We were always able to use something borrowed (crib or pack-n-play) when ours was that little. I'm assuming yours (a one-year old, I think?) is self-propelled, is he/she prone to wandering around and getting into stuff? Mine didn't much, and was a huge user of a pacifier which dramatically decreased the likelihood of his putting (other) stuff in his mouth, even if he was wandering around. But if you're travelling from the US you'll be jet lagged, and there's always the possibility (likelihood) of someone being sick and needing to sack out and not being useful.
I'd probably either plan on co-sleeping (if it's something I already do and depending on the bed setup I'm expecting in the destination) or look into either an inflatable little-kid bed (not climb-out proof, but they do have edges and of course sit on the floor) or a peapod (search Amazon -- much more climb-out proof but I think there have been safety concerns raised about them. But they're sold in litigious US society, so I may misremember or those may have been resolved.
If you decide to buy something to take with you, I'd test drive it at home :) !
Happy travels!
How large is the bed and how old is the baby? We always just coslept. But we mostly coslept at home, too.
Ughh, so sorry for not responding! I thought I did and must have just overlooked this completely. Anyway, our son will be about 16 months by the time we're there (end of this month). We actually had to cosleep with him on a recent trip (just one night where we stayed in the hotel) because he wasn't having it in the crib. The problem, we think, is that he has a lot of trouble going to sleep when we're in the same room if he's in the crib/pack-n-play etc and on his own. After we pulled him out and calmed him down, he fell asleep in between us, but it wasn't very good for either of us as he rolls around *a lot* and also kicks and flails his arms :T
He is *very* active and does like to wander around and get into stuff but generally will only do that when we're nearby e.g. if we're in the living room, he rarely will go into other rooms, especially dark rooms, and try to climb on stuff or get into things; however, if we're in the same room or are in the kitchen especially, he has the propensity to start opening cabinets and drawers, and will reach for random items within reach (or he'll climb to get there).
Our big concern not only is Kauai where we won't have a pack n play (unless we rent), but the other places we'll be at like in Waikiki and North Shore Oahu. We're likely going to be sharing a room with him and even though those places have pack n plays, we don't know how he'll do in that environment. A big problem we had recently when we stayed at my parents all in the same room was the mornings - the moment he woke up, looked around, and saw/heard us he'd get up and start wailing (at 5-6am often). Putting him down at night was relatively easy though - just read, put him down, turn out the lights and walk out of the room. The hotel was difficult because we couldn't necessarily put him down and walk out of the room and leave him there (well, we could I suppose but that would feel neglectful in the context of a hotel... while we go down to the bar or something LOL). I guess the putting-down part won't be hard but I dread the early mornings. Since the jet lag works in our favor there though, it may not be *as* bad... I just think we're going to be really tired on this trip.
