travel suggestions?

[Lewis's Mummy]

Not sure if this is the right place to put this...

We are planning a road trip from Adelaide to Brisbane in April to visit my parents and know we'll probably need more time than usual for the drive. DS will be too big for the bassinette part of his pram by then, so we're wondering what to do for a bed for him when we stop for the night in motels. We don't want to take a portacot as my parents have one for him when we get there and we figure it's going to be hard enough to fit everything else we need in the car as it is. Has anyone used anything else? Any suggestions for what to use and where to buy it would be great!

[Visitor7]

A lot of motels have port a cots available for you to use. We travelled by car from Cairns to Brisbane at Christmas time just gone, and that's what we did, have the motels provide it for us.

[Lewis's Mummy]

Thanks Jodi - did you pre-plan your stops and book motels ahead? We're a bit worried that some of the stretches btwn adelaide and bris are light on interms of motels... the bigger places we'd normally stay are just a bit too far we think... how old is your bub and did the trip take longer than normal this time?

[Visitor7]

We've travelled a few times by car since having Nina and have always planned ahead. The latest trip she was 16 months old, and it did take a lot longer than it would normally take. We drove mainly at night, when we knew she was going to sleep. We pre-booke our accommodation, and always booked into somewhere who had 24 hour check in.

How old is your bub? We did a car trip from Cairns to Emerald when Nina was 11 months old, and we were able to drive straight through on our way home, which was 11 hours.
We've done a few smaller trips (5 hours roughly) when Nina was between 3 and 7 months, and she slept most of the time.

[Lewis's Mummy]

He's 10 weeks now but we don't travel for another 7 weeks. We'd normally stop at Forbes on the way up and West Wyalong on the way back, but they are very long days. On the way up once we get past Mildura there's nothing at all until Hay, but there never seemed to be much in the way of motels there, and then I guess we'd do a second stop somewhere in northern NSW... Do you normally book on-line or phone the places direct? What is the cleanliness/condition of the cots in the motels usually like?

[Visitor7]

I did most of the research online, but always called them to arrange booking. In all the places we stayed, the cots were in good condition.
At that age, he should travel well. Too young to need constant distraction.

[Doing my best]

Hi Lewis's Mummy,

I have the same concerns about motel cots for when we are travelling, so we have purchased the kinderkot (like a little tent). It folds up quite small (into the size of a backpack) but gives a bed the same size as a port-a-cot. Only issue I have with it is folding the darn thing back up. LOL.

Our little girl travels well (she is currently 14 weeks), but if we even attempt to slow down near feed times, she will wake and insist on being fed. She also gets grizzly now on long trips as she is so used to being free at home and hates being confined in the carseat, so make sure you plan stops where your little one can stretch and have a little play before heading back on the road..

Happy travels
Heather