As we’ve been starting to book our 2018 travel in earnest, I’ve been asked a couple times lately about how I find cheap flights within Europe. Today, I thought I’d talk about that here. I don’t pretend to be an expert — frankly, I think I pour more time into searching options than most reasonably can — but I want to share what works for us all the same.

For us, the most important thing we’ve learned to do in our hunt for cheap flights is to GET CREATIVE. Because our home airport is fairly small compared to big hubs like Rome or Milan, there aren’t as many options to choose from. As such, I’ve gotten into the habit of looking into a lot of possibilities. I generally ask myself the following questions if I can’t find a cheap flight from Catania:

• Is it feasible to fly from a different airport? Comiso, about an hour south of us, sometimes has options. We’ve also chosen twice to buy a ticket to Rome, then bought a separate ticket to get to the United States from there as flights from Rome are often so much cheaper and require fewer stopovers. I’ve considered doing this for times when there aren’t good options to get to a place I’d like to go, like Portugal.
• Is it feasible to fly into a different airport? Can I fly into Trieste instead of Ljubljana?Rome instead of Florence? Munich instead of Salzburg? Some airports are cheaper than others, and if the difference is big enough it can make sense to take a train or drive a couple hours to the destination from the cheaper airport.

I recently spent way too much a lot of time trying to decide how to get to Scotland next year after determining the straight-forward Catania to Edinburgh routes were all either out of our price range or involved obnoxious long layovers. Some alternatives I considered included: a) flying into London and taking the overnight train, The Calendonian Sleeper, to Edinburgh or Inverness, b) flying into London and taking flights into Edinburgh and out of Aberdeen (tempting at $25 and $13 each), c) flying into Manchester, England, and driving four hours to Edinburgh or d) flying into Milan, then taking a direct flight to Edinburgh.

Option B was almost the winner, being surprisingly cheaper than the train option, but we ultimately chose to go waaaaay out of the box and combined our Scotland trip with our hoped-for trip to Berlin next summer. We’ll be flying directly to Berlin, spending a few days there, then flying direct to Edinburgh for $42 round trip each.

One word of caution: Make sure you do the math ahead of time and be very certain that a) you are actually saving money after paying for train or bus tickets and b) the savings are big enough justify the hassle that will come with going this route.  Also, verify that your planned transportation matches up timewise; I was really into the sleeper train idea, for instance, but because of the timing we’d have had to spend more time than we wanted to in London to make it work.

Beyond that, I have a few more pieces of advice:

1. Set up flight alerts. If you have even the vaguest idea of going somewhere, I suggest setting up a Google flight alert on those particular dates and routes — plus the days immediately around when you want to travel. I currently have 37, many for different locations on the same weekends. It can be a little maddening during times when it seems like prices are constantly going up, but this way if an irresistible deal crops up you’ll be ready to pounce.

2. Sign up to get emails from all the low-budget carriers, and follow them on Facebook. It can clutter up my inbox a bit, but getting emails from low-cost carriers like Volotea, RyanAir and EasyJet ensures I’m aware when flights go on sale. These emails (and the flight alerts) also help me gauge what a good deal is; for instance, I’d like to go to the tiny republic of San Marino via the Ancona airport one weekend. Having seen Volotea tickets there for 30 euro before, I’m now waiting for them to come down to that again.

3. See a good fare? Swoop. The reason I’m waiting on those Ancona flights to come back down is because I didn’t swoop when I had the chance. Same goes for tickets to Amsterdam for the four of us for 270 euro in April (I’m honestly still kicking myself about that one). If you see a cheap fare, it is unlikely to last so make your decision fast.

4. Be flexible on your dates. If you need to go to a very specific place on very specific dates, there isn’t necessarily going to be a lot you can do to control the costs. If you are flexible with your dates, on the other hand, you’ll find you have more wiggle room. Consider flying late the night before you’d planned to go; it might be an extra night in a hotel room, but if you are traveling with the family that might cost less than a more expensive flight the next morning. Likewise, if you can squeeze out an extra day or two off work and fly home mid-week, you’ll tend to find things are a lot cheaper. Fridays and Sundays, in my experience, are the most expensive days to fly. Tuesdays and Wednesdays tend to be the cheapest, though Saturdays are also often reasonable.

5. Travel in shoulder season. Traveling in summer is generally going to be the most expensive option, but the weather can be just as nice and the crowds less bothersome if you choose to travel in the spring or fall.

I know that not all of these things are going to work for everybody, especially if you have limited time available because of work or the kids’ school. But if you have a more flexible schedule, going this route can help shave a lot of the transportation costs off a trip.* Happy hunting!

*Another possibility for saving money on transportation costs, of course, is also using credit card points to pay for it. I recently wrote an e-mail to a few friends about how a couple working together could get almost $1,500 in travel for $95 by just meeting the minimums on Chase Sapphire Preferred cards. I’ll probably post about that in the future, but if anyone wants any more information about that give me a shout and I’ll forward you the email.

Now I’d like to hear from you! What tricks do you use to get the best airfare? What the best deal you’ve ever found?

The post How to find cheap flights in Europe: get creative first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post How to find cheap flights in Europe: get creative appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

If you are planning a long plane ride with your toddlers or preschoolers, chances are you are stressing out about it. Hell, we’ve done this at least five times now and it still stresses me out! That said, you can make things easier on yourselves by packing strategically. You don’t need to bring the kitchen sink (and remember, anything you pack has to be hauled through the airport at the same time you are keeping track of your kids!), but packing these long-haul flight essentials will help make your life easier if you on a plane ride with young kids. So, what do you need? Take a look:

Taking a long-haul flight with kids: A packing list for parents of preschoolers and toddlers

1. A car seat for your toddler. If yours is bulky or heavy, I’d suggest investing in a cheap, lightweight option to use for trips. We have the Evenflow Tribute LX Convertible Car Seat, which cost less than $50 on Amazon and is much less bulky than the one we have for her in the car.
2. Car seat travel cart. I talk about this here, but this has become an essential for us.
3. iPad/Kindle/Tablet/Phone. If you are crossing the ocean, you’ll probably have a built-in entertainment system. Still, it is better not to bank on it as we had one situation where Owen’s was broken. I’d suggest downloading movies or shows on the iPad/Kindle/whatever ahead of time — as well as kid-friendly games — so that you aren’t depending on having wifi available.
4. Headphones. Don’t count on using the ear buds provided by the airline; kids’ ears are too small to use them comfortably. We have the Nenos brand ones and have been really happy with them — they link together so if there is only one device you both kids can hear — but I have a friend who swears by a V-Tech brand as well.
5. Change of clothes. Because kids are going to dump stuff on themselves. I’d suggest bringing the clothes that you can roll up as small as possible, such as leggings. For this last flights I packed stretchy Halloween leggings and a Halloween shirt on the theory that either child could wear it in an emergency. If you have a baby with you, obviously pack several outfits and a couple of shirts for yourself.
6. Suckers. These are specifically for take-off and landing, they help the kids deal with the ear pressure. We used to use Dum-Dums but they were crunching through them too fast, so now we are on to Tootsie Roll Pops.
7. Snacks and food. I’ve talked about this at length in my other post, but for real — lots and lots of food.
8. Baby wipes. Even if your kids are past diapers, these are good for wiping up the mess when the airline decides to give them ice cream for some godforsaken reason.
9. Wad of paper towels. Because when your kids dumps his entire meal into the aisle and everyone else is pretending they don’t see it, you don’t want to be trying to clean it up with the pitiful airline napkins. Again, ask me how I know. 
10. Two large Ziplock bags. For messes or for play-dough storage — just trust me, they’ll come in handy.
11. Medicine. We’ve never given our kids Benadryl or anything before a flight so I can’t speak to that, but I would absolutely pack some children’s medicine in case they start feeling sick on the plane. If old enough, tablets are better than liquid.
12. TOYS. Ah yes, toys. I have a bunch of recommendations on this, so I’m actually going to break it off to a separate category.

Our Plane Toy Recommendations

So, in my opinion the most important characteristics for toys to play with on planes are small, relatively new to the kid and easily replaceable. Don’t bring any super-special gifts from Grandma because you don’t want to be frantically reaching under people’s seats looking for them when the kid inevitably drops them. These are our tried-and-true best toys for planes.

1. Plus Plus. I’ve talked about these before, but we love these little Danish plastic bricks and they keep the kids occupied for a long time. We try to save them for planes or restaurants so they don’t lose their appeal.
2. Coloring books and crayons. This was counter-intuitive for me this last flight because I figured it would be annoying when they kept dropping the crayons. Turns out, Owen is very responsible and Fiona’s car seat kept them contained. This kept them entertained for a surprising amount of time.
3. Sticky creatures. A friend gave Owen a box of rubbery, gummy frogs and lizards (like these) more than a year ago and he’s still playing with them. They work well for planes because they don’t roll away.
4. Blind bags. These usually contain kind of dumb toys, but the novelty of it being new and also unknown means we get a lot of mileage out of them. For those not in the know, “blind bags” are just small plastic bags that contain an unknown toy, usually one requiring the kid to put a few pieces together to construct it. They are very cheap and there’s one for practically every cartoon or fad out there.
5. Play-doh. The miniature ones (like you’d get for a party favors) so they don’t take up much room. I will warn that there is an outside chance that security will confiscate these; they are NOT banned, but it is up to the discretion of the the TSA agent apparently. We haven’t had a problem, but I pack them in my own carry-on and make no promises about them in case it gets taken away.

   

   Owen with Plus Plus and his coloring stuff. 

I’d like to hear from you! What are your personal must-haves when packing for a flight with kids?

