Destinations for traveling with children

Whether it's weekend getaway, city break or longer vacation, sometimes we're not really sure which kind of place are good enough for a family trip. We keep questioning ourselves if the kids will enjoy the environment of the next destination we've picked for the upcoming vacation, if the hotel we booked is child friendly enough, if the local food will be appealing for them. Our baby girl is, luckily, not too picky. She enjoys almost everything so we don't really think about picking a destination to match her needs and interests. But if you don't know where you should go, these are my tips based on our family's experience:

Playing in the water

Little kids love bathing! Our toddler loves being in the water. We'd normally prefer salt water but she really doesn't care. She'd bathed in the ocean, in the sea, in the swimming pools, in a volcanic lake, in the public fountains, everywhere. And she enjoyed it every time. Go take your toddler somewhere he can play a lot with the water like beach holidays and island hopping. Pick a quite lagoon with calm water that is not too steep for children to be safe. A boat or ferry ride is a bonus, our baby girl loves all kind of boat ride. If your destination happens to be nowhere near the sea, you could try to at least find a hotel with a pool, or a waterpark near to the city of your destination. Just remember, if your child still wears diapers, while they can be butt naked in the sea, they should wear swim diaper in the public pools to avoid accidents. We use reusable swim diaper (they're more expensive, but are good investments), but you can also buy disposable swim diapers if you want. Not only children enjoy water, water exhausts them, too. That means longer naps of early bed times so you can enjoy some glass of wine with your partner while chilling on the balcony of your hotel.

Baby girl at a beach on Rab island, Croatia, June 2015

Getting close with the animals

Which toddler doesn't love animals? Pick a safari destination, probably see some wild cats in the nature or dolphins watching off shore. If going to places with safaris is not yet possible for your family, pick some destination with a well maintained zoo or aquarium. We took baby girl to the safari park in Malang when we were in Indonesia and she was really loving it. She still talks about how a bear was blocking our road until today. My husband prefers not to go to the zoo for ethical reasons, but I personally think that zoo, if well maintained, is a great source of knowledge and information for children. We all probably get to visit safari destinations once or twice in our life, so cities with great zoos could be weekend getaway destinations that are as interesting and educative for the children.

Grizzly bear on our road, Safari Park in East Java, Indonesia, February 2016

Themed park of favorite character/toy

Once a toddler has a favorite TV or cartoon character (Mickey Mouse, Ariel the mermaid, or Elsa from Frozen who's booming recently) they would be super excited to see them in "real-life". That means that if your next destination happens to be Paris or California, you need to spend one day in Disneyland. Our baby girl doesn't really watch anything yet, but she loves her Lego (duplo) bricks so Legoland is in our bucket list. Although it sounds childish, theme-parks are actually cool for adults, too. I've been in Disneyland in Anaheim once and I could tell you I enjoyed most of the rides, and the firework show at the end of the day was lovely too. The entrance to these theme-parks are usually expensive, so try to spend a whole day in it to enjoy as many things as you could. Check if you can get some discount (and save some queuing time) by buying tickets online.

The chocolate factory tours

People of all ages love chocolate, white, dark, milk, flavored.. If you travel with bigger child or  toddlers, chocolate factory should be one of your checkpoints. We were visiting dear friends in Heiligenkreuz on the border of Austria with Hungary when they took us to visit the Zotter chocolate factory. Baby girl was around a year and a half then, and it was around the time she started to eat chocolate and candies. All the three of us ate way more (organic) chocolate than we're probably supposed to eat in a whole month, but then again, it's not a thing you do everyday, is it? Although probably not all are organic and fair-traded like Zotter, these days many chocolate makers open their doors for visitors around the world. There's actually a lot of things to learn about the process of transforming cocoa beans into chocolate bars (or drinks) that many of us never knew before.

Open space, with lots of grass and walking paths

Many parents stopped hiking the moment they got a baby. It's an activity seen impossible to be done with a baby. I myself was never a hiking-person, but I do enjoy occasional relaxing hikes on beautiful hills (and usually ended up eating strudel in the restaurant up hill). Whether we go hiking for no reason, or go to look for and pick mushrooms (an activity my husband enjoys so much), we kept doing it after the arrival of baby girl. The key of doing it is, well, baby-wearing. Please don't try to hike while pushing a stroller. Get a carrier, a structured carrier like mine (I have the classic Ergo) or soft carrier like meitai, wrap or sling. When baby girl feels like walking, we let her walk and run as much as she wants, then when she gets tired, my husband or I put her in the carrier (sometimes on the back, sometimes tummy-to-tummy) and we could keep walking while she naps. Hiking trip is always a great family choice, the child gets closer to nature, explores a lot of things they don't get to see where they live (especially if you live in an apartment in a big city like we do), has enough space to run around and great fresh air to breathe in.

