Going on an epic road trip with a one-year-old. Was it a bad idea? Europe summer 2018

Simona and I love travelling and one of our big concerns about having a baby was whether we would still be able to travel like before. We tested the waters, when Olivia was 2 months old, when we took her on a short trip to Koh Samui. Then, before she was one year, she had been to Thailand, Indonesia, Germany, Hong Kong and Australia. However, for her one year trip, we planned something special. We took her on a road trip through 6 European countries, a total of over 3,500 km by car.

Olivia on her first trip to Australia when she was 9 months old.

A lot of people could not believe that we would dare to do such a thing. They said it would be too stressful, and not worth it, because Olivia won’t remember anyway. Let’s break it down to see what was stressful, what was rewarding and did Olivia actually enjoy it?

All buckled up? No, I want to run around and talk to strangers.

The flight: This was Olivia’s third flight to Europe, so we had some practice. However, the fact that Olivia walks now, really made things more difficult, as she does not want to sit still. Luckily it was a night-flight, so she slept about half of the 13 hours flight time. To sum it up, I would say the flight was no fun but very manageable. It is actually tougher to deal with her jet lag after the flight than the flight itself.

A lot of people think that it is better to wait before taking their kids on a plane for the first time but I actually think the sweet-spot is when they are around 6 months old. By then they are less fragile than newborns but they still sleep a lot and most importantly, they can’t walk or crawl yet and are happy with sitting or lying down the whole time. Once they can crawl or walk, they won’t want to sit still.

The drive: We’re lucky that Olivia is one of those babies that doesn’t mind being in a car. Of course she gets bored sometimes but overall she did really well. There was only one time when she got cranky and that was when there was a total stand still on the German Autobahn and our car didn’t move for over 2 hours. We eventually took her out of the car and walked around. Cool huh?

Olivia and Papa walking around on the Autobahn. No speed limit doesn’t help when your’re stuck in a traffic jam.

The move from hotel to hotel: The biggest hassle was actually moving hotels. Being on a road trip means that you change locations every night or at least every other night. That means that you need to pack and unpack very often. With all the stuff that you need to bring for a baby, that is quite a lot of work. Our recommendation, get a big car so you can bring multiple bags, which makes packing easier. We also brought a travel crib which helped Olivia not having to get used to new beds every night.

You can see how much fun Olivia has when she explores a new hotel room.

The sights: To be frank, Olivia does not care for scenery, architecture or sunsets, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t enjoy travelling. You can really see how she gets stimulated by new environments, languages and meeting strangers. And of course she enjoys the pasta, pizza, breads, sausages, ham and so on.

And don’t forget, these pictures that we took during the trip will last a life time.

Hello there. I love walking stairs, but when I am sleeping in my stroller, then my dad has to carry the stroller with me up and down. He likes the workout.

The stairs: Coming from Asia, where cities are modern and wheelchair / stroller friendly, we did not put enough thought into how we would cope with those medieval European towns and villages. We would have thought about getting a good carrier if we had planned to go hiking but let me tell you that Venice has a lot of bridges and all those bridges have stairs and a good carrier would have been amazing to have. So please, if you go to Venice with a baby or a toddler, make sure you have a really good carrier. Apart from Venice, it was mainly Cinque Terre, were we had challenges with our stroller. All in all, I would say that it was nothing that made us enjoy the trip less. I tried to look at it from the bright side and declared all the carrying to be my new work out routine.
We hear that the carriers from Little Life are very good but we haven’t had the chance to test them yet.

Simona’s favorite castle. We didn’t plan to go there but kind of found out that it is somewhat on the way. So we made a small detour to visit it again. We originally went there in 2014 just before we got engaged in Paris.

The parents’ experience: So was it worth it, with all the hassle? For us it absolutely was. For sure it is more difficult to travel with a baby or a toddler but with a bit of preparation it is going to be at least as rewarding. Of course there are things we would do differently, like bringing a really good carrier or trying not to change hotels every night but we didn’t experience any showstoppers.

Going forward we want to travel even more with our girl. If you have any advice to share or want to recommend some destinations, please let us know. Also, don’t hesitate to ask us any questions.