The post Surviving a long plane ride with toddlers and preschoolers: A Packing List first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post Surviving a long plane ride with toddlers and preschoolers: A Packing List appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

Headed on a plane ride with your babies, toddlers or perschoolers soon? Let’s start by saying it probably isn’t going to be as rough as you think! With a little preparation and the right attitude, surviving a long plane ride with young children can be easier than you think.

*This post contains affiliate links.

To hear a lot of people tell it, the ultimate nightmare scenario of plane travel (short of the plane actually going down) is getting stuck next to an incessantly crying child.

Those people, however, are wrong.

The absolute worst thing is being the parents of the incessantly-crying child and feeling super self-conscious about not being able to get your kid to stop crying. Ask me how I know. 

In the past 13 months, our kids have made five flights across the Atlantic Ocean and I won’t pretend that everything has gone 100 percent smoothly. However, they’ve done a surprisingly good job handling flights and along the way we’ve picked up a few tricks to help save our own sanity. Now I’d like to share those with you. I’d also suggest you check out this post, which has a packing list for your flight with toddlers/preschoolers!

Note: most of my advice is geared toward toddlers/preschoolers, because we haven’t yet traveled with an infant. For more advice on managing you lap baby, I’d suggest you checking out my blogging friend Diana’s post here. 

SURVIVING A LONG PLANE RIDE WITH YOUNG CHILDREN: Your essential guide.

1. Bring a car seat. 

   At least, if your kid is younger. Chris and I go back and forth about this every trip because it really is fairly annoying to drag it through the airport — especially in Europe where it is much, much less common than in the United States — but every time we do I’m glad. Not only is it safer for the kid, but it is less stressful for me because I’m not constantly correcting Fiona or trying to make her sit right so the seat belt stays across her lap. I also know that if I nod off she won’t be able to crawl out of her seat and go visit the pilots without me. I’ve had a couple people tell me they don’t think their kid would stay in the car seat on the plane anyway, but honestly Fiona is much more accepting of her lot when she is in the car seat because the expectation is already there that she won’t leave it. Worth noting: If your car seat is heavy or bulky, buying a cheap, light car seat can save you a little hassle. We got the Evenflow Tribute LX Convertible Car Seat, which cost less than $50 on Amazon.

2. Invest in a travel cart for the car seat. 

   Before we even left the United States, my friend Diane suggested I buy a travel cart to make carrying the car seat easier. I ignored her because it seems like just one more thing to manage and I’d already bought a backpack for it and really, how hard could it be? Yeah, I was an idiot. I bought this Britex travel cart after that and it makes things about a million times easier, especially when I can drag Fiona along like this. 

3. Position yourselves strategically. 

   If you aren’t able to have the family all in the same row on a plane, try to arrange things so that your most-likely-to-kick-the-seat kid is positioned behind another family member. If your kid won’t stop kicking, at least it is only your family member who is bothered. SURVIVING A LONG PLANE TRIP WITH YOUNG KIDS PLACEHOLDER TEXT FOR SPACING.

4. Pack food. 

   A hungry kid is a cranky kid. Imagine how many snacks you can reasonably imagine yourself allowing your kid to have. Now pack three times that number — first because you’ve definitely underestimated, and second because you never know if you could get stuck on the tarmac somewhere. I’d suggest both sweets that are guaranteed to cheer them up in an emergency, but also snacks that are a little healthier/more substantial, like peanut butter crackers or apples. For a long flight, packing something that could be an actual meal — a peanut butter and jelly, for example — is a wise idea if your kid is picky. Don’t count on always being able to get something to eat during a layover; we had two hours in Heathrow recently and getting through our terminal transfer and clearing security and a random bag check meant we were the absolute last people on the plane. No chance of food.

5. Give suckers, fruit snacks or gummy bears during take-off and landing.

   These will help relieve the pressure on your kid’s ears during these times. Avoid allowing them to sleep during either of these times because they will wake up with their ears hurting if they aren’t swallowing/chewing to adjust to the pressure. 

6. Bring your own sippy cups or water bottles.

   Keeping the kids’ drinks in an open cup on a tray is a recipe for someone ending up soaked, and if your kid is in a car seat the tray probably won’t even be able to lay flat enough to hold the drink. Chris and I have an ongoing debate about which water bottles/sippy cups we prefer (he likes the Nuk ones we used when the kids were younger, I prefer CamelBak kid-sized water bottles.)

7. Prepare for spills anyway.

   I detailed my full packing list in this post, but on it you’ll find suggestions for changes of clothes, baby wipes, plastic bags and wads of paper towels.  SURVIVING A LONG PLANE RIDE WITH YOUNG KIDS PLACEHOLDER TEXT FOR SPACING.

8. Bring lots of entertainment. 

   Before every long flight, I fill each of the kids’ backpacks with toys for the plane, usually including a couple of new things. I am not going to rehash everything we like to bring because you can find that all on my packing list on this post. However, I will suggest downloading a few movies and/or kid-friendly games on your tablet or smartphone ahead of time because you can’t always count on airport wifi working well. Kid-sized headphones are also absolutely essential.Coloring books and Plus Plus (those little plastic bricks) have been our favorites for long plane rides with kids lately. 

9. Dress in layers

   Sometimes kids on a plane are hot, sometimes they are cold — dressing in layers allows you to be ready for either extreme. SURVIVING A LONG PLANE RIDE WITH KID PLACEHOLDER TEXT FOR SPACING. 

10. Don’t stress. 

    Honestly, despite what you see on TV (and in the nightmare situation I described at the beginning of these posts) most people aren’t actually jackasses. If they see that you are trying to comfort your crying child, they are going to be sympathetic instead of pissed off about 95 percent of the time. I’ve even had people offer things to our kids to help distract them. A surprising number of people seem to enjoy chatting with a nearby kid, or at least seem amused by them. Anyway, chances are your kid is going to cry or kick a seat or spill something at least once during a long flight — accept that, and don’t stress about it when it happens.

I’d like to hear from you! How do you go about surviving a long plane ride with young kids?

Remember, sharing is caring! Please consider pinning or sharing this post if you know someone it could help, and if you aren’t already, please consider following my Facebook page at Babies With Backpacks!

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7 Books to inspire children to travel the world

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” -Saint Augustine.

There are a lot of inspiring travel quotes out there, but this one is one of my favorites. I suppose it is because it combines two of my favorite things: books and travel. These are also the two things that I’m so hopeful we’ll inspire our children to love as much as we do.

Naturally, then, if you glance through our library of kids’ books, you’ll notice an awful lot of them have to do with children who want to see the world. Some of these are playful, some of them are gorgeous and all of them are just make you want to see the world. So, today I thought I’d share our best recommendations of books to inspire children to see the world: preschooler and toddler edition.

*This post contains affiliate links.

1. The Snail and the Whale, by Julia Donaldson. This books is more about travel generally than any particular place specifically, but it is so lovely and soothing that it had to make the list. Lovely images, beautiful rhyming prose. Told through the eyes of a snail who wants to see the world, it will certainly help inspire your children to do the same! 

The Snail and the Whale is available at Amazon for $15.19 as a hardcover and $6.99 as paperback at the time of this article.

2. Busy, Busy World, by Richard Scarry. These are the books of my childhood; I remember very specifically reading What Do People Do All Day? over and over at my grandpa’s house growing up and I was so touched when my mom gave me a copy when I was pregnant with my son. I recently discovered there was a Busy, Busy World edition and promptly bought it for my kids, and all three of of us love! The great thing about these books is there are so many pictures that each time you read you notice something new.

At the time of this writing, Busy, Busy World is available on Amazon for $13.12.

3. Madeline (and Madeline in London and Madeline in America!), by Ludwig Bemelmans  I bought this book for my daughter long before we moved to Sicily just because we loved it, but reading it right before our Paris trip was fun because we knew we’d be seeing the sights in person soon enough! A good pick for piquing your kids’ interest in visiting France and — if you go with one of the sequels — London or America.

At the time of this writing, Madeline is available at Amazon in hardback for $13.66 or paperback for $8.94

4. My Aunt Came Back, by Pat Cummings. I receive this book as a gift from my aunt, and it is fantastic! The aunt in question is coming back from places that kids are less likely to have heard of — Kathmandu and Bucharest, for example — and my crew and I had fun finding each place on the map. The bright colors and rhymes should appeal especially to younger kids.

My Aunt Came Back is available on Amazon for $5.51 at the time of this writing. 

5. Around the World with Mouk, by Marc Boutavant. This gorgeous book follows Mouk the Bear on a journey that starts in a French cafe and leads all around the world! It is more interactive than most books, with search-and-find challenges and reusable stickers. Super cute!

Around the World with Mouk is available on Amazon in hardback only for $13.78.

6. At the Same Moment, Around the World, by Clotilde Perrin. This gorgeous book has two benefits: giving kids a peek into people and places across the globe, and teaching them about time zones as well. The art is stunning even online and I can’t wait to get my hands on it in real life. *Update: we have it and it is as gorgeous as I hoped.

At the Same Moment, Around the World is available at Amazon in hardback for $14.37 at this time. 

7. This is the World, by Miroslav Sasek. This book is a compilation of a lot of kids books that Sasek has written about various cities across the world. It was a Book of the Year finalist and looks absolutely gorgeous. I will warn that it is listed as being for older kids (10+) though I’ve never been one to follow those recommendations too much. 

This is the World is available on Amazon in hardback only for $27.40 as of Nov.4, 2017. 

I’d like you all to know that I’m resisting very hard — despite my deep affection for the books — the urge to include the illustrated versions of the Harry Potter books on the grounds that a) They aren’t particularly travel related, except perhaps to encourage people to want to visit London and b) most people aren’t reading them to their younger children. (Though Owie and I have been reading them since he was about 3.5).