Hiking up a small hill close from Lipik, in Slavonija, Croatia, May 2015

Last but not least, Italy!!

Why Italy? Because babies are absolutely adored there! No matter what, Italians love babies and toddlers! I think they're the most welcoming nation as far as traveling babies are concerned. Baby girl only had the chance to visit Trieste and Gorizia so far, but she'll get to experience Venice in a couple of months now. Shortly, spring is here, the days have gotten sunnier and nicer. I truly hope you're already planning your next family vacation!

Why you should take free stopover tours, with your child

Many major airports in the world, the home of the biggest airline companies, offer free stopover tours for their loyal passengers. In cooperation with the national government, they give their transit passenger a compliment while promoting their own tourism, which, is kind of smart. A lot of people don't know about this, I think mainly because the packages are advertised only on the official website of the airlines, so unless you buy your tickets from their official websites (many people still get their tickets from travel agencies) chance is you won't see the offer.

Until recently I only knew that Turkish airlines, Qatar airways and Emirates offer the tour for transit passengers in Istanbul, Doha and Dubai. A few days ago I found out that Thai airways and Singapore airlines offer the tours for Bangkok and Singapore. We did Istanbul stopover tour twice, in December 2014 and  March 2016; both times with our daughter (seven-month old the first time around and 23-month now the second time). We did two different tours with different destinations because they have several different schedules depending which day your transit its. You can find the detail on their website, but in short, they have three different departures depending when your transit is, with three different tour lengths depending when your connecting flight will be departing; but your transit has to last for a minimum of six hours. It looks more or less like this: you land in Istanbul, get your visa (if you need one) and pass immigration, find the counter and register yourself for the tour, wait for the departure and gather with other participants, and a tour guide will pick you up. They provide a bus which picks you up at the airport, and first drive you to have breakfast (for morning departure). After breakfast you do a walking tour to visit major touristic destinations in Istanbul (first time around they took us to the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and Basilica Cistern, the second time around they took us to Basilica Cistern and Topkapi palace) and give you free tickets to enter these places. In the end, they took you to have lunch and the bus drive you back to the airport. All for free. If you have a longer transit time, take a 12-hour tour, and they have another schedule for you after lunch. We had a connecting flight at 5pm so we did the half day tour.
 

Next time we go to Indonesia (which probably will be the beginning of 2017), we're planning to fly Qatar airways which also now fly from Zagreb, and take their free Doha tour. With Turkish airlines you have to pay for your own visa (it cost around EUR 25), while Qatar gives free complimentary visa. If you're a solo-traveler and not a fan of organized tours, just agree with the tour guide after the bus stops in the city that you'll go see around by yourself and be on the bus at the agreed time for departure. If you're traveling with a child like us, it's probably easier just to go with the rundown. The thing is, both times we did the tour, no other child was present. In a group of around forty of us, my toddler was always the only child (which made her the star of the tour). Most family prefer to just stay in the airport (in their safe zone) waiting for the next flight, rather than going out, back in, doing all the hassle. And I want to reassure you why we think it's pretty cool to do the tour with a child (or two):

Because she needs some fresh air

If you're flying from Europe to Asia, or from Australia to the USA, or wherever you're flying, you'll most likely have one stopover or two. That probably means 30 hours of breathing "stale" air. The air-conditioned plane, straight to the air-conditioned airport, back to the air-conditioned plane. Repeat one more time. During winter times they probably over heat, and during the summer times they over cool. My lips always crack during this kind of trip, my eyes burn and my skin gets sticky. Well my legs and my butt also hurt from all the sitting. I imagine it's probably even a worse for a toddler. Get out of the airport, use the free tour if offered. Breathe some fresh natural air outside, walk and stretch your muscles and let your child runs free a little.

Because she has enough of burger kings and Starbucks

Even if we try to eat as healthy as possible at home with all of the organic foods, green smoothies and chia seeds, when you have hours and hours at the airport, you probably end up buying fries in burger king or pastries with sausages in Starbucks. Just to kill time, or to get the wifi password, or because you don't know what else to get. My child eats everything really, but I know that she would prefer other things than three bags of fries with ketchup in six hours. When we took the tour now, we had some Turkish breakfast with rich choices of local cheeses, olives and tomatoes, breads and ayran (Turkish salted yogurt) which my daughter loved! For lunch they took us to have a delicious beef kebab with salad and spiced rice and the famous Turkish lentil soup for which my daughter asked for a second bowl. So it really is a time to get your child familiar with different cuisines!

