How Travel Changes When You Have A Baby

Travel changes when you have a baby. In A LOT of ways. Some good, some bad. This post isn’t just for people who have kids already. It’s for the ones who are thinking about it or will have children in the future.

While I have always appreciated any opportunity to travel, I would savor it even more if I could rewind and do that solo trip to Australia again. If you’re planning to have children, travel as much as possible before they’re born, and savor every easy moment.

Pretty much everything in regards to travel changes when you have a baby.

We have a 2.5 year old named Jovie. She went on over 30 flights before she turned 2, her first flight was at 6 weeks old, and we’ve already taken her on an international trip to Iceland. My husband I both work, we just fit all this travel around our work schedules. I traveled quite a bit before having Jovie, and there are huge differences between travel pre-kid and travel post-kid.

Let’s talk about it.

** This post is geared toward baby/toddler travel. I’m hoping it gets easier as she gets older! Also, I mention a couple items we’ve used to make traveling easier, and I do get a commission if you buy from the links. Thank you for supporting my blog!**

How Travel Changes When You Have A Baby Jump To:

First: Change is ok.

The next section of this post says “everything is harder.” And it’s true. Travel changes when you have a baby mostly in ways that make travel harder than it was before. That’s ok, though. I am going to prepare you for some of the tough stuff that comes along when traveling with a baby/toddler, but I’m not trying to make you shy away from doing it. I know very well that it’s harder, but travel is important to me. I’ve learned to adapt and still have a really enjoyable time doing what I love.

It’s good to be aware of the things that make travel harder when you have a baby, and it’s good to appreciate travel just a little more before you start having children. But my most important advice on the subject is this: Travel always. With a baby and without kids. It’s good for our souls.

Everything is harder.

Not to be a downer right off the bat, but travel is harder when you have a baby. In like one million ways. Babies are the neediest, cutest things. They scream and are sometimes able to be soothed, sometimes not. They poop and pee whenever they want and do not care if the seatbelt sign is on. Toddlers are tiny insane people who think they know how to do everything but absolutely do not.

All the things you take for granted pre-kids become so much harder. A quick trip to the restroom before boarding can now take 20 minutes as you battle a screaming 1 year old into changing their diaper. A delayed flight before might have just meant more time to read the book you’re really into. A delayed flight with a toddler can F with so many things…. a nap, mealtime, bedtime, your own sanity. I sometimes find myself looking around at all the people traveling without children with so much envy. It was a much simpler time.

So much more planning.

You have to think through everything a bit more when traveling with a baby or toddler.

Hotel rooms kind of suck because you’re all in one room; you can’t really hang out once you put your child to bed. We try to find airbnbs with a separate bedroom so we don’t have to go to bed at 7pm on vacation. Accommodations take more planning.

I worry a heck of a lot more about the safety of somewhere we’re traveling now than I did before.

You have to be aware of check-in and check-out times and try to plan naps/sleep around them.

Flight times matter a lot more when they can impact your little one’s sleep.

What is your toddler going to eat?

I also feel a desire to plan activities prior to travel rather than while I’m in a place. Pre-child, I would leave things up to chance. I wanted to be able to change up my schedule based on recommendations from locals or other travelers. When you travel with a baby, so much brain-space goes to that baby that it’s hard to focus on other things. If I plan most of the things out ahead of time (plus Plan B and Plan C), I don’t have to worry about planning while I’m at the destination.

While I have failed miserably at this, I do recommend not stressing too much about the planning. It will be ok. If your child misses a nap, the world will not end. Don’t lessen your enjoyment of the trip when things don’t go exactly as planned.

Be prepared to pack a lot of shit.

My coworker who has 2 children says traveling for them is like traveling with the circus. They have SO many things, a wagon to drag through the airport, and a literal tent for their infant to sleep in. (If you haven’t heard of a slumber pod, it is the best thing we’ve ever bought for traveling with our daughter.)

But really. You have to bring somewhere for your kiddo to sleep in, likely a pack n play. A pack n play sheet. Bottles. Milk. Food. Clothes. Diapers. Wipes. Stuffed animals or lovies. Maybe a baby monitor and white noise machine. The slumber pod. Maybe a stroller and/or a carrier. Toys. A sun hat. Baby Tylenol. A car seat. And more.

And then you have to carry all these things through the airport WHILE carrying a baby.

