Knowing we are working toward a basement renovation this year, Lio and I decided to forego an exotic vacation and stick close to home.
Read: we’re too broke to do both.
After going back and forth on renting a nearby cottage Lio suggested we go to Montebello, Quebec. We feel pretty lucky to have an uncle with a cottage on acres (and acres) of land in this quaint French town.
My family vacationed at this cottage every single summer from the time I was about four years old. We also took Sidney there on vacation two years ago.
Sounds perfect, right?
Well not quite.
My big issue with this plan was that we now have TWO kids.
And this place is about six hours away.
You know where I’m going here right?
I HATE car travel with my kids. Actually, hate is a strong word. And it PERFECTLY describes how I feel about CAR TRAVEL WITH MY KIDS!
They are too young to be into long-form television.
My three-year old never stops talking and the baby is still rear-facing making boredom an ever present dilemma.
Call me rotten but I find car travel with kids loud, screamy and annoying.
So you’re probably wondering how it all turned out?
AMAZING.
We borrowed a GM Acadia for the drive instead of our teeny, tiny car so Sidney was able to play big games in his lap and Eva had plenty of space to wiggle around. There was room for snacks, toys, games, drinks and everything that can possibly keep your kids relatively quiet, comfortable and happy for six hours.
We stopped at Sandbanks Provincial Park on our way there and spent the day at the beach. That really helped to break up the drive.
We were also able to travel with practically our entire house in the trunk of the truck (see pictures) which meant we had a whole cooler full of food and water (and wine….sweet wine!) so the trip was as smooth as could be.
One of the best ways I can think of to vacation with kids is to bring along reinforcements. Enter Grandma and Grandpa….quite possibly the best grandparents on the planet! It’s a big cottage with three bedrooms (including a loft) so there was plenty of space for all of us.
In between seeing wild animals native to Quebec at Park Omega, catching frogs, watching a fox through the windows and daily jogs through the mountains (with deer!) Lio and I were able to sneak away to Montreal sans kids as well as dine at the Chateau Montebello for some alone time.
It was an incredible trip.
No cell phone signal. No TV.
And you know what? I barely noticed.
How do you feel about travelling with the kids?
Email me at: contacttracy@cityline.ca or post your comments on my blog.
Tracy