One Week in Menorca with a Baby
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In the lead-up to having a baby I was absolutely that person who said “I don’t want to stop travelling, even though it’ll be hard.”
It’s certainly a new challenge, but determined to stick to my word so I can slowly start showing her the world, I booked our first overseas trip for when she was three-and-a-half months old.
This trip followed a successful short staycation the month before, which served as a very helpful test run in terms of packing for a baby. You can read more about that on Substack.
Choosing where to go
Deciding where to go for our first family holiday was made easier with three non-negotiable criteria: short flights, departing from our nearest airport, at reasonable hours of the day.
Usually I fly from London Heathrow Airport, but I was trying to limit the travel time for the first trip to make things as easy as possible, so London Luton Airport made the most sense.
We eventually settled on Menorca, a destination I’ve had on my list for a while and one that was just two hours from the UK with a one-hour time difference.
Our holiday package
I researched several options but eventually decided a package holiday was best. Again this isn’t something I’d normally book, but the ease of having everything locked into one booking was too tempting for new parents who didn’t know the first thing about flying with a baby.
Our booking was with Jet2 Holidays, a tour operator I’d never flown with before, and included return flights in June, airport transfers, and a seven-night stay in a 4* hotel on a half-board basis.
Kids under two fly for free (all the more reason to travel while they’re young!) and Jet2 has a pretty good policy on baggage, so with no hidden extras, our trip came to just under £1700 for the week. Honestly this is more than I’d usually pay for this sort of holiday, but it was such a smooth process from start to finish, it was worth the extra money.
Baby’s first flight
Our flight to Menorca was booked for 9am, which in hindsight was a bit too early given we didn’t want to be rushing around at any point.
We set our alarms for a painful 3am start and got ourselves ready before waking our baby for her feed and change, which turned out to be one of the best hacks. Right on cue she needed a nappy change as we were parking the car, but it wasn’t long before we were on the bus rocketing towards the airport.
We dropped our bags and were given an adorable ‘first flight’ certificate, before breezing through security thanks to the slot that you can pre-book for free within five days of your holiday. There were no issues despite all the liquid baby formula we had in our hand baggage, so we sped through to departures and had plenty of time to get some breakfast.
Our flight was on time, so we boarded quickly and found our pre-booked seats in the very back row. I’d been debating front (quick exit) vs back (quick toilet access), but chose the latter thinking that would be more beneficial to us. In a huge stroke of luck, on both flights our row and the surrounding rows were empty, so we didn’t have to worry about any disgruntled seat neighbours.
The crew were brilliant, and thankfully our flight wasn’t too challenging with a little help from bottles, toys and lap naps.
Our hotel
We stayed at Gran Sagitario, which is one of several Sagitaro hotels in Menorca. I loved how it looked when I stumbled across it, but the reviews are what sold it to me. People were raving about how friendly the staff were and how excellent the food was, and spoiler alert: I completely agree.
We were given the key card to a ground-floor, pool-view room, which was an amazing surprise because I definitely don’t remember booking that. The room was simple but spacious, even with the cot bed they’d put in place at our request, and having a long sideboard to prepare baby feeds and generous wardrobe storage for our mountains of stuff was ideal.
The hotel had two pools, one for adults and one for kids, which were surrounded by sun loungers and a handful of canopy loungers, which we used most days so our little one could nap in the shade. There was never a rush for the loungers, and by 10am most were still available.
We enjoyed lunch at the poolside bar one day, but otherwise grabbed some food, snacks and drinks from one of two local grocery stores to enjoy on our balcony.
The hotel has one main restaurant, with indoor seating and limited outdoor seating on a covered terrace overlooking the pool. We could get a table out here fairly easily for breakfast, but we sometimes needed to wait a short time for one to become available for dinner. The staff working in the restaurant were also brilliant and always took the time to interact with our daughter.
The reviews about the food were spot on, which was great considering buffet-style dining can be hit or miss. At breakfast we chose from a huge selection of continental and cooked items, helping ourselves to flat whites from the coffee machines and glasses of different juices. There were even bottles of Cava so you could make your own mimosa cocktails.
Similarly at dinner, there was a huge range of small chopped salads, breads, cheeses, cooked items, and desserts available, changing daily to keep things interesting. The only downside (which is common with half board) is that all evening drinks, even still water, had to be ordered and paid for, though they were reasonably priced with a glass of wine costing me roughly five euros.
I didn’t expect my first holiday with my baby to feature any spa time, but the hotel allowed you to enjoy the indoor pool, sauna, steam, and shower facilities for one hour at no extra cost, so my husband and I took it in turns to enjoy some quiet time, which was definitely an unexpected luxury.
How we spent our week in Menorca
Most of our holiday was spent poolside enjoying a well-earned rest after a crazy few months, but we also went on plenty of walks to explore the area.
Our nearest beach, Cala Santandria, was a five-minute walk from the hotel and was the perfect place to take our girl for her first paddle in the sea. This was our favourite of several coves that we visited along the coastline, spanning between Cala Blanca and Sa Caleta. The beaches did get busy, but the water was absolutely perfect, and there were beach bars, restaurants and toilets available.
We wanted to visit the caves called Cova de S’Aigua, but tour bookings weren’t available at the time, so instead we took a public bus to Ciutadella de Menorca and spent a few hours in the sunshine exploring the streets of the pretty port city.
We contemplated hiring a car as there’s a place called Menorca Baby Travel Hire which has everything you could possibly need for your family holiday, but our baby is still so young and we were enjoying just switching off in between feeds and nappy changes, so we scrapped that idea and parked it for whenever we’re lucky enough to return to this beautiful island.
Essential holiday items for a baby
I won’t share my extensive (and very long) list of items that I squeezed into our suitcases, but I will share the things that have now become holiday essentials for us:
- Maxi-cosi Lara2 travel pushchair: this is pretty compact when folded, and gives your baby the option of lying flat or sitting up
- Snoozeshade: this covered the travel pram to keep the sun out and provide a dark space for naps
- Momcozy stroller fan: we had this running inside the pushchair to keep things extra cool, charging it every couple of days via USB
- Rockit: this was switched on every time she was on the brink of a nap to help send her off
- Baby pool float: this was a great tool to introduce our baby to the pool without dunking her in, especially because the water was fairly cold
- Baby inflatable chair: this chair was a game changer for bath time, as she could sit in here and be washed with a silicone jug
- Collapsible bowls: two of these are essential for all the bottle washing and sterilising with Milton tablets
- Bottle brushes: this little set gave us more than we needed but it was nice and compact
Otherwise, pack all the clothes, UPF 50 swimsuits, sun hats, muslins, sensory toys, nappies, swim nappies, nappy bags, and wipes you can get your hands on. Or buy extras from a grocery store, which is what we did when I quickly realised one pack of wipes would not last the week.
We also packed a mosquito net for her travel cot, but we didn’t need to use this.
My biggest tip is to buy things that go as flat as possible, and the things that don’t can be filled with other items.
Our Jet2 Holidays experience
We really rated Jet2. From booking the holiday to getting home, the communication was constant, and we had zero delays at either end.
If I had to pick one negative, it would be how early our airport transfer picked us up for our flight home, but it’s never a bad thing to be early to the airport, especially when you’ve got a baby to factor in.
That’s a lot of info to digest, but I hope it’s helpful to anyone planning their first holiday with their baby! If you have any unanswered questions, drop me a message on Instagram.
