We are going to Florida for a few days in march and DD will be almost 18 months then. Just wondering if anyone has any tips or advice for traveling long distance in a car with LO this age. We plan on leaving at bedtime so hopefully she will sleep the whole way.
And, taking her to the beach and swimming at this age. She hasn't been since 11 months and she wasn't walking yet.
Re: Taking a 17-18 month old to the beach??
The furtheste we have driven with DS was a 6hr drive to NY to go camping, The following week we did go to the beach with DS, We had a tent for him, a large blanket to put down on the sand( DS was onyl crawling then at 10mos),a huge umbrella and we had a wagon that we luged everything in.
How long is the drive? we left at nap time, stopped for lunch when he woke up, then after a little over an hour of play he took his second nap.
We took DD to Florida in November, she was 15 months I think. She really surprised me with how well she did traveling on the plane and this is a child who typically hates traveling in the car for our 10-12 hour drives to see family. I brought along plenty of small toys (stickers, Little Einsteins magnet board, and a few new things) we also had a portable DVD player on hand for emergencies but maybe only used it once for one of the car rides.
She loved the beach, her favorite part was chasing after the water! It did take her a little while to get used to the sand but by the second day she was throwing it, eating it, and loved helping me make sand castles, etc. We didn't go in the water though since it was too cold.
Have fun!
For the car ride we had plenty of music for her to listen to on the ride. As a last resort we had a portable DVD player. That helped. She did have a few toys, but for the car ride music and DVD were the most helpful.
We were in FL for Christmas/New Years. At the beach, she loved to dig dig dig. So we had a pail and shovel. The waves were a bit intimidating for her at first. But she did get the hang of them and would run after them and away from them
Sunscreen, towels, snacks. We had a location under some trees. So we played in the sand for a while and then took a little break from the sun.
She had a great time. I wish we could go back now!
We are going to Sarasota. I grew up there and we used to spend every spring break there and I don't remember that being a concern but I will check. Thanks!