Because anything new is interesting for her

When you're two, almost everything in the world is something you haven't seen before. And everything you haven't seen before is interesting to explore, to touch, or to lick. If you choose to stay in the airport during a long stopover, she'll see and do the things she's been doing probably for the last twenty hours. Escalators and fast moving tracks, trolleys drive along the alleys of duty free shops, riding mommy while she's on the massage chair, or getting candies from the aunties at the Victoria's secret shops. Get her out and see things she never seen before, and talk about it. We told her stories how Hagia Sophia was once a church and a mosque, stories about the Ottoman empire, about the Turkish miracle nuts called hazelnuts, and stuff like that. It doesn't really matter whether she truly understands, my toddler listened and responded with "aaaa" and nods. She asked "what's that" for everything: roasted chestnuts on the streets, sleeping dogs, high minarets of the mosques, blue nazars to repel the evil-eye curse, and so on. She touched every flower, pointed at every tram that passes, excited about almost everything we saw and went into.

Because come on, give yourself a break!

You would rather be in the airport than seeing things in the city? Oh come on! Okay, probably if you've visited Istanbul for like thirty times in your life, you'd rather pass the tour. But after being in Istanbul for four times, I still prefer to be in the city than in the airport. Especially if it's a city you've never been in before. Aren't you curious? To meet the local people, to try the local cuisine, to see the architecture? Trust me it's easier to catch your happily running toddler around in an open space with fresh air than on a slippery airport tiles with overly heated air. Well I, am looking forward for my free complimentary tour in Doha.

Flying (long-haul) with infants: the basics

We fly often, and we always have. Not always long-haul, many of them are also short flights. But they're the same thing, aren't they? Packing, sorting liquids in small bottles, getting a cab ride to the airports, checking in and getting your luggage rejected because you didn't pack too well (it gets better over time), taking off the belts and the watch and the shoes for the scanner, getting laptop, tablet and phones from the bag -once I even had to turn on my laptop at a security check in Singapore's Changi airport! Then the waiting for gate opening, waiting for boarding, the delays, more waiting, the cancellation of the flight.. Then if you're lucky not to be cancelled, there is still the turbulence, the bad coffee in the plane (or no coffee at all), the bumpy landing, and finally the lost luggage (it gets rare now. I haven't lost my luggage since 2007, when flying from Madrid to Los Angeles -my suitcase ended up in Phoenix). Now, with all that mess, add an infant to it. Yup, an infant in the security checks, an infant at the waiting room for the delayed flight, a crying infant on your lap at the take off, and an irritated fellow passenger whom your infant keeps kicking.

My first flight with a baby was back in July 2014, less than three months after I gave birth to our daughter. She was two-and-a-half-month old and about to fly from Zagreb to Berlin (which is quite a short flight). I was nervous for weeks. I made a list of everything we possibly needed, not only for the flight, but for the whole trip. We were about to stay in Berlin for a week. I took all possible medications (although she was healthy as a horse), bought disposable diapers for the trip (I cloth-diaper normally), practiced my apologetic phrases to fellow passengers in case she'd be crying the whole flight, packed many many clothes (too many!), and decided to take the strollers (probably the biggest mistake ever).

By the time I'm writing this post, my baby (now a toddler) is 23-month old, and had just flown her 22nd flight in her life a week ago. She is a pro flyer. But I'm, kind of, a pro mama flyer, too! Really after twenty two flights, you learn a lot. You make wiser choices and you're less nervous. I know it's probably hard for a first time flying-with-an-infant-parents, but I really hope these tips would help a little bit:

 

Baby wear instead of stroller

Flying with stroller is a nightmare. Especially if you're flying alone with your baby (without your significant other). Strollers have to go through scanners in the security checks, so if you own the bulky one, it could get hard to get them passing the machine. They're good when you depart and arrive in big airports where they have the jetway (the tunnel connecting the aircraft with the terminal), because you can leave the stroller right at the entrance to the aircraft and get them back once you get out of the aircraft, but they can be a hassle if you go and land at the airports with no jetways. Especially when you have to pass stairways to go down, get into the bus which takes you to the aircraft parked in a remote area in the airport (happened to me in Istanbul). Then there is the time when the baby screams and refuses to be in the stroller, meaning you use one hand to carry the baby and the other hand pushing the stroller. Forget the suitcases. When my baby was around 6-month old, I traveled to Indonesia, my home country, from Croatia, alone with her, leaving my husband working in Zagreb. To this second I'm grateful I chose the baby carrier. I had a classic Ergo carrier and had the baby on me all the time. I had my two hands completely free, and she can sleep and nurse whenever she wants. If you're not a big fan of nursing in public, baby carrier helps you nurse subtly, without a need of a nursing cover. If you're one of those who really really need stroller, keep in mind that most major airports in the world (especially the international hubs where you'd likely have stopovers) provide strollers to borrow for free. 

