Getting 'em used to road-trips

My husband and I had loved road-trips before we were blessed with baby girl, and her arrival wasn't going to stop us from driving. But then we had problems. Although she had been flying since birth and loving it, she wasn't loving her car-seat and wouldn't stand driving in the car for more than three minutes in her early days. By the time she was around eight or nine-month old, she started to not to mind driving. She wasn't thrilled, but she didn't protest. Now by the time she's two, she loves it. She loves cars. Here are some tips we could share:

Break the trip into smaller parts

If I remember well, our first road-trip outside of Croatia was a prolonged weekend trip to Gorizia in Italy. Baby girl just turned one, I remember I had just returned to work then. Gorizia is only around 300 km away from Zagreb, but we knew baby girl wasn't ready to drive four hours non-stop. We broke the trip to two sections, we started from Zagreb in the morning after breakfast and drove to Opatija, a Croatian sea-side town on the way to Italy. We had coffee and spent the whole afternoon bathing in the sea (it was end of June). We had lunch afterwards, and by the time we got back to the car to drive, baby girl fell asleep almost immediately. We drove all the way to Gorizia. On the returning trip, we did the same thing, but we stopped in Trieste instead of Opatija, had coffee, lunch and gelato, took a walk around the city to exhaust her, then drove back to Zagreb.
 

A little stop in Opatija on the way to Gorizia

Give each destination several days of stay

If you do multi-city trip, don't do it too intensive with a toddler. Before baby girl, we used to do extra intensive road-trip because of lack of vacation days. Once we did Zagreb-Graz-Salzburg-Verona-Venice-Ljubljana-Zagreb in like one weekend. Now we try to spend at least three days in each destination so baby girl could get used to the place, enjoy her stay and get some rest. Two family friends who both lived in different part of Austria invited us to visit them somewhere during last year. In October when baby girl was a year-old and a half, we decided to go. We combined the two visits and made a round, started from Zagreb to Heiligenkreuz im Lafnitztal in Burgenland (via Graz) where one family lived, then from there to Klagenfurt where the other family live, and back home via Ljubljana. We did the trip in a week, spending around three days in each friend's place. We got to sight see, we got to hang out with the hosts, and she got proper sleeps.

Time the trip well

If you don't feel like stopping all the time and prefer to drive all the way to your destination at once, then it's best to time your trip for the period when your child's usually asleep. Earlier this year we drove to Ston on Pelješac island in the south of Croatia for a weekend. It's around 600 km away from Zagreb and we decided to go at around midnight from home. I just moved baby girl from her crib to her car seat and she was asleep almost the entire time we were driving. My husband drove for the first four hours, then we switched and I drove for the rest of the trip. By the time she woke up at around 7 o'clock, we were very close to the destination. We stopped in Neum of Bosnia and Herzegovina to tank the car and have coffee. They had some play corner for children so we spent an hour to rest there, then drove for another half an hour and we were in Ston already.

Soaking the sun in Ston in the middle of Croatian winter

Make sure the car seat is comfortable

Of course I don't want you to try sit on it to find out, but see how your child seems to feel in it. We noticed that baby girl sweats a lot in her seat during summer months despite the AC in the car, so we got the summer cover for the seat (a layer of high absorbent terry). Remember to always get an original accessories for your seat because of security reason; we got the summer cover from Maxi Cosi for our Toby seat. Make sure that the head and neck rest are set correctly to your child's height so he could sleep comfortably. Choose a seat that could recline so he doesn't have to sleep upright. From what we experienced, the same type of car seat (we're on the 9-18 kg one now) gets better reclining position when installed on Isofix system rather than with usual seat belt installation.

Play his/her favorite songs

You'd probably go crazy if you have to listen to "the wheels on the bus go round round round" literally all day long. Thankfully, we don't have to. We've been going to music class with baby girl under the licensed program of Music Together, which includes great kids songs. They basically sounds "normal" like adult song, of all great genres (country, rock, Latin, blues..) with educative and playful lyrics in English, sung by both adults and kids, and based on different instrument depending on the cycle of the class (we've had triangle and fiddle/violin, and now going to tambourine). Baby girl loves her songs from these classes, not only she sings along, she moves to the tune. If your child is quite musical like ours, the right songs would keep them entertained for a very long time.

