Baby Travel: Europe Trip with our 6 Month Old!

A place where I’m recapping our Europe Trip with our 6 month old and sharing all our baby travel must haves for him!

As I get around to finally typing this all out after so many request over on instagram, our little baby boy Brady is almost 9 months old and has been on 32 plane flights. Yes, 32. They say life doesn’t have to stop once having kids — I think we took that to an extreme because I’m pretttty sure we travel more now since having a baby haha! Anyways, in his many trips, 32 flights and multiple countries, I’ve learned a thing or 2. Here’s the thing about baby travel. Is it a little more beforehand prep and a little less relaxing in a selfish way? Sure. But it’s also memories forever & we’re such big believers that life doesn’t stop after babies – it’s just begun! Plus with all the experiences and visual stimulation he gets during the trips, I feel it must help developmentally in ways! And because of traveling with Brady since week 8 both flying & driving – I feel like it’s only gotten easier / he’s growing up to be flexible🙏🏻😊 with that being said, here are just a few random musts/tips for us when traveling! See more in stories!

So here’s  1) baby travel must haves & 2) our most requested Europe Trip recap/travel itinerary. Ps: also checkout this highlight bubble full of tips here on instagram!

 

Baby Travel Must Haves:

Here is my list in my notes that I go to every time I’m about to pack him up. There is also some extras at the bottom for road trips vs planes (we’ve traveled mostly by plane with him but have made 2-3 long road trips too!)

Instead of linking everything individually,  here is my amazon travel folder for ALL the things written below.

And here’s my link for all young living baby things (wipes, diaper cream, lotion, etc)!

 

Ok now for THE LIST:

• burp cloths
  • I use cloth diaper inserts, see in amazon folder here, because they soak up a lot better (& I have a happy spitter baby hah)
• When 6+ months:
  • bibs
  • food (amara packets, else packets – most food I just order when we’re out like avocado, sweet potato, etc)
• favorite pacis (stopped this once he became a thumb sucker)
• toys/teething toy
  • for road trips, bring A LOT and all ones he/she loves. For planes, I  just bring a few easy to travel ones.
• Wearable Pumps (see amazon folder for my favorites that work amazing!)
  • for if drinking at night or for when I pump at bedtime and let hubby bottle feed/in AM pump off side he doesn’t feed on since both are super full
• Milk bags
  • I also bring a few frozen bags of milk WITH me from home in a little cooler! THESE in my amazon folder are the best (I’ve hated all the other brands I’ve tried!)
• Bottles for bedtime bottle
• Dohm travel sound machine
• Travel video monitor/camera 
  • I use the Bebcare low radiation one at home for everyday use (SGM10 for 10% off), but I wanted an easy portable one that could hook up to wifi too for travel in case we got a local sitter.
• Sleep Sack
• Young Living Musts:
  • thieves wipes for disinfecting
  • diaper seedlings wipes
  • Seedlings lotion / diaper cream
  • oils: tummygize roller + seedlings calm oil
• diapers
• outfits (2 for each day)
• socks & shoes (let’s be honest, I rarely put shoes on him…maybe when he walks hah)
• dog poop bag roll – kept in diaper bag (for any messes while out where you need to bag up the outfit/burp cloth)
• swim suit/ hat/ swim diapers depending on trip
• sweater (depending on weather)
• PJs (multiple)
• Carrier (my favorite linked in amazon folder)
• Doona stroller/car seat (all in one)
  • Y’all I was SO skeptical if we would actually use it enough since we had the nice uppababy for home, but it is SO WORTH THE INVESTMENT — even if you just take a couple trips!
• Diaper backpack with diapers, wipes, extra outfit for baby and me, travel sound machine, toys, burp cloths ready to pull out as needed
• passport (if going out of country)
• birth certificate (southwest is really the only one I’m aware of that requires this but I bring a copy of it no matter what)
• Chargers for all devices (pumps, monitor, sleep sound machine)

And as a reminder, find all the baby travel musts I personally use of this list above, right HERE 🙂

(except young living favorites, find those here!)

Some Baby Traveling Tips:

• I have a whole “baby travel” highlight bubble saved on instagram where I’ved shared things in real time right here!
• Bring a travel dohm sound machine for their sleeping space (we use the provided pack n play at places or bring our baby delight travel crib linked in this folder!)
• During travel time whether plane or car, I put a cloth diaper snap cover over his actual diaper to prevent any crazy 💩 messes (that was learned after said 💩 messes lol)
• Prepare to be FLEXIBLE. We don’t stick to a strict schedule. I’m all about a good schedule because baby does best on one in our home at least (we follow Moms on Call loosely)… but when traveling, we ditch the stress and release any need for specific schedule. I still look for sleepy cues and get down for nap when they come, but that could be in our hotel room, in the stroller, in a carrier on me, etc! And we typically always stay out past his bedtime haha, but he’ll just fall asleep on me and then once we’re home, he’ll go down! Ditch the stress and need for perfection, live life!
• Always always have extra diapers, wipes, and outfits for both you and baby on ya, no matter where you go🤪
• With that being said… the one thing I do stick consistent with is feedings! That helps him get all the nutrients he needs, and sleep well too. My wearable pump and a bottle helps this be possible no matter the circumstance (but honestly I usually just breastfeed no matter where we are!)
• Breastfeed take off and landing for their ears (or give bottle / something to suck on like paci!)
• When traveling overseas on a red eye, get bulkhead seating (we did this in the premium select area), and request bassinet in advance! This was a LIFE SAVER. He slept almost the whole way except 15min when he woke up 3hrs in for a hot second… all the way till they started serving breakfast on plane! (So like 9pmEST -4amEST, 11am italy time) —  see post here on specifically that!
• If you can bring help, do! We gifted my mom with the Europe trip to help us with Brady, and it was so fun just to have her with us + have the extra hand to have a little breathing space. Memories with “nana” forever.
• Be flexible, don’t set high expectations for baby… but also know they CAN do great! He blew us away while in Europe and was able to almost instantly get back on a rhythm in Italy time!! Don’t delay travel or think you can’t with a baby
• doona stroller. Hands down worth the investment when traveling, I promise. Even though we don’t use it as our everyday stroller, it’s STILL worth it x100
• Bring 1-2 soothing mechanisms you know YOUR baby likes best. Soothing aids (meaning if baby starts to get fussy, what’s your go tos) for us are the happy song on Spotify, his thumb (used to be a paci till month 4) and, well me lol. But whatever that is for your baby!
• Bring 1-2 age appropriate toys as needed (and more for during trip/in hotel). Honestly before 5mo old, it was SUPER easy because all he did was sleep & eat on flight. Nowww he wants constant stimulation and is done feeding in 10min. So we have to bring some of his favorite toys. And bring LOTS of toys if traveling by car places – especially noise making light up ones (basically the things I don’t usually let him play much with otherwise hah)
• Disposable placemats you can stick to airplane tray table: see Amazon store but these are such a fun distraction for babies! You can also just use colorful painters tape pieces and let them grab at those.
• Milk: airport security LOVES frozen milk. They’ll still approve any amounts of regular milk/formula… but they won’t have to take it out of cooler/test the milk if it’s frozen. I always bring a few bags of frozen milk to have when we arrive for his bedtime bottle/if I drink any nights.
• Snacks for 6mo+: I love bringing Else powder in a bag to mix with breastmilk or water + the amara veggie packets. Also bring some simple puffs for “distractions”.
• Travel sleep musts: travel monitor + travel dohm sound machine + travel crib if you can’t be provided one + sleep sack + all charging cords. I also bring bottles + pumps because we also bottle feed/pump the bedtime feeding!
• Baby carrier! I love traveling with our baby bjorn because I can use it in all situations from dinners to long walks/hikes. But it was a LIFE SAVER in Europe because we were out all day so he would just nap on one of us in carrier during nap times facing inward, and then we’d face him outward during wake times (strollers were hard in Europe so we rarely used it except like 2 days it came in clutch!)
• There is probably so much more to add that I’m forgetting, so look through this IG highlight bubble too!

 

& now for the other part of this blog post:

Our Europe Trip (with a 6 month old) Recap!

A few notes before just outlining each day…

We went with a Western Mediterranean Cruise, because after a lot of thought and almost booking it where we physically drove from place to place, we realized a cruise is a great way to see a lot of different places (I haven’t been many places overseas yet!), and it would give us the same “sleeping space” every night which would be muchhh better for a baby. We were already dealing with crazy time differences, I didn’t also need to deal with new sleeping environments every night that may or may not be very ideal. So we chose the Wonder of the Seas ship from Royal Caribbean! We are SO glad we made that decision looking back.

We also gifted the trip to my mom to come along and help us with Brady! It was mostly because my mom is my best friend and I know it’s been a dream trip for her, but as a single working mom, it’s never been in the cards. But just having an extra set us hands to help (and to give us a couple nights where we could go back out after dinner on the ship), was nice! But honestly, we were SO tired at the end of each day since being off the ship from about 8am-6pm, that we rarely even wanted to do anything after dinner, we were pooped!

We tried to do “less tourist-y things” in each place we stopped, except for the day before the ship in Rome. There we did all the must see, tourist stops hah.

 

Okay, now for the europe cruise/trip itinerary:

Travel Day- Fly from US to Rome

• Stopped into the Delta lounge to get a yummy dinner before our red eye flight took off
• DEFINITELY do a red-eye. MUCH easier for baby. We did a daytime flight on way home and that didn’t go near as smooth haha.
• Hanging bassinet: if you get the bulkhead seats in Delta (and other airlines i think), you can pre-request a bassinet that they hang in front of you! This was EVERYTHING. He slept 7 of the 9 hour flight!
• Doona stroller: must have for traveling — we just gate check ours.
• I should mention, our first flight was a short one to ATL around 3pm, and then we left ATL –> Rome at 730pm. This timed up GREAT because Brady got a wonderful first nap at home, and then was able to time up his bedtime with the redeye flight!

 

Day 1- Arrive to Rome (Relax and Enjoy Hotel/Explore Rome in Evening)

• We got in around 11am and stayed one night at
• B and I got our first italian coffee in the hotel and walked around, while my mom and Brady took naps. I tried to keep myself up and just sleep well that night to beat the jetlag! We let brady sleep for 2.5 hrs but then woke him up so he would sleep that night.
• We said we were going to grab a quick cab for an early dinner in the heart of Rome… but I think the adrenaline/excitement got to us because we ended up walking 6 miles between 4-9pm, seeing the Spanish stairs and trevi fountain. And of course a yummy pizza restaurant for an authentic Italian dinner of pizza, pasta, (salad too!), and wine!
• My mom and B got some gelato on walk after dinner — Brady wanted some too haha!

 

Day 2- All day Private tour: Colosseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, Vatican, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica. + Board Wonder of the Seas Cruise @ 5pm

• Saw so much between 8am-4pm !
• This breastfeeding mama almost passed out in Vatican because we just got a quick light bite before rushing off at 730am and I had NO idea how long it would last … but I survived and got a random sandwich at 11am outside the Vatican  🤪
• Stopped at a cute coffee shop for an espresso at noon
• Two course yummy lunch of pasta + a protein at 2pm with wine. Brady loved his high chair, my disposable placemat and his Else powder. We each got a different pasta and protein so we could try 6! (my mom, Brandon and I!)
• This whole trip we were out ALL day, so the only naps Brady got were in our beloved carrier. We would face him out during wake times and face him in during nap times.
• Breastfed Brady on the go throughout the day with just a cover (or nothing hah) – pretty cool to say I breastfed in the colosseum haha! 
• Arrived on ship!

 

 

About The Cruise!

