Europe with 7 and 3 Year Old, Any Advice?

[NayaSantaFe]

We will be travelling to Europe in May for a month (2 cruises and 1 1/2 land travel). It's our first trip to Europe and I am stressing on what to pack/not pack since we will try to pack as light as possible.

 

My kids have traveled a lot in their short lives. They have been cruising and flying since they were 6 months, but I am wondering if there is something you parents wish you would have packed/not packed for your Europe trip or something you wish you would have known before leaving?

 

So far it seems like I will not be taking my usual backpack because all I have been reading says this makes you a bigger target for pit-pocketers. So what should I take instead? What have other mom's used to carry baby wipes(don't need diapers anymore) milk, hand wipes, etc? I was considering maybe a cross body bag like this one:

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B074HGKCSW/topherscastle

 

If you have a better suggestion please share!

 

[kasi1979]

Europe is quite big and very different depending on where you are going.

Maybe you can tell us your Destinations.

 

Pick pockets are a Problem in some big cities, Europe in total is not unsafe.

[NayaSantaFe]

8 hours ago, kasi1979 said:

Europe is quite big and very different depending on where you are going.

Maybe you can tell us your Destinations.

 

Pick pockets are a Problem in some big cities, Europe in total is not unsafe.

 

We will be spending a few days in Barcelona pre-cruise, 1 week on our cruise to Florence, Naples, Rome and Palma de Mallorca, 9 days between Paris and London post-cruise, then 2 days in Venice before our second cruise and one week on our second cruise to various cities in Greece.

[Onessa]

We did a couple of European adventures with our DD when she was close to your kids ages. She was a pretty chill kid, so we were able to do a lot of sightseeing without her getting too antsy.  But I'd set up daily visual scavenger hunts for her every day -- a list of about 10 or 12 things -- some specific to where you will be that day -  Venice, winged lion for example.  And others more generic - like an orange baseball hat, or a round window.  If she saw something, she'd point it out and we'd cross it off.  If she got all of them, she get a prize -- very often a Kinder Egg (she loved those things).  It would keep her more interested in looking around!  We also did a daily search of US and Canadian flags -- doing a daily count.  

 

As far as packing is concerned, Europe tourist areas can be a bit "dressier" than US tourist areas, so I might go a bit heavier on collared shirts for boys, sundresses for girls. With as long as a trip you are planning, you must be planning for laundry -- so I'd be comfortable packing lighter than usual.  May will be cool in some of your destinations - so at least one basic cardigan and a light water resistant jacket for each is a must have, but there again, resist the temptation to overpack.

[kitkat343]

Will your Greek cruise visit Santorini?  Please let me know if so since its an unusually logistically difficult port to disembark and embark, and I'll write more if it could help you.

 

Also, I haven't traveled to Italy with my children yet, so I haven't used this travel company that is focused entirely on helping children visit Italy:  https://www.artealsole.com .  I cannot vouch for them, but I've always found it really helpful to at least view what kinds of activities companies like this plan, since even if you don't want to go on a tour, you can at least get some useful ideas.

 

If you do decide to take a tour (which isn't necessarily a requirement - we toured most of the Baltics, with the exception of St. Petersburg independently with a 3.5 year old quite easily) please make sure its a private tour for just your family.  If you can stop whenever your kids get bored or hungry and feed them and stay longer at attractions they are interested in, you will be able to cover a lot more ground than on a group tour.  

[NayaSantaFe]

7 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

Will your Greek cruise visit Santorini?  Please let me know if so since its an unusually logistically difficult port to disembark and embark, and I'll write more if it could help you.

 

Also, I haven't traveled to Italy with my children yet, so I haven't used this travel company that is focused entirely on helping children visit Italy:  https://www.artealsole.com .  I cannot vouch for them, but I've always found it really helpful to at least view what kinds of activities companies like this plan, since even if you don't want to go on a tour, you can at least get some useful ideas.

 

If you do decide to take a tour (which isn't necessarily a requirement - we toured most of the Baltics, with the exception of St. Petersburg independently with a 3.5 year old quite easily) please make sure its a private tour for just your family.  If you can stop whenever your kids get bored or hungry and feed them and stay longer at attractions they are interested in, you will be able to cover a lot more ground than on a group tour.  

 

Yes, our Greek cruise will be visiting Santorini! 

