3 weeks in Europe with little kids... and a cruise - is it doable and worth it? - maxyourtravel.com

Our travel plans usually end up being pretty ambitious. We have done numerous trips that have each taken us to multiple destinations, each getting progressively a little more elaborate but our latest transatlantic trip was probably the biggest challenge not just because we took another step in expanding our vacation schedule but also because it was our first time travelling with both of our children overseas.

While all travel enthusiasts are carefully assessing their wanderlust appetites in this ever confusing COVID environment some of us are starting to boldly step back into leaving our safe homes and rekindling what we love so much. While our family is not quite there yet and our community still seems to struggle with the pandemic we're finding it harder and harder with each passing day to not let our minds get wrapped up in at least planning some future travel.

I thought this would be a good time to share some of our experiences from what at the time seemed like perhaps a bit too brave a decision to take our five and not quite one year old on a three week overseas vacation in Europe. This choice however ended up making our last summer a thoroughly enjoyable family vacation that all of us will treasure for a long time.

In due time, across the full body of my blog I will share all of our experiences and tricks trying to spare any travelers but especially families globetrotting with little kids some of the same mishaps we encountered. While as I mentioned we have done multiple long trips on our own, before having kids and then a few since having our son as well I have to admit that adding another kiddo and especially one under a year old presented some new challenges. One thing's for sure - it really helps to know how to optimally travel to another continent on your own before you take your children there with you . The good thing is you don't have to learn everything on your own, you can learn some of it from us.

Since doing these multiple destination, overseas trips we have got pretty much addicted to traveling to many different places on a single trip and love our epically long vacations. It's fair to say that this type of holiday is by far our favorite method of traveling especially internationally. That way you get to see and experience more, however having been on both sides I have to admit that while there is no doubt that traveling with kids, especially to multiple destinations does makes it more challenging it can also be more fulfilling.

However our lessons learned aren't just for those with kids so if you are a solo traveler or a couple with no kids starting out your globetrotting experiences you might be be wondering what is the best day to take your flight, when is the best time to take a train in Europe, how to not forget anything before leaving home for your trip. If you are fed up with sitting home with your toddler or infant or are afraid to take your five year old who wont sit still for longer than a few minutes anywhere you might need some motivation and know-how on maybe packing a midsize car with all of your and your kids luggage or finding a mode of public transportation that will accommodate you all the best. It will take me some time to share of of our lessons learned as I do have a full time job and a family but I do think our pack has this down to a science at this point

So last summer was going to be the first time that our full family of four would travel across the Atlantic. Despite or perhaps because of having plenty of experience with overseas travel the fact that we were taking both our kids and especially our 9 month old infant daughter we knew this trip would present some new difficulties. If you are hesitant about taking your children on a trip consider checking out my other post first on the value of traveling with your little ones. Our initial plans were to do some sort of a European Cruise and visit family in Germany as they have not had the opportunity to see either of our kids yet and vice versa many of our relatives there have their own kids whom we have not met.

Due to numerous circumstances the second leg of our trip had to change significantly but although unforeseen these changes ended up morphing our vacation into perhaps the most epic trip we've been on so far. We ended up booking a great cruise - the idea of course was for it to take us to as many new destinations as possible. While we've done some round-trip cruises before this was the first time we had planned our ship to drop us off in a different destination then where we embarked. This is another way you can see and do more on your travels that can be nicely combined with the multiple destination (as opposed to a round trip) flight that some airlines offer.

So our sea voyage was scheduled to take us from Rome around the Mediterranean and Adriatic: to Sicily, Malta, Kefalonia in Greece, Dubrovnik in Croatia, Koper in Slovenia and drop us off in Venice. From there the final plan for our trip accounted for spending significant time in Venice and its surroundings and then traveling to Portugal for 4 days around Lisbon for a jam packed three weeks of European Vacation. While a single blog post is definitely not enough to provide an in-depth description of our experiences I will try to, at least at a high level give a brief rundown of some highlights of our travel to each destination as well as some lessons learned three weeks away from home have taught us.

If you've ever been to Europe you know that traveling from the US, considering time changes and jet lag a week isn't enough to see or do anything new. This is especially true if you have a family or friends at the destination that won't be vacationing with you - dedicating some time to spend with them isn't going to leave much time for anything else. With that said even two weeks can be pushing it - so anywhere between two and three weeks is really optimal. However taking that much time away from home can have some consequences so preparation is key.

To us preparation means having a travel checklist that we always check when planning and directly before leaving as well as maintaining a travel backpack that contains much of the stuff we commonly take with us when leaving home. The backpack serves as a storage for some items we may use at home as well but we simply keep it there so that when it's time to go there is less preparing but most of all less forgetting of stuff. It also means making sure we have someone to house sit or at least check on the house every couple of days. In our case we are extremely grateful to my hubby's parents for volunteering to do so.

