“Your baby will never remember this. Why would you travel with them?”

I can’t tell you how many times I get this question. And I understand. I really do. Traveling is expensive. (Or at least it can be). So why “waste” that money during a period in your kid’s lives when they won’t even remember it?

Before our first son was one, he had been on 17 different flights. We had also done a number of shorter road trips (he was a horrible car kid, so the road trips had to be kept under three hours). There’s something special about every trip we take, but those adventures when our kiddo was a baby hold so many fond memories. Of course, he won’t remember them, but we will. And we also get to watch him grow with each trip we take.

So I’ll give you my reasons why I think you should travel with a baby. I’m sure there are more. And I’m sure there are still plenty of reasons why families need to wait until their kids are older.

But hopefully, after you’ve read through this list, you’ll consider taking that little bundle of joy on a trip.

Travel with a baby because you want to travel

Travel with a baby because they are virtually FREE

Travel with a baby because they don’t care where they are

There’s not going to be many years where your child won’t have an opinion, but while they are a baby, they don’t. You still get total say of where you want to go and when without an opinion from the peanut gallery. Whether it’s a museum, amusement park, National Park, family/relative’s house, it doesn’t matter. And remember reason #2? They’re free! So not only do they not have an opinion about where they go, but it doesn’t cost you anything to bring them either.

In the first year of my son’s life, we took him to the Wisconsin Dells (road trip) for a family reunion, Disney World, Door County, WI (road trip) and a work conference in Scottsdale, Arizona (my husband tagged along too). By myself, I took my son to a writing conference in Utah, Maine to visit a best friend, and The Villages, FL to visit my folks.

*Something to note: This is a lot of travel, and could be very expensive. Thanks to my travel for work, most of these flights were free as I used points. In many cases, we stayed with family and friends on our trips to save on hotel stays. And going to back to reason #2, my son flew free.

Obviously, I love to travel (hence why I have this blog) and wasn’t going to let having a baby slow me down. (Though I definitely didn’t get nearly as much sleep, and trips aren’t even close to relaxing when you have a baby.)

Travel with a baby because it gives you perspective in the future

Travel with your baby because… The Memories

In Summary: The Top Five Reasons to Travel with Your Baby

1. Because you want to travel

2. Because your baby is free

3. Because your baby doesn’t care where they are

4. Because it gives you future perspective for travel

5. Because of the lasting memories

I’m sure there are more reasons than these to travel with a baby, but these are my top five. Feel free to reach out to me if you’ve got others I should consider. Hopefully if you were on the fence as to whether you should travel with your newest addition to your family, I’ve convinced you otherwise. And if you have been convinced, you can read this post to find tips on how to travel with a baby.