Honest opinions on travelling with a baby?

[Loulai]

Hi all. I want to book a holiday for July 24 for my 30th birthday, my first baby will then be 8 months old (I’m due late October). I’d like to go somewhere special, Rome or Vienna etc for a few days but some friends have advised that travelling to a foreign city with a small baby is a logistical nightmare. I’d be happy with a week in Wales but am a bit disappointed.
Also my family live 2+ hours away so I want to get my baby used to being away from home for a few days at a time, not all the time obviously.
what we’re your experiences travelling abroad with an 8 month old? If it’s not doable it is what it is, but I don’t know if my friends are being negative or I’m just being naive? Thanks! 😊

It is doable, but it is harder work. I personally think a city break is harder as ultimately they are boring for small kids and they’ll be in the buggy or a carrier most of the time. I’d probably do something a bit more chill, a villa somewhere nice where you can go out but also have somewhere for baby to lie, take naps, etc.

To me it is a mindset as in we did it and had to just allow ourselves to go with the flow so it was ok, if we went with the idea that it is was hard it would have been

Thanks both, I can understand the stress of a foreign city, lack of changing facilities and a grumpy baby in the heat. I don’t want to be unfair to her for the sake of a few days away

We went to Italy with DS1 when he was 9 months old. I remember it as being quite stressful! The flight was fine, but we stayed in a villa with a pool, and although he couldn't walk yet he could crawl really fast so DH and I had to keep leaping up to make sure he wasn't about to fall in. He didn't sleep as well as usual in a strange place, so we were quite tired. It was okay but just not as relaxing as I'd hoped!

On a slightly different note, that is the start of school summer holidays (for England at least) , so busy and more expensive. Also I would def worry about the heat at that time of year, so agree with pp about having somewhere to relax/cool off.
Generally I think travelling with a baby shouldn't be a problem, apart from the faf you have to take with you!

8 months is just bordering on your dc being too old. New borns are super portable (in fact your best chance to travel for 16 years!).

I had a blast on my first maternity leave when my pfb was between 2 months old (got passport by then) and about 8 months. She was tiny so I just strapped her to me and explored lots of Europe. Breastfed so that was never a worry. In fact she did her first full nights sleep on a plane around 3 months - the bassinet plus motion of the plane was clearly perfect.

Once they're moving, planes are challenging.

July can be super hot in Europe - even without the extreme temperatures they’ve had this year.

I’ve done plenty of travelling with my kids when they were small - in fact both went to Italy when just a couple of months old: one by plane, and the other by car.
Easier to manage in a villa, I’d have thought, than a hotel.
Also, at 8 months, baby is likely to be mobile in some respect, so then you have the worry of needing some sort of playpen or stairgates or something (or just not being able to take your eyes off them for a single second!!), so it would be worth making sure that the place you are staying has all this available.

We’ve always traveled with our kids, long and short haul. A baby is much easier to bring on a city break than a toddler! I’ve a large waterproof material ikea change mat that can be used on any floor and thrown in a washing machine (it’s brilliant on sofas too as I know it protects the surface). Bring some baby toys. Yes it’s different from holidays pre kids as the parenting still continues, but, we take shifts/are doing nice things so generally enjoy it. However, as someone said above - I don’t tend to do villas with a pool (as I’d find free access stressful - but I’ve 2 under 3!).

Rome is not the most buggy friendly of cities. What type of activities do you have in mind? Would you do them at home with baby? We’ve combined some Spanish city’s (exploring, playgrounds, food) with time by a pool/beach and loved it!

We did Texas, Nuremberg and France the summer DS1 was that age. The first two were for weddings. He wasn’t yet crawling so it was a breeze apart from the heatwave in Nuremberg where the hotel gave us an extra fan. If he’d been mobile it’d have been rather more tricky.

We took ours to Jersey in July 22 when she was 8-9 months and did our usual city break type holiday. We hired a car to get to our hotel from the airport so that we had somewhere to put all of our baby stuff (took our buggy but not our car seat 😬 - would make the opposite choice if I was doing it again). She was still napping a lot so we had plenty of time for castles, museums, shopping, etc. Stayed in a spa hotel with a pool and lots of places to relax, which worked well as I could take her in the pool and then breastfeed on the loungers, either inside or out on the lawn. We took ear defenders and a shade thing for the buggy so we could stay out and about when she was sleeping. It wasn’t the same as a pre-baby holiday but it was nice. I wouldn’t bother doing it this year with a 20 month old toddler 😂

Tl;dr - choose hotel carefully, take a baby carrier as well as buggy, take car seat if hiring a car, buy ear defenders, have a nice time because your baby won’t be portable and easily placatable in the same way the following summer 🙂

I think it’s fine.

Wouldnt book Rome in July, but any other city is fine. At 8 months they can just be taken wherever you go as can’t run away and don’t need it all child focused. They will still nap so can use pram and sling and wander city, museums etc..
My Ds was walking at 8.5 months, so likely they will be on the move crawling at least, but they can be contained in pram, highchair, travel cot still when needed. And then crawl around when appropriate

Berlin would be my suggestion for city. Book a hotel with pool so you can pop in with baby late afternoon. There’s lovely museums, walking tours, parks, places to eat.

