If you have children (or even if you don't), at some point you'll be considering a trip to Orlando to visit Disney World. But what if Disney isn't your cup of tea? There are other things to do in Orlando as the article Going Beyond Disney in Orlando shows.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Friday, January 11, 2013
Link of the Day
The NY Times has some neat tips on how to save money on travel in 2013 and they aren't necessarily what you would expect. I especially like the tip on picking up the phone and talking to people. Recently, my husband and I booked a hotel overseas through a national travel website, but then learned we could get a cheaper rate by booking directly through the hotel. The cheaper rate even included breakfast! For other savings, check out For Traveling Savings in 2013, Go Retro.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
To grandmother's house we go
We took our first car trip to see the grandparents when baby was just shy of 8 weeks. Under normal circumstances, the drive takes about 3 hours, depending on whether we stop. We decided to take the 'usual' route as we are very aware of all the 'good' places to stop (i.e., clean bathrooms!). Traveling with a baby, however, introduced a new kink to the plan. Would the normally reliable clean bathroom stops also have changing tables? And while we're at it, how does one change a baby's diaper on one of those fold-out changing tables?
The question seems silly now in retrospect; we've changed diapers all over the world and in so many different conditions that our initial worry about how/where to change diapers on a fairly straightforward car trip seems almost nonsensical. It's just as the time we were first time parents with this teeny tiny baby and the logistics of moving from point A to point B were daunting. How do you feed a baby in a moving car if you're breast feeding? Do you stop? Do you take baby out of carseat and keep driving? Do you give a bottle even though most breastfeeding advice at that age say no, no, no?
Packing for this three hour trip took us two days. TWO DAYS. I admit to over-packing on baby's clothes (seriously, at this age the clothes are SO cute and you just want to take EVERYTHING), but everything else seems (even today) to have been reasonable for that age. Among other things, we took my Medela Pump in Style, a sound machine, and the Graco SnugRider Elite. Now these things might not seem like big items, but little things like this quickly add up and we were trying to fit all of it into the back seat of a Prius. Back before baby, the Prius seemed like an enormous upgrade from my Corolla, but we were starting to realize very quickly that babies travel with a lot of stuff and there was a reason why people upsized their vehicles big time once the kids came along.
Our trip went smoothly, almost too smoothly. We left around naptime and ignored the breastfeeding advice and gave the baby a bottle in the car and she felt promptly asleep and then proceeded to sleep all the way to the grandparents' place. The issue of diaper changes on the road was pushed to a future road trip as seriously, who wants to wake a sleeping baby? If only future trips turned out to be as easy and peaceful as this one was.
The good news is that a year after we made that trip, we've got our packing down from two days to two hours. Travel enough and you develop a rhythm or as the tired adage goes, practice makes perfect. You figure out what you really need and what you can do without and what you can improvise on the road; honestly, the lighter you can travel, the easier and better it is. The good news is babies do need less stuff to travel with as they get older; it's just that the stuff they need gets bigger (making the Prius seem even smaller!). Also, as my husband is fond of pointing out, most places we go to have stores and we can always buy the thing we forgot. Because of these factors, we've managed to whittle down on the amount of stuff we need to take. I'll talk about some of our makeshift solutions in another post, but there's one problem we haven't solved: I still overpack when it comes to baby's wardrobe.
The question seems silly now in retrospect; we've changed diapers all over the world and in so many different conditions that our initial worry about how/where to change diapers on a fairly straightforward car trip seems almost nonsensical. It's just as the time we were first time parents with this teeny tiny baby and the logistics of moving from point A to point B were daunting. How do you feed a baby in a moving car if you're breast feeding? Do you stop? Do you take baby out of carseat and keep driving? Do you give a bottle even though most breastfeeding advice at that age say no, no, no?
