By Nick Henderson 
Have you just become parents and want to go traveling? Here are our experiences and tips on how to make your first trip as new parents a success!
Peter and I have always traveled as backpackers. Both separately, with others, and now together. It’s our way of traveling. The freedom we feel when planning and controlling our own trip means a lot to us. It’s not easy to travel as a backpacker, but we’re not looking for an easy trip when we go away. For us, it gives us a boost and a sidekick in life every time we’ve been away, both because we get to satisfy our curiosity, but also because we wake up and are nourished by succeeding at the challenges that backpacking presents.
That’s how we felt when we had our son, Sebastian, in the summer was just around the corner, and the backpacker life began to call us. We wanted to go again, this time with our 6-week-old son. We had barely settled into parenthood and our routines were, to put it mildly, pretty green. But we wanted to go, and the doubts we had, especially me, about whether it was a good idea, would have to be put to the test.
Our experiences traveling with an infant as new parents
We decided to go to Sardinia for a couple of weeks. We rented a car in advance and found a hotel to stay at for the first few days in the country. Then we drove out into the countryside, let our curiosity guide us, and were ready for new, unexpected adventures. We thought it would be easy to find new places to stay. We were wrong.
From home, it looked like there were plenty of vacant properties we could rent along the way. That turned out not to be the case. The rental properties were there, but they were all booked up; the Italians hadn’t updated their websites. There was nothing available. As in NOTHING.
We therefore decided to take the ferry to Corsica (the neighboring French island) to find accommodation. That was just as difficult. However, we finally managed to find a crappy place to stay, which we paid dearly for. The next day, we found a place that we fell in love with (and later returned to again and again. See more about our trips to Corsica here).
If it had just been Peter and me, it would have been okay. Just another experience. But as a new parent with a 6-week-old baby? It wasn’t great.
Our trip was a journey that gave us experiences for life, but also lessons I wish I had known back then. I hope this post and our experiences can help you and your family get even more out of your first trip together.
Here are some tips that I hope you and your family will find useful.
Tips for your first trip with an infant
Are you ready to travel?
That can be difficult to answer. It can also be difficult to admit. I found it difficult. I wavered between my inner urge to get out into the world and my new self as a mother and everything that entailed. I had experienced six weeks as the mother of a new little person, and at the time I didn’t understand what I was really getting myself into. When I look back today, I remember feeling confused about whether I should go or stay home. My inner backpacker was pulling and tugging at me – come on, Lise, it whispered, while another part of me didn’t really want to go out and see the world. I was content being a mother to Sebastian, and I had everything I could ever want right there in my arms.
We ended up deciding to go. To give it a try. To see if it was something for us. We left a back door open and allowed ourselves to come home if we no longer felt that the trip was right for us. In that way, our decision not to plan too much was perfect. We actually ended up cutting the trip short by three days because the experience of being on a trip suddenly felt less important than the urge and need to be home in our own surroundings.
And all of this is a process that is different for each person.
But what about you, are you ready to travel?
Get the plum on the counter
At the time, I found it difficult to put my inner backpacker aside, reasoning that I had just become a mother. I am still a mother when I travel. What difference does it make to have a child with you? More planning, yes. New habits, yes. New needs, yes. It makes a difference if you are traveling with a child for the first time and how comfortable you are in your role as a parent. No doubt about it. But when it comes down to it, the most important thing is to be true to your needs and what you want—and to communicate that. Put your foot down.
Align your expectations. Do you want the same things? Where can you compromise? Are you worried? Talk about your doubts and concerns. Maybe there’s a solution? Put it into words and get a feel for yourselves and each other in the new scenarios. Notice whether some of your concerns are actually due to lack of experience, lack of solutions, or something that needs to be addressed. Once you have communicated your reservations and concerns, you will be in a better position to decide whether you are ready to travel. Seek answers to the questions you still need answers to and only make the decision to travel when you feel ready to take it.
What type of trip do you need right now?
What you needed before you became parents is obviously different today, now that you no longer have only yourselves to worry about. Is it possible to enjoy the type of trip you want now that you are parents? What do you need? What does your family need? When does your family thrive the most? What values do you need the trip to embody in order for you to feel safe and relaxed along the way? What conditions do you need to be in place? For example, is it important to you to live in one place? Or is it important to live in a house surrounded by nature? Do you need to be in an apartment where you can easily roll the stroller down to a café and have a bit of social life around you? Do you need a lot of space? What elements are important for your trip to feel comfortable and for you to be able to relax and unwind?
This can be difficult to answer, as it is your first time. But know that the values that work for you at home will probably also work for you on your trip.
What will you need on your trip?
We were fine as long as we only had to pack our own things for the trip. But what should we bring now that there were three of us? The solution for us was to go through the things we used at home in relation to Sebastian. We scanned through the days, hour by hour.