My advice is to create a packing list on your phone and reuse it for every trip. And try not to bring things that you don’t need.

I have a Packing List for Baby Travel here with a free downloadable list. I also have a Toddler Travel Essentials post too.

Baby/toddler sleep and travel just do not mix.

Some parents have babies/toddlers who sleep well all the time. Ours does not, and I like to believe that most children are not good sleepers (this belief helps me cope when Jovie wakes up at 5:30am).

When you travel with kids, sleep is harder. They might miss a nap, and once you’re a parent you learn that if a kid gets less sleep during the day it somehow equals less sleep at night too. The more sleep-deprived they become, the less they keep sleeping. It makes zero sense, but it’s how it is.

So you might have a missed nap and then a bad night’s sleep and then a cranky child. And repeat.

Also, kids sleep for at least 1 hour less per night while traveling. I don’t know why, but it’s a fact (a Danielle fact, maybe not a real one).

Try to plan for naps/early bedtimes. Use a slumber pod over your pack n play to block out the light and so your kiddo can’t see you sleeping next to them when they wake. You’ll all have a better time if you’re well-rested. If you can’t do a pack n play nap, try to do a car nap or a carrier nap. And ask for late check-outs if that will help you.

My advice is to go to bed early. If you’re kiddo wakes up super early, hopefully you’ll have had enough sleep to make it through a day of travel. And if you feel tired enough and have the chance, nap when they nap too. Life is harder when you’re tired, so try to not let yourself get exhausted.

For more on baby/toddler travel: How to Camp with a 1 Year Old and The Best Iceland Itinerary with a Toddler.

It’s more expensive.

It just is. There’s no way around this one. Sure there are ways to travel “cheap” with kids, but it is absolutely going to be more expensive than pre-kids.

Before turning 2, a baby can travel as a lap child for free. Our little lap child took over 30 flights prior to turning 2. Once they turn 2, you have to pay for their plane ticket every time. If you’re looking to go somewhere internationally, this can greatly increase your trip costs.

Accommodations are more expensive. No more hostels or $20 jungle huts for us. AirBnBs with a separate room are the way to go with kids, and these can cost more than hotel rooms.

You’re also feeding another person, and you need things like diapers and wipes, which can cost more in foreign countries.

If you’re doing expensive activities – like Disney World or The Blue Lagoon – that’s an extra ticket you have to buy.

Be realistic with this one. Know that your trips will be more expensive, but maybe leave out an expensive excursion that you’re little one might not even enjoy. When we took Jovie to Iceland, almost all our activities were free and just involved being in nature.

You can’t just roll with the travel mishaps as easily.

Here’s a story: Last winter, we were trying to fly to Michigan with our 18 month old. We wanted to visit my family and escape our house that was full of mold. I don’t know if you recall the Southwest fiasco where they had an insane amount of cancelled flights because of their old computer systems, but we were some of the unfortunate ones who were affected by this. We had already driven the 45 minutes to the airport, taken the shuttle to the airport, checked our bags, gone through security, and waited at our gate. Remember, all of this was harder because we had a baby.

5 minutes before we were supposed to board, they cancelled our flight and told us all of our bags would still go to Michigan. WTF, right?

We really needed to get to Michigan, so we decided to run to a different gate and catch a flight to Chicago in hopes that my dad could drive 3 hours down to pick us up the next day. We then had an 18 month old up way past her bedtime, we had to book a hotel in Chicago with a pack n play available (we wouldn’t get our bags in Chicago), we had a shady uber ride to our hotel, and had to eat a frozen dinner from the hotel’s little convenience store. We didn’t have our slumber pod, so Jovie kept looking around the room from her pack n play and refused to sleep. It. Was. Awful. The next morning, I was out of diapers, and Jovie peed in the last one we had. I lined that last diaper with a stolen washcloth for our 3 hour drive.

Without a kid, we might have been irritated by the changed travel plans, but it would not have been so hard.

The stress of the airport.

Everyone is in a hurry.

Your kid doesn’t have any sense of urgency.

You wonder if you packed enough snacks.

Your bag gets pulled because you have breastmilk in a cooler and now you’re watching the clock as you hope you make it to your gate in time.

You’re hungry, but you don’t have time to eat because your infant just pooped in the security line.