Give it a time, don't traumatize!

This is probably our best tip. If your child screams and wouldn't sit still in the seat, give him a break. If you ignore his screaming and keep driving, you'd probably just traumatize him. Then he'd hate road-trip (or cars generally) forever. Stop and rest when he cries, get him some stretching and play time, and some more time to get ready again for driving. Make them love cars by letting them play with car-toys and anything with wheels and steering wheel. Children love to imitate their parents, and they're watching you driving all the time. Eventually the phase will pass and they'll enjoy car rides. Just buckle up and bon voyage! :)

Why child miles collection program is a good idea

If you fly frequently, whether for business or pleasure, you're probably familiar with miles collecting program. There are the ones that are provided by alliances that consist of many airline companies such as Miles and More program from Star alliances and Frequent flyer program from Skyteam; or individual programs by companies such as Miles and Smiles from Turkish airlines or Skywards from Emirates. My husband and I prefer Miles and More simply because it consists of the air companies we frequently fly. Mostly we fly Turkish airlines for Indonesia, or Croatia airlines for domestic flights, or Lufthansa for European flights; and all of them are member of Star alliances, so we collect miles from all their flights.

So it works this way: whenever you fly with any of their member companies, you're awarded with certain amount of miles depending on your booking class. If you collect enough miles, you can use them to buy another flight, to book hotels, to rent cars, or to buy things. Simple enough.

We usually spend our miles on hotels, so we get free hotel stays somewhere. A few years back before baby girl, we spent our first miles together to get a hotel stay in Vienna for a weekend getaway. Once we also get free stay in Brussels for some city break. Since baby girl, we have used it three times as far as I recall, four night stays in Athens last summer, then in Bali and lastly in Yogyakarta. For each hotel stay usually they require minimum of 10.000 miles per night, but the range differs greatly depending on your destination and the hotel type.

Enjoying the infant pool at the Swiss-belhotel in Bali

For Bali we managed to collect enough miles to treat ourselves a night of lavish stay in a hotel for which my husband said, the third most luxurious hotel he ever slept at (the first being the Crowne Plaza in Amsterdam and second being the Westin in Milan). This one belongs to the Swiss-belhotel chain in which a member of staff presented us with neatly rolled freezing towels on beautiful tray upon arrival at the check in desk (it was around 36 degrees Celsius outside). It probably felt better because it was a free stay though. The other three nights we stayed at a much less glamorous hotel I booked through my favorite booking site.
 

Exploring Prambanan temple near Yogyakarta

When we got to Yogyakarta we exchanged another set of miles for a free two-night stay at a hotel in the center of the city. It was okay, easily accessible, has a pool, and offered wide selection of breakfast. Although we don't always get extra luxurious hotels, free hotel stays are a great expense cut for every trip. If you're travelers without kids, of course community room sharing like couchsurfing is always a great option. But since a child was added to our trips, hotels have been more convenient to us.

Not until recently that we found out you can actually sign up minors (under 18) for miles collection program. This is quite logical because, once your child turns two, you have to buy him a ticket of almost full price, so why not collecting award miles? I found out that Miles and More (through JetFriends program) and Miles and Smiles (little Heroes) offer parents to sign their minors up for the club and they will be able to claim all award miles they collect once they're 18 year old. Who knows how many flights your child would fly in the 16 years time span? Probably a lot. Probably by the time they turn 18, they could claim a free transatlantic flight, or a week of hotel stays on an exotic island, or a cool extra light unbreakable four-wheeled luggage. They'll thank you!

Note: Check with your credit card issuer

I got this Amex card that is linked with my Miles and More membership, which rewards me with miles for everything I spend and charge on the card. So the miles collected from the payment could be combined with the miles collected by flying, which makes collection goes faster for claiming for a reward flight or hotel stay :)

Post holiday syndrome (Daycare problems!)

