little white truths

We arrived in Noosa ten days ago now, and when we did, I set out how we went flying up with two toddlers. That post is here if you're interested.

Today we're leaving, so we need to be out of our rooms in two hours and then unfortunately our flight isn't until 5pm, which of course means that we'll be floating around for most of the day with no home-base. Annoying. We did try to get a late checkout but apparently that's not possible today. 

Anyhoo. I thought it might be useful to let you know how the holiday went, because you may have heard me say that we haven't had a holiday in three years for the simple reason that we learned it's not worth it with young kids. In our experience, kids tend not to sleep well when you travel and you can't quarantine sound in holiday apartments or hotel rooms, so it ends up being a bloody nightmare and no one sleeps for the whole time you're away.

So how did we go this time? Would we do it again? Let's see...

Each time we've travelled with kids (which admittedly isn't a lot), we've stayed in holiday apartments rather than hotel rooms. This is because we need to have the kids in separate rooms so that we can at least attempt to quarantine overnight noise, and also because we need to have our own kitchen and laundry: otherwise things get super expensive.

The apartment we're in is lovely. Problem is, the noise insulation in this joint is easily the worst I've encountered. They must have built it very cheaply. There are three other apartments in our block, and every time someone walks up and down the communal stairs, we can all hear it. Fine during the day, not so fine after midnight.

And then there's the noise from the apartment directly above us. The high heels clacking across the tiled floor. The horrific scratch of chairs when they're pushed in and out (especially the ones on the balcony), the flush of the toilet that sounds like a pipe has burst beside your head. Any noise from upstairs is amplified as it travels down through the roof and walls, and you can't sleep through it. Yes I'm a light sleeper, but Norman and the kids aren't - and they can't sleep through it either.

The people above us on the first three nights threw a function on the Thursday so that night was disastrous, and on the next two nights they didn't go to bed until 3.30am - which meant that we didn't either. Funnily enough we went to talk to reception about this but the other two apartments in this block had beaten us to it. So that one room buggered up three nights for everyone else. I tried to speak to them twice about the noise and to ask them to be more careful with the chairs at least. They weren't interested. Twats.

For the next few nights we had a family in there so thankfully they were on the same clock as us, but for the last three nights we've had a bunch of women upstairs who at least aren't as noisy as the first lot, but I've still been up with them as they've laughed, screeched and cat-called their heads off until the wee hours.

That's just the apartment noise.

My son got sick on the first day we arrived. Of course he did. He's been up a lot at night (the noise hasn't helped) and he's been coughing and miserable for most of the holiday. He's on the mend now but of course we're leaving today so there's that.

As for my daughter, she had a cut on her chin when we arrived and it started to get rather red so we put some Betadine and a bandaid on it for a few days. Then she reacted to the bandaid and broke out in a tremendous rash, so we had to take her to the pharmacist. We would have had to take her to a doctor to get something to treat it except my Dad's with us (he's a doctor), so he was able to write the script on the spot. Thank christ.

The chin's getting better, but she's got eight or nine large marks on her body that likely started out as sea-lice or mosquito bites (Dad and the pharmacist checked those too), but they've now turned into huge, red, blistering things. They look so sore. We'll likely need to see a doctor when we get back.

So has it been worth it? Obviously, it's a pretty hard sell to say that is has been. Yes we've done fun things like take the kids to the beach every day, but my son apparently hates the beach (he cries whenever we go near it) and my daughter has taken a while to warm up to it. I don't think she'd have cared if we went once and never again.

Yes we've given them special treats like the occasional ice cream, but funnily enough, neither of them appears to be very interested in ice cream. Perhaps it's too sweet for them. They're happy with babyccinos, but you don't need to come to Noosa for those.

All my daughter has wanted to do since we got here is go to the park so she can sit on the swings for hours, but we could have just done that at home. And my son is happiest in our apartment playing with his trains, which again, we could have done at home.

So at the risk of sounding negative, I have to say that in reality, holidays still aren't worth it for us. Every time we've been away, at least one of us has been very sick, we haven't had any good sleeps, and the kids haven't enjoyed the experience that much (truth be told, neither have we).

I would be interested in hearing about others' holiday experiences with young children. I have wondered if we're just unlucky, but we can't be the only ones who feel that it just isn't worth the expense.

And now for the dreaded flight home...

Hope all's well with you, and speak soon x

* All images courtesy of unsplash.com