Vacationing with Young Kids
Vacationing with Young kids in Clearwater, FL
We traveled to Clearwater Beach, FL back in March with the kids and it was such a fun, needed trip for everyone in the family. While they say traveling with kids is more like a business trip — which is kind of true lol — there was something special about the trip for every one of us, especially Kyle and I as parents.
Even though I am home with the kids every day, being on vacation with them felt like I got to truly enjoy every second of them. I don’t know how to explain it, but it was different when there are no to-do’s in the back of your mind at all times — no dishes to be done, laundry to be put away, errands to be ran, content to be created etc. We all just enjoyed being the moment with each other and it was fabulous!
Although the trip was amazing, there were definitely some difficult moments and takeaways regarding traveling with young kids, so I wanted to share our personal experience, including both things we would have done differently and things that worked out really well for us!
When planning the trip, we knew we wanted to be right on the beach so that we could have the option of going to the pool or the beach. That turned out to be the best decision we made, especially since the beach proved to be a lot easier than the pool for someone Rhodes’ age. Rhodes was 14 months and Olive was 29 months at the time of this trip.
We stayed at the Wydham Grand Clearwater Beach which was directly across from the beach and had a really nice pool as well. The hotel had an affiliate with the beach chair rentals and you could rent a canopy tent that came with two lounge chairs for $10 per day - an incredible steal, especially to be able to have a tent with the two kids and not have to drag your own beach chairs, etc. I think a lot of the hotels in the area have this, so definitely ask ahead of time if you’re going to book to make sure you get this deal!
We bought our sand toys and swim floaties at a local beach shop because I didn’t want to buy ahead of time and pack the bulk. Again, being a first time traveler with kids we already had a ton of stuff and I just wasn’t sure it was necessary. I figured we’d buy them down there and give them to another family as a good deed when we left. However, we did end up bringing them home as the sand toy kit we bought had a collapsible sand bucket and everything fit perfectly in our suitcase. Somehow both the puddle jumper life vests fit too. I think either option — packing these things ahead of the trip or buying when down there are good.
We knew we wouldn’t be renting a car since we were right on the strip and nearly everything was walking distance. That being said, we didn’t have car seats and decided against buying Rhodes a seat on the plane (a big mistake in hindsight, which i’ll explain later in this post). We ended up booking a car service that brought us from Tampa Airport to our hotel. The service we ordered came from a recommendation through a friend on Instagram – his name was Tim and he charged a flat rate of $30 from Tampa to Clearwater Beach and brought two car seats! You can reach out to him via Facebook messenger just search for Tim Rogers (sounds sketchy, I know, but it was a great service & phenomenal deal, especially with the car seats!).
We called the hotel ahead of time and told them we would need two cribs – most hotels provide cribs and/or pack n’ plays, but you should certainly call and reserve them ahead as there is usually a limit. We all stayed in one room, but it had a balcony. Having a balcony gave me major anxiety with the kids, but they loved it and it was also a great option for Kyle and I to have as once the kids went to bed, we were able to go out there, chat, enjoy the night and have a cocktail.
We kept the schedule loose and didn’t have a single thing planned. I think if the kids were older, we may have needed to plan some activities, but keeping the schedule loose was so much less stressful and allowed everyone to enjoy themselves. Right next to our hotel was a playground and a Pier which had a bouncy house, water slides, trampolines, etc. so that was fun for the kids!
The plane was for sure the hardest part, but I think this is where we messed up. We bought Rhodes’ seat as a “lap baby”. We figured we could save a little money since flights were already so expensive and this way we didn’t have to lug around a big car seat, when we already had enough stuff to carry and weren’t even renting a car. WRONGO! At 14 months, newly walking, and a boy who is ready to GO, keeping him on my lap was a TOTAL nightmare/challenge.
I think if we had bought him a seat and bought a cheap, lightweight carseat we could have saved ourselves and everyone on our flight a lot of misery. Looking back, I would have bought one of the lightweight, cheap car seats and either the backpack carrier or the car seat travel belt that hooks right to your suitcase. I’ve heard great things about this combo!
Even though we had a difficult flight with Rhodes on our lap, there would have been pros and cons to him having his own seat at that age. too. Aside from the money and hassle of lugging a car seat around, we would have had to separate as a family since there are only three seats per row and would have had to sit with a stranger. Being that this was our first time traveling with them, that could have been a not so fun situation too. I guess it’s whatever way you want to look at it, but I would have sat next to satan to not have had to deal with what we dealt with on the plane ride there.
Don’t get me wrong, we thought we were so smart and planned the flights so strategically around Rhode’s nap and leaving plenty of time to get to the airport, have breakfast, and let the kids run around and get some energy out. How naive of us! It went completely opposite as planned and when we got off the flight we basically needed to buy everyone a drink, including the pilot.
At the end of the day, we made it to Florida safely and that’s all that matters, but the moral of the story is that just because you think you have everything mapped out and think you’re well-prepared it doesn’t always mean it’s going to go that way – prepare for hiccups. If you’re prepared to have things go wrong, it won’t sting as bad when they happen.
Aside from that hiccup, everything else went pretty smoothly and the Beis Expandable Overnighter Bag was the real MVP for not only the plane, but for the entire trip as it perfectly held everything we needed and was open enough to easily find and grab things quickly when we needed it!
We made sure both of the iPads were charged, downloaded a bunch of Trash Truck & Cocomelon episodes and I bought two sets of Cocomelon headphones off Amazon which I surprised them with the morning of so they were new and exciting. I also bought a toddler protective case for the iPads with a kickstand. I packed a few coloring books & crayons, stickers, and the snack spinner - you’ll use all of this throughout the trip too, especially at restaurants! We brought our Uppa Baby Vista which checks for free and was a life saver the entire trip! We took it everywhere.
*Pro Tip: the first day or two the kids were napping in the room, but then we soon realized that if we changed them after the beach and give them their milk on the walk to the restaurants for lunch, they usually fell asleep and napped throughout the lunch. This way Kyle and I had a kid-free lunch and didn’t have to sit in the hotel room while they napped!
As far as diapers and wipes go, I only brought what I fit in the Beis bag for the plane! I downloaded the Instacart app as soon as we got there (you can get a free 14 day trial, just remember to cancel it when you leave) and they delivered wipes, diapers, snacks, milk etc.
All and all the trip was fabulous and Olive is still talking about the beach to this day. Clearwater was a great place to go with kids and if you ever find yourself visiting there, here is a list of our favorite restaurants:
Palm Pavilion Beachside Grill & Bar - right on the beach, live music, great vibes, delicious food!
Ocean Hai - chic, trendy, asian fusion restaurant in our hotel. A little bit more $$, but something different if you’re sick of all the fried food.
The Spotted Donkey Cantina - we went here for lunch a lot, great chips, salsa and guacamole and good margaritas!
Frenchy’s Roackaway Grill - beachfront restaurant with locally caught fish - great vibes!
Clearsky Cafe - not a great location or curb appeal, but food was great for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Ryans Cafe - discovered this one the last day, but loved their breakfast!
Another Broken Egg Cafe - a casual chain with a Southern flair. Next door looked like a cute wine bar and Greek restaurants (if you aren’t traveling with kids!)
Ben and Jerry’s - a classic for ice cream on a hot day.
