Babymoon locations and timing

galactickates

kerryann124 said:

I think we may be going to Hawaii in September for a baby moon. We are on the west coast so its not too bad with a direct flight. We are thinking probably Kauai and Oahu. Would love any recommendations!

We went to Kauai for 2 weeks for our honeymoon last year.  I absolutely loved every inch of that island.  I have a million recommendations. 
Waiama canyon - the grand canyon of Hawaii  it's gorgeous
Go to as many waterfalls as you can.  
Pick up the little blue book.  I think it's called Kauai explored. There are maps to everywhere around the island with all the waterfalls. 
Rent a jeep.  We had a hybrid which was great but we ended up not being able to access a couple places but we still went on foot. It was about a 3 mile walk to the gates of Jurassic park.  A jeep would have gotten us right there.  It was worth the walk.  There are gorgeous waterfalls back there too. 

jgil85

@galactickates Your trip sounds amazing!! Yellowstone is on my family bucket list. 

galactickates

@jgil85 it really was. It was so gorgeous. We went up to the canyon at night and took the most amazing pictures of the milky way.  They had some of the darkest skies I've ever seen. 

I forgot to mention @karyanne23 go to any of the botanical garden tours that you can.  We did both tours at Allerton gardens and it was one of my favorite things.  Buy mosquito repellent, bring it with you and re-apply more then you would sunscreen.  I got eaten alive the first day and learned the hard way. 

AliKay20

@kerryann124 if you guys can go, definitely hit up Oahu!!! It’s foodie heaven. I am salivating just thinking about all the good food we had when we were there in April (yes, besides sushi)!! You will love it! 

peachy104

@galactickates There are 8 geyser basins in Yellowstone. Upper Geyser Basin is the one with Old Faithful. Definitely take time to walk around the boardwalks all the way to Morning Glory Pool (picture below). I also liked Lower Geyser Basin, Mammoth Hot Springs, and the Mud Volcano. I haven’t been to the Grand Prismatic yet. It looks amazing on photos but I’ve heard it’s hard to “take it all in” on foot because it’s so large you really need an eagle eye view. But who knows, it may be fantastic in person!

Definitely stay on the boardwalks. There are signs posted to this effect but you’ll sometimes see people stepping off the boardwalks. I personally wouldn’t want to knowingly endanger myself, but to each his own I suppose. 

The “Grand Canyon” of Yellowstone is a must-see. Especially if you take the short sidewalk down to the brink of the lower falls. Wowsers! Suuuuper cool! It’s a switchback trail down to the brink, maybe 1/4mi total but the hike back up kinda sucks. So just take it easy on the way back up. 

Uncle Tom’s Trail (picture below) was cool but may not be advisable while 20+ weeks pregnant. It’s a staircase that’s 328 steps (made of metal grating so if you have a fear of heights, you can see straight down into the canyon!). Obviously going down isn’t too strenuous but your center of gravity may be compromised by your bump. The way up was torturous! There were 2 maybe 3 bench/rest areas but I just huffed it all the way up in one go. I didn’t want to stop and get depressed about how much more I had left to go LOL. But I also wasn’t pregnant when I went. ...there’s another overlook near Uncle Tom’s Trail where you can get a great view of the waterfalls. 

If you are fortunate to stay at the lodging at Yellowstone, the 2 I stayed at didn’t have air conditioning. You can open windows and use the fans in the room. I’d assume the other lodges don’t have A/C but I couldn’t tell you for sure.

Bears. Yup you might see one. You can tell when one’s near a road because of the “bear jam” in the road (play on words, instead of “traffic jam”). People will stop and actually get out of their cars to take pictures. I’d rather not pester the bears nor risk getting attacked, so I never did. (There was a bear attack of a photographer my 1st visit to Yellowstone 11yrs ago... he got too close to the cubs... and apparently it was not his first time being attacked). We saw 1 Black bear and 1 Grizzly Bear during the 3 days we were there last summer (didn’t see any my first trip). They say you’ll always have a bear within 1 mile of where you are anywhere inside the park. If you plan on hiking, make sure everyone has bear spray. 

