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?

Our local taxi company will drop off with car seat, then pick up again with car seat as they keep it at base for duration of trip

And yes to sling & public transport. No need to lug pushchair & car seat along.

I took a train every month for 3 hours from my son being 2 months old. Sling is the absolute best. Sorry i cant advise on bottles as I bf. You can wander up and down and they like the movement.

The best thing I ever bought was a yo-yo pushchair. Took it on many flights, long distance trains etc. Worth chucking a sling in as well.
I'd take that on either the plane or train. Check the hotel can supply a travel cot. If you have an apartment you'll be able to sterilise bottles in the microwave, if not just use Milton tablets.
Also don't believe all this once they're mobile you can't travel rubbish people trot out. I took my eldest on her first long haul flight at 13 months. She was fine!
I also prefer to travel long haul with kids as you can book a night flight so they just sleep

Wouldn't dream of doing any of it with a 4 month old tbh. Christmas markets are hectic at the best of times.

we'd still need to get a taxi to St Pancreas
If it’s a black cab you push the pram straight into the back and apply the brake like you would on the bus. No need for a car seat.

I’ve done loads of travel with mine as babies and toddlers, including long haul. Keep the travelling part simple so point to point journeys where poss and avoiding lugging too much junk with you e.g. car seats is key to keeping it easy.

I have travelled with a baby of that age and yes, they are pretty portable.
I probably wouldn’t take one to a Christmas market though

What kind of Christmas markets are people thinking of? It’s not winter wonderland in Hyde park chaos, but a regular town full of little markets. Our ones are full of babies in prams

I would take pram. Yo-yo ideally. Let’s you have a place to put baby down whilst you eat or drink hot drinks.

I’ve done this drive with babies/small children many times and it’s easy. I would definitely drive rather than taking the train or flying- so simple, you can take everything you need and then just find a hotel with a car park- you won’t need for car in Bruges itself. It’s beautiful and you’ll have a wonderful time. The crowds aren’t excessive and you can easily find quiet spots.

My vote would be to drive but then we are close the tunnel so maybe that sways our decision

Have everything you need and less stressful then train / fly imo

We've been to bruge Xmas market a few years back and it was brilliant - without a baby mind
But I think it's a good choice

Lots of lights and things for baby to see

My bubs is 14 weeks and I would consider the holiday
She just fits in around us
My bubs loves her pram and sleeps well in it so I would def say it's a good choice
It's not that small, some places like the ice skating we had to walk to so I would say a pram is fine

We also stayed in a wonderful hotel
Walking distance to the square
We had a great filmily room ( daughter was 8 yrs old then) wouldn't be hard to find the hotel details if you want me to just let me know

We drove and as I say didn't have a baby but we have booked a French holiday next august when baby will be 12 months - we are also driving

X

It's the last chance you'd realistically have to go to the markets for at least 4 years (more if you have any further children), so I'd definitely go this year if you are keen on them.

I'd go by plane, and use public transport and black cabs to avoid needing to take a car seat. I'd be tempted to just take the sling, but I am a big fan of them anyway.

Out of curiosity, why do you think you'd need more stuff with you for a 4mo than a 6mo? If anything it's the opposite.

@strawberrytilda how old was your small baby when you went on the eurostar? And did you use a baby carrier/sling or a small umbrella pushchair, or a travel system? I think my hubby and I need to do lots of practice runs on trains so we're confident getting all our things on and off and get baby comfortable being in one too.

@GoodnightGentleBoris love the idea of making the journey part of the holiday :) do you still do driving trips like that and would you say it gets easier or harder with older babies and toddlers?

@PinkPlantCase thanks, I think it'll be a good trip too :) we could take public transport to St pancras - that would be the Elizabeth line, then a change onto the tube, then walking from King's Cross underground to St Pancras. Again I think we'll do several trials of being on tubes and changing lines with our travel system and a bag to get everyone comfortable with it, including baby.