Otherwise Palma Mallorca for beach and city combo. Book a nice small hotel that has pool, but not rammed with families. You don’t need all the playgrounds and pool slides at that age anyway.

Oh and we asked for a fridge in our hotel room for milk and snacks

We did a beach/pool holiday at 9 months. Daughter didn’t crawl until 10 months so she would just sit on the lounger with us playing or watching the world go by (when she wasn’t napping). We went to Sani in Greece which was really child friendly and excellent food for a weaning baby. The only downside was sharing a room as it meant we had to go to bed at the same time. It was a lesson learnt as now we only book hotel rooms with separate living space for us or our child.

I would wait and book next year once your baby is here. It will be a different holiday from what you are used to but it will still be a break from home.

We went to an all inc resort last October in Turkey for a friend's wedding with dd1 (almost 3 years) and dd3 (6 months) and it was great.
Dd2 slept or fed during the flight, napped well in her pram or the travel cot, had just started weaning so picked at food we ordered or chose from the buffet.
The hotel supplied travel cot, baby bath & steriliser.

So I would definitely recommend that type of holiday rather than a city break or sightseeing trip where baby would spend a lot of time in a pram getting fidgety and hot and bothered

Do it. Do it before they're crawling and walking! Strap the baby in a baby carrier and enjoy. Have some long lunches/dinners whilst they sleep in a pushchair.

Friends are being negative. We’ve done Greece with 4 month old, Denmark with 8 month old, Florida with 10 month old. All fine, I would say 6-18 months is probably the most annoying age on a flight as they want to wriggle/move around but don’t understand that they can’t. But Rome/Vienna etc are short flights so if it’s awful it isn’t long to endure. Also we’ve never been the only people with babies on a flight so plenty of people do it!

Also we went to Sani when DS1 was 2, 6 years ago now which I think must have been before all the insta-hype about it. Absolutely wouldn’t pay today’s prices for it as it’s just a normal complex IME with not much for the kids to do 😵‍💫

Could you celebrate your birthday earlier? End of June will be super crowded in Rome and possibly also very hot. Vienna should be OK, unless there's a heatwave, but Rome is much more fun. Springtime will be much nicer, and it's also so much easier to travel with a smaller baby. At 8mo, they want to explore so harder to keep amused.

City breaks are totally doable with babies :) My son (now nearly 3) has been carted around various cities in Italy and Spain a lot and it's been great fun!

It’s really fine, we have been taking our daughter abroad since she was five months old, she’s almost two now. The only thing I always suggest is no matter the age of the baby buy them a seat, having the extra room if you’re in economy makes a huge difference, as it’s hard to even hold a baby without being in your seat neighbours space.

As far as city breaks go, visiting a city abroad really isn’t any different to visiting a city in the UK once you’re there.

We took our baby away at 7 months. The airport was quite stressful (particularly going through security - we just didn't seem to have enough hands!) but the flight was fine. The holiday was ok but very different to pre-baby holidays. Everything takes so much longer and we only managed to do a fraction of what we could have previously. Once we had adjusted our expectations and realised it was going to be very different to before, we did still have a good time. I'll be honest though, it didn't feel like that much of a holiday, more just looking after the baby in a different place with a lot less (useful) stuff around.

It hasn't put us off though, we're going away with him again twice more before he's 1 (making the most of the mat leave!). Will just be going into those holidays with altered expectations of what they will be like so hopefully we should enjoy them more than the first one (which I'll admit was a bit of a shock to the system).

I'd say as long as you don't expect it to be like pre-baby holidays and plan accordingly, you will be fine. Good luck with the new baby!

I'd honestly wait until you've had the baby and see how you feel because yes, the logistics of having a baby on holiday are harder but also, even if the baby is chilled and sleeps well etc you may find that your "special" holiday isn't so special with a baby in tow. Holidays suddenly become just more child care but in a different place, for a while when children are small.

It is possible but it depends very much on the baby and how laid back they are. And don't forget you'll be at the start of weaning...
My advice from experience, don't do ot. I travelled with both at that age DC1 was fine... but DC2 got a nasty tummy bug and was very unsettled during the whole trip. Wait until they are a bit older.

Thank you everyone for the responses. If we do going ahead I’ll avoid July as as pp have said it would be very hot. We like culture, churches and touristy bits etc which is what we look for in a holiday.
Nice to see that plenty of people have gone away with their babies and had a nice time 😊I think we’ll try a trial run in Wales in the spring and see how it goes! 😊

Depends on your baby to a certain degree - DS1 was very very happy to be carried in the sling indefinitely, and didn't really become interested in moving until about 1. We had a great holiday with him at 8 months where we did lots of walking and exploring and he was content at new people smiling at him. DS2 at 5 months is already showing signs that he's going to be a lot more interested in the physical side of things than his brother, and isn't as happy in the sling for long periods.