Baby girl started to go to the daycare right after her first birthday because my maternity leave ended on the day she turned one. I had to go back to work, and we didn't really have other choice except daycare. It took us two full weeks to get used to life in the daycare. She was still breastfeeding (she still is), and she spent her whole first year of life only with me, more or less. It's not that my husband didn't get involved with the upbringing, but it was me whom she spent every single day with, when he was at work. She was extremely attached to me, still nursing many times a day and never was watched by anyone. After two weeks of a delicate adaptation plan (meaning she came and stayed for half an hour for the first day and then half an hour was added every day for the next days) she and I managed not to cry during our morning separation on the first day of week three. She attends daycare from 8am to around 4pm since, willingly and happily.

In July last year, we went to Greece for a summer holiday that was combined with attending the wedding of a dear friend. Before going to Greece, we spent a week for a short vacation in Rab island of Croatia. Because of these trips, baby girl didn't go to the daycare for almost a month, after having attended for only two months (she started May that year). Before going, I consulted with the daycare psychologist whether it was a wise decision, and whether he thought we would have problem adapting when she has to start again. He said she might need a day or two to adapt again, but it shouldn't be too hard since she'd been familiar with the place and the staff. So off we went to Rab island, then to Greece.

Baby girl and dad trying the water for the first time in Gefyra beach

If we make a list of favorite holidays of the baby girl, Greece definitely would be on top of her list. She really enjoyed this one. We rented a car in Athens as soon as we landed, and drove five hours south to Monemvasia in Laconia. We stayed in a little studio facing a pretty beach which was private-like, and pretty close to the famous Monemvasia island. I can't describe how much she enjoyed it, the room we stayed at, the rides in the car (she hated car-seat back home), the waves, the beach and the swims, so much swimming, the hikes, the olives, oh the olives! She fell in love with the black olives grown locally she could eat tons and tons of them.

We attended a beautiful wedding during the weekend (in which baby girl danced and danced up to 2am when we finally put her to sleep and continued the party -it was such a lovely baby-friendly wedding), then we drove back to Athens. She enjoyed Athens almost as much as she enjoyed southern Greece, I must say. Despite the fact that the beaches were not as nice, she kept up with our itinerary well enough. We ate lots and lots of souvlaki and gyros (although we ate lots of them in tavernas in Monemvasia, too), had so much delicious Greek yogurt, visited many sites, and just generally walked around a lot. If we paid for our apartment in Monemvasia, we actually got to sleep in our hotel in Athens for free. I exchanged lots of miles for that (from Miles and More program -I'll talk about this issue in some other post). It was quite great actually, we could see the acropolis from our hotel room balcony.

  
This trip happened during the Greek bailout referendum, which spiced up the entire experience especially for my husband (you know, he's the "Quest means business" kind of guy, so he talked a lot to the locals, went to the voting place, wrote some report and article for some local papers back home and stuff like that).

After such a great holiday, the day we needed to go back to work/daycare was hard. Especially for the baby girl to get used again to getting separated from us. There was crying and screaming for at least a week before she finally adjusted back to routine. A week of protesting, refusing to eat, to sleep, and dramatic screams when I come to pick her up in the afternoon. It wasn't as hard as the first time around, but it was still hard. Both for her and for me, and probably for her caregivers in the daycare.

Now in the winter when we went to Indonesia, she was absence from the daycare for almost a month. After the great and long holiday, we arrived in Zagreb on one Wednesday evening, and she had to start daycare again already on Friday because I was back at work then. This time around, she didn't take it too hard. There was crying and sad faces but they passed after three days.

Does this kind of thing become a reason to not going to vacation? Nah. Of course not. As a child getting older, he's also getting more aware of the situation, you can actually talk to him like an adult. I explain to mine that I'll be coming back to pick her up, that she'll have lots of fun with her friends and caregivers, and that the weekend will come soon and then she can stay home with us. And of course, that the time will pass quickly and we'll be on another trip soon.

Remember, once they get into (elementary) school, you won't be able to travel whenever you want. You're going to need to adapt to their holiday schedule. Take as much trips as you could now that your children are still in the daycare or kindergarten!

