Your How-To Guide for Traveling with Your Baby
Traveling with your baby won’t be easy, but it is worth it.
Since you’ve stumbled upon this blog post, I’m assuming you’ve already made the decision to travel with your baby. If you’re still on the fence, feel free to read this post as to why I really think you should.
Traveling with a baby will not be easy, but it is worth it, and the memories are wonderful. My goal for this blog post is to provide tips, products and insight into how to tackle travel with baby. Please learn from our mistakes, as well as our experiences, to have the best time with your bundle of joy.
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Tip #1: Start Small
If you want to travel with your baby, start small. What does this mean exactly?
Stay close to home and be gone for only one or two days.
We took our first son to the Wisconsin Dells when he was six weeks old. The Wisconsin Dells is only 1.5hrs away from our house, so my husband and I agreed that if things weren’t working out, we’d just come home. To our surprise, things went really well.
*Fun side note: I forgot the diaper bag! Talk about a first time travel fail with kids. But it turned out okay. We just ran to Walmart.
For our second kiddo we, of course, already had our first. But we went to Door County, WI when our second was six weeks old for a couple nights. Door County is three hours away from where we live and the four of us had a great time.
I have found that getting away, if only for a night or two, when the babies are really little has been a HUGE boost for the family in those early days. Having different scenery is wonderful, and needed.
Tip #2: Travel to, or with, family/friends
My husband and I are lucky. Most of our family lives within driving distance, so we don’t use vacation time to visit family. But if you want to jump in to traveling with your infant, visiting family or friends is a great way to do that.
When you visit family or friends you’re usually staying at someone’s house. This gives space for sleeping, flexibility for different schedules, etc. Your friends and family might also have baby supplies, so you don’t have to bring as much.
For our first trips with our babies, we traveled with family. My oldest son’s first trip, at six weeks old, was a family reunion in the Wisconsin Dells. For his second trip, at ten weeks old, my in-laws tagged along to Scottsdale, Arizona to help my husband (it was a work trip for me).
Having the extra hands, whether visiting family or traveling with friends, is super helpful and takes out a lot of the stress.
Tip #3: Get gear that makes travel with baby easier
By the time my oldest son turned one, we had taken him on eight trips, all of which looked different. (Flights vs driving; weeks vs weekend; visiting friends/family, etc).
These are the things I would not go without when traveling with a baby.
Graco Pack 'n Play® On The Go™ Playard (pictured on the right). There are going to be different opinions on this, but I stand by mine. We brought our Pack ‘n Play on every trip. When we flew, I checked it (for free). When we drove, we packed it. Many travel experts will suggest using whatever the hotel/vacation rental has on hand because then you don’t have to pack it. But our Pack n’ Play was so easy to bring along and I didn’t want to worry about the type or availability of equipment when we arrived at our destination.
To go along with the Pack n’ Play, I highly recommend getting a Pack n’ Play mattress. The bottom that comes with the Pack n’ Play is rock hard. Your poor kiddo is not going to want to sleep on that. We have one like this.
*Pro Tip: Make sure you get one that trifolds (or rolls into a packable format). We were gifted a beautiful Pack n’ Play Mattress that didn’t fold, and we just never used it. It was impossible to take anywhere.
The one that we have fits in our largest checked luggage and it fit easily in a car for road trips as well. I avoid checking luggage whenever I can, but knowing the combo of Pack n’ Play and Mattress gave my babies good night sleep, was worth checking a bag.
Lastly, on the sleeping topic, make sure to get two Pack n’ Play sheets. You want an extra sheet along so that if an accident happens in the middle of the night, you can just switch to the clean sheet.
Next on the list, is how to carry that baby around everywhere. We used the Infantino Carry On Multi-Pocket Carrier. It works great from the littlest stages to the when the baby is moving into a toddler stage. Our first son got bored sitting in his stroller often so we used this carrier all the time on vacation. Our second son actually loved the stroller, but there are just some places you can’t bring a stroller, and it’s easier to carry your baby. This carrier worked great for myself and my husband, but my parents also found it comfortable as well.
The last thing I’ll cover on gear for a vacation with your baby is a stroller. We’ve used the UPPAbaby Vista V2 Stroller on every vacation we’ve taken with our babies and toddlers. We ABSOLUTELY love it.
It is not cheap, but turns on a dime. There is so much room to hold everything on the bottom. The stroller also grows with you. It has a baby carrier, that moves easily from your car to the stroller. Once your baby grows out of the carrier, it comes with a chair that smoothly clicks into place. And if you add another kiddo to the family, you can get a second chair to create a double stroller.
As a warning, this stroller is not compact. If you’re flying, it’s great. It will hold everything you need in the airport, and then the gate agent stores it in the bottom of the plane until you arrive and get it back. But on road trips, this stroller takes up a lot of room. It’s not terrible when you’re using the infant car seat, but once the baby upgrades to the actual chair, there’s just more you have to fit in your trunk. So if you use a small, compact car for road trips, and you want to bring a stroller (which you should!), this is not the stroller for you.
This is obviously not an exhaustive packing list. Just a few of our family’s “must haves” for traveling with a baby. I will upload our packing list for our babies soon.
Tip #4: Keep a Light Itinerary
The trips we’ve taken with our babies do not have insanely busy itineraries, and I would highly recommend sticking to this philosophy. Taking care of a baby is exhausting and so much is unpredictable (sleeping, eating, illnesses, leaps, etc). I recommend visiting a place you don’t mind exploring for a number of days so all the things you have to bring for baby don’t have to be unpacked and repacked every 24hrs.
Plan on having early mornings with beautiful walks. Exploring museums, parks and beaches with your baby during naps. Your baby is free for almost any attraction, but they’re also a wildcard with how long they’ll let you stay. Many babies love water (I know ours did!) so staying at a place with a pool, or a splash pad, is ideal. And while your baby will most likely go to bed long before you want to, this gives you the opportunity to play games with your spouse and/or family. Perhaps get a place with a good view, since you’re likely to spend more time in the room when you have an infant.
Don’t try to have too many things with specific start or end times. An infant’s unpredictability is stressful enough. Don’t add too many appointments to your itinerary on top of it.
In Summary: Traveling with a baby is completely possible and enjoyable
Focus on these things:
Start Small
Travel to, or with, family/friends
Get gear that makes travel with baby easier
Keep a light itinerary
Our trips with our babies are some of the most heartwarming we’ve taken. They’re not easy, but they’re so unique given the innate needs your baby has. You get to see parts of the place you’re visiting that you just wouldn’t see without a baby, or when your baby gets older. Take advantage of these precious moments now.
