Topic: Family Vacation with a 1 year old ideas?

[Jukka]

Wondering if anyone can recommend places to go for a family friendly vacation with a 1 year old. My wife and I haven't gone on a vacation since our honeymoon 2.5+ years ago and I just got a nice little bonus from work that's going to let us go on a vacation.

We have about minimum $1500 travel expense for the 3 of us to cover flights and hotels, but may bump that up to $2500-$3000. That budget is going to include flights, hotels, car rentals, etc.

Here's the tricky part, my wife is a teacher and is going back to work come January, so we're going to have to travel either on March break, take an extended long weekend, or travel sometime in the summer months, which will be challenging because we are also planning a trip out to Newfoundland for a friend's wedding in August.

We were thinking So-Cal, or maybe Texas. Our biggest things would be we need to go somewhere that will be easy to find food that the kiddo will eat, somewhere that's not too far off with time-zones so we don't screw up her schedule, and someplace that we can do things we can enjoy and the kiddo can enjoy too.

Thoughts?

[diamondedge]

My man.

I can't speak to the kiddo part, but Austin, TX is a great place and the weather is nice and mild around March. (I went for a work trip back in 2013). Only thing is if you're going to time it around March, SXSW
is happening so that can be a boon for you guys as well. There's tons of free events that go on that you can peep. Traffic gets bad but you're from TO so...nyeh.

Cheap flights, I keep an eye on yycdeals.

http://www.yycdeals.com/calgary-to-houston-texas-198-cad-roundtrip-including-taxes-non-stop-flights-new-record

Houston is CHEAP! wtf.

[jellynuts]

I'm going to be a stiff and recommend not going to the USA, for the soul purpose of not financing Trump's America First policies.  Also reduces the likelihood that you and your family will get shot, and increase your life expectancy.  Honduras is falling apart right now.  Might be cheap to travel there. 

In regards to travelling with kids, those portable playpens are amazing.  They pack up very well and are incredibly travel friendly.  Some hotels offer them, but...  Just like there might be reproductive juices all over the hotel room, there might be barf, poop and pee all over those playpens.  But whatever. 

http://www.toysrus.ca/product/index.jsp?productId=121116776

You can always borrow ours.  I can guarantee there's barf, poop and pee, but at least you know where it came from. 

Gate checking strollers is easy, so I'd recommend that.  If you're going to a place that has lots of escalators and stairs, a carrier back pack would be better. 

Claim your baby food.  Even if you brought it from Canada, as soon as it leaves the country, the meat (or maybe the food entirely) becomes a product of the country you're returning from.  Customs took our baby food because we didn't claim it when we returned to the country  

Bring lots of new toys and items for the plane rides.  Sticker books are effective.  Those reusable sticker books are cool.  Things that make lights are good too.
 These don't need to be lavish.  Dollar store these items.  Don't show baby all of them at once.  Just pull them out one at a time as she gets bored of them.  Try to avoid the noisy ones for your fellow passengers, but at the same time, screw them.  It's noisy toys or crying baby.  They can take their pick. 

[Zaider]

My man.

I can't speak to the kiddo part, but Austin, TX is a great place and the weather is nice and mild around March. (I went for a work trip back in 2013). Only thing is if you're going to time it around March, SXSW
is happening so that can be a boon for you guys as well. There's tons of free events that go on that you can peep. Traffic gets bad but you're from TO so...nyeh.

Cheap flights, I keep an eye on yycdeals.

http://www.yycdeals.com/calgary-to-houston-texas-198-cad-roundtrip-including-taxes-non-stop-flights-new-record

Houston is CHEAP! wtf.

My wife and I just got back from 5 days in Austin. While we both loved it, Im not 100% sure its got a lot of kid-friendly things to do. We spent most of our time checking out nice restaurants - if you want recommendations, send me a pm -  and shopping. The live music portion that we saw was all at bars and breweries - not the most kid-friendly and they started later.

They did have some pretty amazing pools in the city, which was nice because it was 30 degrees in November.

[diamondedge]

My wife and I just got back from 5 days in Austin. While we both loved it, Im not 100% sure its got a lot of kid-friendly things to do. We spent most of our time checking out nice restaurants - if you want recommendations, send me a pm -  and shopping. The live music portion that we saw was all at bars and breweries - not the most kid-friendly and they started later.

