Traveling with small children

>>1154269
>I want our kid to see a lot of the world. Even if he/she won't remember anyway.

Why?

>>1154291
seriously why the fuck travel with a kid who is not going to remember anything? Is this guy a fucking moron?

Congrats on the pregnancy, op
I would suggest waiting until your child is a little older, maybe 4-5. Babies won't remember it, they'll just wonder why they're in a sky box that makes their ears feel sad.
It's doable, though, but kids (especially babies) are very expensive.

>>1154269
They remember from 3 onwards.

Any car trip is fine. You have a trunk to throw the nicer stroller, plus a playpen for the hotel (so you can shower without fear of escape), changing pad, all the extra luggage that you want.

If you fly, the collapsible stroller and car seat thing, can get checked at the gate right where you boar. You will have to check a regular bag, because your carryons will be the baby's bag, and not that much of your things. You get early boarding with all the hassle of your crap. Longer flights on nicer airlines will set up a wall bassinet in economy plus and higher. Their ears hurt. So you deal with that as best you can, with continued bottles. It'd be horrible alone, but not as bad as a tag team. Sometimes they do just fine, though. I've been near bouncing babies who giggled and slept the whole flight, and only had pain during the descent.

My parents traveled with all of their kids from birth. Dad worked for Pan Am. We went everywhere. I recall a couple things 2-3, but I'm sure something about new experiences is a hell of a lot better for learning and development than staying home and doing the TV thing. But, maybe you could explore a bit locally. It's hard to be a new parent, let alone a tired person traveling. Plan some afternoon naptime for the both of you, feet up and all that. If you're young, even better.

>>1154269
My experience is you leave them with their grandparents

for the love of allah do not travel any effing where except to the mall and grocery store until you learn how to be parents. there is nothing on earth more annoying to other people (except old ladies who love babies) than first time mommys and daddys. you will bother the shit out of everyone all along the way of your trip while you figure out how to parent your beh beh. just wait until you have the second or third and you are much better at handling little ones.

I suggest not flying while your child is a baby, travel to places you can go by land or boat. Very young children's ears are more sensitive than those of adults or even just older children, plus they're too young to understand what to do to relieve the pressure from taking off. It's not the end of the world, but it's needless pain for them and there's so much to experience in the areas around you that'll be new to the baby at that age. Go on day trips into the cities or countryside around you, go to interesting amusement parks (find ones that have very young child friendly rides), go to petting zoos, museums, etc. I know it runs counter intuitive to /trv/ to say stay at home, but there's so much available within arm's reach and even simple things like a butterfly or a horse or a cat is fascinating and new at that age. By all means, start traveling as your child gets a little older, but hold off on the flight side of things until you can talk to them and explain what to do as the pressure builds up. Their ears will be somewhat less sensitive and they'll also be old enough to remember things.

>>1154269
I have 4yo twins, and we've done some simple trips with them-Hawaii with my parents and brother when they were 10 months old (having family help to lug the stuff helped enormously--packing for a week long trip with two babies sometimes feels like packing for a Peace Corps stint in Sierra Leone), lots of road trips and domestic flights, and only one international trip so far--a corny but ultimately surprisingly enjoyable trip to a Club Med resort with a daycare center.

We are fortunate that they're pretty good travelers--easy to amuse, slow to tears, and nowadays, easy to bribe/distract with iPad videos. And when they were babies, they were good sleepers.

It's fun, but it definitely changes what you do and how you do it. More playgrounds, parks, and markets, fewer museums or historical sites. Fewer hotels, more rental houses/apartments. Etc. And you don't get much of a break from childcare unless you bring help or go somewhere with childcare services (lots of resorts have this, which is why we did Club Med--we had never considered an all-inclusive before).

Talking to a lot of other parents, we arrived at the near consensus that international travel with five year olds is easier and more fun than with four year olds or younger. So we're spending six weeks in Italy next summer, then expatriating to Switzerland next winter.

But the trips when they were lap babies also had some simplicity (and savings--we are now buying four tickets everywhere). And if you're just strapping the kid on and walking somewhere, you still get pretty flexible options when they're still tiny.

>>1154451
Oh, and the ear pain problem can be helped by giving them a pacifier or bottle, or nursing them.

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139KB, 800x600px

congrats!

>>1154428
>>1154451
both good posts.

my wife and i flew from california to colorado with our son last may when he was 16 months old. we're going to japan with him this january just before he turns 2.

every kid's different, but here's been my experience

driving more than a couple hours was rough when he was 4-12 months, but we toughed it out for lots of trips to yosemite and other parts of the sierra. but once he could face forward car trips became a lot easier. like it was mentioned above, on cars trips bring EVERYTHING.

the plane ride was amazingly smooth. lots of chewy snacks to keep his ears popped (and he had a cold for the flight home), and we choked down "muh parenting principles" and brought a portable dvd player for peppa pig if he started to get crabby (didn't need it for the flight there, used it for the flight back).

>>1154269
It's not easy but if you are prepared you'll make it work. I did two four hour flights with my wife and her seven month old baby last month, it was tough but if you use a bottle/pacifier it generally does the trick.

>>1154269
I'm so glad I don't have any kids. What a bummer.

>>1154428
>>1154433
>>1154451
>>1154455
>>1154457
Sounds like good and re-assuring advice. Thank you!

Well, of course the first few years are more for ourselves than the child. We love going places. We're usually relaxed kind of travelers anyway. We enjoy a good hike every now and then, but usually we stick to 10 Km max. We relax in small towns and have a drink or whatever. We like carrides through the scenery and getting out now and then to see things. We're not the die-hard adventure travelers most of the time. So we're hoping the transition will be less big because of that. We're Dutch, so for us most things in Europe are within a day of driving. I'm sure we'll have to make more stops and maybe take 2 days to get somewhere instead of one. But that's fine.

I've also heard that even when a child doesn't have any memories from it at an early age, it still helps them to be better handling out all the impressions and be easier to travel with when they're a few years older. Any experience with that?