As you know, I love to travel with my son in tow. He’s one of my favorite people and I truly enjoy his company. But. If I were to make a list of all the things I’d like to do on a free day, numbers 2-10 do not include hanging out with a baby. Moms, why don’t we admit this? I make no apologies for wanting alone time with my husband or just quiet time to myself sometimes. So when my husband and I promised each other that we would try and take one trip (big or small) each year just the two of us, I took it seriously. Last year we spent my birthday weekend at Universal Studios Hollywood like two pre-teens (and it was SO much fun!). This year we took a much too short trip to FIJI! Below are the guidelines I followed to plan our perfect baby-free vacation.

(Baby- Free) Itinerary

What do I want to do? Do I want to run around a new city free to do whatever I want (or don’t want)? Do I want to drink all the wine or craft cocktails while slowly enjoying fantastic meals? Or do I just want to be left alone on a beach with a good book?

Last August the answer to that first question was to finally visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and that’s exactly what I did. This year, we’re opting for something a lot slower paced and traveling a whole lot further.

Destinations like Los Angeles lend themselves to convenience and even spontaneity because we are so close; we can pack a lot of things into a single Friday – Sunday trip.

We went to Punta Mita, Mexico last summer and while it was great to be by the ocean and enjoy great food, we were on our then 6-month old’s schedule. This meant waking up in the middle of the night for feeding, needing to be back in the room before it was too hot or it was nap time, etc. I knew that our next baby-free vacation would include a beach if for no other reason to relax without any schedule whatsoever.

(Baby-Free?) Location, Location, Location

Even before I saw the flight alert to Fiji, I had been longing for a beach vacation alongside a fabulous hotel and little to no plans. I knew nothing about Fiji before booking the tickets and I was excited to see another corner of the world. So for me, the second thing I consider is which location can give me the type of vacation I’m hoping to have.

Pro-tip: Parents who get baby-sick (like homesick), consider an adults-only resort. The last thing you want is to miss your baby so much that you regret getting away at all.

I don’t always want to relax and sometimes I want a big adventure.  In this case, I would look for a destination that I haven’t been to and/or don’t know much about so that I get to learn something new. We’ve been planning to visit Japan and parts of Asia in 2020 for the Olympic games for a few years and decided a long time ago that no babies would be joining us on that trip either. So while this year is about getting a nice reset after becoming parents, next year’s trip will be a non-stop adventure and I’m excited for that too. Remember, the goal of a baby-free vacation is to have a different experience than you would if you’d brought your little one.

Time

How much time do I have and how long will it take me to get there?

Remember when I said that this trip to Fiji was much too short? That’s because I looked at the travel time but didn’t pay any attention to when we arrived. Because we are crossing the international date line, we actually lost a whole day in transit. So instead of arriving Sunday evening, we arrived early Monday morning.

The same can be said for traveling in the other direction as well. If I only have two full days to spare, i.e. a weekend, do I want to spend 5-6 hours traveling across the country and back? Something to consider.

Price point

We travel as often as possible and my husband loves to remind me that we already have fiftyleven trips planned and how can I afford to even think about another trip. Insert eye roll because he’s right.

Side eye.

I will be the first one to tell you that you need a vacation savings account. I’ve been there, done that with credit card debt to pay for a trip that I couldn’t afford and I don’t recommend it. The price of tickets to Fiji are often twice what I paid for them last month. I know this because I’m crazy about travel and plan itineraries all the time. So when these tickets became available for the same price as getting to NYC, I jumped on them.

And because I got the tickets for such a great price and we only need hotel accommodations for 3 nights, I was able to get a nice hotel for a price I was happy to pay for (among other perks from being a credit card holder). But if I couldn’t find a hotel that I wanted to pay for, I would have been fine with keeping costs down by renting an Airbnb instead.

Something worth noting: as parents, we have a financial obligation to our children first and foremost. Vacations don’t happen if daycare, diapers, clothes, etc. are a struggle.

Babysitter(s)

This is an absolute no-brainer. If I’m planning a baby-free vacation, who’s watching the baby?! My parents and I don’t yet have a family calendar but my dad actually just brought this up last weekend. Luckily, I can just send my mom calendar invites that say “Watch Solomon”, which she always accepts, thank goodness. But if you’re like us, in the event that my parents’ aren’t available, Solomon just would have been a baby in Fiji 😉

How do you plan your baby-free vacations? What other things do you consider? Let me know!