What things were important for him to be happy? The things we used at home were probably things we would need on the trip. And the things we needed for ourselves, Sebastian would probably need too—ish. So far, so good. We made a long packing list well in advance, and when we came across something that was missing from the list, we just added it.
We chose to take only the most important things with us. But sometimes we also chose to compromise so that we (or mostly me) felt comfortable enough to travel with a baby. For example, we chose to bring our own diapers for him. Of course, we could have bought diapers abroad, but it was important to us that he wore diapers that did not contain dyes or additives. Fortunately, they mostly filled up the suitcase on the way there…
In addition, we brought baby sunscreen, a sun hat, a first aid kit, band-aids, an activity mat, and a baby monitor.
To go at all?
First and foremost: Before traveling abroad, it is a good idea to consult with your doctor or health care provider to check if there is anything related to your body or your newborn baby that you need to be aware of.
What should you research regarding the trip?
Check if there are any special conditions you need to take into account in the countries and areas you are traveling to. What vaccinations do you need for each country? At the time of writing, it is important to consider whether you are allowed to travel there and whether there are any special rules regarding COVID-19 that you need to be aware of.
You may also want to check out the medical and hospital facilities in the country for example, is it easy to get in touch with a doctor and can you communicate in the language if necessary? You can search online and make a list of phone numbers for doctors, hospitals, and emergency services. It can be reassuring to know what to do in case of illness or accident. I myself had (and still have) a list of phone numbers I could call if I needed to.
Your infant must have their own passport. If you are traveling in the summer, it may be a good idea to get the passport made well in advance due to waiting times.
Transportation
Each airline has its own individual rules for traveling with an infant. Check online to find out your airline’s policy on ticket prices, seats, lifts, and changing facilities. There are also individual rules regarding how much luggage a baby can bring free of charge.
The air pressure in the aircraft changes during takeoff and landing. In some cases, this can be felt in the ears and cause some discomfort. Infants are unable to equalize the pressure in their ears and may therefore experience pain.
It is therefore a good idea to breastfeed your baby during takeoff and landing. You may want to bring a scarf to cover yourself and your baby, both to calm the situation and to create a more private atmosphere between you and your baby. Consider contacting your airline to find out what to do if you need to bottle-feed your baby.
They may offer services such as heating milk in the microwave for you or other useful tips you can use during your trip. In general, it is a good idea to check with the airline you are traveling with to ensure that this aspect of your trip goes smoothly.
Accommodation
On our trip, we stayed in several places without air conditioning. We don’t recommend this. It can get extremely hot in the summer, and even if you’re fine with the heat, your baby may not be. If you’re traveling to a hot country, it’s worth considering finding a place with air conditioning. Your baby (and you) may need to cool down during the day—and at night. It may also be easier to get your little one to sleep in cool air than in warm air.
Where should you stay? Consider whether you will need to boil pacifiers and bottles – and whether you need to be able to wash clothes yourself or get hotel service to do it for you. You will need a lot of cloth diapers and a lot of changes of clothes during the day. But you already know that
The feeling of being safe
Everything is new and different when you have just become a parent. Everything is turned upside down, you may not be getting enough sleep, and your body has just undergone the most dramatic change. These are times in your life when everything else that can possibly work, works. And that rarely happens when you’re traveling. The more peace and quiet you create for yourself on your trip, the more you can relax and enjoy the time with your little family. As a family, you can be strong together and be used to many challenges, but does it have to be right now that you’re challenged?
One of the things I did to give myself peace of mind was to prepare for the worst-case scenario. “What if…?” I asked myself – and then I answered, “Well, then I’ll do this…” I made a plan B to calm my brain, which wanted to anticipate all dangers and accidents. It was a way of accepting and acknowledging my concerns, dealing with the ones I could, and trying to let the rest go. I wrote them down in a little notebook that I carried with me, and that in itself helped me feel safe in the challenges I encountered along the way.
Enjoy the moment
Try to focus on the enjoyment. Not everything will be easy or turn out as you hoped. But then it will be something else. And I promise you that no matter what, this first trip as a family will be something you will remember for the rest of your life. Memories have a way of sweetening all the hardships and leaving you with the moments when you and your family experienced the world in very special ways.
I often think back to the nights when I sat breastfeeding Sebastian while the cicadas chirped outside and the morning light began to stream in through the cracks in the curtains. Peter and I still laugh about how little we bathed on that trip, or the time I panicked over Sebastian’s very first ingrown toenail, or the time I sent Peter off on a several-hour drive because we had forgotten Sebastian’s blanket at a hotel.
And yes, we remember the tough stuff too… but would we have wanted to miss it? No. Would I wish I had waited a month or two? Yes, a little. But not unequivocally. I love that we did what we did. It was all worth it.
Have a great trip with your family.