A Baby & Dog Friendly Travel Guide: How To Spend 3 Nights In Whitstable, Kent

We braved our first road trip to Whitstable in early September when our little one, Alessia had just turned 12 weeks old. A drive just under two hours from Hertfordshire with a couple of stops thrown in.

My husband and I love traveling around the UK and all over the globe, so this wasn’t going to stop us when our little one was born!

Traveling keeps me some-what-sane and there’s still so many places that I haven’t ticked off my bucket-list yet. Though, I have been to some incredible countries and UK staycations through-out my thirty five years on this planet. Now is the time to create some new memories with my little jet-setter and my gorgeous family.

I’ve created a handy travel guide on where to stay, where to eat and drink and what to do. All baby and dog friendly of course!

I’ve also pulled together a list of all the useful essentials to pack when traveling with a baby.

Depending on where you’re staying the list may differ as some staycations and hotels can provide a few items, you just have to ask for bits and bobs in advance!

With this staycation we provided everything. However, when we adventured to Spain recently, the hotel provided quite a lot for us.

Where to stay

We found a gorgeous cottage on Kip Hideaways.

I had never actually used this website before, but they have incredible staycation type of places on their website and easy-to-find dog friendly cottages and apartments.

This is the exact place we stayed if you’re interested. From around £160 a night.

The cottage was so close to everything! Within minutes we were either walking down the beach or along the stretch of cute cafes to grab something to snack on.

I loved the interiors inside the apartment, so stylish and comfy. We loved the bedding so much that we pulled apart the pillows and duvet and immediately ordered them from the same brand. The coziest bedding I’ve ever slept in!

The shower was also incredible! A powerful rainfall showerhead. I also adored the green tiles, it felt super boutique-ish.

The kitchen and living room space was a nice-to-have so we could cook up something quick to eat if we were staying in.

This cottage didn’t actually have a microwave, so we panicked about sterilizing bottles and what not. Luckily Milton tablets came in handy as we found some at Boots down the road!

We stayed at this cutesy cottage for three nights, which was perfect for us four. T’was enough time to properly explore Whitstable.

A foodie’s dream: where to eat and drink

Joe and I are HUGE foodie’s. Joe is vegetarian and I am back to eating meat here and there. I craved meats while I was pregnant and have sticked to eating meats since, although not an excessive amount. I would like to return to the vegetarian life one day, however, it’s what my body needs right now post-partum. Although saying this, everything I ate in Whitstable were veggie meals!

I digress…

There are some truly wonderful cafes, restaurants and pubs in Whitstable. Our favourite cafe we went to was La Petit Cafe, they made these insanely great crepes!

Honestly, I would travel all the way back to Whitstable just for those crepes! We ordered savory and sweet and both were INSANE!

Farm & Harper was also a great brunch spot, as well as having the most lovely customer service.

Morelli’s was fab for ice-cream, they even had a special doggy ice-cream!

Old Neptune along the beach was great for a quick stop to quench our thirst.

On our final day we popped to Amedea, which was this lovely little Croatian spot. It had a really nice cosy vibe. They made the most loveliest coffee, earl grey tea cake and snacks. Joe bought some Croatian beers and crisps from this place too. I very much enjoyed those crisps while reading a book back at the cottage.

All of these cafes mentioned are dog and baby friendly too.

We strolled past the ever so famous Wheelers Oyster Bar that I’ve seen so much of on the gram. I don’t actually like oysters, however Whitstable is known for them! It’s a bit of a posh seaside town isn’t it!

What to do

If you do enjoy walking, then you’ll love the beachy walks in Whitstable! Walk along the coast-line towards the right hand side as it’s baby friendly with a pram. You can spend hours upon hours walking and talking while spotting hundreds of colorful huts on route!

We stopped at around 3 to 4 hours of solid beach walking a day. Our little girl slept most of the way there and back.

The left hand side of the beach isn’t as baby friendly as the right hand side route, unless you have your baby carrier to hand. It’s quite pebbly and there are a lot of wooden dividers which prevented us from traveling further with the pram. The left hand side is where you’ll find the Old Neptune pub mind, which is worth stopping for.

Walking along the high street with all the restaurants and shops is a must too!

Other than lots of exploring on-foot, take the time to chill to read or listen to a podcast or audiobook while the baby is sleeping.

What to pack for the little one, the essentials…

We couldn’t actually fit some things in our car, so it’s worth doing a trial run beforehand.

We were going to bring our Snuzbaskit, however, we didn’t actually have any spare room in the car, so we used the bassinet in our Nuna pram for our little one to sleep in. We do have a travel cot too, but it’s quite bulky, so we left it at home. However, we have used it when traveling to see Joe’s family.

Milton tablets or Milton liquid for sterilizing is a must if there is no sterilizer or microwave in the apartment. We made an error and didn’t pack these as we thought the cottage had a microwave… Turns out, it didn’t, so luckily there was a Boots on the high street with all the baby stuff you could ever possibly need.

The cottage did have a glass bowl for us to sterilize everything in, but you may need to purchase a foldable bucket just in case!

If you’re formula feeding, bring around 6-8 baby bottles, alongside pre-made formula for ease. We did pack powder formula too. We used the cottage’s kettle to boil water and the nuby’s came along with us too which are a life-saver as they cool down the formula within minutes.

Bring along your pram and baby carrier for all the walking and talking! You can also use the pram for baby to sleep in.

A sun-hat is an essential in the summer-time as your little one can’t be in the direct sunlight if they are under six months old. You can’t put sun-cream on them just yet!

We went a little over-kill on our daughter’s outfits, but, she is my mini fashionista. We packed SO many vests, zip bodysuits and little outfits just in case of any poo-y dramas. A variety of warm and cooler clothing as UK weather can be rather unpredictable.

NAPPIES!!!! Tons of nappies!

A portable changing mat and nappy carrier bag are very much needed. These always come with us everywhere anyway.

A emotional support pickle to tag along for the cries and lols. When desperate times are needed to feed or change the baby in the shade down a random street, next to a recycling bin, and you have to just laugh at the situation!

Traveling with a twelve week old baby was relatively straight forward.

The car ride both ways were no trouble what-so-ever! Our little girl loves being in the car, she likes the moving motion. BUT, she HATES stand-still traffic. I mean who does to be honest?! So if your little one likes the car, I’d say go for it! Do lots of staycations and road trips while they are young! The more adventures, the better!

My only hiccups were that I would have preferred baby girl’s Snuzbaskit to sleep in, but we made do with the pram. And, I should have been more organized with other sterilization options, but my mild panic was over as there was a Boots nearby with TONS of baby stuff.

Would I recommend traveling with a baby? YES YES YES 1000% YES! Start small with a trip around the UK, if that’s where you’re living. Then adventure abroad with a distance of around 2-3 hours away. Somewhere in Europe!

Or you can just be MEGA brave and go to the Maldives or wherever you fancy as babies this young sleep the majority of the day anyway!