Travelling together,
as a family – making memories and putting pins in the map
First up –
Mexico, on Boxing day, with a 5-month-old and a 4-year-old on a 7am flight!
An
amazingly thoughtful surprise 30th birthday present from my then
fiancée and now husband Mr. Rich seemed
ambitious but doable. Skip forward to 7pm Christmas day – slightly drunk, with
2 over excited children, 12 family members still playing charades in the front
room, and a 14 lb turkey carcass to get rid of, I am packing and losing my holy
shit – where are the passports again?? (More on passport fails later this year
– it will be worth the wait.)
After no
actual sleep, we set of at some ungodly time to Heathrow. An overpriced and
underwhelming breakfast, £200 in duty free and some booze to ease the pain and
all seems very chilled…
Ted (5
months) has 14 baby gros, 22 nappies, 4 packets of baby wipes, 11 dummies –
Beth (4 years old) has an iPad and a packet of Haribo star mix!
Let me share a few points on travelling long
or short distances on a plane with an infant:
- · They are on your lap, arm, shoulder, head for the WHOLE journey
- · If they fall asleep on you make sure you don’t drink a drop so you don’t need to pee
- · The drop-down baby changing hatch on a plane is the size of an envelope – good luck with that
- · Changing a baby on a plane is like trying to get an octopus into a string vest
- · No amount of free wine makes any of this better!
Exhausted
and cranky we checked in to the Riu Playa del Carmen
The hotel
and the chain itself were utterly amazing – the level of service was fantastic
and the choice of food and drinks were incredible. The all-inclusive package
really was all inclusive and we never spent a dollar. The staff in the
restaurant were attentive and friendly, even though they began to draw straws
in the morning to see who would collect Ted’s 8 bottles to be sterilized and
filled with fresh boiling water!
The food
was superb at every meal in the main restaurant and although there was the
option to pre-book in some of the smaller restaurants for dinner you had to be
up and at reception for this before 7am each morning (not really an issue for us)
to book. I need to point out that this was like no other buffet restaurant in a
hotel that I have ever experienced. A meat station where they hand cut
Argentinian beef steaks and grilled then on an open fire .10-foot-high wall of
fresh fruit being chopped into fruit salad. A dessert bar that would make your
back teeth ache.
One evening
a chef used a chainsaw to carve a boat out of a block of ice, then got inside
it to make handmade sushi for the rest of the evening –Beth was in heaven as
this is her absolute favourite dish. She got her money’s worth that evening.
Breakfast
was also a joy – a mimosa and bloody Mary station at the entrance to the
restaurant each morning and a 2ft marble slab of smoked salmon is the only way
to start your day - I think!
Popcorn
machines were scattered around the resort as well as all day ice-cream for the children.
When ordering any drinks or cocktails we were told by a fellow traveller to ask
for the named premium brand spirits and when ordering wine to pick from the
extensive list. This meant that you never got the house spirits and it was all
part of your all-inclusive. This was another win for me as I am a massive
drinks snob. We even had the bar man take our insomniac baby for a spin around
the block so we could enjoy 4.5 minutes of cocktail time together
We can
thoroughly recommend the Riu hotel chain for service, attention to detail, value
for money and quality. In hindsight, we probably wouldn’t have travelled that
far with a baby but having your 30th birthday on NYE means you must chase
that Winter sun. The only down side would be that we are always a little reluctant
to add a pin to Mexico on our map as we really only saw the airport (in the
dark) and the hotel.
See you next
month for Greece – a lovely family run hotel and how you miss the NHS in a medical
emergency abroad!
Written by Fiona @trixierich
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