They did have some pretty amazing pools in the city, which was nice because it was 30 degrees in November.

Listen to Z. LOL

Agreed. Live music wouldn't be kiddo friendly.

[Jukka]

My man.

I can't speak to the kiddo part, but Austin, TX is a great place and the weather is nice and mild around March. (I went for a work trip back in 2013). Only thing is if you're going to time it around March, SXSW
is happening so that can be a boon for you guys as well. There's tons of free events that go on that you can peep. Traffic gets bad but you're from TO so...nyeh.

Cheap flights, I keep an eye on yycdeals.

http://www.yycdeals.com/calgary-to-houston-texas-198-cad-roundtrip-including-taxes-non-stop-flights-new-record

Houston is CHEAP! wtf.

The easy thing about her being this age, if anything is shiny or different, shes entertained, so we won't need to really base our travel plans around her being entertained too much. I forgot about SXSW, depending on when its running, may be hooped on that option. Mind you, could invest in a set of these for her...

I'm going to be a stiff and recommend not going to the USA, for the soul purpose of not financing Trump's America First policies.  Also reduces the likelihood that you and your family will get shot, and increase your life expectancy.  Honduras is falling apart right now.  Might be cheap to travel there. 

In regards to travelling with kids, those portable playpens are amazing.  They pack up very well and are incredibly travel friendly.  Some hotels offer them, but...  Just like there might be reproductive juices all over the hotel room, there might be barf, poop and pee all over those playpens.  But whatever. 

http://www.toysrus.ca/product/index.jsp?productId=121116776

You can always borrow ours.  I can guarantee there's barf, poop and pee, but at least you know where it came from. 

Gate checking strollers is easy, so I'd recommend that.  If you're going to a place that has lots of escalators and stairs, a carrier back pack would be better. 

Claim your baby food.  Even if you brought it from Canada, as soon as it leaves the country, the meat (or maybe the food entirely) becomes a product of the country you're returning from.  Customs took our baby food because we didn't claim it when we returned to the country  

Bring lots of new toys and items for the plane rides.  Sticker books are effective.  Those reusable sticker books are cool.  Things that make lights are good too.
 These don't need to be lavish.  Dollar store these items.  Don't show baby all of them at once.  Just pull them out one at a time as she gets bored of them.  Try to avoid the noisy ones for your fellow passengers, but at the same time, screw them.  It's noisy toys or crying baby.  They can take their pick. 

Noted. We haven't traveled with her internationally yet, but shes been on 8(?)  3.5 hour + planes already this year, so she flys well. We have one of the portable playpens we're going to bring with us too. We've seen some of the sketchy looking ones that hotels provide and yea..there's definitely barf, poo and blood on them...not necessarily from babies either...

Good to know about the baby food thing. Never would have though of that.

My wife and I just got back from 5 days in Austin. While we both loved it, Im not 100% sure its got a lot of kid-friendly things to do. We spent most of our time checking out nice restaurants - if you want recommendations, send me a pm -  and shopping. The live music portion that we saw was all at bars and breweries - not the most kid-friendly and they started later.

They did have some pretty amazing pools in the city, which was nice because it was 30 degrees in November.

I've heard good things about Austin. I've heard they have amazing food all over the place down there, lots of niche places and mom & pop places that have been around forever. And BBQ.

30 degrees in the fall would be nice. Hopefully its that warm in the spring down there. How were hotel prices?

[Player One]

If you choose the Austin route, I can ask my friend about some kid friendly things to do there. She lives there and has a 2 year old so may have some good ideas.

The food there is awesome if you like BBQ and Tex mex. breakfast tacos errday!!

[Zaider]

I've heard good things about Austin. I've heard they have amazing food all over the place down there, lots of niche places and mom & pop places that have been around forever. And BBQ.

30 degrees in the fall would be nice. Hopefully its that warm in the spring down there. How were hotel prices?

Didnt stay at a hotel. Stayed in an AirBnB like we usually do.

We flew into Houston, rented a convertible (got upgraded to a Mustang GT convertible) and drove to Austin (about 2.5 hours). Stayed in South Congress, which i'd recommend. East Austin is also nice.

