European Excursions with Infants

[mistybaby]

Anyone have any experience/information - thanks! Our son will be about 8 months old when we go and any information would be appreciated.

[kitty9]

Unfortunately, most of the excursions in European cities are very long, most in the 9 to 11 hour range. Only you know your infant, but do you think he/she could handle being out in very hot and humid weather for that long of a time? Your choices are to only take tours that are four hours or less, hire private cars and drivers to take you to specific sites (in places like Florence and Rome threre's a lot of walking as tour buses cannot get close to many of the best tourist sites---in Florence the city tours are all walking because buses cannot get into the old city area where all the sites are located, so that means you could be walking for 4 hours or more) and tailor the private car's tours to your child's needs, or bring along someone who could stay on the ship with your child while you do the tours.

[kosoffj]

we are doing something similar. we are going on the jewel 7/30 out of barcelona and our son will be 7 months old (6th cruise 1st with him!)

 

i'm not a fan of booking excursions so we plan to do it on our own and will try not to push it too much (though my son is very mellow and can nap anywhere). our itinerary is barcelona-messina,sicily-naples-citavecchia (sure i spelled that wrong)-livorno-nice.

 

tentatively we are hoping to do capri from naples, monte carlo from nice, pisa from livorno and the rest are undecied (we have been to italy before so we are trying to keep our big sightseeing days to the things we haven't seen). we are also spending 8 days in spain following the cruise.

 

good luck, i'll be following this thread to see what advice you get!

[shellie100]

Anyone have any experience/information - thanks! Our son will be about 8 months old when we go and any information would be appreciated.

When I traveled with my son at that age, I wore him in a sling-type baby carrier. My husband would wear him in a Snugli baby carrier sometimes. It's so much easier than lugging around a stroller, and the baby was usually more content for long periods of time. I breastfed, too, so then I didn't have to carry around bottles, formula, water, or whatever. He was so great to travel with at that age! Anyway, if you do thing sling or Snugli thing, I would recommend getting used to it well before travel, so that you back is used to it by then. Good luck and have a great time!!!