When a house sitter is not possible, on top of making sure our our home alarm is good to go we take other home security precautions, like for instance automating lights in our house to turn on and off periodically. We have also recently semi automated our lawn watering and pool water feeding. You can do so fairly inexpensively with some devices you can pick up at your local home store. Since the summers tend to be brutal in our neck of the woods it's nice to have that aspect of your home keeping out of mind and not have to burden your house sitters with it. I mention this because some of these prospects of leaving your home for a couple of weeks can be in themselves a deterrent from wanting to get away but just like with anything - proper planning will set you free!

We knew we would do plenty of walking on our trip and that our 5 year old would most likely complain quite a bit so a foldable double stroller was a must for this escapade and downloading plenty of movies onto our son's tablet was another key task to perform for us before leaving. You never know where you will have poor internet service and while we try to limit our son's screen time at home we have learned that on vacation that is one of the sacrifices we may have to make when faced with a meltdown or boredom so we've come to grips with that.

All of this preparation is key to managing the stress of travel as you will have other things to worry about and focus on. It might seem a bit overwhelming but what's good about it is that it becomes second nature and pretty much routine the more things you try to systematize, automate or turn into a checklist and the more you travel of course.

The first leg of our trip took us to Rome where we spent a few days letting our kids take in at least a few historic attractions of Italy's capital.

Our last time there, without the kids we felt like our limited visit to the Coliseum left us wanting more so if there was anything we were going to do it was to spend some time around this awesome monument. One of the more interesting tidbits about our travel to Rome however was the challenge of getting from the airport to our hotel which we purposely booked close to Roma Termini, the main train station in Rome as we remembered that being very helpful logistically from our last time there. But even with our hotel in this location we weren't immediately sure of what would be the best way to get there since we wanted to avoid what we did last time which was take a bus and weren't sure whether taking a train from the Rome Fiumicino airport was going to be easy with the kids and all our luggage.

We thought about renting a car however at that point we still had plans that would make it inconvenient having to return it to the same location. It turns out that returning a car in Europe to a different location, especially in combination with it being an automatic transmission vehicle can cost quite a bit more.

That's another thing to keep in mind that we learned traveling to Europe on our own the first time. As Americans who are used to driving automatic vehicles we were surprised to find that they are pretty scarce in Europe and can be significantly more expensive to rent. If you do plan to drive in Europe it might be a good idea to brush up on driving a standard vehicle and also don't forget to get your international driving license. Many European countries will not let you rent or operate a car without one. You can obtain one pretty easily, the same day at your local AAA office for $20. You can also get one by mail but this may take up to a couple of weeks so make sure to plan accordingly.

Of course another option was a Taxi or Uber especially since the latter is our preferred mode of transport when it is available but the challenge here was the uncertainty of car sizes in Europe as many of them are smaller than American vehicles.

While we were certain we could fit into a midsize car with all of our stuff with our fold-able stroller we weren't sure if after booking the Uber one of the European mini cars would show up to pick us up. Uber is available in Rome and honestly we did not see any mini ride sharing cars there as I'm sure the company has guidelines on the smallest vehicle that qualifies for its fleet but the app itself didn't seem to have a clear option of picking a larger size car like an Uber Xl in the US.

Anyway despite our concerns the hubby confirmed the train station wasn't far away from the arrivals terminal and decided that walking there with the luggage and stroller wouldn't be too terribly challenging if we have to turn back and opt out to get an Uber, a cab or a bus after all. Thankfully this turned out to be the right decision as not only did we save money but also discovered that travel by train with a stroller and a whole bunch of luggage can be much more convenient then a car or bus.

By the way ,again we do not travel light :-) . The two purple suitcases, another, big black one and the car seat above our big purple suitcase you see in the below image were all our luggage. In addition to the baby stroller and car seat (with our baby daughter in it) and the travel backpack on the floor. So yes, lugging a lot of family baggage with kiddos overseas is doable peeps, you just have to be smart about it it! More on that in another post though.

The key here is to make sure you avoid the rush-hour which is after 3 o'clock and you might also want to buy a ticket for a first class car which tend to be not as crowded. Another great advantage was not having to fold the stroller which we also used to carry some of our luggage since Italian trains seem to have ample designated space for your luggage and to keep a stroller or wheel chair.

Visiting Rome with kids was different but very fulfilling as well. The summer is a little less structured time when we let our kids stay up longer and that is definitely true on trips so we took just as much pleasure in our late dinners and walking the Italian Capital after dark with our little ones as we remember from our visit there alone. Rome after dark, with family felt very safe by the way. But more about visiting Rome with kids and the rest of our experiences and impressions from our trip's destinations in another blog post so stay tuned for part two.

In the meantime, if you enjoyed this post be sure to check out the rest of my blog at www.maxyourtravel.com for other write ups on our family's travel tips, experiences and reviews and visit my Instagram account ms.max.your.travel. Feel free to follow me on Instagram and let me know if you have any questions!

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