What it's really like travelling overseas with a baby

What was the experience of flying with a baby like? 

I had these horror stories in my head of a baby that just doesn’t stop screaming. You’ve missed their bedtime, it’s the middle of the night and they’re just losing it. To our surprise, this wasn’t really the case.

We had moments where we thought, Oh God, everyone must hate us; he’s been crying and just generally being so loud… (he was also going through the high pitched screeching phase - well timed) but we had multiple people tell us how well behaved he’d been.

It made me realise that we were just being paranoid and the general public are not as harsh and mean as we had originally thought.

How has visibly being a mum in public connected you to other women across cultures? Or was there unsolicited attention that got too much? 

It’s amazing how just the presence of a baby makes people smile – I thought this only happened with dogs.

Especially in Italy, as it’s true what they say, they do love children over there. The toughest looking men would melt and throw out “Bambino!” and “Bellissimo!” as we entered countless cafés on the hunt for pistachio croissants.

It was also really interesting to see parenting styles across different cultures. In places like Australia, I feel as though there’s this pressure on adhering to strict bedtime routines, which often just causes more anxieties (at least in our case).

In Europe we’d see the kids at the dinner table with their family at 9 o’clock at night with a big bowl of pasta and a smile on their face. Somehow, it felt more connected. 

What were some of your biggest challenges?

Something that’s completely out of your control is the airport and flight delays. On the way back to Australia, I was flying with Caspa on my own (Tom left sooner, via a surf trip in The Mentawais, and no, I won’t be letting him live that down). 

On the London to Dubai flight, our plane was delayed on the tarmac. By the time we arrived in Dubai, we’d missed our connecting flight. It was 2am. There were no more flights until the following day. 

“Don’t worry,” the airline tells me, “we’ll put you up in a hotel until tomorrow!” 

Usually, I’d think this isn’t so bad: a sleep in a bed before a 14 hour flight, but we didn’t arrive at the hotel until 4am. The shuttle was due to arrive at 7am to drive us the 30 minutes back to the airport. Not exactly much rest time!

Thankfully, Caspa was none-the-wiser to what was going on and basically slept through the whole thing (just not a wink during the actual flight…).

What were some of your biggest joys?

With no family in Sydney, Caspa wasn’t overly familiar with being passed around too often, but on our trip, we found that lots of people wanted to hold him (eternally grateful to the airline staff and other plane passengers on the journey home). 

It was so nice to see him come out of his shell and be more open to those outside of his household. It was important for us to relax into this and allow the waiters in the restaurant to momentarily whisk him off, giving us short moments of reprieve to enjoy our dinner.

Because that’s the downside of keeping them up past bedtime so that you can go out for dinner – you don’t get that quiet meal after the baby’s gone to bed.

What's in your essential travel kit for future trips with Caspa?

1. Try and time a long flight to be overnight

the most amount of peace you’ll get is when they’re sleeping. Don’t rely on the naps: countless times our flights were delayed so Caspa’s naps would be in the airport and he’d be ready to party again by the time we got on the plane.

2. Book the plane bassinet seat in advance

Don’t just pray that they’ll be one available. Caspa fit in the bassinet until he was eight months old. And buy a SnoozeShade for the bassinet - it’s basically a block-out blind for a bassinet, useful when you’re travelling through timezones.

It can also be doubled up on your pram bassinet as a sunshade.

3. Individually pack nappies and clothes

Babies love a nappy blowout while travelling. To save yourself digging through your whole bag, individually portion out nappies with a change of clothes within your hand luggage.

And pack a change of clothes (or five) for yourself – never underestimate the blow out. 

Also pack enough nappies to cover you for a day or two after you get to your destination. The last thing you want to do is be left running around in a foreign town looking for nappies.

4. Take a portable white noise machine

No matter where you’re travelling to, it’s likely there'll be some noise. We had a nice surprise in the place we were staying in Nicé – the daily markets were set up from around 4am.

That white noise saved us (we just have it on a light rain noise – no scary crackling wanted here thanks).

5. Invest in a decent baby carrier

‍We have an Ergobaby and Baby Bjorn. Our pram was used only a small number of times. Navigating stairs, cobbled streets etc – it’s more effort than it’s worth.

6. Pack ready-to-eat snacks

Caspa was new to solids when we travelled. So that we didn’t get stuck, we always made sure we had easy/safe snacks on us like bananas, avocados, quick oats (just add hot water), nut butter, a crusty baguette (also such a time killer/distraction technique), tinned fish e.g. sardines (although the smell isn’t for the faint-hearted), and of course the pouches and rice puffs.

Do you have a sweet anecdote of a nice encounter with someone while you were travelling?

We were having lunch at a random little family-run restaurant in the mountains, on our drive from Puglia to the Amalfi Coast. We got chatting to the waiter, who had lived and worked in the village for his whole life.

He was someone who we’d generally have absolutely nothing in common with, and had we been there without Caspa, probably wouldn’t have shared more than a few words with – but we soon found out that he has a son the same age as Caspa, so our worlds all of sudden didn’t feel so far apart.

We spent most of the lunch sharing anecdotes from everything to our sons not enjoying “tummy time” to concerns about milestones. It became apparent to us that as humans, we share the same anxieties and concerns for our children, regardless of our background. From various encounters on our travels, we saw walls drop a lot faster when children were involved.

Any other tips for travelling with a babe?

Just do the trip you want to do (within reason) while they’re young and not yet walking. You’ve got the rest of your life to cater your holidays around them; this is your chance to bring them along for the ride and show them what you enjoy. Babies are co-regulators, so if you’re relaxed and enjoying yourself, then they will too.

Hero image 📸 Grace Alexander