Packing for this three hour trip took us two days. TWO DAYS. I admit to over-packing on baby's clothes (seriously, at this age the clothes are SO cute and you just want to take EVERYTHING), but everything else seems (even today) to have been reasonable for that age. Among other things, we took my Medela Pump in Style, a sound machine, and the Graco SnugRider Elite. Now these things might not seem like big items, but little things like this quickly add up and we were trying to fit all of it into the back seat of a Prius. Back before baby, the Prius seemed like an enormous upgrade from my Corolla, but we were starting to realize very quickly that babies travel with a lot of stuff and there was a reason why people upsized their vehicles big time once the kids came along.
Our trip went smoothly, almost too smoothly. We left around naptime and ignored the breastfeeding advice and gave the baby a bottle in the car and she felt promptly asleep and then proceeded to sleep all the way to the grandparents' place. The issue of diaper changes on the road was pushed to a future road trip as seriously, who wants to wake a sleeping baby? If only future trips turned out to be as easy and peaceful as this one was.
The good news is that a year after we made that trip, we've got our packing down from two days to two hours. Travel enough and you develop a rhythm or as the tired adage goes, practice makes perfect. You figure out what you really need and what you can do without and what you can improvise on the road; honestly, the lighter you can travel, the easier and better it is. The good news is babies do need less stuff to travel with as they get older; it's just that the stuff they need gets bigger (making the Prius seem even smaller!). Also, as my husband is fond of pointing out, most places we go to have stores and we can always buy the thing we forgot. Because of these factors, we've managed to whittle down on the amount of stuff we need to take. I'll talk about some of our makeshift solutions in another post, but there's one problem we haven't solved: I still overpack when it comes to baby's wardrobe.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Traveling tips for an easier flight
This article offers 35 tips for travelers to make taking to the friendly skies a bit more friendly and easy. Only the first few tips apply to traveling with children, but there are some super good and creative ideas, submitted by 'real' travelers. I especially like the 'airline tent' idea. I'm going to have to try that one out next time we fly!
Read 35 Tips for a Successful Flight.
Read 35 Tips for a Successful Flight.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Airline Luggage Policy for Children
Every airline has a different policy for luggage for both adults and children. It's worth checking ahead of time to make sure you don't get stuck with any unintended baggage fees. Most airlines will, however, check at least one infant item -- a stroller or carseat -- for no fees, and some may even check both for no fees. You might also want to check if what the airlines' policy for gatecheck is; if you do plan to gatecheck, you might want to get to the gate counter a few minutes prior to boarding to get the special tags for your items. It will save you and everyone else time for boarding.
In addition, if you have frequent flyer benefits with an airline, you might find that you get more than your regular baggage allowance and you can check additional items like carseats and strollers for no additional fee.
Note that baggage allowances vary by international and domestic flights and that if you are flying internationally and are planning to take a regional flight in-country, you might find the regional airline will have a different fee structure, especially if it's a discount airline like Spirit Air.
In addition, if you have frequent flyer benefits with an airline, you might find that you get more than your regular baggage allowance and you can check additional items like carseats and strollers for no additional fee.
Note that baggage allowances vary by international and domestic flights and that if you are flying internationally and are planning to take a regional flight in-country, you might find the regional airline will have a different fee structure, especially if it's a discount airline like Spirit Air.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
About me
I'm a stay-at-home mom of a lively toddler who, to date, has three stamps in her passport and has flown on 19 different flight segments, not to mention has also traveled by taxi, bus, boat, and car. I started this blog because traveling with a baby was daunting to me, even though I had been a frequent traveler prior to baby. Still, traveling has been such a huge part of our life that we didn't necessarily feel like we could slow down. So we made some adjustments, experimented here and there, hit friends up for advice, and now we have circled the globe with baby and have learned a lot from our experiences. We learned what techniques work for us, what doesn't, what products are worthwhile and which ones aren't, and more importantly, we learned that becoming parents doesn't mean staying home. There's a whole lot of world out there and we can't wait to share it with our baby.
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