• We got a suite room for Brandon, Brady and I so there was enough space to close the curtain and let him have his own space to sleep, and then got my mom a normal ocean front room a couple floors below us so that she could have her own space too. We probably would have done a 2 room suite if we could have instead, but they were all booked up!
  • it also comes with a fridge so you can store any breastmilk or food needed!
• The Wonder of the Seas was AMAZING! Honestly, it was so big we really didn’t get to utilize half of what was on it since we were off the boat from 8am-6pm every day exploring Europe! But we did have some nights at the karaoke bar!
• a cruise is DEFINITELY the way to do Europe with a baby if wanting to go to more than one place, because you still have the same sleeping grounds every night!

 

Day 3- Cruise Docked @ Naples (Amalfi Coast), Italy
We did a Private Tour of Positano/Sorrento by car and Capri by boat

• Group tour cancelled last minute, but we booked a new one the night before that was totally private!
• Private tour starting at 8am so we had to get off the cruise SUPER early (considering I had to get a baby ready, nurse him, and get myself ready hah!) We had such a funny guide/driver –  which was nice because it was a 2hr drive to Positano!
• Drove to positano and had a little brunch right on the beach (delicious omelette and savory crepes) + walked the shops and beach.
• Then we quickly stopped in sorrento for 15 min (we were on a tight timeframe to catch boat to Capri, but wanted to at least see it!) So we ran (literally) down the streets of Sorrento and got gelato + cappuccinos. Would have loved to stay here longer and could see coming back and staying here! A coastal Rome feel.
• Then we took a ferry to capri (& split a yummy pistachio cannoli as we waited to leave – we LOVED splitting random little bites between the 3 of us (my mom not brady haha), just to get a taste of things!). Then we did a boat tour around capri to see all the coast, which was BEAUTIFUL. We would have loved to do the Blue Gratto tour if we had more time and didn’t have a baby!
• Baby travel tip: a baby carrier is a MUST. He napped in it during day as we were out, and then we’d face him outward when it wasn’t nap time to let him see everything!

 

 

 

Day 4- Cruising Day on Ship

• Brady slept from 9-9, one of the first times sleeping through the night all trip, so we all felt like new people! When you’re spoiled & used to him sleeping through the night since 8 weeks old, and then he doesn’t 3 days in a row, coupled with jetlag yourself, it’s hard hah!
• Slept in until 9am ourselves, and then had a slow morning with a little workout before lunch – while my mom took Brady back for his first nap.
• We all met back up for lunch in the solarium – going places with buffet style made it easy for me to also find good options for Brady (along with healthy options for myself!)
• My mom took Brady again while we walked around ship and just had a little “date afternoon” together.
• We finally made it to the dining hall for dinner! We set a 6pm dinner because of knowing it’d be best for Brady, but the first days we didn’t even get back on the ship until about then, so we just did other restaurants around the ship for dinner. Brady loved his mashed potatoes they brought him!
• My mom put Brady to bed after dinner (she loves an early night in anyways!) and we (well huby) did karaoke + went to a couples night on ship! Hubby volunteered us to be one of the three couples to play the “games” on stage, and it was hilarious. We honestly didn’t get many other times to explore the ship since when you love all the ports and spend from 8am-7pm off ship, you’re exhausted and just eat dinner + go to bed to be ready for the next day! So it was fun to get a night where we explored the ship.

Day 5- Explore Barcelona, Spain

• We asked the cruise concierge how to do “less touristy” things, and he told us he had a cousin who lived there!!  So we paid his cousin to take us around for the afternoon and show us more local spots.
• Saw two “must sees” that were more touristy quickly: Parquel and the Church 
• But we spent most of day doing less touristy things! The top 3 things were the old hospital that was a “city in a city” and all outdoors (I honestly can’t BELIEVE this isn’t a tourist hot spot! so cool!!), the local farmer markets we got to walk through that were almost all locals, and then ended with a real Spanish lunch – tapas style! We invited his cousin to eat lunch with us and let him order what he thought we needed to try. We got everything from fried whole shrimp (yes, with the heads!), to about 10 other different tapas! They bring out bread with whole big tomatoes and olive oil, and you cut the tomato in half, spear it on the bread, drizzle some olive oil and salt, and eat! I would have never known that’s what you were suppose to do with the bread unless the guy had been with us haha!
• Then we got back on the ship around 6pm and had a later dinner in the coastal kitchen restaurant!

