Our kids love travelling but there are always more challenges when you travel with extra people (whether they're aged 5 or 50!).

At just over 2 years of age we took our son to France (he'd already been to Scotland at 8months, Malta at 9months and California at 18months...a long flight from the UK). We thought this trip would be a piece of cake as he'd just recovered from chicken pox and we were taking our own car to carry all his stuff across the channel for 2 weeks BUT....
on the ferry I felt unwell and we had to call the doctor the night we arrived in France. The next day I felt worse but had been given antibiotics and told I might have kidney stones (a challenging conversation in French!!)so we drove on to our gite and called another doctor. To cut this short...
I ended up spending a week in hospital and had my appendix removed plus while visiting me my son tripped outside and broke his arm! I'm so glad that my DH was there to pick up the pieces and I'm never keen to travel alone with my kids!

However this experience has not stopped us travelling... it's now a fond memory!!

No, X_Bellman, not wanting to travel with young kids does NOT make you a bad father. We often found it stressful to travel with young kids (and now sometimes with older kids, too ;-) ).

If traveling is NOT fun for you all then you should not do it. However, if you really love to travel there are things you can do and learn to make it work better - you just have to find it. When I wanted to go on vacation with very young kids (2 of them under 3 yrs of age), my husband said, "that is an oxymoron - it is not a vacation for me to drag everyone and everything just to have them out of their routines,etc...." So, I looked until I found some suitable options for us.

Some of what worked: we stayed at a family friendly suite-resort in the Caribbean that gave us our own nanny for the week, we went to the Tyler Place in Vermont which had a great combination of family time and kid/adult in their own activities time plus we stayed in a cottage with lots of room, we rented a beach house with my family which was very laid back plus we had extra helpers, we tried to keep the kids' schedule, routine and rules fairly consistent (including coming back to the hotel every afternoon in Disney World for naps and swimming - sure we missed some rides, but we were happy), etc....

Again, travel is possible and even wonderful with kids, but it may not be for everyone. I also have the benefit of hindsight now that our youngest is 12 years old so some of the most disastrous moments have faded in our memories - or, they have become the stuff of legend that we now laugh about (no, it was not fun being vomited on during a rough flight on a prop plane where we could not get out of our seats the whole time).

Our kids certainly do not remember all of the trips from when they were younger, but I do agree with John that the many things we exposed them to (both good and bad) have influenced who they are today.

Just do what works for you! If you are a happier person and more loving parent closer to home, then you are a great parent for doing what works for your family!

Bellman - if you're a bad father, then I'm a bad mother.
We traveled mosty without the kids when they were small for two reasons:

1) Most of the trips were incentives for DH and kids were not allowed.

2) We have the luxury of a week or two at a lake in northern Wisconsin basically free of charge (just some elbow grease) because my mom owns the land. It just isn't summer without a week at the lake.

That said, they all love to travel now and do so extensively. Middle DS just started a job where he is out of town a couple of days a week and he loves it.

Maybe it was all those years of wishing they could come with us.

My wife has informed me we are taking a Disney cruise in January 2008. By then our 2 year old will be potty trained. This, from what we hear is a good stress free vacation. I shouldn't complain and realize they grow up quick. We had the kids late-I'm 41 and my wife is 43 so we are very thankful! I just couldn't believe how worn out I was after the last 3 day trip and I'm in pretty good shape-or so I thought.

Nurse the baby and you can go anywhere, anytime without worrying about food or spoiling milk!

I am not sure if you are still reading people's responses to your questions, but I had to weigh-in.

My husband and I love to travel and did a good bit before we had our 1st baby. When she came, she was two months old and vacationing in the Bahamas.

Main difference - more stuff to take! Also, we don't get to come and go as much as we would like and vacations are more poolside and early evenings. But, if you take the grandparents along, that can help out a lot!

As far as Hawaii, we were hoping to go to Maui next February, but our timeshare request did not come thru. In foresight, I was kind-of happy as I was not looking forward to the looong flight from the East Coast and then the time change once there.

There are some places that we would like to go that we just want to wait until our #2 baby is a little older.

Travel - the kids will adapt. Enjoy.

You'd find more ideas on parenting websites. We never stopped traveling and our kids love it. We do stop over and stay a few nights along the way instead of one long trip though. And what you choose to do....everything about a vacation changes...you cater to things good for children and their personality. And their needs. A lot of this you won't know until you meet your baby. Each baby is different. As long as they feel safe, get rest and are comfortable you should be fine. It's good if they learn to adapt.