Reserve a bassinet

So when you buy your tickets online, most airlines don't offer you option to book a bassinet for your infant. You'll have to contact the airlines' local office to book a bassinet for you. If you don't reserve in advance, by the time you come to the airport the check in desk officer most likely will tell you that all bassinets have been reserved. What's it with the bassinet? The thing is, infant up to two-year-old doesn't get his own seat (unless you pay for one whole ticket for him of course). You pay 10% of the price of your ticket and you're allowed to have him as a lap child. If you don't want to have your toddler on your lap for 14 hours straight, ask for a bassinet. A bassinet is installed in front of your seat hanging on the divider-wall between cabin sections and your baby could sleep in it comfortably. What I like about it, is also the fact that a bassinet could only be installed on the first row of the seats in each cabin section, meaning the biggest leg room! In the morning when she wakes up, I get a flight attendant to take off the bassinet and voila, I get a spacious leg room for my baby to play on the floor.

Ask (nicely) whether the flight is full

I found this trick out by accident. I was flying to Istanbul alone with my baby and asked the lady on the check in counter for no reason whether the flight is full. She told me "no, it's not. Don't worry, I will block one seat next to yours so you can have two seats with your baby". I used the question ever since. So, when the plane is not fully booked, they can just block one or two seats next to you. They don't care anyway which seats will be empty. If you're flying short flights with low-cost carrier (like Ryan air or Easyjet) on a high holiday season, you probably won't have the privilege. But if you're flying long-haul to some exotic destination on a low season, chance is, the plane is half empty. On our last flights from Istanbul to Jakarta and then from Jakarta to Surabaya, the lady blocked all the mid four seats in a 2-4-2 flight formation for me and my husband, so the three of us (including our lap child) could comfortably rest. The family in front of us was traveling with three children (one lap child and two bigger children) and they blocked a total of eight seats for them! Remember, when you're traveling with an infant, especially alone, everyone would want to help you and to make your journey as pleasant as possible. You might be surprised!

 

Pack light, and ignore the liquid role thing

Don't over-pack. I know you want to anticipate every little incident, but too much luggage would just make another problem. You don't want to carry more than one bag to the cabin if you're also carrying a child. Check in all suitcases that you could, leaving you with one single bag which double acts as a diaper bag and your purse. Choose a bag with many pockets and sections so you can easily find passports and boarding passes, diapers and wipes, or coins for a massage chair (there are a lot of these in big airports and they work wonder!). When my daughter was younger, I preferred a baby carrier (my Ergo) on my front and a backpack on my back. Now that she walks by herself mostly, we bought her a Trunki ride-on suitcase which she can pull by herself, ride-on and drive, or ride-on while my husband or I pulling it. It's quite neat, we put all of her toys in it and it actually keeps her entertained longer. Most of flights (even the short ones, if they are not low-cost carrier) give away a package of toys or coloring set for infants and children, although I always bring our own toys. We have a "traveling set" toys which we always bring wherever we go. They're basically just a little bit of everything that she has at home, some bricks, one favorite stuffed animal, a wooden music instrument, and a set of coloring pencils and papers. Just so she has a little bit of home every time she travels. Big planes give you a personal entertainment set, meaning a toddler could watch short cartoons. Always check with your pediatrician what kind of medicines (probably also vaccination) you need to pack depending on the country of destination. We always take paracetamol in case of fever, nose vacuum and spray, baby cream for rash, re-hydration mix in case of diarrhea, probiotics, sunscreen and mosquito repellent. You probably know you can't take more than 10 bottles of each 100ml of liquid to the cabin, so you tend to throw away your drinking water before security checks? If you're traveling with an infant, EU and USA laws allow you to bring a (big) bottle (or two!) of drinking water because of the baby needs. Some Asian countries also allow it to my experience, so go ahead and take it. It might not seem too big of a deal in the countries where tap water is drinkable, just carry empty bottle and refill it in the bathroom every boarding room would have. But it becomes a problem when you're flying from a country where the tap water is not drinkable. Sometimes you pass the last security check and you can't buy anymore bottled water (or you don't have local money and the shop doesn't take cards).

Enjoy your early boarding

Last but not least, just enjoy the flight. Enjoy the whole trip! If you're enjoying it, your infant would also enjoy it. If you're nervous, he most likely would also be. They will let you to board early. I mean, it's not like the plane will leave you if you're the last person to board, but sometimes it's just nice! Don't forget to buckle up, and buckle your baby up. You'll get a special infant seat belt which normally is handed to you before take off. You'll have to buckle this belt onto your own seat belt and then wrap it around your child. Your child can be facing front or facing your chest. To day I still have my daughter facing me because she's nursing during taking off and landing, which helps her a lot taking the pressures off her ears. If your baby doesn't nurse, you can also give her bottle or lollipop if he's old enough.

Bon voyage!