Trip with infant

[tchan03]

HI I have 2 weeks vacation and dunno how to spend it . My wife gave birth in Feb this year. (Already went to Las Vegas, Orlando, France,Greece, Italy before, don't want to repeat)

Did you ever take your children (< 1 year old) to Europe and actually enjoyed it during winter season (Jan- Feb.)?

If so , let me know where you went and the entire journey experience !

Thanks

 

[bumbershoot]

If you can afford travel and want to, you should definitely think about it.

The issues with little babies are mainly about comfort. If baby cries before sleep, you'll want to choose a hotel with strong, thick walls, so you're not bothering others. If baby needs to be walked to sleep, as ours did, you'll need enough room in the room to do so. And so on.

For us, though we couldn't afford BIG travel, traveling was easy b/c we were so portable. Baby slept in the same bed as us (still does), baby was exclusively nursed until 11+ months old so we didn't have to worry about feeding him at all (just had to feed and water me!), didn't even own a stroller until he was 2 years old, just wore him in a variety of soft-cloth slings and mei tais, which are very packable. He went where we went, easily.

The only transportation issue is going to be cabs, b/c of differences in carseats. That would bug me, and in fact cab/carseat issues have kept us from some sorts of travel...when we went to downtown portland by train when DS was 3 months old, we walked to our hotel rather than take a cab b/c we didn't want to bring a carseat. That sure threw the Westin people, let me tell you!

Good luck!

 

[BelleBoo&AmisMum]

Our youngest was a little bit older (17 months) the first time we took her to Europe with us. It was December/January when we went. It was/is easier than traveling with her now that she's four!

We did a direct flight to London and she had a seat on the bulkhead, she was comfortable and slept quite a bit. It was her third time flying though (we'd already done Florida and California) so she was pretty good about just going with it.

We took our own car seat and stroller but we had our own car over there so it made a difference. We did lots of public transportation while we were there (London, Paris, Lille, Eurostar between London and Lille) buses and metro. The metro is a pain in the rear with a stroller and we spent a lot of time lugging strollers up and down the stairs before we started using the buses more.

We've done the trip twice since then, it's still easy, but now they like to run a bit more.

I highly recommend a light stroller and a direct flight if you go!

 

[raysnkaysmom]

The only thing I'd worry about with that long of a flight is their sensitive ears... Check with a dr on their recommendations...or if you're child has had more than a fair share of ear infections...I dont' know I'd want to be in the air that long with them!!

 

[Mr Man]

We have flown to Europe with a 6mo old baby on two occasions in the winter (had to get both boys baptized/christened by DW's priest).

It was a long flight, but I swear it was easier with a 6 month old than it is with a rambunctious 2-4 yr old!


We didn't do much traveling around once we got to Europe though. Just picked a spot and hung out there.