Ooops! It seems resistence was futile. Sorry, but I couldn’t help myself. Owen and I are currently reading the third illustrated book (they are being released one-per-year each October, and this one just came out for 2017) and, like the other two, Jim Kay’s art is breathtaking. If you are a fan, you need to own these books.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The Illustrated Edition is available at Amazon right now for $21.30, and is 100 percent worth every penny.

Sharing is caring! Know a family of bookworms, travelers or traveling-bookworms? This is the list of them! And if you aren’t already following my Facebook page at Babies With Backpacks, please consider changing that so you can keep up with our shenanigans between posts.

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One of the main reasons we decided to move to Sicily was so that we would have the opportunity to travel with our kids. So far, we love it! Obviously we’ve gotten to go on our fair share of longer trips this past year, but we’ve also found that we love taking advantage of long weekends for quicker getaways. Shorter trips generally mean less packing, less expense and less stress! So far we’ve taken weekend trips around Sicily to Modica, Ragusa and Noto, Cefalu and Agrigento, as well as our recent trip to Venice.

Along the way, we’ve picked up a few ideas for how to get the most out of a long weekend. Now, we hope we can help you do the same.

1.  Minimize transit time. The main problem with traveling over a long weekend can be time spent getting from Point A to Point B. Who wants to spend two days out of three trapped in an airport or a car? For this reason, I’d highly recommend sticking to direct flights only. Even if you have to pay a little extra, the having an extra several hours in the city you are visiting can often be worth it. If you are road-tripping it, my personal threshold is no more than four hours at the very most — obviously everyone has their own feelings about driving, but four hours each way is absolutely as much as I can stand doing within the same weekend!

Ah yes, this fun road! From our trip to Modica, Ragusa and Noto.

2. Schedule your arrivals and departures carefully. Basically, this is more or less the same reasoning as above. Say you’ve only got three days off (Saturday-Sunday-Monday or Friday-Saturday-Sunday), you want to make sure you have as much time as possible on each of those days. Shoot for leaving as early as possible on the first day, and as late as possible on the third. We did this very thing on our recent trip to Venice, and it worked out great. Plus, we felt like we had the better part of three whole days but only had to pay for two nights in a hotel.* #itsthelittlethings.

*As a reminder, we stayed at the Venice Dream House in Venice and absolutely loved it. I highly recommend! 

Agrigento! 

3. Have a plan. I’m not saying that you need to have yourself scheduled hour-by-hour, but if you only have two or three days to explore a city you should have a solid idea of what your sightseeing priorities are and what hours attractions are open. You don’t need to waste time sitting in your hotel Googling things! I’d also highly, highly recommend that you know ahead of time how you are getting from the airport to your hotel so you aren’t trying to figure that out on the fly. If you are the type that struggles to decide where to eat, I’d even recommend looking up some options for that ahead of time as well — after all, that doesn’t mean you have to go there if somewhere else strikes your fancy, but if you are struggling at least you have a plan to fall back on. I had compiled a list of “cheap eats” for Venice ahead of time because I didn’t want to waste time wandering around looking for somewhere that wasn’t outrageously expensive, and that absolutely came in handy. Likewise, in Modica we had a restaurant in mind that was recommended by a friend and that made our dinner plans super simple because we didn’t have to run around comparing menus.

Burano

4. Consider buying skip-the-line passes ahead of time for major attractions. Once again, this is a time vs. money situation. If you only have a few days in a city, maybe you don’t want to waste two hours of your day waiting to get into somewhere like Basilico San Marco. It is best to do your research ahead of time as to what the crowds are likely to be like at the time of year you are traveling, and evaluate whether buying tickets ahead of time is worth it to you.

Piazza San Marco, Venice

5. Assume you’ll be back someday. For all my talk of having a plan and seeing as much as you can, don’t knock yourself out trying to see every last possible thing that can be considered a tourist attraction! Even if you don’t know when you’ll ever get back to a specific place, don’t stress yourself out thinking that this is your only opportunity to see it. Life is long and weird. And chances are if you are on a weekend trip, you are going to have to go back to work or school or whatever as soon as you get back — remember that you need to relax before you head back!

Aperol spritz, anyone? 

Now, I want to hear from you! Where is your favorite place to go for a long weekend?

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So packing light is something I’ve been wanting to address for a while now. We’re big proponents of limiting the amount of stuff you take on a trip as much as possible. Not only can this save you money — checking a bag or bags can get expensive quickly — but it also saves you the considerable trouble of dragging it around, especially on public transit. This is even more true when you are traveling with a kid or two or six; you need those hands available to keep the kids from jumping onto train tracks, in front of a bus, or off a cliff (ok, that last one might only be applicable in certain situations.)

For heaven’s sake, don’t bring this much crap anywhere, ever. I’m cringing just looking at it. In our defense though, this is the stuff we brought when we were moving to Sicily and didn’t know when all our household goods or express shipment would actually show up.

The reason I haven’t written about this already, however, is because it is still a work in progress for us and something we are trying to improve on. I’d say we do a fairly decent job of packing light; for our 8-day trip in France we brought one big suitcase and one carry-on suitcase for the four of us. For our most recent trip to Munich, we brought one carry-on suitcase and a garment bag (mostly for our costumes!). So, not bad — especially considering we needed some bulkier clothing because of the weather for both those trips — but there is definitely room for improvement.

Therefore, I am now passing on the advice-on-packing responsibility to my mom, Kathy, the official packing goddess. As a reminder, she and my dad took me and my siblings backpacking in Europe for three weeks when we were 13, 11, 9 and 7 years old and each of us got only a backpack (that had to be light enough for us to wear ourselves). Most recently she and my dad have outdone themselves on their most recent trip of almost five weeks, which included stops in Ireland, Wales, England, Scotland, France, Germany (Oktoberfest!) and Italy (ending in Sicily with us). For this trip, my mom brought only “a lightweight 19-inch wheeled backpack and a daypack in lieu of a purse.” The daypack, she notes, was actually a kid-sized backpack.

My parents at St. Andrew’s golf course in Scotland in September. Photo swiped from their Facebook because I doubt they’ll sue me. 

So without further ado — here’s some words of wisdom from my mom on traveling light.

So, packing doesn’t need to be a big deal if you are willing to do some laundry here and there. There is always a place to do it in any city I’ve ever been to in Europe. The reason for not bringing your whole wardrobe is obvious, you have to lug it around all surfaces, especially the evil cobblestones, and not only is it tough on the luggage but your arms get really tired. You could cab everywhere but then you don’t really see your surroundings or get a lay of the land. 

Most people subscribe to the roll-your-clothes method, but I prefer the flat method. I fold my clothes like they do in stores and stack them. Socks are stuffed in my shoes, I had tennis shoes on my feet and a pair of 3/4 ankle waterproof boots and a pair of flats in the daypack. Underwear was in the bottom-zippered compartment of the backpack. As for clothes, I took two pairs of jeans (one blue and one gray), a jean skirt, the yoga pants I wore on the plane, a lightweight nightgown, and two or three shifts for each pants/skirt. My coat was a hooded, waterproof zippered jacket. Toiletries were in a zippered pouch and were mostly travel size; you can replace them as needed easily. We aren’t big on souvenirs. The only thing I bought was a golf shirt at St. Andrews in Scotland.

I know most people think this is crazy, but the less you worry about your stuff, the more you engage in your surroundings. 

As usual, great advice from my mom! I think the only tip I would want to add (though this an attitude they clearly have) is not to pack thinking about every worst-case scenario. Simply put, don’t waste room packing sweatshirts for Portugal in July on the off-chance that an unseasonable cold snap comes out of nowhere thanks to, say, a volcanic eruption that blocks out the sun. Instead, remember that stores still exist and you can always buy a damn sweater.

By the way, I can absolutely attest to my parents’ inter-trip laundry habits after seeing my dad hanging his newly-washed socks out to dry in Cefalu and receiving about thirty reminders not to let him leave them there. (He didn’t). Nicely done, guys!

Cefalu!

Pssst. Looking for more tips? Check out fellow blogger Dev’s advice on deciding whether to travel with a backpack or suitcase.

Now, I’d like to hear from you! What are your tips and tricks for packing for a trip?

Pssssst! Like this post? Sharing is caring! Please also consider following me at my Facebook page, Babies With Backpacks, so you never miss a post (plus additional content!). 

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Unexpected benefits of traveling with young children

Traveling with young children often gets a pretty bad rap. People talk all the time about wanting to do certain types of trips “before we have kids,” as if the baby’s first cry sounds the death knell for travel ambitions.

I say, to hell with that.

I’m not going to dispute at all that traveling with young children is going to be a lot different than your pre-kid trips. Slower, most likely. Less relaxing? Yeah, probably. And you definitely aren’t going to get to pop a sleeping pill before a flight and wake up in Prague. But that’s not to say you can’t still have an amazing trip with your small companions — and in fact, we’ve found that traveling with tots has come with some surprising benefits for us as parents, well beyond just expanding our kids’ horizons.

There’s no best age to travel with a baby (or toddler, or kids) but we think traveling with them while they are young comes with some pretty decent perks.

Why should you travel with your young children

(or at least, a few perks if you decide to do so!)

1. Preboarding, baby. You know how at beginning of boarding, the flight attendants call for parents with small children or people who need extra help come to the front for preboarding? When you travel with kids, that’s you! We never worry about having enough space in the overhead for our bags because we’ve almost always been able to get on the plane first.