Elk/Bison, everywhere. More rare to see moose and wolves but I saw both on my first trip to Yellowstone 11 yrs ago. 

Weather... I went in June and it was still chilly. One trail we planned to do was still snowed in (Mount Wasburn). But on the last day, it felt “hot enough” to wear t-shirt and pants (or maybe it was just all the walking we did!) 

Phone signal? Forget about it. No WiFi in the accommodations either. But if you’re like me, you won’t care and you’ll actually enjoy getting unplugged for a while  

canichangethislater

We did kind of a mini baby moon before DD. We live in Orlando so we went to a nearby resort for a weekend. I was 30 weeks at the time and I remember thinking that this was too late to be truly enjoyable. I did lounge around the pool, and that was relaxing. But we tried to play golf and it was terrible. I was uncomfortable, my boobs were too big. So based on that experience, I’d say definitely go earlier if you’re wanting to be active. 

galactickates

@featherchicki thank you for the pointers! Definitely bringing bear spray. We were in Montana last fall and I was a nervous wreck on every trail because we didn't have any.  That's not happening again.  I just hope forest fires aren't bad this year. They were absolutely terrible last year and lots of roads were closed obviously.

kianarain

Heading to SF in December! I'll be just shy of 8 months, so definitely not planning on being too active. But will 100% be eating my way through the Bay Area hehe.

testifier

I was actually thinking of going on vacation after the baby arrives just to have some alone time. Can this be considered a babymoon?  

UnbreakableKimmySchmidt

knottie1f3d56450f4db636 said:

I was actually thinking of going on vacation after the baby arrives just to have some alone time. Can this be considered a babymoon?  

I would go before baby...it’s so hard to leave baby the first few months, even if you have great help. I had to be away from DD1 when she was 5 months to attend my sister’s bachelorette party. DH took great care of her but I had to make sure she had enough milk and then pump. It’s nice to have a break but nights away are challenging. You may not emotionally be ready to leave your baby in the first few months either. Just things to consider. If you are able to go somewhere before baby arrives, go! There will be less worries and you will be able to relax more, just my experience. 

peachy104

We just bought our flights for our babymoon. I’m kinda mad the fares went up so much in just one week. We splurged on first class. It’s a 3.5hr flight. Definitely wanted the roomy seats! 

mrsmang

We’re going to Disney World in October for our anniversary and going to now combine that with a “babymoon” I guess. I will definitely be planning to take it easy which isn’t always our Disney “style” but I’m excited to take it easy and soak in the atmosphere. And let my husband use all my fast passes so I’m not doing too much waiting on him while he does the fun rides. And so much baby shopping!  

And yes, I’m one of those strange adults that really enjoys Disney even without kids. I’m glad we get to do it one more time without kids, although I’m also excited to bring our kids in the future. 

blueowl08

@mrsmang jealous! I love Disney but DH does not. I’m already planning for when I can take our LO and DH is already dreading it/trying to get out of it. Hope you have a blast!

ladystout08

I don't think we're going to do a babymoon but we were planning Disney is the spring so I think we're going to go while I'm on mat. leave. A little crazy? Probably. But I don't have enough PTO to do both.

greenhillgirl

All these trips sound awesome! Haha @CoastieGirl79 and @snackheart your messages made me think of The Holiday where they switch houses. 

We are going to drive up to the Berkshires for a wedding over Labor Day for a long weekend. I also might be attending a work conference in Chicago in late August. Is a work trip a babymoon? Haha its funny that many of us have limited extra money or days off we can take as we prepare for a child yet the babymoon thing sounds so appealing.

wkuandrea

so my DH and I have been talking about babymoons... and as much as I love to travel (he does not), I am leaning towards putting that money into home improvements. I mean, I'll obviously be in the house a lot, I work from home and babies crawl on the floor... we have this white carpet in all of our bedrooms and in the living room and dining room, builder grade kind of crap that is stained to all heck (because it's white). The rest of the house has hardwood floors, so I think it's better money invested in extending the hardwoods and maybe nice carpet in the bedrooms? We just bought this house in November. 

rooonilwaazlib

I am trying to convince DW to do Bermuda in the late summer/early fall...with weather/trip insurance of course in case of hurricanes! 

kaf1788

@wkuandrea We're in the same boat. We went on two trips in the first trimester (planned before we were pregnant) and now I feel like I need to put the rest of our discretionary money towards babyproofing the condo. We need to delead (obviously a priority), we're having a new laundry room built (the laundry is currently in the closet of what will become the nursery) and I also want to completely redo a few closets to make organizing a bit easier with all the baby stuff we're going to have. It's definitely not cheap!

