Travelling with children: choosing a place that works

Travelling with children turns a small inconvenience into a long evening. The things that decide whether a family stay works are rarely the things in the listing.

Why an apartment usually beats hotel rooms

One room for everybody is the problem. Children go to bed earlier than adults. In a hotel room that means the adults go to bed at eight, or sit in the dark on their phones. In an apartment the children sleep and you close a door and have an evening.

Food on their schedule. A kitchen means breakfast when they wake rather than when a restaurant opens, and something familiar when they will not eat anything else. On a week-long trip that single factor does more for everyone's mood than any amenity.

Space to be bored in. Children need somewhere that is not a bed to be bored in. A living room absorbs an enormous amount of restlessness.

Which size, for how many

• Two adults, one or two small children — the two-bedroom let is usually plenty. Children share, adults get a room, and you are not paying for space nobody sits in.
• Two adults, three or more children, or older children who will not share — the whole apartment. The extra bedrooms stop being a luxury the moment nobody wants to share.
• Two families travelling together — the whole apartment, every time. Two separate lets in the same building sounds equivalent and is not: you lose the shared living room, which is where the trip actually happens.

What to ask before booking

Nobody puts these in a listing, so you have to ask:

1. Can beds be moved together, or is there a sofa bed? Useful for a child who will not sleep alone in a strange place.
2. Is there a cot, and is there a charge? Ask early, there are rarely many.
3. What is the kitchen actually equipped with? "Kitchen" ranges from a fridge and a kettle to something you could cook a real meal in.
4. Is there a balcony, and how is it secured? The most important safety question in an apartment, and the one most often skipped.
5. How is laundry handled? With small children this stops being optional after about day three.
6. How noisy is it at night? Generators, roads and bars. A light sleeper under five will find whatever noise exists.

Sleep, which is the whole trip

Everything else is negotiable; sleep is not. A family stay that goes wrong almost always went wrong at night first.

Blackout matters more than you think. Unfamiliar curtains that do not meet in the middle, and a child who wakes at 5:30 because the room is bright, sets the tone for the entire day. Clips or pegs weigh nothing and solve it.

Sound in both directions. You want the children not to be woken by you, and you want not to hear every turn they take. In a two-bedroom let, ask which bedrooms share a wall.

Air conditioning is noisy and it is a trade. Some children sleep straight through it and some cannot. If yours is the second kind, ask whether the room is bearable without it at night, because in the dry season it may not be.

Keep the routine. The same order of events in a strange room does more than any amount of tiring them out beforehand.

Safety, briefly

Do a two-minute sweep when you arrive: balcony doors and any railing a small child could get through or over, sockets at floor level, anything heavy that is not fixed to a wall, and where the hot tap runs genuinely hot. It is quicker than worrying for a week.

Keyless entry is worth a word here too. Ask who else holds a code to your door and what happens to it when you leave. Here, a stay's code is removed from the lock at check-out rather than left to expire, so a previous guest's code does not open your door.

Bring these regardless

The list every parent assembles eventually: a nightlight, a familiar blanket, a plug adapter you have actually tested, far more snacks than seems reasonable, and paracetamol in the right dose. None of it is provided anywhere and all of it is needed at 11pm.

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If you are weighing up sizes, the rooms page shows what each one includes, and the arrivals guide covers getting in late with tired children. Check your dates, or ask the desk about cots and extra bedding before you book.

Written by the team at Nobleyy Apartment.