2. Skip the lines! (somtimes). Depending on the airport, or perhaps the employees working at the airport on a given day, you can end up hustled through security and customs when you’ve got a couple of littles with you. The first time I experienced this was on our trip back to Chicago last year, when I was taking the kids on the flight by my lonesome. We got to security in Rome and found an EPIC line — the kind that makes you doubt whether you’ll make it through in time for your flight — but I didn’t even have time to begin freaking out because an employee grabbed us and sent us to the front of the line. Score!

3. No school to plan around when traveling with young children. My parents took us out of school for two weeks during our backpacking trip to Europe when I was a kid — something schools weren’t wild about back then and I’m told like even less now — which meant we had homework to do on trains and some serious catching up to do when we got back (totally worth it, by the way). When you are traveling with younger ones, this isn’t much an issue because they probably aren’t missing anything earth-shattering in preschool. Having that flexibility in trip planning is incredibly valuable. Summer is the most expensive time to travel to Europe and popular tourist spots tend to be more crowded and more expensive during those months. For this reason, we love traveling in the spring and fall, and since the kids are in preschool we don’t feel any guilt about skipping it for a week here and there. These times are coming to a close in another year and I’m already dreading it: I was looking ahead to next year’s travel plans* and was thinking about traveling for a week somewhere after Labor Day before I realized that would mean him missing the entire second week of kindergarten. I’m not averse to him missing some school here and there, but I figure missing a whole week right away won’t do much to help him settle in. Moral of the story: enjoy the freedom while you can! Or homeschool, I guess.

4. Connecting with people. One of our favorite things about traveling is meeting new people, and for some reason kids are a great ice-breaker. We might not speak the same language, but that look that says “can you believe this shit?” when your kid is tantrumming is universal. In Sicily, people are particularly obsessed with the kids and always want to talk to them, and, consequently, us. At our very first agriturismo meal, my kids started playing with another little girl and the next thing I knew I was talking to her mom (she spoke a little English, which was fortunate because my Italian remains abysmal) and agreeing to meet up sometime so the kids could play.

5. Making memories. As I talked about in this post, we don’t really buy into the idea that there is no point in taking kids somewhere if they don’t remember it. They might or they might not, but we will — and often the moments that seems embarrassing or annoying at the time will end up being our favorites. For instance, I might have remembered how much I liked Sainte-Chappelle in Paris, but the memory of Fiona ducking under a railing and getting busted by security will go down in Husk family lore to the end of our days. How do I know this? My family’s European vacation was 16 years ago now (literally more than half my life), but references to that trip come up just about every time we’re all together. And the references are almost always something ridiculous or embarrassing, OBVIOUSLY.

6. Slowing down. A common criticism of traveling with young children can actually be a benefit — a slower pace. I have always had a tendency to want to cram as many things as possible into a trip, my impulse being to rush from one thing to the next. Traveling with kids by necessity tends to require you to stop and smell the roses (literally, if it is my kids). An example is one of the days we visited Paris and, having already seen Sainte Chappelle and Notre Dame and walked past the Louvre, I was feeling hurried to get to the Musee de L’Orangerie because it was on our schedule for the day. Walking through the Tuileries Gardens, the kids started whining about being hungry so I we reluctantly agreed to stop. We ended up having a beautiful hour or so break to have a couple cocktails, get the kids some ice cream and people watch in our gorgeous surroundings. It was a good reminder that it isn’t all about just checking things I want to see off my list, but actually taking the time to relax and take it all in along the way.

7. Early wakeups. I don’t believe I’ve met any parents yet who have kids who routinely sleep in as late as they would like, and most of you know that vacation isn’t an exception. While an adult-only vacation would have included some glorious sleep-in time (yes, I do miss this …) getting out early to sight-see often means beating the worst of the crowds. If you were going to be up early wherever you are, you might as well get some benefit out of it!

Update, Jan. 2019: Since being here, we are often told that we are “brave” for traveling with young children. I’ll be honest: bravery doesn’t come into it. There are places we want to see and experiences we want to have. And places we want the kids to see and experiences we want them to have. We aren’t about to put traveling on hold until our kids reach some magical age where they are meant to be “easier” — and as I’ve said, there are some aspects of traveling with young children that are easier than traveling with big kids. As I write this Owen is now in kindergarten. While the school is fairly flexible here on missed days, I can already tell you that having to plan trips around school is more challenging than our first couple years here.

In short, traveling with children is what you make of it. If your expectation is to vacation the exact same way you did before kids, then yeah, you might be frustrated. Try instead to embrace it not as a “kid trip” or a “grown up trip,” but as a family adventure. And have fun!

I’d like to hear from you! What do you like about traveling with children? What drives you nuts? And most importantly, what is the craziest thing your kids have gotten you in trouble for while on a trip? 

Enjoy this post? Keep up with all our adventures by liking and following my blog on our Facebook page, Babies With Backpacks. There you’ll find all my posts as soon as they are up, plus some extra tidbits along the way. 

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If you had asked me this question before our first major trip since getting here — visiting Naples and Rome — my answer would have been “neither.”

I don’t want to deal with a stroller, I’d say.

Fiona loves to walk! She hasn’t let me put her in a carrier since she was about 13 months old, I’d say.

People say stupid stuff sometimes. And then they end up carrying a sleeping 2-year-old in their arms for more than half of what turned out to be a four-hour walking tour because hey! Turns out even the most energetic toddler is probably not going to be able to walk literally MILES.

I’ve reformed.

We basically thought we were going to die. THEY WERE SO HEAVY. And when they are asleep they can’t even help by hanging onto you, they are just dead weight. 

Anyway, so — to our debate. Stroller or carrier? Each has some distinct advantages.

Stroller: Less strenuous than a carrier. A good place for your kid to nap. If you bring a double, more than one kid can go in there; even with a single your kids could take turns. You can stash more stuff in it instead of carrying it in your daypack. If your kid is asleep and you go into a restaurant, you can (if there is room) just leave him in the stroller next to you and let him continue to sleep. If you are worried about containing your kid at an airport, having him strapped into a stroller could be helpful.

Carrier: Move easily through crowds. Also a great way to ensure your kid is contained at a crowded or dangerous place (Cliffs of Moher, for example). An excellent place to nap because the movement soothes them to sleep. You can chat with your kid more easily. Don’t have to worry about navigating stairs or getting through areas that don’t have great sidewalks (I’m looking at you, Sicily). Don’t have to worry about leaving it places if strollers aren’t allowed. If you kid decides to walk, you can shove the carrier in your daypack easily.

Looking for a toddler carrier? We like our toddler Tula, but fellow blogger Natalie has a great guide out now about different toddler-carrier options.

Obviously, neither method is perfect. For instance, the main pitfall of a carrier is … well, you have to carry your kid. It gets tiring.

That said, we are firmly #TeamCarrier. Here’s why:

Taking a stroller to places — for the sake of argument, let’s say a major city like Paris versus a rural area like where we live with shitty sidewalks — can be really useful for when you are just walking around. It means you can push your kid at a leisurely pace, stuff your daypack and diaper bag and umbrella and whatever other stuff you want to bring (note: I do not recommend actually bringing all that crap when out for the day — post to come about daypack essentials in the future) without worrying much about the weight of it. Your kid can nap in there as you walk. However, as soon as you want to do anything the stroller can sometimes become an issue. Wanna get on the subway? There may not be an elevator or be a long line for it, so you are going to have to get down the stairs somehow. Is the train crowded? Shoving the stroller on it won’t be fun. Sure, you can fold it up and carry it … but then you have to carry it (and all the stuff you’d jammed in there).

Another issue: strollers can’t always go into attractions. Let’s stick with Paris as our example. The Eiffel Tower is a must-do, but you aren’t allowed to push the stroller onto the elevator and you definitely aren’t climbing hundreds of stairs with it.* You also can’t leave it anywhere because a) that’s stupid and b) an unattended stroller is a potential threat and the Parisian police will respond and destroy it (for real, there were signs and a very serious video everywhere when we were waiting in line).

A carrier, on the other hand, can go anywhere. Sometimes security wants to run a metal detector wand over you, but I’ve never had to actually take Fiona out of it to go into an attraction. When we decide to let Fiona run around somewhere, we can fold it up and shove it into the backpack we almost always have with us or I can just keep wearing it. The thing that is possibly the best part is that a) our little wild child Fiona is contained in the carrier and can’t escape and b) she can take her afternoon nap in there without interrupting our day in the least. She actually slept through a couple of attractions that she probably wouldn’t have been interested in at all, including the Kilmainham Gaol (also couldn’t take a stroller there, though I beleive they had a place you could check it) and the wine cave tour in the Loire Valley. With her asleep, it made it easier for us to listen on tours or to have some one-on-one time with Owen.

Chris and I could walk further along the slippery, non-walled part of the Cliffs of Moher with Fiona in the carrier. I wouldn’t have dared without it because I’d have been terrified she’d make a dash for the edge. (Owen was with my in-laws). 

Advice

Obviously, I highly recommend carriers if you are planning a trip with a lot of walking, in Europe or anywhere else really. That said, a few things to keep in mind.

1. Practice babywearing for a while before your trip. It takes a little time to get used to getting your kid in and out easily, and you need time to build your own endurance with it. When I first re-started babywearing, I got worn out quickly. Now I can wear her for hours without feeling like it is much harder than walking unencumbered (except on hills. ugh). Also, Fiona used to be reluctant to get into the carrier but now she is usually happy to pop on board most of the time. The other day I told her we were going to go climb Mt. Etna the next day (didn’t end up going) and she said, verbatim, “I don’t feel like walking, will you please bring the carrier?” Ha. (Also, no I would not carry her the entire way. Her little butt does do some walking!)
2. Get a quality carrier. I can’t stress this enough. After Rome I decided to unpack my old Ergo carrier from when Fiona was little. About five minutes in my back was already killing me, as had been my experience in the past (though usually not within five minutes). At the suggestion of a friend, I ordered a toddler-size Tula and holy cow. It made an insane difference. I have no idea why this is, to be honest. The two carriers basically seem really similar, but somehow the Tula distributes her weight so much better. It was pricy but probably one of the best investments we’ve ever made when it comes to baby gear. Note: no, I’m not being compensated by Tula. I just love my carrier.

