What actually makes a destination work with a baby or toddler?
A destination works when the difficult parts stay small: short transfers, manageable weather, usable food, decent sleep and somewhere practical to pause. The headline attractions matter less than whether an ordinary day there feels possible.
Answer
Start with the day between the sights. Can the family reach food without a long negotiation, return for a nap, move without changing vehicles repeatedly and recover somewhere comfortable when the plan slips? Those details decide the trip. A destination can have excellent museums, beaches or wildlife and still be a poor fit if every outing begins with heat, stairs or a long transfer. The reverse is also true: a less famous place can work beautifully when the base is well located and the daily radius is small. Broadly child-friendly is not a useful verdict on its own. What matters is whether the specific route, season and accommodation make the child's ordinary routine manageable. That is a much better predictor of whether everyone enjoys the holiday.