Your toddler touches every single thing in the bathroom no matter how many times you tell her how gross it is.

Your bag takes an hour to arrive on the carousel, and your baby is having a meltdown while you wait.

Deep breaths. And snacks. For yourself.

And I highly recommend getting TSA PreCheck – your baby can come with you through the fast lane!

The stress of plane rides.

Whether you believe in God or not, I think every parent does some version of this prayer before every flight:

Please do not let my child scream the entire time. Please.

No one wants to be that parent. Stuck on a plane with a screaming infant or toddler. Annoying everyone around them.

Even if your child doesn’t scream, it’s stressful to change diapers on a plane or to take a toddler to that tiny, scary plane bathroom. It’s also really hard to entertain a kid for hours. And if it’s nap time? Gah, the stress of trying to get them to fall asleep is tough.

Have your little one drink from a bottle/sippy cup or breastfeed during takeoff or landing. It helps your little one’s ears adjust.

Remember that it will be ok. If your baby does scream the whole time, it will still be ok. I’m a people-pleaser, but I’ve had to teach myself to not care if our little one has a meltdown on the plane. We do our absolute best to keep her happy and quiet, so if her ears are painful and she screams… we will survive. Just focus on your sanity and your little one’s comfort.

Children do not understand time zones.

Oh you are now in a time zone 6 hours ahead of your home? Your child has literally no concept of this and will not adapt. Good luck.

If by some miracle they do adapt, they will have no concept of this when you return home, so they will wake at 4am.

We travel a lot within the US, and I tend to try to keep our little one on our home time zone. If we go to Michigan, which is 2 hours ahead, I just make her bedtime 9:30pm instead of 7:30pm. I’d rather have weird hours during a trip and have her keep her normal schedule for at home. This sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t.

When we went to Iceland – 6 hours ahead – she stayed up super late at the beginning of the trip. We went on a midnight hike at The Blue Lagoon on our first night there. She adapted a bit toward the end of the trip but was never at a normal toddler bedtime. We rolled with it and just did activities later in the day.

You are limited in what you can do when you travel.

I used to climb mountains and backpack for 11 days when I traveled. Those are kind of out for now.

We took our almost 2 year old to Iceland and had an amazing time. However, there were A LOT of things I would have done differently had we not had a toddler with us.

Honestly, this isn’t the worst. We enjoyed laying low and really soaking up the Iceland countryside. You can relish non-adventurous, relaxing things too. And taking a toddler anywhere feels like an adventure in itself. A lot of people just don’t do it.

My advice for this one: If you and your significant other are traveling somewhere cool with your little one, have each of you pick one cool thing to do without your child. One watches the baby while the other goes on an epic hike or goes snorkeling.

If you leave your child at home with a sitter, you might feel guilty or judged.

My husband and I have taken one trip without Jovie, and the grandparents watched her. I knew she was well taken care of, but I still felt apprehensive about leaving her. It was AMAZING to get away on our own, go camping, and go on hikes we wouldn’t have done with Jovie. But you leave a part of you at home, and it just doesn’t feel quite the same.

I highly recommend continuing to do things you love after you have a baby. You may not get to do everything you want, but if you like camping, take your little one camping. Or if you like hiking, buy a hiking backpack and go. And don’t feel guilty for leaving your baby with a trusted sitter. It’s good for you and them.

It can be the best.

It really can.

I know I’ve talked a lot about how travel changes when you have a baby in a lot of negative ways. It’s hard! But it’s also so so so so worth it to take your little one with you. Once you have a kid, you have an indescribable amount of love for them. Your heart just bursts on the daily. Enjoying a new experience with them while traveling is amazing.

If you love travel, it’s important for you to continue to do it. They might not remember it, but who cares? You will.

Our 2 year old talked about the waterfalls in Iceland for 6 months after. She couldn’t even say waterfall correctly, but she remembered that she walked behind one.

Watching her eyes light up as a geyser erupted in front of her was one of the highlights of my year.

It can be a phenomenal, life-altering experience to travel with your little one. And it gets easier the more you do it!

It’s also easier once you learn these 20 Helpful Toddler Travel Tips.

Travel Changes When You Have A Baby.

Do it anyways.

Anything I missed? Thoughts? Questions? Epic trips you’ve taken with a little one that you want to share? Comment below!

Happy Traveling 🙂