The story about ER in Bali -Buy travel health insurance!

Being an Indonesian born, I never had the habit of buying travel health insurance. In the country where I was born, probably until recently, health insurance is an unknown concept for most of the people. The absence of an obligatory health insurance get the people used of the idea of sickness as a risk. If you get sick, you're going to need to pay for your treatment and medication. Period.

Living in Croatia for over five years changed my point of view of health. Sickness is not a risk. Healthcare is a right of everyone. Take some percentage of my gross salary for health insurance, probably I'd pay some little extra money for an additional health services, I get sick, I go to public hospital, I get cured and I go home, without spending more money.

So do we buy travel health insurance when we go abroad?

Before we had our little one, honestly, we didn't. We would go out of the country with positive thoughts and that's it. Now we'd think twice because a baby is involved. Our daughter belongs to that category of very healthy children, but you really never know what could happen do you?

We were in Greece in July 2015 when we had a little accident with our little one. We stayed at a hotel in Athens, it was probably midnight when a loud cry woke us up from sleep. Still half asleep we found baby girl (she was a little over a-year-old) on the floor facing down crying. Fresh blood was running over her face, looking like she was bleeding from inside her right eye. I nursed her and she fell back to sleep. We wiped the blood and found out that the blood didn't actually run from inside the eye, but from an open wound half centimeter away from the outside corner of her eye, probably scratched by the sharp corner of the nightstand next to the bed she bumped onto while falling. In the morning we talked whether we need to see a local doctor, but she acted completely normal, very active and happy, so we decided not to bother. (Find more details about this trip on this post)

Slowing down with plans, while baby girl recovering and chilling in our hotel

Since then, we buy health insurances when we plan to go outside of the European union. For EU countries we normally don't buy extra insurance because our national insurance covers emergency cases within the union.

I got us some family package (cost around €45) to cover all the three of us now when we were traveling to Indonesia and Turkey earlier this year. In the beginning I thought of just getting one for baby girl and my husband. I thought I didn't need one. But then I got pregnant, exactly before the trip. So I thought it was wise to get an insurance for myself too. Later that week I lost the baby (actually embryo) and I was no longer pregnant when we actually went for the trip, but it's a whole other story I might write sometime later.

Kecak dance performance at the Uluwatu temple

Long story short, all of us were super healthy the first ten days in Indonesia, until we got to Bali. I think it all started when we went seeing the Balinese kecak dance in Uluwatu temple. Usually this dance is performed during sunset, but it was raining the day we went to see it. It was warm though, so we thought we'd stay under the rain. Probably being over exhausted, her immunity decreased, baby girl got a fever right after the performance. That night her temperature was 39.2 Celsius, so we gave her regular paracetamol. In the morning she woke up with an even higher temperature, and we stayed in the hotel that day, trying to put down her body temperature. The day after that, she woke up with a temperature of 39.8 (even after taking paracetamol), which triggered us to take her to the emergency room. We got to the ER of BIMC (Bali International Medical Center) Kuta and she was received quickly and examined thoroughly, diagnosed for common cold and child's bronchitis, she got another set of paracetamol, ibuprofen and regular cough syrup and then sent home. And for all that, we're charged €87, an amount we'd never pay back where we live.

Chilling in the pool of our hotel in Kuta, during the recovery days

She recovered quickly, the cold and cough passed after probably three days, after which she was back to her usual self and we got back in track with our planned itinerary. The moment we got back to Croatia, I got in contact with my insurance company, sent all of the documents we got from the hospital including the bills, and within three weeks they paid back the amount we spent in the hospital to my account. So if you plan to travel with children, and you never thought of getting travel insurance, think twice!

Note: Check with your credit card issuer!

Every credit card offers different benefits for the owner. My American express gives me a travel health insurance coverage up to €5,000 if I buy my international flight ticket with that very card, on my name. I found out about this too late (sigh!) when I had already charged our tickets for that trip on Master card. But it's good to know for the future. Maybe your card offers similar benefit!