8 Awesome Reasons to Travel with a Baby

For many new parents, the first year or two of a child’s life means life in the trenches.  A mixture of nappie changes, sleepless nights and plenty of cute smiles to melt your heart.

At the same time, much of the lifestyle we used to enjoy goes on hold.  Especially our travel ambitions.

In this article, I make an argument for not only why this is the best time to travel, but why you should.

Taking Connor travelling around the world for nearly a year non-stop in 2019 changed our lives and gave Connor the best start to his life that I can imagine.  Connor left a baby and returned a toddler with twenty-plus countries to his name.

Here are eight reasons why travelling with a baby is awesome (and why you should do it!).

Travelling with a Baby slows you down

Like at home, the little one dictates the majority of your day. When you are travelling, it is no different.  You need to travel at the baby’s pace. Meal times need to be consistent, so do naps and rest breaks.  

That’s a good thing.  It slows you down.

Any travel experience is better when you slow things up a little.  It makes you take the time to admire the view for a bit longer.  Enjoy a longer lunch break in the cafe and watch the world go by for a bit. Order that extra glass of wine.  Your snoring little one will thank you.  Pounding the pavement continuously can be exhausting at the best of times.  Exhausted babies are quick to remind you (and others within earshot) to slow down.

Nap times can be tricky to arrange but with a little planning, you can usually find a good spot to chill out for a little while.  These moments can be some of the most precious, so spoil yourself and relax a little too.  Use these times to reflect on where you are and live in the moment.  Soak in the atmosphere a bit more instead of being on the go all the time.

Slow travel is the best type of travel.

You Meet More People

As most parents probably know, babies and toddlers are the perfect conversation starter.

This is no different when you go abroad.  When you are travelling solo, or with friends, you blend in with the crowd.  When you have a little traveller with you for company, you stand out more and are often spoilt for attention by complete strangers.  It might be staff in a cafe, fellow travellers at a campsite or even the local person standing next to you at the bus stop.

Often it can be obvious you are not from the local area, when you are with a baby or toddler, people tend to find you a bit more approachable and are often curious about where you are from.

You get to meet some super interesting people.

On a tram in Budapest, we sat opposite a local woman on her way to work one day.  Connor had his best smile on that morning which started a beautiful conversation.  This woman was so proud that we had come to visit her city and in the fifteen minutes or so we shared on the rattling tram, we managed to get a personalised day itinerary from a local and she learned a little about the world from us.  This conversation would probably not have happened if it hadn’t been for our little guy.

You Get More Out of the Day

Remember sleep-ins on holiday?  Those were the best.  Especially after a late night.  Waking when you wanted to once was my idea of a perfect holiday.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but with a little traveller on board you can forget about that.  It’s not all doom and gloom though.  There is the brightest of silver linings.

Waking at dawn or pre-dawn is never fun, but the best part is you get a headstart on the day.  Ahead of pretty much every other traveller out there.  If you get some hustle on, you can be out and about exploring while most other travellers are just waking up.

If the idea of crowds and queues causes you to tremble a bit, then this is the best way to travel.  Streets are quieter, footpaths are free to navigate.  It all makes for a much more relaxing experience.  The crowds eventually come, but if you can prioritise where you want to see before they arrive, it can be a much more pleasant experience.

In Prague, the 16th-century Charles Bridge and its haunting gothic statues is usually packed with hundreds if not thousands of tourists on a summer’s day. The early morning I spent there with only a street sweeper for company, is a memory I will never forget.

You Have More Time to Relax in the Evenings

Travelling with a baby or toddler does come with sacrifices.  I am looking at you night owls.  Do not despair!  For there are more silver linings to consider.

Sacrificing those late nights to ensure your little one gets precious sleep generally means you need to pull the pin on your day earlier than you would prefer.  That’s ok though, as by gaining those extra hours in the morning to explore with no crowds about, you will probably feel pretty tired yourself.