 

We are a group of 11 people, so the tours we have booked so far for the first leg of our trip will be private since we are such a big group. So, like you said this should make it easier for us with the kids.

[kitkat343]

Santorini is gorgeous, but a bit logistically difficult to access.  If you are traveling independently, you need to tender to a spot where you can either ride a donkey up a hill (really might be a bit dangerous for small children, as I was scraped up and bleeding by mine and my brother lost a sandal on his way up- unsurprisingly there's a store that sells shoes at the top) or wait on line for a funicular.  You can walk up the donkey path, but need to be very careful since there's a lot of very slippery donkey poop on the cobblestones.  The lines can be quite long for both possibly going up and down.  There have at various times been a ferry that can take you to the tourist parts of Santorini, but its been in existence some years and not in others.  Try to see if you can get a private tour operator to pick you up directly from where you tender, but I'm not sure if that will be possible.    

[angie7911922]

I brought my backpack and didn't have any issues while I was there. Now, that being said, it is a ruck (goruck.com) not "just a backpack" so nobody was going to get into it without me noticing that they were trying. Just stay aware of your surroundings. Most of the time, pickpockets get to people because they are not paying attention to what is going on around them. The distractions make you an easy target. 

I've also used cross-body bags in the past, but I like my backpack better, so I keep going back to that 🙂

[NayaSantaFe]

On 2/4/2019 at 6:46 PM, Onessa said:

We did a couple of European adventures with our DD when she was close to your kids ages. She was a pretty chill kid, so we were able to do a lot of sightseeing without her getting too antsy.  But I'd set up daily visual scavenger hunts for her every day -- a list of about 10 or 12 things -- some specific to where you will be that day -  Venice, winged lion for example.  And others more generic - like an orange baseball hat, or a round window.  If she saw something, she'd point it out and we'd cross it off.  If she got all of them, she get a prize -- very often a Kinder Egg (she loved those things).  It would keep her more interested in looking around!  We also did a daily search of US and Canadian flags -- doing a daily count.  

 

As far as packing is concerned, Europe tourist areas can be a bit "dressier" than US tourist areas, so I might go a bit heavier on collared shirts for boys, sundresses for girls. With as long as a trip you are planning, you must be planning for laundry -- so I'd be comfortable packing lighter than usual.  May will be cool in some of your destinations - so at least one basic cardigan and a light water resistant jacket for each is a must have, but there again, resist the temptation to overpack.

Do you have any tips on helping them manage the long flights and helping them sleep through the overnight flights? This has me a little crazy just thinking about it!

[Brantjudith]

I'd recommend that you don't go far from the kids on the flight. Always be around to calm them in cases of agitation. If it isn't their first time flying, it would be easier. However if it is, they'd need timely checks to ensure they are fine as they might not be able to precisely describe how they're feeling. And of course, follow recommended safety procedures.

[NayaSantaFe]

4 hours ago, Brantjudith said:

I'd recommend that you don't go far from the kids on the flight. Always be around to calm them in cases of agitation. If it isn't their first time flying, it would be easier. However if it is, they'd need timely checks to ensure they are fine as they might not be able to precisely describe how they're feeling. And of course, follow recommended safety procedures.

 

They have both been flying since they were 6 months, but this is the first long (more than 6 hours) flight. Do any of you use Milatonin or things of that sort to help them relax and sleep better during the flight?

 

Also, I had been reading that some parents use natural sleep aids once they have arrived in Europe to help the little ones with jetlag and adjusting to new time zone, any of you done this?

[Brantjudith]

Using medication is advisable to help the kids with the jetlag but ensure you get appropriate prescriptions for their ages as not all adult meds are used for kids. 

8 hours ago, NayaSantaFe said:

 

They have both been flying since they were 6 months, but this is the first long (more than 6 hours) flight. Do any of you use Milatonin or things of that sort to help them relax and sleep better during the flight?

 

Also, I had been reading that some parents use natural sleep aids once they have arrived in Europe to help the little ones with jetlag and adjusting to new time zone, any of you done this?

 

[Onessa]

On 2/13/2019 at 8:57 PM, NayaSantaFe said:

Do you have any tips on helping them manage the long flights and helping them sleep through the overnight flights? This has me a little crazy just thinking about it!