@Caspianberg thanks for the tip about the car seat and yoyo. That's a good idea. I think we would be tempted to take our much sturdier travel system base and wheels with the car seat though as bruges has loads of cobbled, uneven roads which our travel system would be fine on but no so sure about the yoyo.

Something to bear in mind about the Eurostar is the trains are big and spacious, everyone is booked on with a seat so no crowding in the corridors or searching for somewhere to sit, and there's only one train leaving at a time so you don't have loads of people milling around the station going in different directions. I'd say a much more relaxed experience than an inter-city train in the U.K.

@FlounderingFruitcake @eurochick I hear you about the bitty journey. The only reason we choose a Xmas Market holiday is because we'd like to go away somewhere when she's roughly 4 months, and not too far away. So that's Europe in December. Although maybe we could do Marrakesh... Will have to do some research

@gogohmm it would be a lot easier if we stopped less often. Something to think about.

Yo-yo is fine in Bruges, have been to a lot of old European cities and it’s been easy to use. We did a big UK road trip when ours was 4m and drove for about 2-3hrs at a time whilst they slept. Wasn’t a problem and easy to take all our stuff. We flew at 8m, 11m, and will be flying again at 18m. Took the car to France at 13m (SW so quite a long drive and split into 2hrs at a time), and 16m (around the north so not too bad). We’re in London, so Bruges is very easy for us, drive to Folkestone in one go (1hr40), take the tunnel (35m, they can have a play/cuddle in the car), drove from Calais to Bruges (1hr30, done in one go). If your baby is ok in the car, I’d definitely do that. Lugging around suitcases, prams, car seats is a pain.

@Medoca hope you don't mind me asking we have booked a France trip next year with my sister and husband who have an 8m and we will have a 12m
Euro tunnel. Journey is 6hrs 30 which we plan to do in 2hr stints for a stretch of legs
Staying somewhere half way on the first day to split the journey then 7 nights in a Gite
Also have an 11 yr old
Will be our first trip with the babies
Have a 15 seat minibus so bags of space
Any tips? X

Ours was a similar journey time and on the way down we stopped nearly halfway. We managed to get to the first stop in one go (2.5hrs), then left straight after breakfast (they napped), stopped for lunch, and then short drive to the gite. On the way back we had a few nights 1hr from Calais, so did the whole 6hrs stopping for lunch, then a stop later to stretch our legs.

take lots of car snacks, we found when they got grumpy playing nursery rhymes helped. Also a selection of hand held toys and books. Our last was fine in the back, the non driver would just pass back snacks!!

After Covid we went a bit mad with the travel, the baby might need a new passport soon with all the stamps!! Of again in a few weeks!

Fly! So much easier and quicker and gets them used to flying from an early age. All mine have flown around that age and are now happy and comfortable travellers.
no, you don’t need a car seat.

@Somuchgoo why can’t she go for 4 years?

She could but going round a market with a 4mo in a sling, is an awful lot easier than navigating them with a toddler, or a preschooler, who at absolute best is going to be bored stiff and having to leave every 30 seconds, wrist you of round their stuff and hold on to their hand to stop them running off to find something actually fun for them to do.

Going to the supermarket is harder enough with a toddler, let alone a crowded market.

Urgh, so many typos

They would be asking to leave every 30 seconds, whilst you lug around their stuff

It meant to say.

I wouldn't drive.
But then DS used to scream when driving at night if there were streetlights /headlights.
What is your daughter like in a carseat if you drive for a couple of hours? Content or furious?

Drive, it's not that far. We have done Germany to UK with babies of that age and driving is by far the most practical because you can stop on your own timescale or keep going if they are settled, and you can fill the boot with all the crap that you need. Train is complicated with changes (might be easier depending on where you are in the UK) and flying is too much waiting around at awkward times.

@BertieBotts agree with your post
Flying is one thing and probably easier but it's the check in and waiting around / being in an airport which I would say is the hard thing
Car they can sleep in the car seat, spread the journey and stop when needed and can pack home from home. X

You don't need to stop every hour. You are meant to stop every 2 hours, we did push it to 3 if he was asleep.