KariAnn323

We live in Northern Illinois so we’re thinking of doing a night in Chicago. My sister works for a national hotel brand so I can usually get pretty good discounts. Maybe do a fancy dinner and a show. Not really of vacation but still something that will be harder to do after baby comes.

jandd2014

@KariAnn323 that's what we did for our babymoon with DD. We went to Sacramento and went to dinner, saw a  play, and stayed in a fancy hotel right on the river (where we had stayed the night of our wedding). It was fun and gave us time to reconnect without being too stressful to plan.

knottie903574bf3845db8a

First baby we went on two!! More just a excuse to travel

rooonilwaazlib

We're going to Key West in October! Really, it's a great excuse for us to get away and I am so excited as I have never been to KW before.  I'm going to use pregnancy as an excuse to eat key lime pie in every food establishment I can!  Anyone else make babymoon decisions yet?

hlb8179

We are going to Santa Monica!   My husband travels to LA for work each week, so I’ll just meet him out there one weekend in october. Looking forward to relaxing on the beach and hitting up the Nobu in Malibu, my absolute favorite. With dd1, we took a baby moon to Florida at 33 weeks, and dd1 was born within a week of our return. So we have stricter travel restrictions in place this time. Looking forward to unplugging for a weekend and connecting with dh before the madness of newborn time. 

Kabazaba

@featherchicki and @galactickates just chiming in to say definitely go to Grand Prismatic Spring. You can walk like 1/2 mike up the fairy falls trail to an overlook platform that is great, and a better view than from the boardwalk. It is steep just before the overlook, but well worth it. If you go on the boardwalk, leave your hat in the car. It was very windy and there were lots of discarded hats just out of arm’s reach from the boardwalk. Not a pro photographer but here’s my best pic from the boardwalk vs fairy falls overlook last month: 

kmvisioli

We haven't done a babymoon with any of our pregnancies, but we do travel a fair bit every year anyway either to visit family or just for fun.

Also just want to reassure all the ftm that it is totally possible and even fun to travel with a baby! I know a lot of people get stressed about it, but the first 9 months I actually found it really easy to travel with a baby, especially if you are breastfeeding. It's once they start needing food and entertainment and being mobile that it gets more challenging

tosh24

I totally agree with @kmvisioli. Travelling with a young baby is pretty easy. We've been doing trips with our kids since they were newborns where we're travelling for 8-12 hours to get to our destination. We're also planning on doing a 2-3 country European trip next summer while I'm on mat leave and baby will be about 7-8 months old. I honestly think you are doing your children a huge favour by travelling young with them - they learn how to travel well, learn how to be flexible, spontaneous, adaptable, familiar with change. It's all important stuff that will serve them well in life. I cringe to think of my sister's 3 kids on a plane - she hasn't taken them on more than a 1-2 hour car trip (and that's with a stop in there) because she's worried/stressed that they'll cry, fuss, miss a nap, etc. They are the worst travellers and she can't do anything to disrupt their routine or their whole family falls apart. So, don't be too worried if you're not able to take a babymoon before baby arrives. It's definitely nice to have some alone time with DH, but its' also pretty fun to travel with baby and watch them explore the world

ladystout08

Totally agree, I think it's actually easier to travel with a baby than a kid. You may stop more frequently but it's a quick feed and diaper change and not them running off energy and asking "are we there yet." It's a blast watching DS take everything in and he loves to travel now, he went on his first road trip and like 7 weeks old and we'll probably do the same with this one.

al_vy

Before we found out we were pregnant, we had planned to spend Christmas in Spain. Obviously we had to do some shuffling of our schedule to accommodate the twins coming. So we have about a week long babymoon planned in October where we'll be going to Disney World; and, we postponed our Spain trip until next August.