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Baby CanTravelTM

ANYWHERE

A TRAVEL GUIDE MADE FOR PARENTSBy Celine and Dan Brewer

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OTHER BABY CAN TRAVEL EBOOKSBaby Can Travel: Paris

Baby Can Travel: New York City

Baby Can Travel: Barcelona

Baby Can Travel: London

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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PLANNING YOUR FLIGHTSThere is a good deal of strategy in booking flights withan infant. Ultimately, you will want to find the flightswithin your budget which have as little impact on yourinfant as possible. In addition to cost, consider thefollowing when choosing your flights:

LENGTH OF FLIGHTS

The prospect of your baby crying non-stop on a longflight can be very intimidating for new parents, but inreality, there is very little reason to worry. Everyoneloves babies and most of your fellow travellers are alsosympathetic parents who have been in your shoesbefore. You may have the occasional jerk who getsannoyed, but try not to worry; it's impossible to pleaseeveryone. As long as you appear to be trying to stopyour baby from crying, almost everyone will not mind.

That said, it is important to consider how calm andrelaxed a person you are. Are you ok with the possibilityof your baby crying on the airplane? This will play intowhat kind of flights you book. In general, most peopleshould be ok booking long flights. However, if you areextremely worried about what other people may think,you may wish to book your flights as several shorterflights to reduce the risk of a protracted meltdown on a

single flight. Keep in mind, more flights equals a longertravel day, which likely means an even crankier baby. Betrue to your personality type, but if you can handle it,we strongly recommend booking as short a travel day aspossible.

TIME OF DEPARTURE

One excellent strategy to deal with a long flight is tobook a flight which departs around the time your babytypically goes to bed. This works for so many reasons:

► You can feed your baby their pre-bedtime mealduring takeoff, which is a good way to prevent yourbaby's ears from plugging up.

► Once your baby has been fed and the flight is wellunder way, the flight crew will dim the lights, whichshould help your baby sleep.

► Once your baby falls asleep, hopefully the parents cantake turns getting a little shut-eye as well.

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TIPYou know your baby best, so think about theirroutine and what would make the mostenjoyable flight for the whole family.

TIME OF ARRIVAL

Carefully lining up your time of departure with yourbaby's schedule is by far the more important of theseconsiderations. However, if you have a choice in whattime you arrive, it's worthwhile thinking through theimplications.

In general, try to land during daylight hours. You are newto the city and may look a little bit lost. Businesses will beopen and it will be safer as there are more people around.While assessing your arrival options ensure that you takeinto account the extra hour or so it will take to collectyour luggage and clear customs.

If you are arriving after a long travel day, it's nice to tryand line up your arrival in the early evening. You will betired and it will be easier for you to fall asleep on yournew local time which may go a long way towards helpingyou deal with jet lag. Though you are ready to sleep forthe night, your baby may not be feeling the same way ifthey spent many hours sleeping on the flight(s). It maytake a few days for everyone to adjust to your new timezone, depending on how far you travelled.

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EXTRA SERVICES OFFERED BY THEAIRLINE

Do a little research into the airlines you are consideringto understand the services they offer to young families.Some airlines have bassinets that they can set up aftertakeoff for your baby to sleep in. Be aware thatbassinets are not guaranteed to be available, you mustbe sitting at a bulkhead seat and there are typicallyweight restrictions for the bassinets. Thankfully, someairlines also allow passengers with infants to choosetheir seats in advance at no charge. This may enable youto choose the seats where you can use the bassinet (ifoffered).

LINKS TO AIRLINE SPECIFIC INFORMATION

If any of the internet links above are broken or if your airline isn't listed above, simply do an internetsearch for 'Travelling with an infant on [insert the name of your airline]'.

Air CanadaAir FranceAir New ZealandAmerican Airlines

British AirwaysDeltaEasy JetEmirates

KLMLufthansaQantasRyanair

SouthwestUnited

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A SEAT FOR YOUR BABY?

If a bulkhead seat with a bassinet isn't guaranteed to beavailable, you will have a choice to make: have your babysit on your lap for free or buying them their own seat.

The major advantage of having your baby travel withouttheir own paid seat is the money saved by not buyingthem a ticket. Most airlines allow infants under 2 totravel for free without their own seat, which can usuallyresult in big savings for your family. Of course, the maindisadvantage of not buying them a seat is that they mustbe in your lap the entire time. If both parents aretravelling, this becomes a little easier as you can taketurns holding the baby. If your baby is finicky or hastrouble sleeping outside a crib this may lead to a lesspleasant flying experience, but the question becomeshow much potential grief are you willing to put up withfor the cost savings?

The major advantage of buying a seat for your baby isthe extra space for your family and your belongings. Onmost airplanes having three seats together with nostrangers in your row is a nice luxury. You will also havethe advantage of having one extra space to store yourbelongings at the foot of your baby's seat, which mayenable you to avoid using the overhead compartmentsaltogether. This is a big convenience when you arecontinually going into your bags to get things for your

baby. The biggest disadvantage, of course, is theincreased cost.

Be aware that most airlines require you to bring anapproved restraint system (e.g.: car seat, etc.) onto theplane for your child's seat. Check with your airline fordetails prior to paying for an extra seat.

TIPSome airlines also allow passengers with infantsto choose their seats in advance at no charge.

