s/o of my babywearing in Europe thread ... Travel to Europe with 18 month old?

[aggieamy]

I know there's gals on here who have traveled with young children.  It's been a long time since I have and the most serious travels we did with DD when she was little was a skiing when she was three.  We did do a ten day trip last year where we flew into London took the train to Cardiff then went to Brugge, and ended in Paris.  I have also been on a three week trip through Germany, Italy, and France with my parents.  We're all pretty familiar with travel and with overseas travel.

 

That said .. next year DH, DD, DS, and myself are flying to London for a few days and then going on a 14 day northern Europe cruise.  (London, Copenhagen, Estonia, St. Petersburg, Finland, Stockholm, back to London).  I expect this will be completely different with baby in tow.  He'll be 18 mos old at the time.  We plan to do a combination of baby carrying and stroller.  We plan to take only carry on bags and travel as light as possible. There's a place we can buy diapers right before we get on the ship so we won't have to bring them with us.  

 

Any advice on keeping an 18 month old occupied on the plane?  What have you traveled with that you can't live without? Anything specific for the cruise ship?  Tips?

 

I'm excited about the trip but also a little nervous!  We'll have a set of grandparents along also to help some.  

[Mrs Mungo]

The main things with flying and kids are: 1) have plenty of snacks, 2) give them dramamine if they get motion sick at all (dh regretted not taking this advice the one time he flew with the kids but without me), 3) have lots of different things to play with and look at.

Things to keep in mind, if you haven't traveled a lot overseas a lot with kids:

You will want a really small umbrella style stroller. Lots of shops and museums are *not* set up for strollers at all.

Lots of restaurants don't have high chairs, so you might want something like this:
portable baby seat

 

Restaurants are often only open at meals times. So, carry plenty of snacks for the little one. 

[aggieamy]

Mrs M -  Thanks.  I was hoping you'd chime in.  Do you think a stroller like this is sufficient or should we try for something else?  It's a Mamas and Papas umbrella stroller.  I've seen cheaper ones at Target but they seem like they wouldn't hold up well under much use.  

 

[Mrs Mungo]

It's hard to tell how big that one is.

 

We had something more like this: 

http://www.target.com/p/cosco-umbrella-stroller-dino/-/A-13999421#prodSlot=_1_28

 

The more stuff there is, the more bulky it is, the more difficult it will be. Granted, having at least a small basket underneath is nice, but we usually managed by hanging a bag over the handles. I'm sure you can manage one way or another, I just remember some of my friends trying to get around with larger strollers and what a pain it was. With this, you can fold it up and walk up lots of stair easily and stuff like that. Not everyplace has elevators. But, I know some people are really married to their strollers with nice fittings. :)

 

Believe it or not, we had our cheap stroller for years and years, way after our kids had outgrown stroller use. We only got rid of it when we didn't really have any friends or family with babies. 

[Annie]

We were in Paris for three months when my oldest was two, and we bought a Maclaren Quest for when we were there. I'm a die hard baby wearer, and I never even had a stroller before, so it killed me to spend that much money on one, but I love it. It folds super easy with one hand, has a carrying strap attached, and is light weight. I bought the one year old model off of a baby deals type site for about $100 less than regular retail.

 

I found the flight to Europe much worse than the flight home. It depends in how well your little one sleeps. My guy was not at all happy about sleeping on the plane all night, and the flight attendants kept waking him up when they came through asking if people wanted tea or whatever. It was terrible.

[Bootsie]

For the plane ride, take a sippy cup--or some type of cup with a lid.  We would take cups with straws long after the kids used regular glasses at home because the tight seating and a bit of turbulence increases the chances of spills.

 

I found that it helped to change my kids into pajamas on the plane when we were ready for them to sleep (at least it helped with one child, the other never slept).

 

Use ziplock bags to contain different items within your carry-on.  A complete change of clothes in one ziplock bag is easier to pull out than rummaging through for a shirt, pants, etc.  Bring extra ziplock bags and plenty of baby wipes.