Carnivale in Acireale

Taormina

Another benefit: she keeps me warm and I keep her warm! Of course, this isn’t so much a benefit when it is 100 degrees out. Photo is from Caltagirone. 

So, what say you, fellow travelers? What’s your preference? If you prefer strollers, what is your advice to those who want to travel with them?

*I believe you can fold the stroller up and take it with you on the Eiffel Tower elevator, but then you have to carry it and your kid and your stuff … doesn’t appeal to me.

The post Europe with kids: stroller or carrier? first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post Europe with kids: stroller or carrier? appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

So you are going to Europe with kids …

First of all, good for you!

It has always been our experience that travel adds somthing wonderful to your life. It broadens your horizons (and your palate), leads to great memories and is just plain fun. Europe is a fascinating, varied and historically rich place to visit in particular for people of all ages — and contrary to what some people say, having kids is no reason to give up on going there. While you can’t expect a trip taken with little ones in tow to be exactly the same as your pre-kid adventures, there is no reason Europe with kids can’t be just as exciting — especially since now you are seeing it through a whole new set of eyes.

Plus, as I talk about here, there are some other, unexpected advantages to traveling with kids!

Straight off the bat, I’m going to say we don’t believe in the “what’s the point of taking them to X when they won’t remember or appreciate it anyway?” First of all, you can say that about anything — why bother take them to the park or the zoo or the community pool, then? Second, I can’t remember what I had for breakfast most mornings, doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it while it lasted. Seriously though, my kids might not remember every detail of our trips to France or Ireland, but I will remember how excited Owen was while running through the Catacombs or the sound of Fiona trying to moo at the cows we saw near the Cliffs of Moher during our trip to Ireland.

So, this is to be the first in a series I’m planning to share everything we’ve learned in the last nine months of trips (which have included Rome/Naples, France and Ireland, as well as a few weekend trips.) I’ll be adding to this list frequently as we learn more in the coming years! As can imagine, much of our advice will be centered on traveling with younger children since that is our experience, but I hope some of it can be applicable to those with older ones kiddos too. Also: I’ll get into more specifics of planning a trip as far as plane tickets and such at a later date.

So without further ado …

How to travel in Europe with kids without losing your mind (1st edition)

1. Plan extra time into your Europe with kids itinerary. When Chris and I went on our honeymoon, we fit three countries into about 11 days. We crammed a lot in during that time (including a lot of alcoholic beverages). If you are traveling with small children, however, you should plan on taking things a little slower. Two major attractions (this does not include meals) in one day is a nice pace, three is sometimes manageable and anything more than that is probably madness. Whatever seems like a reasonable amount of time to spend in a city pre-kid, you probably want to add at least a day. My blogging friend Diana also talks about the importance of downtime in an excellent post you can find here, by the way.

   

2. Have a plan for what you want to do each day. This advice is somewhat at variance with our former “we’ll figure it out when we get there” ideology. But having done it both way, I’m now a big advocate for having a plan. This doesn’t mean having a rigid hour-by-hour schedule so much as having an outline. Mapping things our ahead of time means that you can organize things logically in terms of location and that you are aware ahead of time when certain places are closed. Without preparation, you end up not realizing that you need tickets to buy tickets ahead of time for the Kilmainham Gaol, for instance. You also end up wasting a bunch of time in the morning debating about what to do and Googling to make sure it is open.

   

3. Feel free to toss out the plan. Be flexible. Sometimes you are going to run into something that makes you want to throw out the plan and investigate. Do it. For instance, in Spain with my parents in 2011 we abruptly ditched our plans to go to the Prado Musuem because my mom hurt her leg and we stopped at a bar to check it. We ended up having drinks, talking to a bunch of people and having one of our most fun nights in Spain. Don’t be so married to your schedule that you can’t ditch it for an afternoon to follow an impulse.

   

4. Sandwich things you want to do with things you know the kids will enjoy. When you are making these plans, consider organizing your day with an activity you are sure the kids will like with one you want to see that might be less interesting to them. For instance: we planned on going to the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris after a morning at Napoleon’s Tomb and the war museum there. In general, I’d recommend familiarizing yourselves with parks or greenspaces near where you are staying in any city because letting them run around at a park for an hour or so is a great break from the go-go-go of traveling.
5. Don’t go into any activity with the assumption that your kids won’t enjoy it. Even if you inwardly think that probably the kids are going to think an activity is dumb, don’t say so in front of them. Don’t bribe them beforehand to “just be good and we can do something fun after.” Basically, don’t say anything that is going to have them walking into a place expecting to be bored and you might be surprised. For example: my kids loved the War Museum in Paris. Go figure!

   

6. Do bribe them though. Be prepared with some bribes though as needed to get through something you want to see. I highly recommend bringing a bunch of snacks in your daypack, and in particular I recommend packing suckers if your kids are old enough to eat them. They are light weight and a kid can’t really whine when he/she’s eating a sucker. Victory.
7. Be willing to bend the rules.This is vacation and it is supposed to be fun, damn it. Our kids end up staying up later and eating a lot more sweets on vacation, and I think that’s OK. Frankly, it is giving yourself a break as well from the usual restrictions.

   

   8. Make (financial) concessions to your sanity. It is possible that renting an apartment is going to be more expensive than the cheapest possible hotel room, but if it means you can all get a little more sleep then I consider it money well spent. Likewise, public transit can often get you into cities cheaper than a car service but if you are walking off a 10-hour flights with a couple cranky kids and a giant suitcase, we think it is worth it to have a car (with car seats) arranged to take us to our hotel or apartment.

8. 

9. Consider putting the kids in “training” beforehand.Chances are that you are going to be walking around more than you normally would at home. Before our France and Ireland trips I made a concerted effort to take frequent walks with the kids to get them in shape in hopes of reducing the chorus of “I’m tired.” Obviously this has the added benefit of getting you ready too!

   

10. But also consider babywearing. I’m going to do a whole post on this later, but I highly recommend you consider carrying your baby in a sling or carrier instead of lugging around a stroller. It can be way easier to get around and you don’t have to worry about parking your stroller anywhere. It is also a perfect nap spot for tired kids in the afternoon! I wasn’t babywearing yet back when we were in Rome, but after that trip I invested in a toddler-size Tula and it has seriously been a game-changer. Update: I did a post about this here.
11. Remember that this is their trip too. Yeah, it can get annoying if they want to stop at the millionth fountain or stay at some boring attraction long after you’ve lost interest, but hey — this is their trip too. Cut them some slack.

    

12. Remember that it is YOUR trip too. That said, do not spend your entire trip catering to your kids’ wants at the expense of your own. Your kids might not love visiting that art museum and they might get bored at a two-hour dinner. Tough shit. It does not kill a kid to be bored once in a while. Along those same lines, try to take it easy on yourself as well. You and your spouse are sitting at dinner and want to linger, but the kid is whining? Give yourself a break and let him watch videos on your phone (or whatever) even if you never do this and but what will people THINK? Seriously, cut yourself some slack and enjoy your cappuccino (or cocktail) in peace.Here’s to you, fellow parent-travelers. You’ve got this. 

Happy travels! 

The post Traveling in Europe with kids and without losing your mind first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post Traveling in Europe with kids and without losing your mind appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

With about two-and-a-half months to go until Oktoberfest in Munich, Chris and I took our most important step yet in planning our trip yesterday …

We ordered my dirndl and his lederhosen!

Ok, possibly I should have said *one* of the most important.

At any rate, with things coming together rapidly for this year’s Oktoberfest it seems like a good time to look back at the most arduous part of planning the trip, getting table reservations.

I’m going to start off by telling you straight up that there is one big thing you need to make this happen, and it is this:

PERSERVERENCE 

But I’ll come back to that in a second. To recap, we are going to Oktoberfest in Munich this year! We’ll be meeting up with my parents, my sister, my brother-in-law, my aunt and uncle, some of our friends and some of my parents’ friends. All told, the group is about 16 (not counting the children).

You probably already know something about Oktoberfest, but a little quick backstory: the first Oktoberfest was a celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig in October 1810. The commoners were invited to come celebrate the royal couple, and the festivities included horse races and stuff. I guess it was so much fun they decided to continue doing it every year, minus a few years when it was canceled because of problems like cholera, Napoleon and World Wars I & II. Eventually they decided to move the festival to take place almost entirely in September (better weather!) though it always ends a few days into October. I guess so the name continues to make sense?! Anyway, these days more than 6 million people attend every year.

Pics are from our 2010 trip

So the Oktoberfest grounds include about a dozen large beer “tents” that hold thousands of people, plus another 20 or so small tents that hold a few hundred people. To get a liter of beer or food in the tents, you need to be sitting down at a table (usually a long wooden table with benches). In our experience, finding a spot to sit is pretty much a nonissue in the mornings and early afternoon during the week. However, by midafternoon it gets difficult and in the evenings? Even worse. Chris and I had a hard time finding places to sit for just the two of us in the late afternoon when we were there in 2010, so we knew trying to find a table for a party of 16 on the day of the event was going to be damn near impossible unless we were content to go only in the morning. Enter table reservations.