Restaurants:
- Lenoire
- Elizabeth St Cafe
- Uchi
- Micklethwait Craft Meats (BBQ) - I've never had meat like that. Incredible.
- June's
- Home Slice Pizza
- Launderette

Its not all BBQ and Tex Mex

[Player One]

Its not all BBQ and Tex Mex

True! But they do it better down there than anywhere I've been in Calgary

[jellynuts]

True! But they do it better down there than anywhere I've been in Calgary

That goes for any food that's offered in Calgary

[Zaider]

True! But they do it better down there than anywhere I've been in Calgary

100% True. Im not a huge fan of Tex-Mex, but we went to Torchy's while in Austin and had their nacho cheese and chips. The chips weren't the best I've ever had, but the cheese... wow. The BBQ is unbelievable. We were still full from breakfast when we went to Micklethwaits so i asked what the smallest rib we could get was... 1.3lbs. I assume its from a brontosaurus. Meat falling off the bone, melts in your mouth, covered in dry rub crust.... ohmygod

That goes for any food that's offered in Calgary

You're going to the wrong restaurants here

[lakelouise02bugeye]

That goes for any food that's offered in Calgary

[jellynuts]

lol, ok fair enough.

[Rathburn]

That goes for any food that's offered in Calgary

You cray, son. So many goods here.

[jellynuts]

You cray, son. So many goods here.

[pingman222]

I'll go ahead and throw in socal to the mix here, pretty much have made a yearly trip that way for the last decade.  Our little guy just turned 3 this summer and he's been there 3 times now at varying ages and its always easy to find stuff to do, and stuff to eat there as well.   This past summer was his first trip to disney, and you could go there at 1, but might not be worth it just yet.  However, legoland we found was pretty good for the infant crowd if you're into theme parks at all.  Not busy at all and relatively cheap to go to in comparison with disney, and fun for the adults too.  Some premium outlets just right across the street from there as well. 

[Jukka]

Didnt stay at a hotel. Stayed in an AirBnB like we usually do.

We flew into Houston, rented a convertible (got upgraded to a Mustang GT convertible) and drove to Austin (about 2.5 hours). Stayed in South Congress, which i'd recommend. East Austin is also nice.

Restaurants:
- Lenoire
- Elizabeth St Cafe
- Uchi
- Micklethwait Craft Meats (BBQ) - I've never had meat like that. Incredible.
- June's
- Home Slice Pizza
- Launderette

Its not all BBQ and Tex Mex

100% True. Im not a huge fan of Tex-Mex, but we went to Torchy's while in Austin and had their nacho cheese and chips. The chips weren't the best I've ever had, but the cheese... wow. The BBQ is unbelievable. We were still full from breakfast when we went to Micklethwaits so i asked what the smallest rib we could get was... 1.3lbs. I assume its from a brontosaurus. Meat falling off the bone, melts in your mouth, covered in dry rub crust.... ohmygod

Dude, you are selling me on going there just on the food side of things..lol. I've heard Homeslice is pretty famous/delicious.

I'm a big BBQ and Tex-Mex fan.

What really turned me onto the food scene in Austin is watching all the RT pod-casts where they kept talking about the food and then Burnie did a Vlog back in the summer where they went around to all of their key places like Homeslice, Paco's Taco's,  Micklethwait, Mighty Fine, and a bunch of other places..

Plus I've always been interested in visiting more of the Southern States. I've been to Georgia, Florida, Tennessee (actually have family roots there that go back to pre-civil war days), Kentucky. So Texas and Louisiana are still on the list of places I want to go.

[Zaider]

That cover shot from the youtube video is a shop on South Congress. Basically right across the street is Home Slice pizza.

Of my list, the only restaurants I'd consider kid-friendly are Eliz St Cafe (go for brunch, sit outside), Micklethwait and Home Slice.  Maybe Launderette for lunch. The rest are higher end restaurants.

[Jukka]

Well, looks like we aren't going to be able to go away when we first anticipated it. I guess during the spring there's a few people at work taking time off and because of my wife's work, if she takes time off, she actually has to pay out for the days shes taking off to cover a sub.

So we may be on hold, or we may just take a bit more time off in the summer and go away then instead.