 

While packing light is helpful, I wouldn't suggest only taking carry-ons.  You will have your hands full with the child,, stroller, etc. through security, passport control, etc.  The less you have to worry about carrying your luggage through that area, the better.

[Starr]

It's been a long, long time but I did like having a car seat on the plane. We strapped them in and they played and slept just like in a car.

[Rosie_0801]

I think you want the lightest, flimsiest stroller you think will last the distance, because Murphy's Law of travelling with children states that you will need to carry it up three flights of stairs to get anywhere you want to go.

[mumto2]

One plus for the M and P stroller is that you can get the plastic rain cover. Can't tell you how much I wish I had owned one of those. It is a popular model because I recognize it, so people must like it, right? Have to admit though I had cheap umbrella strollers that we used for years. Never broke and lightweight.

 

Packing wise--My tip is to separate things using pillow cases. Three categories clean, can be worn again if needed, as soon as I can wash these. Makes traveling much easier for the wardrobe coordinator. ;) Throw the pillowcase in with the dirty and you have a laundry bag to carry your clean clothing away in.

[Alice]

We went to Paris with my now 10 year old when he was about 18 months. The flight there was much worse as we stupidly took the red-eye. He was exhausted but just would not sleep. It was awful. The flight home was much better during the day. I had thought it would be the opposite as I had thought he would sleep on the night flight and be hard to occupy on the flight home. We had a lot of little snacks to keep him occupied and a small bag of toys and things he hadn't seen. Some stickers and paper, crayons, little things to look at. Some books. Now I would take a Kindle and load it with some books or apps and use that as needed. 

 

I would definitely recommend a lightweight stroller that you can fold easily. We found that none of the subways had elevators so we were frequently folding it and carrying up flights of stairs. We also found that restaurants and things were usually welcoming to children but not especially oriented to kids. Meaning, that they were fine for me to hold him on my lap in a cafe where people are sitting really close to each other but there were never separate kid's seats or meals or accommodations like in the US. That was fine with us but it was nice to have a stroller that we could easily fold away and slip in a corner somewhere. 

 

One of our rules of travel with kids, especially toddlers is to have "free-range" time. So we'll balance any trip to a museum or sight-seeing site with a trip to a park or playground or something where the kids can run around a bit. Even if it's only 15 minutes it seems to make things go smoother. 

 

Have fun! Looking back, both dh and I agree that the trip we took with C. is in many ways our best trip to Paris (a city both of us had been to previously several times). People were really warm and friendly to us with the baby and we met more Parisians in the parks and playgrounds when our son was playing with their kids. 

[Lucy in Australia]

We made a trip to Europe from Australia when DD was 18 months old. I distinctly remember the set of finger puppets I bought (20 animals) were the most precious toy we brought along, and I brought dozens. I second the lightweight stroller.  My DH also bought a sturdy backpack baby carrier (from one of those outdoor adventure travel places) which was useful as she was a fairly chunky little thing. It was also useful on all those cobblestone roads.

[Rosie_0801]

I was told to take as few stopovers as possible. Other people's mileage may vary, but that is up there on my top five list of stupid pieces of advice ever given.

[Mrs Mungo]

I was told to take as few stopovers as possible. Other people's mileage may vary, but that is up there on my top five list of stupid pieces of advice ever given.

It really depends upon the situation. I have had situations where I had to retrieve my luggage and check it elsewhere while switching planes (and airlines) on an overseas flight. *Total* nightmare. I would take a long non-stop flight any day over that scenario.

[wintermom]

We didn't travel overseas, but we did drive and camp across North America with 4 dc - the youngest was 18 months.  A lightweight stroller was perfect, because we could push the little guy and so could our children. Having him strapped up while we were driving and setting up the campsite was essential to our sanity. It was the time when he was running around that got exhausting, but he obviously needed time out of the straps. Hopefully you and your dh are young and energetic!