City break with a baby

[Emilyhaywood]

Hi guys, I am planning to book a city break for later this year (around the beginning of November) with my partner and our daughter, she will be 14 months. I was just wondering if anybody had experience taking a baby around a city, whether I’d need a car seat?? How would we go about transport?? And any recommendations on places Would be great! Thank you in advance😌x

Would probably depends on which city you were planning on visiting as the transportation in every city is different.
Depends if you plan on going somewhere with a underground/metro, or be using buses, or taking Ubers.

What do you want to do when you're away? Very hard to suggest a city without knowing what you want to do. Art, museums, history, cultural "stuff", wandering the streets, cafes/restaurants/pubs ... Any restrictions on how far you'd be willing to travel? Weather? November could be very cold in cities that are lovely but easterly (say Salzburg, Vienna, Prague, Krakow etc)

Generally a sling in much easier than a buggy. Any city with an underground system accessed by steps at some stops, or escalators generally is a PITA. If there's an overground tram system it is much easier and a buggy is more feasible.

If you want to use a car - including taxi from airport you need to work a carseat into the equation. Rules vary from country to country. You need to find out if taxis carry the or not. Sometimes you need to specify when booking a taxi. But a one year old shouldn't be without a car seat regardless of local rules. You can bring your car seat as luggage.

Go somewhere with trams ideally so you don't need to worry about car seats. Where depends on your taste and how warm you want it to be.

Go somewhere that you don’t need to take a taxi / car, accept quite a lot of the trip will be spent in parks with take out coffee and that you genuinely won’t be able to do the same things as before and you’ll have a lovely time. We went to Zurich and Geneva when dd2 was about that age not excellent.

We have twice been to Palma with our now 12 month old DD (first time at 4 months, second time at 9 and a bit months). A good friend of mine lives there, but we went back a second time as we just love it. It's a beautiful, easy, clean and very safe city with lovely shops, restaurants and a great beach! We rented a car one day too to explore more of Majorca. I'd highly recommend it .

Thank you all for your help! I am really not fussy as too where, it’s my partners 21st birthday and wanted to make it a special one and celebrate in a city, but I can’t bring myself to leave my daughter in another country and it just wouldn’t be the same without her! Preferably wouldn’t want it to be raining but we can deal with wind and cold although sun would be lovely!! Id also like somewhere that we can just hop on and off trams, I agree a sling would be a LOT easier! I just want to make the trip as exciting as possible for my partners birthday, we both like nature, sea life, food!! We love site seeing too

At that time of year I recommend Seville, Lisbon and Marrakech, all 3 are likely to be sunny (and Marrakech will still be low 20s)

A 14 month old baby could be quite heavy in a sling. I would recommend some sort of buggy. Useful for sleeping in and carrying stuff too.

I'm not sure I would recommend Marrakesh. It is crazily busy and dusty. A 14 month old will want some freedom to toddle about. A coastal town like Essoaira would be better with a baby I think. Less frantically busy. But that can be really windy at certain times.

I took my eldest to Paris at 15 months old. It was summer, we walked everywhere with the pram. Plenty of squares and open spaces (Tuileries etc) for a toddler to wander around. Had a lovely weekend. We went to Granada a few months before that. Spain is excellent with a baby. Totally fine to go out in the evening with children. Granada is very, very hilly though (so quite a workout pushing a pram around). A slightly flatter city might be more relaxing. Seville, Barcelona...

If Eurostar is an option then Lille would be lovely. Small enough to walk around. Very pretty, plenty to look at and do over a weekend.

I think Stockholm or Amsterdam could also be good.