Europe Travels with Baby
Watch our overview video below or scroll down for more tips and tricks for traveling to Europe with a baby!
Airport/Airplane from the US:
We flew American, and because we were flying internationally with an infant-in-lap we had to check in at the airport the day of our flight.
Note: the international infant-in-lap option did have around a $150 fee and I had to call to add her after we booked our tickets.
We brought our Bugaboo Dragonfly stroller and stroller bag through security to gate check it.
Gate-checking the stroller was so easy. The gate agents were really helpful and all you do is carry it to the end of the jet bridge and leave it for them to grab - then you collect both on the jet bridge when you deplane. Should you have a connecting flight they’ll still put it there so you have it In the airport.
We checked one bag and had two carry-on bags in case our checked bag didn’t make it.
I had all of the formula we’d need for her in my carry-on.
Even with the stroller, I wore her in this carrier, from the time we took her out of the car seat until we got seated on the plane. In the United States, she did not have to come out of the carrier for me to go through security or the x-ray.
You can take pre-made formula bottles, formula, and water through TSA, you’ll just be additionally screened once your bag goes through the x-ray. It was quick and easy!
I was a bit stressed about this for this trip, I wasn’t sure how much to prepare. I made three bottles to get us to Charlotte and figured we’d have time there to figure out the rest.
I ended up trying to wash the bottles in Charlotte (a PITA) and bought a bottle of water for our flight to fill up some more bottles. We originally thought we’d have a bassinet and she’d sleep a ton so I didn’t think I’d need a lot of bottles right away… which leads me to my next point.
On American’s international flights you must be seated in Row 13 or 17 to have use of a bassinet. This is NOT LISTED ANYWHERE (I was SOOO pissed), and we only found out at the gate 10 minutes before boarding our night flight.
You can only request the bassinet at the gate (or on the plane depending on who telling you the instructions lol)
Thankfully we were able to move our seats to row 17 coming home and we loved getting to use the bassinet for her naps - soooo nice.
Baby cannot be in the bassinet for take-off and landing, and during any bigger turbulence (technically anytime the seatbelt sign is on, but shhh)
Without the bassinet on our night flight, we had baby sleep in the carrier while we stood, and then I ended up holding her for about two hours towards the end. We made it work but it was not by any means easy. I would’ve liked to have a seat for her, but wasn’t going to spend that kind of money!
Airport/Airplane Inter-Europe:
We flew Condor, and booked business class because it was only like $50/mo per person and included the bulkhead - it was worth it.
We got priority security screening in Munich because of business class which helped us cut the entire line.
We had a dedicated check in counter to check our bags
We brought our Bugaboo Dragonfly stroller in the stroller bag to check in and very much confused them.
It doesn’t seem like Europeans use stroller bags, so with it already packaged they made us check it there and not bring it through the airport
We checked one bag and had two carry-on bags in case our checked bag didn’t make it.
I had all of the formula we’d need for her in my carry-on.
Without the stroller, Drew or I wore her in this carrier, but in Europe she has to be taken out to go through security.
You can take pre-made formula bottles, formula, and water through security, you’ll just be additionally screened once your bag goes through the x-ray. It was a little slower than the US but we still had no problems
I just had empty bottles, formula, and a bottle of water to make her bottles in the bag.
RE: Sleep -
Because we didn’t have the bassinet, baby didn’t get a ton of “night” sleep, and because we landed, jumped on a train, and had a few blocks walk to the hotel she was pretty much up all morning. This basically kick-started her into being in the right time zone. It was VERY challenging to get her down for naps the first day, and when we finally got her down for the evening she slept hard.
Day 2 was our trip to Oktoberfest so she was on the move again. We are lucky that she can nap in her carrier and we were able to get her napping in the carrier at Oktoberfest by going outside and walking around. Please note, if we had gone one month prior this would’ve been a nightmare as she would not fall asleep easily ANYWHERE. We have been working on her being able to fall asleep in her crib independently and I think that significantly equipped us well for this trip.
By day 3 she was on the correct time zone schedule. We use Huckleberry to track her sleep so we just followed along with what that was telling us for nap times. We ended up having days that were 4-5 naps instead of 3 like we were getting at home, but it still worked.
The most challenging part was the nighttime sleep as we were often still out and up well into when she would be asleep at home. We would try to get her to sleep in the stroller or carrier at this time and then she would wake up for 30 minutes to an hour each time before going back to bed. Thankfully she would then sleep pretty well through the night. The only added challenge her was making sure she was eating enough during the day to want to sleep at night. A few of our nights she powered through 1 -2 bottles before bed or in the middle of the night.
Honestly the sleep piece was a bit stressful, always being worried about where we would be when she needed a nap and/or if she would nap so I eventually just had to let it go because she was being a trooper and there wasn’t much else for us to do!
Mallorca was great because our Airbnb was located so close to everything she got 99% of her naps in the room and we still go to see and do everything we wanted to do (and relax). I wish we would’ve had 1-2 more days in Mallorca to relax before being on the go again.
RE: Formula Feeding -
This was a challenge for me. I didn’t see a lot of resources online about this and I struggled with knowing what would be appropriate and also work for us.
At home, we use the Brezza to give us the correct temperature water for our formula (don’t get me started on the fact that it clogs with our formula so we only use this $200 machine for water….), and mix bottles as needed. If we go out, we’re often not out for more than 1-2 bottles worth of time so we’ll just make them and pack them in the diaper bag.
Things got challenging in Europe because we were out of our room for more than 1-2 bottles, it’s not like she can just drink tap water in Europe, and the language barrier. So we just started making bottles with lukewarm bottled water on the go.
Please make sure you are using the correct bottled water for baby. Some mineral water is not good for baby, and only commercially available brands are safe to use in formula. We had a throw up episode I believe was caused by giving her the incorrect water in 2 bottles. We fixed the problem right as we noticed it but it was still scary.
I was thankful we had booked an AirBNB in Pollenca for our second half as we had the time and resources necessary to make warm bottles, and sterilize/clean her bottles properly. If you are formula feeding I definitely recommend a place with a kitchenette or a full home. If we did the Munich part again we’d take a full day off from being out to be able to give her good warm bottles AND just to rest her up in general.
Please let me know if you have any more specific questions in the comments, I am happy to help!!
Similar Posts:
