Plane, train or driving holiday with 4 month old?

[Expectingfirstbaby]

We were thinking of going to bruges for the Christmas market with our baby who will be roughly 4 months in December. Should we drive, take the train, or fly? Assuming each takes roughly 5 hours?

Train:
Get a taxi to St pancreas, then eurostar to Brussels, change and get another train to bruges. Another taxi from station to hotel.

Drive:
Stopping every 1 - 1.5 hours to give baby a break from car seat. Would also consider an overnight stop halfway to give baby a bigger break.

Fly:
15min taxi to airport, fly, then taxi to hotel in bruges

My concerns with the fly and train options are having to take a proper pram with bassinet and a carseat. Do parents usually take car seats on hiliday btw? Plus all our luggage. At least with a car all our stuff is in one place and we don't have to lug it around, but the negative is having baby in the car seat for long periods.

What would you do?

Also - how do people go about sterlizing bottles in hotel rooms?

I would leave baby with grandparents- Christmas markets are bad enough for adults let alone babies!
But I would choose Flying as an option if I had to!

Fly!
Yep people take car seats - you can buy bags off Amazon for them so they're easy to carry etc. as for pram, a travel pram would be better? And most hotels provide cots etc

I'd go for train. We did some long train journeys about that age and it was fine. Skip the pram and just take a baby carrier, much easier for markets and cobbled streets anyway.

I think it wouldn't be fun doing that drive with a baby but yes you could take loads of stuff.

I would pick flying and take my small light pushchair (it lies flat and has car seat adaptors - its a Joie travel one).

honestly you would be really stressed doing an xmas fair with a baby

Currently have a 4 month old and recently travelled. We flew. Baby despises his car seat, screams blue murder. So that option went out the window! I'd fly every time. Least amount of time cooped up in the "vehicle".

We did a long drive with 5 month DD, through France to Italy to stay with grandparents. It was glorious, we went out every evening and she fell asleep in her pram while we sat and had dinner / drinks.

In your position I’d definitely go, the markets won’t be ridiculously busy and if you take a baby carrier too then you’ll be able to manoeuvre her easily.

Id take the train personally, very easy journey. Check if you need a car seat for the taxi - ie a London taxi you can just pull the pram in to. Pack light with one weekend suitcase between you and take cold water sterilising tablets.

Some people might. Some people have easy babies that fit right in and it would be lovely to do.

We (and often just I) flew and drove distances a lot with babies/ baby+ toddlers due to grandparents and family and friends spread out within the UK and EU.

Changing trains sounds the most stressful to me, but you say "we" so if you are travelling as a couple with only one baby and no other children that should be pretty manageable (on your own not worth the stress of lugging everything+ your baby between trains if any of your connections are tight).

Yes, you need to take a car seat (carried free on a plane, but wrap it up), but whether you take a "proper" pram is entirely up to you - I used slings (didymous wraps) which made travelling by plane very much easier than for someone faffing with a pram. However if you don't already use wraps you wouldn't want to start just for the trip as you'd want using them to already be second nature, so you'd need to get one and start using it ASAP.

I agree with those saying that big city Christmas markets are a terrible choice of babies first holiday due to the crushing crowds. Have you been before? You'd be better to go to small town Christmas markets or do something else less crowded!

I’d get the train, take the pram and a sling but forget the car seat because Bruges is tiny so it really shouldn’t be difficult to find accommodation within a short walk from the station. Wash up bottles in the sink (taking a brush and washing up liquid) and then use milton tablets and sterilising bags to cold water sterilise.

Although a Christmas market with a bitty journey probably wouldn’t be my first or even last choice of holiday with a 4MO…

We went on holiday when both our kids were around 4 months, I think it's a brilliant time to travel. They're immobile and not weaning. Personally I'd fly, as it's the shortest time period having to be stuck in a seat. When travelling with kids you just have to accept you're going to need to take lots of stuff for a few years, we travelled with car seat and pram.

Thanks everyone for the advise. I was reading on mumsnet that travelling with a younger baby is a lot easier than with an older crawling baby or toddler, so ideally we want to do a trip with baby at 4 months and 6 months, anticipating that we would then skip long distance travel until 2.5+ years old. The one at 6 months will be to Dubai and I think that'll be easiest since we'll then ditch the travel system and bassinet and take a yoyo. For the one at 4 months, just because of all the things we need to take, im now thinking a driving holiday might best.

