Car Seats and Holidays Abroad

[hellywelly]

Hello we are taking our 2 year old - will be 3 in November to Majorica in September. I was wondering what to do with regards to car seats etc. We won't be hiring a car - just taking the transfer coach from airport to hotel. Thomson holidays state that we have to take our own car seat. Now I don't want to negotiate my sons safety but has anyone else been in this situation and what did you do? I am not sure whether our car seat would fit on the coach as it may not have the same settings. I honestly can't remember after all the holidays that we have been on what other parents did? Any advice would be much appreciated, thank you xx

 

[sparkle_1979]

I think to have a car seat you need to hire a car or find a taxi with car seats x

 

[MrsButterfly]

We've just returned from a holiday abroad. Didn't see anyone with car seats on the coach. Kids either sat on laps or on their own seat. My boy is nearly two and tall so he sat on his own seat with the lap belt on.

 

[seoj]

Can you call the transfer service to confirm?

Not sure how that all works where you live- but here, I would take her seat (and the seatbelt lock) so that even if the car we had didn't have the latch system, I could still securly lock her seat into the car with the seatbelt. Hope that all made sense- I'm probably not using the right terminology! lol.

 

[Quartz]

We have done 3 coach transfers with DS (and a few with DD) and have never taken or needed a car seat on the coach and have never seen anyone with them, had travelled with Thomson, Thomas Cook, First Choice and Crystal so all different companies.

 

[kellyb]

My son is the same EXACT age as yours, and this past January we traveled to India, where car seats are not exactly common. Since the drive from the airport to the city we were staying in was 4 hours, I did not want to compromise his safety, especially since it was a higher-speed highway. So, instead of taking our big, heavy carseat, we looked online and bought a really lightweight one (8 pounds), checked it in at the airport (my son loves airplanes, but not in a carseat--he just used the lapbelt). Then we used the carseat on the transfer from the airport. The rest of the two-week trip, the carseat sat in the hotel room, since you often get around in India using rickshaws. Since speeds were always low on the streets, we didn't use the carseat (felt kind of weird and stressful though, but wasn't a problem). If we traveled further distances at higher speeds, we used the carseat--but it wasn't always easy to find seatbelts in taxis!

 

[Quartz]

Actually seat belts is a good point they only have lap belts anyway so I am not sure how you would safely do a car seat

 

[AngelofTroy]

We specifically booked a transfer company who advertised car seats for our holiday to Italy... Then the taxi picked us up with no car seat and no idea what we were on about! I sat Micah on my lap in the end but insisted they bring a seat for the return trip... They did to be fair, but the guy had no idea how to fit it! It was a rear facing seat that was too small for Micah really, and the guy had it in the middle facing forwards with a lap strap! When I expressed a desire to strap it in correctly he looked at me like I was mad and said "no need! No need! I very good driver I promise, I go slow"

 

[icklemonster]

I would definitely call them to clarify. We have jut returned from holiday and took 3 coach trips and I didn't see any toddlers (ours included) in a car seat. Judging by the variety of lapbelts I don't think any standard car seat would fit them all xxx

 

[pompeyvix]

We've just returned from a Thompson holiday with coach transfers and we didn't take our car seat, neither did I see anyone else with one. On the coach we used the lap belt provided. When we went abroad last year, she was still in her infant seat and admittedly we did take that, however we were doing an 8 hour drive each way through two countries so it was most definitely needed.

 

[maybabydoll]

Ha, I posted this exact question on TripAdvisior when travelling with my two year old to Greece last month. Did tons of research/calls/emails. It turns out that neither the travel agent or the airline had a definite answer... Anyhoo, when for pre-booked taxis with a hired carseat. Usually around a 5 euro supplement and the seat was perfect. It was the happy balance, since I didn't want to lug his carseat around neither did I want him to sit on my lap in a car x x

 

[JASMAK]

I bought private transfers and paid extra for a car seat. .. then we never used one in taxis or buses but no one did there. .. or seat belts. .. was very scary. LOL

 

[staralfur]

If it's just a bus then I wouldn't bother with a car seat.

If there's a chance of taking a taxi then I'd say bring it just in case, or check ahead of time and make sure they'll have some available. We really stupidly didn't check ahead of time the first time we went to Mexico and ended up at the Cancun airport at 10pm after 14 hours of travel, completely unable to find a taxi that a car seat. It's just not a thing there. We ended up having to sit her on our lap in a taxi van and it felt soooo very wrong and I was terrified the whole way to the hotel.

Second time we went we arranged for shuttle buses for all of our transportation! Definitely the way to go if you don't want to haul a car seat and they're hard to come by in the country you're visiting.

 

[stardust599]

We have just returned from a package holiday to Costa Del Sol with another tour operator but same coaches used by Thompsons. I didn't take a carseat but at least wanted to strap kids in to stop them climbing all over the coach. But there were no belts, not even lap belts so you might have the same situation.