Paperwork done – packing next

The countdown has begun to Minnie’s very first flight, and trip out of the UK. And after her passport turned up in the post (hurrah!) and baby travel insurance is arranged, the biggest piece of paperwork is done – even if she already looks different to her photo. So with the flights booked, all that’s left to sort is the packing for Lanzarote.

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If you’re planning your first trip, read on to check out my tips on getting your baby’s first passport (and getting it right first time, unlike me) as well as sorting out baby travel insurance.

Plus all the other things on the baby travel checklist of course: I’ve already started thinking about transporting bottles and formula, plus trying to sterilise while I’m away, not to mention what to pack…

Getting a baby passport

I hate filling in forms. I’m convinced I’m going to get something essential wrong, and someone’s going to leap out and go ‘Aha! You have done this incorrectly. Return to the beginning, do not pass Go, Do not collect £200…’

This time it came true, and ended up being the woman doing the passport check and send at the Post Office – although with less leaping around and fewer Monopoly references.

After breezing through the passport photo stage, I’d finally got around to filling in Minnie’s form and trying to work out who I knew who could act as countersignatory – as well as having known me for at least two years, and owning a UK passport, there’s a list of approved professions.

While you can go outside that, I was struggling to find someone who wasn’t related by blood or marriage, and more importantly, that I was actually going to see so I could avoid posting forms and pictures around the country.

Fortunately, we were off to visit friends, one of whom happens to be a police officer. I could hardly ask for anyone more reputable.

In exchange for a hug from Minnie, who was happy to oblige, he filled it in, and I trotted down to the Post Office a day or so later to have it checked and sent off.

Luck seemed to be on my side – no queue (and our Post Office has notoriously long queues most of the time) and a friendly person on the counter who didn’t make me feel too foolish for having forgotten to bring Minnie’s birth certificate along with the form.

Unfortunately, she did point out that both my friend and I had gone outside the boxes when filling in the form. While mine might have got through, his wouldn’t as it’s all checked electronically and the computer would almost certainly say no, thanks to a few pesky extra millimetres.

A vain attempt to find someone else who’d fit the bill and who I’d see in person failed, so I ended up filling in the form again (the Post Office gave me two, obviously despairing of my ability to do it properly) in my neatest handwriting. Seriously, this would have won me awards when I was at school.

And inevitably, then putting them in the post back to my friend to ask him to redo his countersignatory bit.

Good job I’d left extra time, in case of delays getting it back to me – you can check how long applications for UK passports take here.

Want a perfect passport photo – check out my tips…

Travel insurance for babies

After wading through paperwork to send off Minnie’s passport application, it was nice to find one piece of holiday bureaucracy which isn’t adding to my grey hairs – adding her to my travel insurance.

Yes, she might be all of four months old when we fly out, but in the same way I always make sure I’m covered, I wouldn’t travel without insuring her.

It seems I’m unusual though, as a third of parents don’t take out baby travel insurance or cover for their children – and a quarter of Britons don’t cover themselves at all, according to research.

Rising premiums are behind some of the decisions, but given holiday costs and the potentially ruinous expense for medical repatriation (let alone replacing the contents of lost suitcases), it may not be the wisest saving.

Even if you’re travelling in Europe, and you’ve got your free GHIC (the replacement for the EHIC – and really, if you haven’t, why on earth not?!), you won’t get the same level of cover.

Depending on your travel insurers, and the age of your children, there’s no reason it should cost a fortune anyway.

I pay for an annual policy which covers both me and my husband (travelling together and separately) and after answering a few quick questions over email, they’ve added her on for the bargain price of zero pence. So if you’re worried that baby travel insurance is going to cost the earth, it’s well worth a quick phone call at least.

Even if you don’t have an ongoing policy, the cost of insuring a family is likely to be similar to a meal out while you’re away, if not less, and you can find policies covering babies from birth.

And I’m hoping it will keep working like an umbrella on a cloudy day – make sure you’ve got it, and you won’t need it…

To check your travel insurance covers everything you need, click here to see my tips

Packing for your first holiday with a baby

Unlike my own packing, which normally involves pulling out my usual summer wardrobe, with a few replacements for things which have run out/worn out and so on, packing for a first baby holiday needed a bit more thought.

Check out my essential packing list for travelling with a baby and my tips on what you need to know before your first flight with a baby

For starters, while I had clothing stashed away from the summer, she’d done quite a bit of growing before our winter sun escape to Lanzarote. So the first step was working out whether you would still fit into sufficiently summery clothing.

Happily, it meant I got some use out of a little hat which was far too big during the summer, and otherwise I headed back to eBay to feed my baby clothes habit – but what else is left?

Well, so far the list includes suntan lotion (I have masses but I need something suitably baby-friendly for her ultra-delicate skin), making sure I have everything I need in my first aid kit, getting some travel-size toiletries, looking into some new swimwear to keep her a bit warmer if the pool isn’t as heated as the one she’s used to.

My essential child first aid kit checklist is a great place to start to make sure you have all you need plus more inspiration for family travel essentials on Amazon

Oh, and checking out travel cots – though we have booked one for the villa, I’m going to need one of my own at some point.

Not to mention working out how best to transport the car seat and buggy so they don’t get damaged en route, trying to get myself at least vaguely ready to be seen in a swimsuit and working out where I can get a large glass of wine at Birmingham airport fitting everything into the case without sitting on it.

Image courtesy of Depositphotos

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