The Baby-Moon (AKA The Last Hurrah)

Hailed as the hottest trend in vacationing, the babymoon (for those not in the know) is one (or more) last getaways before a baby arrives. Which means you will remember it as the last holiday where you had proper lie-ins!

Nature has its funny ways of making things work: For instance, alcohol (in reasonable quantities) apparently does not cause any serious harm to babies in the first few weeks. Which is a great coincidence because it takes most couples a few weeks to find out that they are expecting, a time which is usually not spent refraining from the odd drink.

And with 40 weeks (give or take), homo sapiens have a fairly long gestational period which gives parents-to-be ample time to rethink their undeterred hedonism in the future. More importantly, once morning sickness is out, and swollen ankles are not yet in the way, there lies an opportunity to embark on a last getaway before it's "All change". Some marketing genius has labelled this getaway the Baby-Moon.

There is an entire industry (and an abundance of websites) around the Baby-Moon, getaways to romantic locations, such as the Caribbean (The One and Only Resort in Nassau, Bahamas -- as seen in Casino Royale, although Bond was not babymooning) and the Far East (like the Peninsula in Bangkok). You better start checking with the airline how long you are allowed to fly.

The fact that British Airways recently had an ad campaign around the fact that their staff is trained in delivery (babies not parcels) could be taken as an incentive to travel while it's still only two of you.

Finding myself in a similar situation, I was happy to find out that a fair few destinations on www.baby-moon.eu have already been ticked off the list of places to go (such as the cute Hotel Lungarno in Florence) and that my own Baby-Moon destination, the Four Seasons in Hampshire, picked for early next year, when air travel is off limit, offers pre-natal treatment as well.

But then again, since we we are just 16 weeks, there was time to slot a trip to Thailand in, which should provide opportunity for some pampering as well. Maybe they even have a "What's kicking" package, although at 16 weeks, "Not very much" would be the appropriate answer.

Alas, since a Baby-Moon by definition is the last trip before family expansion kicks in, this would make this trip a mere Baby-Half-Moon.

Originally published on HereIsTheCity Life on 18/11/2007, available here.