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Family | Holidays

How to travel with a baby?

Go on, admit it. You’d much rather not have one sitting near you on a flight. You board the plane, shuffle down the cramped aisle, coerce your hand luggage into the overhead locker, glance down and there it is – all cute and innocent on its mother’s lap...

But she’s bound to be a hopeless parent, completely incapable of stopping it from howling, vomiting and shredding the newspaper that you try to hide behind for the 15-hour, non-stop flight.

It’s hardly surprising that more parents shun holidays when their children are aged between one and four than at any other time. Not only do practicalities, like flying, become fraught with stress and logistical nightmares (for new parents, the journey of a thousand miles does not begin with a single step – it usually starts with trying to change a nappy in a cramped toilet before take-off), but you are constantly striving to reduce the impact of your little darlings on other, often unsympathetic, travellers.

That, combined with the general fatigue that stalks new parents, does little to set the wheels of family travel in motion.

We’ve all been there: sleep deprived, irritable, barely capable of summoning the energy (or baby paraphernalia) for a trip to the shops, let alone a holiday. However, there are at least six good reasons why it’s never too early to start travelling with kids:

• Babies are easy to transport in strollers, backpacks or papooses

• They can’t dictate where you go or what you do (so make the most of it while it lasts)

• In most countries locals will make a big fuss of them which is a great morale boost for weary new parents

• Babies often go free. The older children get, the more expensive they become, and travel is no exception

• There are plenty of innovative baby travel products designed to make life easier

• Choose the right hotel or resort and you get some well-deserved pampering