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OUR EXPERIENCEBarcelona: We chose a nine hour overnight flight from Calgary, Canada to London, England with a two hourlayover before hopping onto a short two hour flight to Barcelona. This worked well as we arrived at theCalgary airport in time to feed and play with our baby before boarding the plane. After feeding her during take-off, our baby was ready for sleep.

We were able to choose our seats at the bulkhead and the airline provided a bassinet for our baby to sleep in.This worked like a charm - with the comfy bed, the darkness and the white noise, our daughter slept nearly theentire flight. Given that this was our very first flight with a baby, we didn't sleep much as we were keeping aneye on her, but that is a trade-off we were willing to make! Once in London, we had time to stretch our legs andour baby loved to do some people watching! Our final two hour flight went well. We had to sit her in our lap,but due to the short duration of the flight this was not an issue. She cried for a little while, but no one seemedto mind.

We landed in Barcelona at 7:30PM local time and got to our hotel around 9:30PM. Although we were tiredenough to go to sleep for the night, our daughter was quite awake after her great sleep on the trans-Atlanticflight. She eventually went to sleep and the next day we were all on the local schedule.

New Mexico: Getting to New Mexico from Calgary involves two short flights. Given the short duration, weselected the cheapest daytime flights we could find and did not worry about getting a bulkhead seat or a seatfor our daughter. We bought her a new toy before the flight which kept her happy and occupied through theflights.

New York City: We chose a 5 hour direct flight to NYC which left in the morning and arrived mid-afternoon.Our airline didn't offer bassinets and we felt the flight was still short enough that we could have her in our lap.She was happy, playful and even napped on the way to NYC, but she was restless and cranky on the way home.She cried on several occasions, including a new, loud, screaming cry that she had recently learned, but no one

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OUR EXPERIENCEgave us a second look. Almost everyone around us was wearing headphones (watching a movie or listening tomusic) and those who weren't didn't seem to be bothered by it. We wish she had been better behaved, but ourexperience reaffirmed that bringing a crying baby on a plane is nothing to fear. It did, however, prompt us totry getting her a seat of her own on our next trip.

London/Paris: To be honest, our flight times for London were awful, but we chose it as the return flight it waspaired with was much better than our other alternatives. We left Calgary in the early afternoon and arrived inLondon at 7AM (midnight Calgary time). Without access to our apartment until mid-afternoon, this meant wehad to stay awake all day, even though we desperately needed a nap. We learned from our prior experiencesthat our daughter will play with the surrounding passengers non-stop if she is in our lap, so in an effort to gether to sleep, we elected to buy her a seat of her own. Despite having to bring a car seat for her on the plane, weenjoyed the luxury of having a row to ourselves, along with the extra space. We're still not sure if it was worththe extra money, but it sure was nice. The flight home from Paris departed in the evening and arrived inCalgary in the evening. This allowed us to sleep easily when we got home, which helped us get over the jet lagmuch easier.

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ARRIVAL AT YOURDESTINATION

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Getting from your destination airport to your hotelrequires some advance planning. You will have a varietyof options, each with their own benefits and downsides.

SHOULD I RENT A CAR?

If you are going somewhere culturally different thanyour home city we do not recommend renting a carunless you are a very confident driver. If you are unsure,consider the following factors:

► How walkable is the city? Many of the world's maintourist destinations are very walkable cities withmost attractions within easy walking distance fromeach other. To get an idea of how walkable a city is,spend a little time on an internet map site such asGoogle Maps. Take a look at the map and see howclose together your main attractions are, then take afew random looks at Street View to determine whatthe sidewalks look like - are they flat and wide? Arethere lots of people walking in the picture?

► What is their public transportation system like? Mostof the world's cities have excellent publictransportation systems, ranging from buses,

subways, trams, boats, etc. Again, the internet will bea valuable resource in your research: take anotherlook at Google Maps and see where the subwaystations and bus stops are in relation to your mainattractions. In addition, perform searches such as,"public transportation in (your destination) ".

► Do they have Hop-On, Hop-Off (HoHo) buses? Mostmajor tourist destinations will have companiesoffering HoHo bus services, which easily take youfrom attraction-to-attraction.

► How different is traffic vs. where you are from?Driving habits and traffic patterns are differenteverywhere around the world. Everyone is different,but generally speaking, driving in an unfamiliar citywith unfamiliar driving rules is not a lot of fun. It canbe stressful and it does not afford the driver theability to look out the window and enjoy the sights.

► How easy & expensive is it to find parking? As ageneral rule, you will find parking in tourist areas ofmost cities hard to find and very expensive.

Having your own car while on holidays can be moreconvenient than your alternatives, but it can also be astressful, expensive headache.

TRANSPORTATION OPTIONS

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OUR EXPERIENCEWe did not rent a car in Barcelona, New York,London or Paris for a variety of reasons, but thebiggest reason is that we didn't have to. Theseworld-class cities have world-class publictransportation and taxi services, so we didn't feelthe additional cost and stress of a car rental wasworth it. Not once during each of these holidaysdid we wish we had our own car.

We did rent a car in New Mexico as our finaldestination was in a rural town a few hours' drivefrom Albuquerque. Given that Albuquerque isapproximately the same size as Calgary (ourhometown) and that driving laws are very similarbetween Canada and the USA, we felt confidentthat we could drive a rental car without issue.