“Tents” but on an epic scale.

So you can reserve a spot in one of the tents ahead of time, but there are a couple of catches:

1. You have to book an entire table — the smallest I’ve seen is a table for six, while the largest are for 20. Making the reservation is technically free, but you have to pay up front for two beers and a meal at the tent for each seat — and we’re talking about 40 to 65 euro per seat.
2. The process is infuriating.

For all you hear about German efficiency, Oktoberfest seems to be a bit of an exception. Each tent has different owners, and thus each has a different process for applying for a spot in the tents. Each has different dates on which they’ll start accepting reservations as well.

So, if you are going to try to get table reservations at Oktoberfest and are hoping for afternoon or evening reservations, you need to START EARLY! 

I’ve literally been working on applying for table reservations since early January of this year, and ended up getting four reservations (two of which we kept). Part of the problem was that for a lot of tents I kind of got the run-around; at Ochsenbraterei, for example, I was told variously over the phone and email that I needed to make my request again in March, then May, then June. And then it was full after all. And sometimes I got no answer at all.

I used this link as my central hub for the Oktoberfest websites. From there, the only thing to do was to go to each tent’s individual website and puzzle out how to apply. Some have an online reservation form, while others — I kid you not — require requests to be made in writing. (I did actually try this, but never did get a response.) One only offered evening reservations to people who were staying at a specific hotel. Most never seemed to have any evening availability at all and one was fully booked (returning customers get priority) before I made a single request.

The end result of my efforts was that I was able to get a table for 12 in the evening (5 p.m. to close) at one of the small tents one night, a table for 16 from 4 to 8 p.m. another day, plus two reservations that we’ve decided not to keep — both midafternoon during the week.

Planning to reserve a table yourself? A word to the wise. 

1. Start early. While most of my reservations didn’t come from requests I made in January, it is wise to get started early enough to have an idea of when reservations will open. Set an alarm to remind yourself to apply THAT DAY.
2. Stay organized. I wish I’d done a better job with this, because it got frustrating. At a minimum, open a Word document and keep a running list of what you find out from each tent re: when they start accepting reservations, what contacts you’ve already made, and any updates you’ve received along the way. You’ll thank yourself later.
3. Apply everywhere. I literally applied to every single large tent and many of the small tent (some more than once on accident — see above). So few of the requests I made actually panned out that I’m glad I made requests at all of them. You don’t have to pay for the table until June or July, generally, so there’s no harm in accepting what you are offered in principle while you wait to see what your options are. That’s how we came to select two of the four reservations I was able to secure.
4. Be flexible. Originally I only wanted to apply for evening reservations at the tents, but pretty soon I realized just how difficult getting a table at night would be and I shifted gears. We ultimately decided that late afternoon would also be a good option for us and as a result we were a lot more successful. Not being too rigid will make it more likely that you get a reservation somewhere.
5. Don’t buy from third parties. There are people selling Oktoberfest tables at inflated rates online, but going this route is a bad idea. As every website says explicitly, doing this is NOT ALLOWED and if you get busted then they won’t necessarily honor your reservation. Which is bad news considering that the already expensive tables come at an inflated price when you are buying from a scalper. You don’t want your trip hanging on you not getting caught for doing something wrong.
6. Learn German. Ok, just kidding here. But man, translating a million documents and trying to puzzle out the garbled answers from Google Translate got tricky!

Question: This seems like a lot of work. How do I know I even really need table reservations? 

Answer: It depends on what you are looking for and the size of your group. If it is just you and another person, you can probably find a spot to sit with enough perservence even in the afternoon/evening. If you are a patient person, you can wait in lines to get into the portion of the tents that is unreserved. If you are content to go in the morning and early afternoon (nothing wrong with that! that’s mostly what we did in 2010), then I wouldn’t bother with getting lunch reservations at all. Otherwise, I’d suggest trying to get reservations for at least one of the days you are planning to be there to avoid frustration. 

PROST!

I believe this was taken around 10 a.m. — you can see how many open seats there are! No comment about liters of beer at 10 a.m., please … 

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The post So you’re going to Oktoberfest: table reservations appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

So first some news: we’re coming back to the States in this fall! 

Christmas in Chicago last year!

Today we cashed out our entire Chase Ultimate Rewards hoard — roughly 144,000 points, plus about $450 since we were a bit short — for four round-trip tickets to Chicago in November. I have to admit that it felt a bit shocking to see all those points go at once since I’ve been stockpiling them for a while without a specific purpose in mind, but I can’t think of a better way to use them than to get to see our family and friends back home.

At any rate, this all put me in the mood to talk about credit card miles/points and what cards we are carrying these days. I’ve been following quite a few “travel hacking” groups for the last year or so but I am not even remotely an expert, so for a lot more detailed information I’d suggest you check out blogs like The Points Guy or Million Mile Secrets. That said, I wanted to share my experiences — first with Chase cards, and then with the other travel-related cards I’m carrying in a separate post tomorrow.

Disclaimer: I obviously think that using credit cards to earn points/miles is a great option. However, I hope it goes without saying that this makes sense only when you are using cards to pay for things you already planned to buy. Don’t rack up a ton of debt in hopes of getting miles/points!

Anyway, on to the Chase cards …

So, Chase Ultimate Rewards is my favorite points/miles program. You rack up UR points on any of several Chase cards, then you can either exchange them for cashback or — for a higher redemption rate — use them in the Chase travel portal. The travel portal basically works like any travel aggregator site (Kayak, Momondo, albeit with fewer filtering options) and presents flight/hotel/rental car/etc. options from a wide range of companies. You can pay entirely or partially with points, which is nice when you are a short of what you need.

My one complaint with the Chase portal is sometimes the options aren’t that great — excessively long flights, or flights that for some reason seem a little more expensive than what I’d see on a Momondo or similar site. That was my complaint — until today. Turns out, you can call into Chase’s travel center, they can (at least sometimes) find the flight you are looking at elsewhere AND book it with points! 

I was again frustrated because an excellent, low-cost, relatively short Lufthansa fare I saw on Momondo wasn’t coming up on the Chase portal. I called and boom! (Ok, 45 minutes and then boom!)They found it for me, and for basically the same much-cheaper rate I’d seen online! Doing this rather than picking the best option coming up on the portal meant we saved hours of travel time on both ends of the trip, and at least a couple hundred bucks.

I’ve seen a lot of arguing in the points/miles world about the usefulness of the Chase portal versus transferring to various mileage programs, but because prices are so low right now (in the offseason anyway) we’ve found that using the portal makes the most sense because it is pegged to the actual price of the flight. We also don’t care about booking business class — a big perk of transferring to partners — so that is a nonissue for us. But, to each their own!

This is the fourth tme we’ve used the Chase points to book travel (not counting the flights we booked, and then had to cancel, for our friend’s wedding in Mexico since we moved here. Still sad about that). The other times were:

1. Paid for part of our tickets home for Christmas last year (I believe points covered almost half)
2. Four tickets to Paris in April
3. Hotel in Munich for Oktoberfest because I couldn’t stomach paying cash at the elevated prices.

We used two different cards — in particular the sign-up bonuses — to earn the points for these trips. 

Chase Sapphire Reserve

This is our primary travel card. I was enticed to get this card during their initial (since expired) 100,000-point bonus offer. Even with the hefty $450 yearly fee, the 100,000 points (worth $1,500 in travel portal) and $300 travel credit made it a no-brainer. At the time I meant to cancel it, but I’m now thinking I’ll keep it at least until we move back to the United States. We’ve gotten a lot of value out of it thisyear because you get 3x the points on travel and dining out expenses, plus the card functions as primary rental car coverage when used to pay for a rental so you can save money by declining it. There are a bunch of other perks (replace your stuff if the airport loses a bag, gets you a hotel room if your flight is delayed, etc) but you can look those up on your own. It is now a bit less enticing now with “only” 50,000 sign-up bonus after a $4,000 minimum spend in three months, but still a good one if you travel a lot. Remember that the first $300 in travel-related expenses is credited back to you almost immediately, so you could argue that the fee is “really” only $150/year. Also noteworthy, points are worth more in the travel portal than the Preferred; 1.5 cents per point versus 1.25.

Chase Sapphire Preferred

If you are looking for a card for traveling overseas and don’t want to pay for the Reserve, this is your best option. It is $0 fee the first year, and $95 annually after that. We’ve had two — one for Chris and one for me — but I have since gotten mine switched to a no-fee card since I got the Reserve since it didn’t make sense to pay the fee for one I wouldn’t use as much. The 50,000 sign-up bonus is worth $625 in travel ($750 if you or your spouse has a Reserve card to transfer the points to for higher redemption), which can take your pretty far with airline prices being as low as they have been this year. It has no foreign transaction fees, you can transfer to various other airline or travel partners, and you get 2x the points on travel and dining. Because of the relatively low fee, good sign-up bonus and versatility of Chase points,  this is the card I see most often recommended for people getting into the points world. Plus, you could totally use the points to come visit us! Ha.

If you are interested in this card, please consider using our referral link so we get some bonus points too:

https://applynow.chase.com/FlexAppWeb/renderApp.do?SPID=FNLC&CELL=63HF&MSC=1536510093

Tomorrow: Moving on to the hotel cards I’m working on right now!

In the meantime: What’s in YOUR wallet? 

The post Trip planning with points: what’s in your wallet? first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post Trip planning with points: what’s in your wallet? appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

Fun. Fairly chill. Easier than expected. 

Words I use to describe our experience driving around in Ireland, with me (exclusively) at the wheel.

Nerve-racking. White knuckles. Life flashed before my eyes.