Instead of planning a night out, you have little option but to put your feet up and relax in the evenings.  The time when in your past, you might be just going out for dinner. Those precious hours in the evening gave my partner and I a chance to connect without Connor around.  To relive and talk about the memories we had created that day. These chats partly inspired me to write my book, Twenty.  Travel experiences can fly by in the blink of an eye.  Taking the opportunity to sit down and relive those experiences, as you are living them, makes them much more memorable.

You Expose Your Child to the World

At such a young age, the experiences you expose your little one to, cannot be underestimated.

It could be the aroma from a pizzeria in Venice, or the melting pot of accents and languages that make up New York City.  Studies have shown travel experiences at such a young age can boost development in multiple ways.

The peak development of a child’s brain occurs up to when they are five years old, especially the first three years.  Giving your child the experience of being around others who are different from them at a young age, normalises for them that we are all different.

Your child may not remember the experiences themselves, however, they receive an even more important education.  An education that is not taught but experienced.  This education will help create a foundation that forms how they will view the world as they grow older.  

Studies have shown young children who have travelled are more confident and less cautious of new experiences.  By default, these experiences can make them more open and empathetic.

I have seen this already in Connor.  On our travels (and for most other travelling families), a visit to a children’s playground is non-negotiable.  Watching Connor play alongside local children in a sandpit in Slovakia or Germany, despite no common language, is beautiful to watch.

Words are overrated.  Behaviours count.  This is the greatest lesson I think we have taught our son.

You Get Priority Service (Sometimes!)

On planes, in cafes and restaurants, in queues, you name it, having a little traveller often gets you looked after just a bit quicker.

This is probably one of the more self-indulgent reasons to travel with a baby or toddler, but we all deserve a little bit of a treat occasionally don’t we?

The time you can save by getting the extra bit of table service or by generous people pushing you up the queue makes so much more time for the rest of the day right?  The time that is so precious when you usually have to be back where you are staying by dinner time.

Getting quicker service or favours doesn’t always work out, but when it does, everything just works a bit better.  It gives you more time to do more of what you want to do.

Babies and Toddlers are Cheap Travellers

Travelling does not have to be expensive.  There are more and more options all the time for the budget-conscious traveller.  These options stretch to family travellers where paying for young children and babies does not have to break the bank.  Most of the time, they don’t cost you a cent!

Plane travel still incurs a fee, however,  most transport options from trains to buses, don’t charge a penny for little travellers.  Entry to museums, activities and other attractions is often free.  Meals for young children are often heavily discounted if you choose to eat out.  

The only thing you can guarantee to be charged might be the overpriced ice cream somewhere warm.

With a little planning and some preparation, you can enjoy a whole day (or longer) without spending anything on your little traveller. Young children can visit famous sites such as the Louvre in Paris and the Vatican in Rome for free.  Having a little traveller doesn’t mean that you will be hit in the pocket so much that you miss out on your own experiences.

Next time you are planning a travel budget, be sure to remember this. Travel expenses for little travellers are significantly less than what you might have imagined.

You Spend More Family Time Together

One of the most important reasons to travel with a baby or toddler is the uninterrupted time you get together as a family.

Think about your normal day-to-day (for most of us).  Usually, one parent is working.  Sometimes both are.  Quality time as a family is often limited to the couple of days we get off each week and a little time at the beginning and end of the day.

By travelling and having new experiences together, every day, you create magic.  You bond more as a family.  You connect more.

Ultimately, you make memories together.

Life is about choices. If you have the opportunity and the passion to, why wouldn’t you choose to make the most of this special time as a family before the commitments of schooling take over much of the calendar?

Dollars in the bank can be replaced.  Memories as a family can’t be. Those memories are much more valuable.

If you have been putting off your travel dreams because of a young family, I hope I have given you some inspiration to take your little ones along for the ride.

Have you travelled with a young family before? What tips do you have to share? Let me know in the comments.