@MumofSpud @Fleetheart I hadn't really thought about that the baby wouldn't like the crowds of a Christmas market - maybe we should choose something else for babies first trip.

@FlounderingFruitcake just thinking about having to carry around a car seat along with everything else panics me 😆 but even if we got a hotel close to bruges train station we'd still need to get a taxi to St Pancreas

@GoodnightGentleBoris that Italy trip sounds divine! How many times did you need to stop on the drive to give baby a break?

@PorridgewithQuark @GrannieMainland we've got a baby carrier which baby is used to now so we could take that instead of the whole pram contraption. I think we'd still need to take a car seat though.

I went on a plane when my dd was 6 months and it was fine but a bit stressful. I went to Bruges with my toddler and small baby on the Eurostar as well and found this better and even quite fun and relaxing. I wouldn't drive personally but I find driving quite stressful anyway and my babies would always cry as soon as they were in the car.

We drove for about 2/3/4 hours each day, so Surrey > Folkestone then across the chunnel in one day and down an hour or so then stayed overnight, then next day a few more hours and so on. Doing that through France was actually wonderful as we stayed in these little gites / b&bs and got to see some of France. Also europe is well set up for long journeys as the motorway services are nice.

we timed it to do 2 hours in the car per leg across nap time

i think the key is to see the journey as part of the holiday rather than just getting from a to b. We have friends whose parents live in Spain and they got an afternoon crossing then powered through on red bull and did the journey in one drive overnight which is certainly another way of doing it!

I would do the train, can’t you get public transport to the train station? Or a lift from a relative? It’ll remove the need for the car seat. I don’t think it’s that much slower than flying either if you factor in all the faffing about at the airports.

I don’t trust airline carries with car seats, if they get bashed around they won’t be any good in an accident. If your car seat is small enough then you might be able to book a seat for baby and take the car seat on the plane. If you can get to the airport without needing a car seat then fair enough flying will probably be fine but I just think the train sounds more straightforward and better for the environment. You can move around too if you need to. Train is also maybe less germy too? Less people squashed in.

I would save a driving holiday until baby is older. We drove long distances from 1yo at bedtime or early in the morning and that worked really well (think 10 hours up to the north of Scotland) but I wouldn’t want to do that with a younger baby less than 6 months when you still have the worry of how well they breathe when strapped into a car seat for ages. There could also be a lot of unpredictable screaming that you can’t do anything about. For a short city break you shouldn’t need to take that much stuff anyway, it’s not like a beach holiday.

For what it’s worth though I think your holiday in general sounds like a lovely idea 4months is a great age to travel. Much easier than with a toddler!

I should add that most European city’s are really easy to navigate with just public transport and so no car seats needed. Just choose your accommodation accordingly.

Go by plane

if your going to buy yo-yo anyway, buy now. Use the yo-yo with car seat adapters. You can then use car seat on frame to easily transport car seat on plane and out and about. Baby can use car seat on pram fine a few days to use. Yo-yo will fold in seconds for plane and taxi.

Take sling as well so baby gets break from car seat, and you can carry them.

flying is easy at 4 months. The airport time is just like being out anywhere so just walk them around, or feed or they nap. Flight is so short anyway.

Bruges is pretty small. You should be able to find a hotel you can walk to. But I agree that it wouldn't be my first choice of holiday with a small baby.

I would drive. We took then 5 month old dd on a 2000 mile road trip. Certainly didn't stop every hour either - more likely 2.5 hours

You can also buy baby own seat on plane and take car seat onboard. Just can’t book online so need to call them.

Train is so much easier than flying or driving imo

have done Euro tunnel via Brussels and Paris

it’s much more part of the trip & more relaxed, space to sit. Taking formula with you is so much easier on train, jyst take ready made for the weekend

sterilise bottles in microwave

Oh there is another option - I took Cunard to Bruges for the market and there was a 5 month old baby onboard (very cute) not cheap but was £600 including 2 nights accommodation, all food, entertainment and €20 for the transfer at zeebrugge

Can you get a black cab to St Pancras then you don't need a car seat?

Train. You can potter up and down the train, hold him, point to things out of the window, read books...