Traveling Internationally with a Toddler-Renting a Car

We rented a car for our tour through Italy. We’ve rented Internationally before so it wasn’t completely new to us but it was the first time we had to do it with a toddler. Here are some helpful tips I learned while traveling and renting a car:

• Do not bring a huge car seat! We actually brought our infant car seat because our son still fit the height and weight requirements. We chose not to rent a car seat because most are forward facing and you don’t know the history of the seat. We felt it was safer to bring our own. If we had brought the normal car seat he sits in it would not have fit in our tiny car. The car seat we brought barely fit! We also left the base at home because you can strap the seat down with a belt.
• Bring a 40-gallon trash bag to check your car seat in at the airport. Most airlines provide car seat bags but some do not and you’ll need to have something to pack it in if they don’t.
• Once you arrive at the airport be prepared to have to walk your luggage to the rental car garage, which can be extremely far away from the terminal. We got a cart and put all our luggage in it and just left the cart at the garage. It was also freaking cold.
• The cars in foreign countries are tiny compared to the U.S. You will likely not be able to pack a ton of stuff in your car so make sure you only take the essentials. It’s also going to be an uncomfortable ride, especially if you’re in the back seat.
• Most gas stations make you pay in advance and you have to go inside to pay the teller directly.
• You should fully expect the roads to be mapped out differently. Make sure you get a GPS with the rental car. It’s worth the extra money. You will get lost if you don’t have one. Guaranteed. We thought Italian driving was relatively simple compared to driving in Ireland.
• There aren’t many places to pull over so try to prepare for your toddler’s needs ahead of time. Hopefully it’s something you can deal with while driving. I fed my son while he was in the car seat because there are no restaurants along the way.
• Make sure you get rental car insurance. You might get in an accident and you need to have it there.
• Keep emergency phone numbers for the country some place where you can easily find it if your in an accident. I had the police, paramedics and other medical numbers printed out and stored in my diaper bag just in case.

Those are all the tips and advice I can think of for now. If I think of any more I will update this list. Wishing you happy driving and a wonderful trip.

Rome, Italy

Traveling on an International Flight with Toddler (One year old)

The flight was the part of our trip I was most worried about. I couldn’t imagine how our one-year-old son would be able to survive a nine hour flight and I started panicking just thinking about it. When we went in elevators he would get nervous and cling to me for dear life, so I was sure he would flip out on the plane. I tried to mentally prepare myself for the worst scenarios.

Our flight was a red-eye on British Airways from Phoenix to London (Nine hours long). We decided a direct flight would be best because there are less ear-popping take offs and landings to deal with and we hopped he would sleep the entire way. Even though US Airways was cheaper, British Airways offered a baby cot for children to sleep on during the flight and it seemed to be the more kid friendly airlines.

Before the flight I read blogs and tried to find anything I could about flying with young children. The only items I really found were tips such as bring something for them to suck on during takeoff, bring lots of diapers and fun new toys. Those seemed obvious so I’d like to get more specific about what we purchased for the flight.

Here’s what I can remember I bought and brought on the plane:

• Spiderman hand held LED light up wand (He played with it for a bit.)
• Penguin Light up LED wand (The picture shown is not exact but it’s close to what it looks like. He thought this was fun for awhile.)
• Small rubber toy cars (The picture is not exact product but it’s close to what they look like. He didn’t play with these much.)
• Six of the board books from a 12 board book collection (These are amazing! We have the Sesame Street pack. We read these over and over.)
• His favorite Elmo bath book (We found it in the $1 bin at Target. He’s obsessed with it and wants to read it over and over!)
• Scooby Doo Fan (He played with it for a long time.)
• Four-pack of Play Doh (We found it in the $1 bin at Target. The image isn’t exact but this is the sizes of Play Doh I had. He played with these for a few minutes. It’s messy!)
• Pack of glow sticks bracelets (He enjoyed wearing the glow stick hat we made him.)
• Toy Story LED toy camera (We found it in the $3 bin at Target. It was a toddler stocking stuffer.)
• Toy phone (He loves playing with it.)
• Snowman Popp pen (He really liked this toy. He wanted to pop it again and again.)
• Small Magnetic Drawing Board (We brought this every place in Italy. It keeps him occupied, especially at dinner.)
• Small Slinky (He was amazed by it! Had fun with this for a bit.)
• Baby Bottle Pop Candy (This was for him to suck on for take-off. I emptied all the sugar powder that was in it and put cheerios in the bottle part so it doubled as food storage. We ended up not needed it but he ate the cheerios.)
• Ipad mini (We loaded it with several kids apps and Elmo movies. This was a must for travel. We even had a sleep noise app on it that helped him fall asleep every night.)
• I had tons of squeeze pouch foods, snacks and crackers
• 3M Peltor Junior Earmuff, Black (I had a friend worn me her toddler went nuts over the loud noises on the plane. She recommended getting some earmuffs.)
• Califone Listening First Stereo Headphones (With all the noise the airplane makes it’s hard to hear the iPad. This also keeps others from hearing your movie.)
• More diapers and wipes than I ever thought I would need
• A change of clothing for him and I
• Extra sippy cups
• Several pacifiers
• Any medications he may need during the flight (also brought a pacifier thermometer)
• All my personal items
• Diaper changing pad
• Disposable plastic placements

The key is to find toys that don’t make much noise so you won’t bother others on the flight.I found most items at Target, Walgreens and Ross.

When I got out all the items I planned to shove in my diaper bag my husband looked at me like I was crazy. I don’t know if my diaper bag is the same bag Mary Poppins used in the movie or if it was just extremely spacious but I managed to fit it all in there.

Here are some other helpful tips:

My son is the type where he has to see a book one or two times to get interested so I showed him the books before the trip. Also, we practiced watching the iPad a lot while wearing his headphones prior to our trip. He was so excited that he was able to carry around the iPad that he didn’t really even notice the movie the first few times. If we hadn’t practiced wearing his earmuffs and headphones before the trip, I don’t think we would have been as successful on the flight. Our son doesn’t pay any attention to the TV but the iPad managed to hold his attention for ten-15 minute intervals and that’s better than nothing.

While on the plane, I tried to give him an object every half our or so. I would break it up and give him a snack and then a toy, a snack and then a toy and so on. On the way to London he managed to sleep all nine hours on the baby cot provided by British Airways but the flight back was not a red-eye so we ended up needing to use everything we brought. Also, make sure you have a duplicate bag packed for the trip home exactly like you packed for the trip to your destination.  Whole milk was served on the flight and they even had baby food. Check with your airline ahead of time to make sure they provide these items.

My husband is a genius and planned our seat arrangements perfectly. Our son was under two so he essentially flew free but was required to sit on our lap. We got the window and middle seat on each flight and also sat right behind the galley on the long flight to ensure extra leg room. This allowed us to create a barrier with our legs and block our son in the seat. He was allowed to stand or sit on the floor in front of us and it prevented him from wanting to run down the aisle. Brilliant! While on the flight home I did witness a mother being judged by a twenty-something-year-old-girl for having her “five year old child” sit next to her (The child was under two and sat on his mother’s lap). The girl publicly and loudly stated she wasn’t thrilled to be sharing a seat with a wiggling child so the mother asked to be moved and the flight attendants helped her and her son find a new seat. Just be warned that some people may not want to share a seat with you and your child but just keep telling yourself that you’ll never see these people again. Bush it off and tell them to SUCK IT! We were lucky enough to have kind people sit next to us and we didn’t have any complaints from other passengers. Later in the flight, that mother was chasing her son up and down the aisle. Do what you gotta do. But I digress…

The main point I want to scream from the mountain tops is that the complimentary baby cot on British Airways was the best thing ever! He slept all nine hours to London in it and then napped for three hours and went to bed in it on the flight home to Phoenix. They only offer it on longer flights so we weren’t able to use it when we flew from London to Italy but we managed those shorter flights without it.

British Airways Baby Cot

Overall, our boy loved the plane and we wondered what were so worried about in the first place. It was a great flight and I would actually do it again.