 

I've had limited success getting good quality rest on long flights (for me and for my daughter 🙂 ).

 

I purchased sleep headphones - tiny flat speakers sewn into a comfy headband designed for listening while sleeping - (on-line at www.sleepphones.com).  Combined with an audio book or calming music or white-noise, and other comforting things and use the headband as a sleep mask or find another way to block light -- to eliminate outside stimulus and distractions.

 

Shoes off (bring some heavy socks or use slip-on shoes for trips to the bathroom), a nice bedtime snack (dairy combined with a carb) and some comfort item.  I'd limit any type of sleep med other than maybe melatonin myself.  Most sleep med have carryover effects or side effects.

 

While awake, most long-flightaircraftt are supplied with personalized in-flight electronic entertainment.  Head phones.  

Books with travel games/puzzles/madlibs; and miniaturee versions of toys.  I have had a lot of luck with the tiny "party" sized containers of pla-doh - they are fun, cheap, versatile (and disposable when they get yucky)  -- use in free play, but also come prepared with some doh "games"  -- for pre-schoolers, have them make doh snakes and outline simple shapes drawn on paper, for older ones sculpt different shapes or other challenges (make a chain, use other stuff to make impressions into the doh, etc).

 

Have some fun snacks.  A couple of dollar store surprises.  Come armed with word games.  

 

Watch the carts, and plan a few get up and walk the aisle trips to coincide with the food or bev service's down-times.  

 

Have fun!  Getting there should be part of the adventure.

 

 

[Onessa]

On 2/6/2019 at 9:24 AM, kitkat343 said:

Santorini is gorgeous, but a bit logistically difficult to access.  If you are traveling independently, you need to tender to a spot where you can either ride a donkey up a hill (really might be a bit dangerous for small children, as I was scraped up and bleeding by mine and my brother lost a sandal on his way up- unsurprisingly there's a store that sells shoes at the top) or wait on line for a funicular.  You can walk up the donkey path, but need to be very careful since there's a lot of very slippery donkey poop on the cobblestones.  The lines can be quite long for both possibly going up and down.  There have at various times been a ferry that can take you to the tourist parts of Santorini, but its been in existence some years and not in others.  Try to see if you can get a private tour operator to pick you up directly from where you tender, but I'm not sure if that will be possible.    

Some of the ship's excursions may tender to a different area where there is road access for tour buses.  We took this for a quick excursion.  the tour bus took us to Oia for a few hours and then to Fieria where we could take the funicular down to the regular place.  Lines for the funicular down are not as bad as up.  Or we could have met back up with the excursion for bus back to the alternate docking area.

 

Apart from the bus transportation, our excursion was on-our-own.  It met our needs perfectly and took the stress out of the whole "getting up there" part.  (I hate lines!)

[TupeloHoney]

We took our then 6 and 10 year olds to Europe last spring.  I bought a pillow like this for my 6 year old for on the plane, and it worked pretty well.  https://www.amazon.com/Height-Adjustable-Inflatable-Airplane-Accessories-Footrest/dp/B07B7J1HQW/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1550430563&sr=8-4&keywords=kids+plane+foot+rest 

I also brought along a couple of my cheap pashminas and some clips to make her a little sleeping tent.  She didn't sleep great, but she got a few hours.  My 10 year old didn't sleep at all, but he was too big for the pillow thing.

[TupeloHoney]

The other thing we did was a lot of watching of educational videos on the places we were going.  That was more for my 10 year old though.  My 6 year old got some out of it, but not as much as he did.  He's a history buff anyway, so he likes that kind of thing.  But I do think it meant more to him when we were at the Colosseum and the Leaning Tower, etc, that he knew something about them ahead of time.  

[Baletrina]

Backpacks are great!  Would just bring the backpack because:

A. They alleviate annoying straps and free up your hands

B. The many compartments are amazing

C. They are on trend right now and everyone in Europe is selling them/wearing them

 

Last trip(kids were 4 and 1) I had a tote bag and ended up buying a mini backpack in Italy. Love it. Pickpocketing is not as prevalent as people state. Just use extra precaution like you would in most big cities/crowded areas. Be aware of your surroundings. Don’t do dumb things like put your wallet in an outside pocket, etc.  In crowded areas I would stuff my bag under the stroller or you can wear it backwards. 

