Ferry or Plane

[LeeCee]

FTM looking for advice opinions please! Attending a wedding in France next summer with our baby to be. Who will be 7 months then. Travelling from Ireland and the wedding is 2 hours north of Lyon. So our options are

1. Ferry from Dublin to Cherbourg and 7 hour drive approx. We could do a few days or a week near where we land in France before driving across. Obviously would be taking lots of breaks. But I understand it's still a long drive with a small baby. Pros for us - packing the kitchen sink in the car , being able to stop whenever baby needs and take breaks, feed, nappy change etc on our own schedule.

1. Fly to Lyon, rent car, drive 2-3 hours to wedding venue. I'm not tempted on this as I imagine packing for a baby is a nightmare - plus the idea of airports (more than the flight itself) seems like a lot of stress. We still have a drive either way, but without the bonus luggage

Am I mad? Should we just fly? What would you do?

We took our 7 month DS to France and went on the ferry but it was only a two hour drive from The ferry port. The ferry was great with lots of room and we basically took our entire house in the car 😂 oh and you can take the pushchair on board which made life so much easier as DS fell asleep for most of the crossing.
Personally I'd take the ferry and perhaps have an overnight stop half way down to break the journey up.
Bon voyage as the French say

Thanks @wheresmarybloodypoppins if we were just going to the west coast of France it would be so much easier!

I would definitely go for the plane option. Babies are surprisingly easy to fly with. It's as the become mobile that issues arise. Our child has flown regularly since 3 months. It's gotten harder since! I'd recommend a carrier/sling for the airport. You can check in the buggy (and car seat ) if you wish then. Check in a couple of bags for you and your OH and then just some essentials for baby in your hand luggage. I know packing up the car is tempting but just bring enough nappies, etc for the first day or two and buy the rest when you are there.

I don't actually have anything useful to contribute, but when I saw the title of this in Active, I thought it was a Baby Name thread 🤦🏼‍♀️

I thought Ferry was actually a great name

Definitely fly!

Dublin to Cherbourg plus a 7 hour drive is an awful lot to put yourselves through. Flying with a baby really isn't that bad and you don't need to take half the stuff with you that you think. Plus you're only in France so easy enough to get whatever baby supplies you need if you desperately need something.

yes ferries are easy with small kids, but 7 hour drive really isn't.

I travelled a lot with small children, and flying is easy, not only that, but if you are away for a week, and you have a full size suitcase for you and dh, then really you will have all the space you need!

as pp said car seat and buggy go free with most airlines. You can take buggy to the door of the plane and then hand it in.

Hi all thanks for all the replies and advice! Sounds like plane is a winner, with checked bags. Would it be better to bring our own car seat or just rent one with the car rental there?

Definitely take your own. Hire car seats really aren't recommended as you've got no idea of their history. They're likely to be fairly cheap ones to start with and then you've got no idea if they've been in a crash, been dropped etc so you don't know how they would perform if you were too crash. Not worth the risk.

Do make sure that yours is packaged up properly if you're going to put it in the hold though. The original packaging is best, avoid travel bags as they'll cover the car seat up but won't protect it from being thrown around by baggage handlers.

Drive, you can throw everything you need in in the car. Did a 3000 mile road trip at that age ish and both 5 month old and 2 year old were fine - just make sure you only drive for 3 hours max at a time

I would drive every time, in fact we did back and forth to La Rochelle many many times , around 14 hours, but just factored in kits and lots of stops.

Oh @ileclerc & @anniehm you've thrown me now! Two votes in a row for the ferry option!

It's the route in particular that sways me towards flying. It's all very well people saying the ferry is fine when they're crossing the channel but Dublin to Cherbourg is another level with a baby.

Then a 7 hour drive on top of that! Does that include stops? If not, it will probably be 10 hours.

We used to live in Belgium and driving back to the west coast of the U.K. was hard work with 2 under 2. I much preferred to fly!

I'm always antsy about checking the car seats, even wrapped up, (who keeps the original packaging anyway?) so we prefer to drive when we come home. You have more space for luggage too. It does take forever but unless you're lucky to have direct flights door to door, there's usually some driving to do either side as well. At least on a ferry you can walk around, there's a choice of food etc.

Would recommend breaking the 7h drive into 2 days. Babies get fed up being posted back into car seats again and again, and 7m isn't even really old enough to distract easily.

I’d go for the plane and rent a car including a baby seat with the rental. I flew from the UK to France with DD 3 times in 2 month when she was 6/7 months old, including once by myself and it was absolutely fine. A long car journey on the other hand sounds horrendous!

Oh wow, 19 hours on the ferry? OK - that is a huge difference. I didn't realise it was so far. (I have no sense of direction )

If you were thinking of flying, another option is to hire a baby seat from a company like this - they tend to be a bit more clued up than car hire companies and will specify brand.

www.kidelio.com/en/

What about the train? You could do sail rail from Dublin to London, Eurostar from London to Paris and then Lyon is only a couple of hours from Paris on the TGV. There are car hire companies in and near most French railway stations. We have been taking the train to Europe since DD1 was 8 weeks old (admittedly not from Ireland...) and it's great - no one needs to be strapped in, so it's much easier to feed/entertain the baby and it would be a lot quicker than the ferry!

Or you could spend a night in London/Paris en route/get a train from Paris to somewhere else for part of the holiday and drive/get a train from there. We went through Lyon last week on our way to/from Italy - we love getting the train with our kids :-).

And actually, if you are going two hours north of Lyon, perhaps it would be better to get a train to Dijon instead.

Definitely fly. I did a long haul flight with a baby and it was honestly fine.

I've driven from Cumbria to Portsmouth and then ferry to Le Havre and then drive to Loire Valley with a one year old and a four year old. Never again!

We live near Lyon and I am Irish (West Coast) so have tried every which way to find the best route. I don't have a baby but the long drive and long ferry is exhausting. Train logistics through England would be crackers and add a huge amount of cost. I don't use rental car seats any more after a few poor experiences and certainly not for an infant.

Look at borrowing things to make your journey easier... fabric sling baby carrier, easy fold push chair, tent style travel cot. At seven months the baby will also be sitting so one of those travel booster seats with straps that attach to a chair or the fabric ones would also be a good idea.

Bring lots of snacks for you, make sure you drink lots of water. Bring some music that you and your baby like or a clip and go musical mobile and make sure your partner can carry the baby in the sling too. With the rest of your luggage, make sure it's easy to wheel. Maybe a stick blender to help with food.

Can the people you are travelling to see help at all? Perhaps a click and collect shop at their nearest Carrefour for nappies, baby food etc.