Things I’ve Learned About Traveling with a Baby

Things I’ve learned about traveling with a baby:

1. It’s annoying.
2. Don’t bother.

I’m kidding, I’m kidding, but for real though…traveling with a baby is annoying and if my family and closest friends didn’t live in a different state, I probably wouldn’t bother.

Between the amount of things you need to pack (your whole goddamn house) to trying to fit in doing anything at all in between naps and feedings, to keeping them happy and entertained when you’re in the car or on the plane or out and about trying to do the things you actually want to do…it’s a lot.

We’ve done 5 trips with Zane now, and it’s thankfully gotten a bit easier each time, but we’re honestly still trying to find our stride.

Here are a few things I’ve actually learned about traveling with a baby though:

1. Keep expectations low. If we can do ONE activity a day, I consider it a success. Two things is possible. Three is pushing it.

2. Staying in an Airbnb (or other vacation rental) is way better than staying in a hotel. Zane takes a morning and an afternoon nap and is asleep by 7 p.m. so having multiple rooms and extra space to move around in while he’s sleeping is key. Being trapped in a dark hotel room before the sun sets is no fun (I speak from experience).

3. Familiar places > new places. Because we can do so little during his wake windows, it hasn’t felt like the best time to be exploring new places. Heading to destinations we’re familiar with takes a lot of the stress out.

All that being said, we had a “fun” (fun is relative now) time on our recent trip to the @harborspringsaframe, one of our fav cozy little spots up north.

I think my travel strategy for the next few years is going to be to find all the coolest hipster cabins surrounded by nature to stay in—which actually sounds like a pretty fun challenge.

Family vacation selfie above from our half-hour outing to Petoskey State Park where Dan and I took turns laying in the sand for 5 minutes with our eyes closed. ✌️