Travelling with Small Children in Europe

[SiValleySteph]

Conveniently, DH has a Swedish cousin who is getting married next August when I will be on maternity leave, so I'm thinking it might be time to finally take a trip together to Europe, for maybe 2-3 weeks. We'd be traveling with a newborn (3 month old) and an almost 4 year old.

Are there any recommendations for particularly young kid friendly places (cities/countries) to visit? I'll be breastfeeding, most likely, so I'd like to know that you can breastfeed in public (discreetly, of course).

My sister takes her son to Europe once a year and they always end up in these Baby Spas in Austria. I'm not sure if that's an Austria only thing, but it looks fun.

We've always wanted to do a Cheese/Wine tour around the French countryside. That might be an option for one week. Maybe a week somewhere else and then the last week in Sweden?

Who knows? I would like to go somewhere I haven't been, maybe Spain or Portugal or something, but I don't know how that would work out.

Any thoughts? Are we completely nuts? We travelled a lot with just one kid (he's been to Asia twice, Hawaii twice, East coast 3 times, etc.), but maybe two kids would push it over the top. I could probably talk my parents into coming with us for the 1st half and then have the ILs meet us in Sweden for extra help.

[Mrs. M.]

How cool! I would totally go for it. At 4 years old, kids do pretty well on planes, can watch the movie, etc... and a small BF baby is so easy to take along!

I am in Austria, haven't been to a baby spa, but my friends that have been all love them a lot. We have been to child-centered hotels, and they are great. Example: http://kinderhotels.at/

Last time I was in Sweden, we didn't have kids, but there were tons of young kids and babies all over the place. BF is very normal there.

Most Swedes have excellent English, which makes travel easier.They barely smoke indoors (restaurants) in Sweden, which is great. Not so in many other parts of Europe.

[Rico'sAlice]

Don't know about the whole "two kid" aspect, but we just spent 18 days in Europe with out 4mo.
We went from IL's house in Germany (1hr west of Berlin) to Prague and then Vienna. Then we spent a week in Tyrol (section of Austria) and from there visited sites in Bavaria, Switzerland, and No. Italy. We had a wonderful time, ricosalice.shutterfly.com (ricosalice.shutterfly.com)PW-anya
But I never heard about baby spas- You'll have to tell me more!

BFing was a non-issue- discreetly or not. I carried J in the wrap most of the time. We brought along a quilt and could sometimes put him on the floor while we ate and stuff. People didn't seem to flip out at seeing a baby in public or act horrified if they started crying, babbling, etc.

The one big problem I had was with the smoking. This was mostly a problem in Austria. If a place does have a NS section it is likely to still be filled with smoke from the smoking section. Fortunately it was warm so we just sat outside all of the time, and tried to find a table away from smokers, but if the wind shifted we were SOL. Italy was awesome, there was no smoking inside there anywhere.

Also, very few places had changing tables in the bathrooms. But it seems socially acceptable to just change diapers at your table. (DH is German and never understands my reluctance to do so when we're out and about in the States. Really, it's b/c of women here at CC.) I did find that where we ate in Italy or even Italian restaurants they tended to have changing tables. But I didn't have a big enough sample to know if that trend is true on a larger scale.

Your major problem will be that August is vacation time in Europe. So places with fun summer-type stuff will probably be crazy crowded. Whereas other areas will be dead b/c many things shut down that month. We are going next August as well (IL's 25th anniversary party) and are trying to figure out what to do as well. J will be 15 months then. I am sooo not into dealing with crowds but he'll be old enough that I can't just drag around the way we did this time. We may try to find a beach in a slightly less popular area (like Slovenia or Croatia as opposed to Spain.)

[magrat]

We're going to Europe for Christmas with dd who will be 6-7 months old. We'll be staying with family in England most of the time, but we'll also spend a little time in Belgium and I'd love to hear any advice. I'd like to know how children are treated in public and if there are places I shouldn't try and take her.

[meatpie]

We took our 14-month-old to France (Paris and Avignon) last March and were treated very, very well by everyone. We had an amazing trip and even did a day of wine tasting. We actualy thought about another Europe trip shortly after but I had no vacation time until August and we didn't want to to do Europe in August.

I'm one of those who say go and do it. You may never get the chance again. And SiValleySteph I think your kids will be a great age to lug around Europe. My sling came in incredibly handy as well as a very durable umbrella stroller.

Portugal is amazing. Very family friendly and I would recommend going there. If you want a beach vacation the Azores and beautiful and very family friendly. And I would ask family to help for a portion of the trip as well. Maybe not all so you guys have some family time and freedom, but if I were in France I would have loved a sitter so I could do some SERIOUS wine tasting.

[SiValleySteph]

Thanks you guys! I think I am pretty set on it. Last maternity leave we went to China, but we were just there in April, so I'd like to do something different. Now we need to figure out DH's cousin's exact wedding plans so we can start thinking of a plan.

The only downsides are that it's high travel season and the dollar is so weak. But what can you do? :D

[nuhmah]

So, I know I'm a little behind the conversation, but we live in Paris with a 17 month old (been here since he 10 months). It is AWESOME. People here are very accepting of children, and very mindful of the bumps and bruises it takes to raise one. They are polite and accommodating to women carrying children - people give up their seat to me all the time on the metro, bus, and make extra wide room for me. Its funny, the "rude" people in these places are the Americans. lol

Most people smile at DS, say "cuckoo", try to get him to wave, smile, and whatever else. They open doors, help with strollers, and don't moan and groan when my toddler steps in front of them while chasing a bird under the Eiffel Tower. :)

And breastfeeding - totally acceptable. I have nursed DS all over the place, and no one bats an eye or makes you feel uncomfortable.

I had this vision in my head of the French being very stuffy about children and families, but it is so the opposite! The only thing that makes it "tough" is the infrastructure - cobblestoned streets, no good stroller accessibility (I usually use a sling), lots of hills, and tons of stairs.

Hope you have a good trip!

[SiValleySteph]

Thanks nuhmah! :D Sound great!

I'm actually having second thoughts because the dollar is so weak. It would make this a very expensive trip versus just going to Hawaii or something like that. I know, not the same. :)

We haven't found out anymore about DH's cousin's wedding yet, so we haven't made any final plans.