Have Toddler, Will Travel Happily

We have traveled quite a bit with S since she was almost 1 year old. While in the US, we took her on two 'flying' vacations (Baltimore and Denver) and many driving trips/day trips. Since we've been in Geneva, we have been traveling a ton as those of you who read my blog know. S has been to 10 new countries in the past year and we have traveled via plane, train, cruise ship, and car.

I've had a few people ask me for tips on this subject, so I decided to make a blog post based on our experiences of things I have learned while traveling with a toddler.

It is worth it to get your toddler their own seat in most instances. We didn't buy S a seat for our first flight (11 months) but did for Denver (17 months) and were really glad we did. Beyond airplanes, we have also found it worth it to have a specific seat for S on the train. The extra room is great when trying to keep her occupied and gives me space to find snacks, games, etc.

Build child friendly activities into your itinerary. We have done lots of city touring, which has surprised some of my friends. We try to build in something specific for S each day - a zoo, a playground, time at the hotel pool, etc. She uses some energy and we get to explore a new part of the places we visit. Some of my favorite places have been the Munich Zoo, the playground in Caiscas Portugal, and Park Sempione in Milan.

Be prepared. You always see the typical advice for what to bring on flights to keep toddlers distracted, but days out exploring requite a little extra preparation. I always keep more snacks than I think necessary with me in case S doesn't like the food (more on that in a second), extra sunscreen, small toys in case we end up being out longer than I expect, and wipes that always come in handy.

It is OK to end up at McDonald's, Subway, or Hard Rock Cafe once in awhile. We try to eat the local food and specialties on our trips, but sometimes all the toddler (or you) want is something familiar. I really fought this at first, but I finally realized we needed to have McDonald's once in awhile (if you know me well, you know this is a treat in itself as we very rarely have it in Switzerland too) or go to Hard Rock Cafe if the local dinners just aren't working. My favorite example of this was in Belgium on a Saturday evening - we had toured all day and had a pretty big lunch, we were all just tired so we stopped at McDonald's for S and Subway for J and me, brought it back to our hotel room, rented a movie and relaxed. It was perfect.

Listen to what your kids realize about the places. Toddlers notice the most obvious things that we might take for granted - all the bikes in Amsterdam amazed S, the simple joy in pushing the music buttons at the Atomium made it even more fun, and the swimming pool that was an indoor/outdoor mix is still one of her favorite things to talk about.

People are happy to help. The bartenders at hotels are more than happy to refill S's milk cup (often times for free, which continues to shock me), the flight attendants have all sorts of goodies for kids from stuffed airplanes to stickers to puzzles, and the local parents are happy to point the way to the closest toilet in the park.

Toddler jet lag isn't so bad, but isn't fun either. The one thing I know I haven't found the best solution for is jet lag. S was really jet lagged when we arrived in Geneva (and being a week after summer solstice with very late sunsets didn't help). To keep my sanity, I went to bed when she did and got up when she did for awhile (even if that meant sleeping in later than normal for me). At Christmas, we had the opposite -she was falling asleep at 8 the first few nights so off to bed I went too.  Thankfully she adjusted quickly, but I stayed with her schedule rather than forcing the issue.

There are a few things we haven't yet tried but friends have - hotel babysitting services have been recommended to me a few times; we haven't done it, but multiple friends have and love them. Kids Clubs are also quite popular - we have limited but positive experience with this from the cruise but I know others had great experience in many hotels with this.

Any favorite tips from those that read this?