Holidays change irrevocably when you have a baby – at least that’s what everyone keeps telling me. ‘I’m so jealous,’ a friend with a two-year-old lamented after I told her about my honeymoon full of wine tastings, fancy meals and hours lounging by the pool. ‘Holidays are very different when you have children – and they’re certainly not relaxing. Enjoy it while you can!’
Well, I’m about to put my friend’s predictions to the test as my husband David and I are expecting our first child in three months’ time – which means goodbye posh hotels and tasting menus, and hello... Center Parcs? But in the meantime, I wanted to squeeze in one last hurrah, and a mini road trip from New York to Cape Cod seemed like just the thing.
David and I had visited New York separately, and always planned to go there together one day. Equally, road trips have often been a feature of our joint holidays, so hiring a car and driving north after a few days in the Big Apple seemed like the perfect way to see a new part of the world.
Before we left, the thing I was most worried about was not being able to drink on our trip. A lovely bottle of wine over dinner, a sundowner by the sea, or a beer by the pool had always been a big, and fun, part of our holidays together. Visions of myself sipping fizzy water at a bar by the sea while all around me sipped cold rosé left me feeling deflated.
It also dawned on me that a holiday at 26-weeks pregnant was going to be a different proposition in itself and I started to dread the thought of a seven-hour flight. I dutifully bought some flight socks, got a copy of my MAT1 certificate from my midwife, which confirmed my due date (if you’re flying after 28 weeks, most airlines require a letter from your GP confirming that you’re OK to fly), and started googling to check whether the change of air pressure in an airplane cabin will distress a foetus (spoiler: no guys, it won’t). I also had visions of spending the whole flight with a sore back and swollen feet. If you can, I’d say that this is where to spend some money on an upgrade, or at least an extra legroom seat. We flew Premium Economy with Virgin Atlantic, and being able to stretch out properly, especially on the night flight out, made a huge difference.
Once there, I soon realised that walking around New York when heavily pregnant was tiring, and that jet lag was exhausting. We’d planned to explore the city on foot, jumping in an Uber if we wanted to go further afield, but after a couple of minor meltdowns from me, including one when we gave ourselves 15 minutes to walk a mile to a Broadway show in 28-degree heat, we realised we had to be more realistic about what we could fit into any given day – and start using the subway to get there.
This meant ditching our plans to do the 1.45 mile-long High Line because it would have wiped me out for the rest of the day, but using the subway meant we were able to make it down to Coney Island for a hotdog, then over to Williamsburg for a mooch around, before catching the ferry back to Manhattan.
Once we finally got there, the Broadway show gave us two pure, unadulterated hours of sitting down in an air-conditioned theatre (the play was pretty good too!). And of course you can’t go to New York without doing a proper Sunday brunch, and Nur’s Lebanese-inspired tasting brunch is about as involved as it gets (and also gets a shout out for serving the best houmous ever).
Cape Cod felt very different to New York. Beautiful, incredibly quiet and relaxed, it was the perfect place to kick back and gently explore. We booked into Platinum Pebble Inn, an adult-only hotel with a swimming pool and the option to have breakfast served straight to our room – the sort of holiday we won’t be able to have again for 20 years.
One day we drove from Chatham Pier over to the cute arty seaside resort of Provincetown for lunch. Cape Cod is also famous for its beautiful lighthouses and we climbed to the top of Highland Light for stunning views. We also gave ourselves ample time to relax by the pool with a book (I gather I’ll never finish a book again a er baby arrives). An unexpected bonus of Cape Cod was an abundance of well- signposted, clean and free public toilets, which will mean nothing until your baby has unexpectedly kicked you in the bladder.
Afterwards we travelled over to Martha’s Vineyard for a couple of nights, staying in Vineyard Haven, a town with a sleepy air.
On the way home I asked David how he’d found the trip. He admitted he’d quite enjoyed the fact that we’d had to keep our plans looser than usual and base things around how tired I was – a revelation that could come in handy once we have baby in tow. As for me, there were a few moments where a cold glass of wine would have been just the thing – but there’s always iced tea.