 

One thing we we were not prepared for were the mosquitos. DD got bit up bad(she has horrible reactions to bites anyways). Met other American kids on the cruise with the same bites. Who knew? So bug repellent, anti itch cream are added to our bag full of Benadryl, Motrin, etc in the future. 

 

And I second dressing up slightly. 

[NayaSantaFe]

On 2/17/2019 at 12:11 PM, TupeloHoney said:

We took our then 6 and 10 year olds to Europe last spring.  I bought a pillow like this for my 6 year old for on the plane, and it worked pretty well.  https://www.amazon.com/Height-Adjustable-Inflatable-Airplane-Accessories-Footrest/dp/B07B7J1HQW/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1550430563&sr=8-4&keywords=kids+plane+foot+rest 

I also brought along a couple of my cheap pashminas and some clips to make her a little sleeping tent.  She didn't sleep great, but she got a few hours.  My 10 year old didn't sleep at all, but he was too big for the pillow thing.

I am really considering buying this leg pillow. But, not sure how we would blow it up, did you bring along something to inflate it or did you just blow it up yourself?

[NayaSantaFe]

14 hours ago, Baletrina said:

Backpacks are great!  Would just bring the backpack because:

A. They alleviate annoying straps and free up your hands

B. The many compartments are amazing

C. They are on trend right now and everyone in Europe is selling them/wearing them

 

Last trip(kids were 4 and 1) I had a tote bag and ended up buying a mini backpack in Italy. Love it. Pickpocketing is not as prevalent as people state. Just use extra precaution like you would in most big cities/crowded areas. Be aware of your surroundings. Don’t do dumb things like put your wallet in an outside pocket, etc.  In crowded areas I would stuff my bag under the stroller or you can wear it backwards. 

 

One thing we we were not prepared for were the mosquitos. DD got bit up bad(she has horrible reactions to bites anyways). Met other American kids on the cruise with the same bites. Who knew? So bug repellent, anti itch cream are added to our bag full of Benadryl, Motrin, etc in the future. 

 

And I second dressing up slightly. 

I was looking at buying a little crossbody backpack:

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07CBNQC5Y/ref=sspa_mw_detail_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&th=1

 

Like you said I think it will be alot more practical than a little purse...I don't carry diapers or anything anymore, but I do carry baby wioes, hand santizer, etc, so I need a little extra space.

 

Also, thanks for the repellent idea. I usually take one to our trips but for some reason I wasn't thinking I would need it on this trip.

[Baletrina]

6 hours ago, NayaSantaFe said:

I was looking at buying a little crossbody backpack:

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07CBNQC5Y/ref=sspa_mw_detail_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&th=1

 

Like you said I think it will be alot more practical than a little purse...I don't carry diapers or anything anymore, but I do carry baby wioes, hand santizer, etc, so I need a little extra space.

 

Also, thanks for the repellent idea. I usually take one to our trips but for some reason I wasn't thinking I would need it on this trip.

That bag is perfect! Time to order it and start the Spreadsheet packing list. Lol. 

[NayaSantaFe]

On 3/21/2019 at 9:32 PM, Baletrina said:

That bag is perfect! Time to order it and start the Spreadsheet packing list. Lol. 

 

I just received the bag and loved it! Perfect size!

 

Any good packing lists you have used for your Europe trips?

[phxbne]

What an adventure and some great tips!

here are some things I’ve learned from multiple long flights and trips with kids:

- bring a stash of snacks from home that your kids like - many of our travel arguments involve looking for lunch.....or when your kid wakes up hungry on the flight

- eyeshades can help with sleep - planes can be bright  - I also like a light blanket - we have some from travelsmith that are great and we use them in hotels too often

- only use a sleep aid if you have tested them out at home - we use melatonin and essential oils - DD started with melatonin at about 8 

- if you are used to a backpack, stick to that! I tried tha5 Travelon bag and found it clunky and heavy. DH is our designated backpack mule. Keeps his wallet in a front pants pocket.

- carry some soap to wash a few things out in the sink - lots of ideas online about what soap etc - cruise cabins usually have a clothesline, but you could by one too

- we take reusable water bottles to spend less money on water everywhere....

- if you don’t use them, think about packing cubes to separate each persons clothes

 

 

have a wonderful time!

 

 

 

Edited April 10, 2019 by phxbne