Words my husband used to describe our experience driving around Ireland with me at the wheel.

Clearly, we’ll have to agree to disagree on this. But, I do assure you he’s being extremely dramatic. We hit nothing* and, contrary to his beliefs, we were not particularly close to hitting anything either. I’d also like to note that his account of it all has grown more dramatic with each retelling.

Anyway, THE TRUTH** 

It really wasn’t nearly as scary as I expected to be. I’ve only had one other experience driving on the left side of the road — I rented a scooter for several days in Thailand in 2008 — but on the motorway (highway) the traffic is completely divided so the only thing to remember was that the “fast lane” is on the right. In towns it took a smidge more gettng used to, particularly going “the wrong way” on roundabouts, but I felt pretty adjusted by the end of the first day. As in Sicily, the roads were quite narrow in a lot of places, but overall they were much better maintained and tended to be better marked than they are here. And the signs were all in English! (Also Gallic, as were all signs in Ireland).

I do think it would have been more stressful if I hadn’t already spent about eight months here driving a large van through very narrow streets and a lot of traffic. I mean, it was still stressful but much less than just driving in downtown Catania can be. Chris’ chief complaint came from his belief that I was driving too close to the edge of the road on the narrow streets on the passenger side, but I’d point out that while it was an adjustment — I kept feeling like I was driving headfirst into traffic on my side — I ultimately threaded the needle well enough to avoid hitting anything. Also noteworthy: I was the only one to drive in Ireland at all because it was deemed “your big idea.”

Anyway.

The one thing that actually did prove somewhat stressful was the car itself. Thursday morning we had to be out of our AirBnb by 10/10:30, and had plans to pick up the van I’d rented at 9 a.m. Since it was some distance away, Chris and I took a cab to go fetch it and left Gail and David with the kids and the bags. We expected to be back in plenty of time to load the kids and all our baggage into the car and be on our way by 10.

Instead, a mess. The van I reserved from Thrifty Car was billed as being a minivan for seven people and five bags. I pictured something akin to my own minivan. Instead, we were showed to a car that would have been a small five-seater vehicle. The sixth and seventh seats that could be pulled up in the back were ludicrous, no adult could reasonably have sat there and I’d doubt if we could have even gotten Fi’s carseat in. And the “space for five bags”? HAHAHAHAHA. The Thrifty Car representative feebly offered that the website had perhaps meant “space for five carry-on bags.” Again, a complete joke — you could perhaps have fit five small purses, and only if you pushed the back seats so far forward as to make them useless.

So, cue panic. We asked about bigger, automatic vans and they had a 9-passenger automatic one … for 1,300 euro. So about what my family had paid for our flight to Dublin PLUS all four nights at our AirBnB. We considered renting another car, but two cars for the trip? A nightmare. We considered storming off and trying to find another company with a more reasonably-priced van, but again that would take time and what if we couldn’t find one?

I probably don’t need to tell you how I was feeling at this point, but here is a visual representation of my mood all the same:

Finally, the Thrifty Guy suggested that he had a 7-passenger (actual) van at their location at the airport, which they could give for “only” almost twice what we were paying for the original van we’d reserved. That didn’t thrill me, but it was the best we could do. Awesome Thrify Girl offered to drive us to the airport to save time, which we really appreciated. However, it still left us in the quandry because a considerable amount of time had passed and now Gail, David, the kids and about six suitcases of varying sizes were hanging out outside our apartment. A regular taxi to send them to the airport wasn’t an option — too much luggage, too many people and no carseats. I tried calling the carseat-possessing taxi guy that I had used before and got him to agree to come with his van, but he didn’t have the carseat or booster seat with him. This is when Awesome Thrify Girl earned her name and offered to drop off the carseat and booster we were renting from them at the AirBnb. {Also at this point, the original taxi guy called back to say he had decided he didn’t have time after all — panic! — but ultimately he found someone else to send.}

Once we arrived at the AirBnb, Awesome Thrifty Girl agreed to have us take Fiona in her car as well as some of the bags, which mercifully took some pressure off Gail and David. She was also able to just go grab the keys for us from behind the counter once we got to the airport, which was a relief because there was an unbelievably epic line there.

The van itself proved to a Volkswagen, and very similar to the Eurovan I learned to drive on (minus the distinctive bright blue color of our beloved family van, Zippy). It didn’t have much giddyup when trying to accelerate, but I did manage to get it up to a reasonable 140 km/hour on the motorway at various points. It was certainly very wide and long, but it had room for everyone so no complaints here. We drove from Dublin to Cashel to a town near Ennis without incident that day, but of course our car drama wasn’t quite over …

Flat. Tire.

We were actually really lucky that this happened when it did, rather than on the highway. And we’re lucky that we discovered it when we did, as it would have been a huge hassle to have to change in the following morning when we were trying to go to the Cliffs of Moher and it was raining a ton. Instead, Chris and I discovered it in the evening as we were about to make a run to town from our beautiful countryside AirBnB into the town of Kilysdart to grab some dinner for everyone.

Locating the spare and getting it detached proved problematic, and resulted in three of us laying on the ground at various points and Chris whacking himself in the head with the wrench. But once it was off, Chris and David got it replaced pretty quickly. This was a particularly good thing because I had called the Thrifty helpline (back when I thought there wasn’t a spare tire in the car) and was told that it was $200 for someone to come out and replace it.

I need hardly say how unimpressed I am with Thrifty Car as an organization, though obviously Awesome Thrifty Girl was Awesome.

At any rate, I would still overall highly recommend driving in Ireland (with the exception of Dublin, where parking would suck). We’ve now done two consecutive trips that included a renting a car for a portion of it, and I’ve really enjoyed it both times (though obviously the process went a bit less smoothly this time compared to our time in the Loire Valley). Driving on your own gives you the opportunity to see the countryside as you are going, stop when you want to, linger at sights that catch your interest and — spoken like a mom here — store all your stuff. When we are walking around a city, we tend to take everything we need for the day and carry it in a backpack. WIth a car, you can prepare for all eventualities without actually having to carry around a snowsuit in July “just in case” your kid gets cold. Winning.

I do, however, recommend triple checking what kind of car you are actually getting. GRRRRRRR.

Road right outside our Kilysdart rental house. In the distance, the River Shannon. 

*Except some branches overhanging into the road, which do not count beause they are branches. hanging. in. the street. Chris disagrees that these “don’t count,” but also hit some branches just the other day while we were driving around in Sicily. So.

**Because it is my blog, and I get to decide.

The post IRELAND, interlude: Renting a car on the Emerald Isle first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post IRELAND, interlude: Renting a car on the Emerald Isle appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

As you may have noticed, we’ve been taking it a little easier on weekend trips since we moved into our house — a combination of having things to do around our house now, and just plain being tired from the holiday season. That said, we’ve hardly been idle on the trip-planning front. So far we have plans to spend 9 days in France as a family in the spring, a week in Ireland with my in-laws a month or so later and plans to attend Oktoberfest in Munich with my family and some friends. We’re also kicking around a long weekend in Cefalu, a beach community in Sicily a couple hours away.

Other than picking a flight, our biggest concern for trips is deciding on accommodations. Pre-kids, we had a pretty simple process for deciding where to stay on our (rare) trips: go to a hotels.com or similar website, type in a destination and filter by price, proximity to city center and (most importantly) reviews. Easy-peasy.

Since having the kids, however, we’ve acquired a ton more criteria that makes it slightly more complicated to pick a place. For starters, a standard hotel room no longer cuts it because a) the kids go to bed much earlier than we do — meaning we’d have to sit there in the dark and silence after like 7/8 pm and b) sharing a room with the kids is basically the worst (although less awful than when they were younger).

So for the most part, we’ve found we mostly prefer renting apartments through AirBnb. So far we’ve rented one in Modica (on Sicily) and in Rome, and both were excellent.

By the way, if you haven’t used AirBnB but want to, please consider using my referral link. You get a $40 travel credit for your first booking, and I get $20. www.airbnb.com/c/kaseyh50

Pros:

1. More space. If we are renting an apartment, we’ll usually go with a 2 bedroom so the kids have their own space to sleep. They also often have more than one bathroom, which can be helpful.
2. Neighborhood feel. I absolutely think you get a more authentic experience in an apartment versus a hotel, which tend to be isolated in tourist areas and surrounded by restaurants that are more geared toward tourists.
3. Amenities. Especially with the kids, it is nice to have a kitchen. When we’ve taken vacations in the States and rented condos, we’ve usually done a shopping trip on the first day and picked up a bunch of food so that we could cook some of our meals at home and save money and aggravation. Even when not planning to do that, it is nice to have a decent fridge to we can stash leftover and have a cold beer waiting for us.
4. Helpful hosts. So far, we’ve had pretty great experiences with hosts being willing to recommend restaurants, attractions, etc. In Rome, our host even arranged a early-morning cab for us so we didn’t have to worry about hailing one. We didn’t end up staying in the AirBnB we booked for our canceled anniversary trip to New Orleans, but our host for that one had even offered to recommend a babysitter so we could go out one night.
5. Cost. Usually, the price is more or less similar to what we’d pay for a hotel; sometimes, there are even great deals to be had. In Rome, for instance, we ended up getting a gigantic apartment for about 130 euros a night, which resulted in our friends from Naples, their three kids and their babysitter all being to stay overnight with us. (Worth noting: we did get hit up for about 100 extra Euro because the host noticed we had way more people than on the booking, but it was still SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than the at least two extra hotel rooms we would have needed for our friends to be able to stay).

That said. It isn’t necessarily all upsides. Some things to consider.

