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?

@Dipsy12 good tip about the cold water tablets. Hoping we have a more portable older baby/toddler too 🙏 😄

@Medoca yep we're gravitating towards driving too. I usually sit in the back seat so i can keep an eye on baby anyway - when on the eurostar can you take baby out of the car seat and cuddle them?

@chocsaucestrawb sounds great! I've been to bruges before too but this was quite a few years ago. I think it'll be good too :) and yes please I'd love the name of the hotel you stayed at.

@NCFT0922 we'll definitely be flying when she's 6 months to Dubai. When you've done long distance have you ever taken a car seat? We checked and it seems that you can order taxis in dubai that come with cyber car seats so we're thinking ofnnot bringing ours on that trip.

@Somuchgoo interesting about the 4 month vs 6 month. My biggest thing is how clunky our travel system and bassinet is, so I'm really looking forward to putting baby in yoyo from 6 months and feeling much more maneuverable on planes and public transport. I guess they'll be more things around feeding as that's when weaning starts. But i was thinking of taking jars of purees with us so we wouldn't need to cook things for baby for the week we're away. Are there any other things I'm missing that we'll need?

@BertieBotts yep I think we're picking driving too. And if we only need to stop once that'll make it much easier.

@ChristmasCakeAndStilton so far the longest journey in a car weve done with the bub is an hour. She's mostly ok, but she can be a little fractious. I usually sit in the back with her so i can keep an eye on her and found that she settled down a lot with a dummy when she got a bit stressed. And I like that we can stop as much as we need to settle her, and also take all our stuff.

Most babies can go in yo-yo from about 4 months. They have neck muscle strength and many have already outgrown carrycot part. A bassinet is a nice luxury, but not fully necessary if you want convenience for a week
By 4 months my Ds was rolling about. By 6 months crawling.

you can all get out of car on Eurostar. Your basically in an empty container like train carridge ake metal box with a few other cars. And people get out and just stand by car. You can walk up and down your carriage with baby in arm

@Caspianberg it would be great if we could ditch the travel system sooner 😍 I haven't been on the eurostar for ages - have you been recently? And are there lots of queues to get across? Like the queues of lorries we see now? Just thinking if we need to factor that in to travel time

@Caspianberg that's the eurotunnel
Eurostar is foot passengers x

Sorry yes the eurotunnel, op
said they will drive

Haven't been recently but I live in Folkestone and there's sometimes queues so definitely factor in some time
They are very good there that if you're there early and there is space they will bump you on so when we go we always get there early
(Ex Eurostar and eurotunnel worker!) x

@Expectingfirstbaby no, I’ve never taken a car seat. If we’ve hired cars they’re provided and otherwise we’ve travelled with them on our knees.

Yep, you can get out of the car if you need to on the eurotunnel, they have toilets. We usually go via tunnel as it’s so quick. Now our child is older we generally let them sit in the front seat (engine off obvs), and they love playing with the buttons and steering wheel.

I'm thinking of Munich (never been to Bruges, but presumably it is smaller). The main Christmas markets in Munich were incredibly crowded and IMO not suited to children under 10 or 11 just because of the crush, pre covid, which is why I said getting out to less well known small town ones would be better with a baby.

Bruges might be more like a small town market, but if people are travelling internationally to visit it's Christmas markets I'm assuming they're busy, given by their nature all visits are crammed into advent.

Weaning stuff will be pouches etc, if you want to take them. Spoons, bowls, big bibs, more spare clothes, possibly something to warm baby food in (though lots of people do give it cold). Then something to feed them in. You could do it with the yoyo fully sitting, but then bring additional cleaning stuff as it'll get very messy. Or something like a travel booster seat. You can get pocket seats that tie to normal chairs, but whilst they were fab when we went away with my 10m old, they probably wouldnt be supportive enough for 6m, and they dint have a tray.

Obviously you'll need to clean whatever you use on the go too. You'll still need just as many bottles, so your stuff for that won't reduce. Their ability to cover themselves and anything within reach or throw, with food, is impressive.

If you are taking a baby in a bassinet, they can sleep in it at night, but with the yoyo, you'll need a travel cot, which hopefully wil be provided.

Babies like playing more by 6m, so you'll probably need to bring more toys, though you can just be very careful about how much space they take up.

You baby may also be on the move - if not crawling, then somehow inching their way around/rolling, so you'll need to be more mindful of safety than when they were tiny. Not as much as for a 1yo though.

Mine needed the most stuff when they were tiny babies, and reached a peak at about a year. And another peak around 2.5 with toilet training.

Both holidays sound fine to me, you've picked good times to go (my easiest holiday so far was with my 6w old, my hardest with toddlers) , and you should have a lovely time. Weaning does involve carting round a fair amount of stuff initially though.

I actually wouldn’t bother weaning at all for a week on holiday while the baby is 6 months old. If will make no difference whatsoever and much less mess for you.

@Expectingfirstbaby This is the hotel we stayed in

https://www.aragon.be/?utmsource=GMB&utmm_medium=organic

I couldn't agree more! It's not the place to start when on holiday.

Brugge is tiny. You won't need a car seat. I would fly and get the train from the airport. The tran is easy walking distance of the main square