Day 6- Relax on Ship and Explore Palma de Mallorca, Spain

• We knew there wasn’t THAT much to see in Palma de Mallorca, so we slept in and relaxed, ran a little around track while my mom kept Brady (we did have a half marathon the very next weekend after getting back and all that we hadn’t trained for at all hah), and then went out of the port into the city for a few hours to just walk around the town & have a fun spanish tapas lunch:
  • When walking around we came across a little authentic restaurant and had a tapas lunch of meat & cheese board + wine + little sandwich rolls… it was delicious!
• It was Formal dinner in dining hall! So we got back on the ship early to get ready in time for our 6pm dinner, acted all fancy in our formal attire with getting some limoncello martinis in the suite lounge before (limoncello became a FAVORITE since Italy!!)

 

 

Day 7- Explore Provence, France

• We didn’t know what to expect in France, and had no plans! But we ended up having SUCH a beautiful day and wished we could have explored more of the coastal France ares! We ended up getting a cab driver that offered to stay with us all day and take us to different places – so we went to Aix-en-Provence to see the city vibe, and then he took us to Cassis where there was a beautiful winery on the cliff overlooking the water! We only had so many hours in one day to see things, but we wished we had more time here!
• Croissants (and honestly anything baked) here vs US… SO much different and better. and a bonus I don’t feel yucky after the ones here!
• I wish I could include the video here of the street dancers… they were AMAZING and we just happen to run into them when first getting to Aix-en-Provence

 

Day 8- Cinque Terre (Trains between the 5 coastal towns)

• Last day was back in Italy! Cinque Terre port some people take the 2.5hr bus in to see the leaning tower of Pisa. We thought 5 hours of driving was a litttttle too much (baby travel 101, avoid long travel days hah), so we decided to explore the “5 cities” / Cinque Terre… and it was a BLAST!
• We took a train to the farthest one, and then backtracked all the way. We started in Monterosso and gradually headed to Riomaggiore w/lunch @Nessun Dorma. We told ourselves (my mom, Brandon and I – of course brady was there with us too!), that we had to get some type of food or drink at every one of the 5 stops to celebrate our last day. It was a blast. Many times we’d just get 1 drink & 1-2 food items, and split it between all 3 of us, so we got to try several different things! I still think the limoncello will have my heart!
• Then we JUST made it back on in time (we didn’t realize how long it would take to stop at all 5!), and had our lastttt dinner on the ship… *tear*

 

Day 9- Fly from Rome to USA

• The saddest of days! As an introvert and homebody, usually I’m READY to get back into my regular routine and bed, but not this time! Even with having a 6mo baby with us and not sleeping as well as usual… I wanted to stay so much longer! It was a DREAM vacation that I’ll never forget. Brady may not remember it, but Brandon, “nana”/my mom, and I will… and it was memories that will last a lifetime!

 

Brandon and I were talking on the flight back (which did NOT go as smoothly as the redeye over when it comes to Brady hah – red eye is DEFINITELY the move)… and we said, “if you could go back, would you leave Brady back home?”. Both of us with 100% certainty said NOPE, it was memories I will cherish forever and we can’t imagine NOT having him with us. Through the nights he didn’t sleep well. Through all the spit up every day (he’s a happy spitter). Through it ALL… we wouldn’t have changed a thing!

So there’s my Europe Trip with a 6 month old baby recap + baby travel necessities… all wrapped up into one! I hope you find this helpful in your travels… and if you’re questioning it… YES, take the baby! Memories for a life time.

 

Find all my amazon baby travel musts HERE.

Find all my young living favorites HERE.

And come say hello over on instagram here too!!