1. Comfort. So far, we’ve mostly found our rentals to be comfortable. That said, you may well end up with scratchy blankets, thin mattresses, crappy pillows, etc. For some reason in Italy, having a top sheet isn’t necessarily standard. We were very surprised in our AirBnb in Rome to find that we only had the fitted sheet covering the mattress and the comforter; according to our friends from Naples, this is super common. If you are at all finicky about stuff, you might not love the AirBnb experience.
2. Location. We put a premium on being in a good location, but that can admittedly take a fair bit more research than when booking a big-name hotel because you have less assurance that you are going to be a good neighborhood/enough security. It isn’t a problem as long as you take time to read reviews, Google the neighborhood, etc. but it obviously takes more a time investment to research, especially if you are booking in a bigger city.
3. Fees. I have to admit that the fees on AirBnB are a little frustrating. When booking our Paris trip, I was annoyed when I realized that factoring in the cleaning/service fees and taxes generally raised the advertised nightly price for a room by as much as $30 to $40 per night. Another note on cost: it is not always cheaper to rent an AirBnB, especially if you are just two people or two people and a baby traveling.Just as an example, this one is $122/night but with all the fees factored in it comes out to $155/night. Grr. 
4. No rewards (generally). While AirBnb bookings are coded as “travel” by credit cards — meaning you can get bonus points with credit cards (like the Chase Sapphire Reserve) that offer rewards for travel expenditures — you don’t have a loyalty program like Marriott/Hilton/SPG. Even Hotels.com offers you a free night after you book 10 nights through their website. An exception: apparently you can now earn one Delta Skymile per dollar spent by booking your AirBnb through their portal. It isn’t necessarily a lot, but it is something. Naturally, I only discovered this after booking Paris!

Hotels, on the other hand, have some pretty obvious upsides. In this instance, I’m focusing more on brand name hotels versus the independently-run hotels, which may be less standardized. I haven’t visited a lot of these — with the exception of six weeks in one here in Sicily — so I don’t feel quite qualified to comment extensively on these yet.

1. Ease of check in. With check-in desks manned 24/7, you can generally check in whenever you arrive. For example, we are arriving in Dublin at about midnight, so we’ll be spending the first night at a hotel near the airport. Also, while you don’t necessarily get to check in until mid-afternoon, we’ve found that hotels are generally willing to take your luggage off your hands if you arrive in the morning. Chris and I arrived in Paris for our honeymoon at sometime like 7 a.m., and our hotel was very happy to stick our bags behind the front desk and watch them til we got back. That’s not to say this can’t happen at an AirBnb — in Rome we dropped off our bags in the morning while they were cleaning — but if anyone else had been occupying the room at that time or the host hadn’t been willing to show up early to let us in, we’d be out of luck.
2. Generic comfort. I’m not going to say you are always going to be clean (we’ll still never return to La Quinta because of the nasty wet carpet and moldy smell at one in Tennessee) or comfortable (we had to buy a mattress topper for our bed at the hotel we spent six weeks at in Motta Sant’Anastasia), but if you are staying in a brand-name hotel they are generally going to be fairly standardized. If you are unhappy with an experience, you can complain to corporate. You can pretty much count on having sheets.
3. Amenities. Someone else cleans up after you and brings fresh towels, enough said. Also, a lot of hotels offer free breakfast, which saves you time, money and the annoyance of cleaning up. The spread at our Motta hotel was our favorite thing. And our Bloomington hotel had free booze and dinners four nights a week too.Another benefit, sometimes: babysitting available at a fee. We haven’t used this yet, but it was a deciding factor for settling on a hotel in Munich since we’d love to have one night to hit up the beer tents without the kids to worry about. Assuming we ever get a reservation — more on that later.
4. Points and rewards. Basically the opposite of my complaint about AirBnb; if you are brand loyal, you can rack up points to use towards free nights. Using points or free night certificates to cover some or all of the prices of your accommodations can also be a huge cost-saver, since that is often going to be your biggest expense. For example, finding AirBnBs during Oktoberfest in Munich was already slim pickings even when I started looked at CHRISTMAS time so we moved on to hotels pretty much immediately. Prices were exorbitant already, but it turned out that I could use Chase Ultimate rewards points to pay which, at least, made me feel better about it.  ALSO, if you are thinking about booking through a site like expedia/hotels.com I HIGHLY recommend you go through Ebates first. As I outlined in this post, the site cuts you a “big fat check” for using it as a shopping portal. So far, by booking through there I’ve received approaching $150 back, mostly thanks for our long stay at the Bloomington hotel (tragically, we didn’t book the Motta one through there). If you’d like to join Ebates, I’d very much appreciate it if you considered using my referral link: https://www.ebates.com/r/KAHUSK2

Cons:

1. Space. The biggest perk of renting an apartment is the obvious con of a hotel. If you just have one big room, there is nowhere to go when the kids are asleep. Some hotels offer two-bedroom options, but those are harder to find (and more expensive). If you are going the hotel route with kids, my recommendation would be to spring suite with at least a sofa bed. You can put the kids to bed in the bedroom and move them to the sofa when you want to sleep, or stick them on the sofa bed and stick to your own room. If you opt for the latter, Chris and I recommend filling your sink with ice and bringing your beverages and snacks into the bathroom to save yourself a stealth mission later.
2. Cost. A nicer hotel or one in a premium location can cost significantly more than an AirBnB; this is amplified if there is a big event happening or if you want a fancy hotel. Also, hotels may not let you book a standard room with two kids, so you’re looking at a bigger cost there because you’d need a suite or connecting rooms. (We haven’t tried the latter, btw — it seems better suited for older children).
3. Less charm. You aren’t necessarily getting a neighborhood feel in a hotel in a tourist area.

Obviously there is a whole world of other options — hostels, bed and breakfasts, etc. — but it was mostly between these two options for our upcoming France and Munich trips (Dublin is still to be decided). We ended up settling on an AirBnB apartment near Montemarte for five days in Paris, followed by one night in a hotel in Tours (because we’ll arrive in the evening and it is easier) and renting a cottage in the countryside in the Loire Valley.

We actually got very excited about the idea of staying in a castle-hotel in Loire, but ultimately we couldn’t find one that was simultaneously in the area we wanted to be, had availability on our dates and didn’t come with a price tag that made me gasp.

Wouldn’t mind staying at a place like this! 

In Munich, we are only staying for three days and were motivated mostly by convenience, being able to pay with points because of the elevated Oktoberfest pricing and the availability of babysitting. Thus, a city-center hotel with a sofa bed for the kids. It may not be the most comfortable, but at least there will be beer.

And just a reminder … if you haven’t used AirBnB but want to, please consider using my referral link. You get a $40 travel credit for your first booking, and I get $20. www.airbnb.com/c/kaseyh50

The post Hotels vs. Apartments vs. Castles: Planning a Trip first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post Hotels vs. Apartments vs. Castles: Planning a Trip appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

It’s only been two months (+3 days) since the four of us dragged ourselves, exhausted and over it, off our first-ever international flights as a family. Now, in just a couple more days we’ll be boarding a plane to do it all over again — except this time, it’ll be just me and the kids.*

Gulp.

Basically, Chris didn’t want to burn through a lot of his vacation days, while I thought it was a bit silly to only take the kids for a week since they’d barely be getting over jetlag before we left. Plus, earlier tickets were much cheaper. So, we ultimately decided that I would get tickets for the three of us in mid-December and Chris would join shortly before Christmas. I used a combination of points and cash through the Chase rewards system for our tickets, then bought Chris a ticket on the same flight, but a different day, through the airline itself. The four of us will all be flying home on the same plane.

So, that leaves me taking the kids and I’m a touch nervous (though ultimately I really believe it’ll be fine. And if it isn’t, it is only 14 hours …). Here are some things I’m doing for my sanity:

1) Going up to Rome the night before our international flight. The tickets I got were insanely cheap out of Rome, but obviously that still left getting there from Sicily. I could have taken one of several flights available that would likely have given me plenty of time to make my late-morning flight, but honestly I didn’t want the anxiety that would come from worrying about whether the plane was delayed or whether we’d get our baggage in time or just being rushed trying to get through the enormous labyrinth that is FCO. Instead, we’ll go up the evening before, spend the night in a hotel and not have to worry about being rushed the next morning.

2) Only taking one suitcase for the three of us. I’ll have two kids to wrestle, the last thing I need is extra baggage to cope with. We’ll take one checked bag, and a backpack each.

3) Having a car seat for Owen shipped to my mom’s house, rather than taking his with us. This way, I’ll only need to deal with Fiona’s seat (which I want anyway to keep her contained during the flight) and we’ll only have to install one when she or my dad picks us up from the airport in Chicago.

Other than that, the game plan for surviving the flight is the same as before: new toys in backpacks to whip out when they get bored, suckers to help with their ears during take-off and landing, tons of snacks to keep them happy throughout the flight and kid-sized headphones so they can either watch plane movies or their own electronic devices. Back-up plan if they are still little hellions? Bringing cash to buy alcohol during the flight (for me, not them).

Please cross your fingers for us!

In other news, we discovered another reason to love our house — we are only about half a mile from the Monday farmer’s market! The kids and I walked over there today, with Fiona on my back in a carrier for the first time since she was probably a year old (it was definitely a ton easier than trying to walk on narrow sidewalks or cross streets with her, but my back was killing me — I think I need a toddler-sized one, perhaps). A crazy thing happened there: my kids insisted on buying broccoli and carrots. And then we got home and Owen demanded to eat them as well. He’s been passionately anti-vegetable since he could eat, but today he willingly ate three raw carrots and tried bites of broccoli. I think the market may be magical.

#picoritdidnthappen #willprobablyneverhappenagain