep @10-11pm and woke around 10am, so I slept the same hours. Usually we went back to the hotel for nap time. I would read or rest or watch a movie on my computer in the (gigantic) bathroom while dd napped. We also made many visits to the marchés for food. We were there in June/July and had excellent weather and lots of amazing fresh fruits. We’ve taken other trips in the summer and had less amazing weather, but got lucky this time.
I think if you manage your expectations and generally like your child you can have fun together anywhere. It won’t be the same as single travel, but young children are quite adaptable and at that age mine were usually up for whatever I wanted to do - something that has changed a bit now they they’re older.
We also went to Copenhagen when my youngest was a toddler and that was also a wonderful city with young kids. That trip was with all 3 kids and my husband but I could see one doing it solo with a young child. Very easy to get around, lots of simple and fun things to do.