travel to europe by car or plane?

[sabini]

Hey I need some advise,please!
We are planning to go to Germany for x-mas and I was wondering if we should fly with a six months old or take the car?Are airports too hectic/stressful or is it more convienient?
What do you think about flying with a little one in general?Flight will be just over an hour-what if little one does not want to suck on the dummy or take a drink at taking off and landing? Will her little ears ache?
If we drive it will take about 10 hrs! Is that too long for little one to sit in one position????
What shall I do--please help!!

My advice would be to....

....grow a backbone.

Why can't you make these decisions by yourself. Only you know the people concerned. None of us could possibly answer on your behalf.

wicked :( nothing wrong with asking peoples opinions.

at Christmas if I had a choice I would drive just cos flying at that time of year can be a bit unpredictable due to weather and silly strikes. In general though 6 month olds fly very well.
Can you drive and split the journey?

Yeah we would share the driving and probably drive over night so she would be asleep! She loves being driven around ;)
Good point about the wheather(after last year)
Thank you Ohyoubadbadkitten!

We live right over in the eastern corner of Germany, so the driving is a bit longer than 10 hours, and I would never never consider driving over just for Christmas. It would always be a flight for anything less than 3 weeks holiday. If the weather is bad, the roads are likely to be affected more than the airports, which stay open though all sorts of snowy weather in continental Europe. My mum flies over every Christmas and has never once been delayed by bad weather. Of course it's busier than November or February, but as long as you avoid December 23rd - when the entire world is trying to get somewhere for Christmas - you'll be fine. But the motorways are horribly overcrowded on the 23rd as well.

My two flew a fair bit Germany-UK as babies and there was never a really big problem with ear popping. I was still BFing them both at 6 months which always worked a treat, but after that phase a bottle always went down well at the crucial moment, the secret being only to offer it once the plane has started moving along the runway to take off.

Thanks HermanTheGerman!Very useful comments!
We have to book soon either way otherwise it gets too expensive! (Wish I could just beam us over..)

Not sure if it is the same, but in Switzerland you had to have winter tyres on your car once the temperature got below a certain number. If you had an accident, your insurance could be invalid. Something that could possibly add many pounds to the cost of your holiday.
Personally I would fly, at that age babies are a doddle to do it with.

Ooh, well done for remembering that Kreecher. I'd totally forgotten that it's compulsory in Germany as well, but DH had our winter tyres put on this week already. The German motorways are dangerous enough as it is without sliding around on the roads at minus temperatures.

Fly. We lived in Berlin for four years and I'd second everything HermanTheGerman said(great name by the way!)

lol - I guess I'm outvoted