Travelling to Sri Lanka with an 11 month old

[BabyBrain18]

Hi There,

We are contemplating travelling to Sri Lanka with our baby in February, and would love some advice on taking a baby to the country and on a long haul flight.

Information on entertainment on the flight, food for her on the flight and in Sri Lanka, travelling around the island, jet lag etc any advice would be massively helpful.

Thank you in advance

X

[bonaome]

If you have the option, choose a night flight. It'll be a nice calm, quiet, dark cabin, with few interruptions from the crew / few loud announcements etc.

Give them a bottle / tippee mug to sip on take off and landing. It'll naturally help them equalise the pressure in their ears (which is otherewise a source of great discomfort, much upset and a lot of crying).

Entertainment in-flight for 11 month olds is provided in the form of being able to post the flight safety card in different seat pockets, taking it out and reposting it. Hours of fun. Hours.

[lousmith]

Sri Lanka is great. I would definitely hire a car with a baby. Public transport would be noisy, hot and fretful. Maybe take your own car seat. Be prepared for some pretty hectic driving experiences, especially the newer wave of large 4x4s

Food is the best there. Large hotels usually have mixed buffet style food halls with choices of S L (Curry breakfast, lunch and dinner) and euro fayre. They do a mild coconut curry for breakfast with string hoppers (like a rice noodle pan-scrub ) which would be ok for an adventurous baby and a sort of stodgy sweetened rice.

Pretty hot there, so Hill country offers some respite ( and giant fruit bats ) and is gorgeous. Beaches are variable with a lot of plastic waste on the less touristy ones. It is possible to find very nice guest houses if you are prepared to stray off the starred hotels, with super-hospitable hosts and top notch home cooking. Pretty child-friendly. Egg hoppers (dish-shaped rice-flour pancakes with an egg poached in the middle) are a must-buy street food. Hopper huts are often called hotels for some reason. eat with spicy seeni sambol. Generally decent levels of hygiene, water etc, especially compared with much of India. Never had food poisoning in 4 visits. Watch out for monkeys. Thieving so and so's. I love them though.

[avie]

Had a great holiday there last August - and yes I would definitely take my bay with me ... our experience was that Sri Lankan's love kids. It IS hot and very humid though, other than in the hill country (and I'm South African, so that's saying something) .... so be prepared for that. I guess you already know about the rather unusual monsoon season they have. I'd probably stick to the better known hotel chains if you want more familiar western style food for your baby, but then again every hotel we stayed in was very accommodating for our rather fussy 7 year year old. I'd definitely hire a driver, the roads are tricky in places and as lousmith mentioned, the driving rather erratic! It's not pricey and all hotels offer accommodation for drivers.

We booked our holiday through https://www.srilankandreams.com/ and they were brilliant. They offered options across the price range and very flexible in terms of the itinerary - and do make it clear if you just want a fly and flop rather than a cultural sight seeing trip. Some distances are long, and bit be difficult with a baby, although you can fly from the East Coast back to Columbo easily and it's a fantastic way to see the country if you do it in a small plane. Worth the splurge!

[BabyBrain18]

Thank you so much for your advice. It sound like you both had an amazing holidays.

Sounds like quite a special place. I cant wait to go.

Best

Abi

[irresponsible]

I used to live in Sri Lanka and travelled there with my daughter when she was 3 months old staying for 3 months. The driving there can be shocking so make sure if you hire a car and driver that the driver understands you want to go safely not quickly! Definitely take your own car seat. It will depend on the time of year you are going and if you are into surfing which beaches are good for you some have a lot of waves but you can find the right beach whatever you are looking for. The hill country is cooler and easier with a baby in that respect, I climbed up Adam?s Peak with my daughter in a baby carrier which was amazing. In terms of food, you can find anything there so you shouldn't have a problem. My daughter wasn?t on solid food at that time (though we have been since when she is) none of my friends with babies there have any issues when staying in hotels etc. Pm me if you would like any more info.

[Grace18]

We've been to Sri-Lanka, the trip would've been just perfect, if we had bought a travel stroller for our 7 months old baby)) This island requires to be active and enjoy landscapes. We've travelled on foot and my husband was getting tired to often and too quickly as it was hard to carry on with our sweetie being disturbed and annoyed by the sun, wind and etc. Now I realize that we should have bought a travel stroller before going somewhere. Firstly, it's far more comfortable in the airport. Secondly, children seem more relaxed in their strollers. I've recently bought some Baby jogger Strollers owing to this article. They're really compact and lightweight, which is a salvation for me. Now we even go to the market with this stroller.