Infant Travel Archives - Page 2 of 9

Jul 28 2016

Surveying Scotland: The Isle of Skye – 11 Photos that will hopefully make you want to visit

I mostly chose the title of this trip report “Surveying Scotland” due to the alliteration. Surveying turned out to be the right verb, though. I once read in Rick Steve’s that you don’t really start appreciating a city until your second or third visit, which is something I have come to live by. That’s why we easily took our kids around London despite some things going south, it’s why I love visiting Madrid, and it’s why I’d love to go back to the Bavarian Alps.

Traveling with kids obviously slowed us down a bit, so it really felt like we only got a taste of Scotland had to offer. A decent taste, but not as much as we might have liked. Wish we had hiked more, sat more, ate more, taken tea more. But it was a great place to bring the kids.

We made the decision early on to make our way to the Isle of Skye – that involved an hour flight from London followed by a three hour car ride. What we didn’t realize at the time was a lot of that car ride was going to be on single lane roads, and adventure in and of itself. Still, we had read that the landscape on the Isle of Skye was beautiful, perhaps reminiscent of the Dingle Peninsula, and so we made the commitment to stay four nights out there.

We didn’t regret it in the least.

Here are some pictures to give you a taste of our experience there. Though I plan on expanding on what we did there, I know some people don’t like wading through long trip reports, so hopefully these photos will inspire some of you to get out to the Isle of Skye. It’s well worth it! No miles, no points, just amazing scenery and great people.

Isle of Skye — Playground at the Sligachan Hotel

In my next few posts I’ll get to what we did in a bit more detail – but what a place!

Surveying Scotland: Hyatt Regency London The Churchill Impressions

I know people don’t care too much about hotel reviews but I still find them useful, so here are some quick impressions of the Hyatt Regency London: The Churchill (what a name). I used a Diamond Suite Upgrade and stayed as a Hyatt Diamond (thanks to the status match earlier this year). As I mentioned, we were upgraded past even the lowest level suite thanks to the great employee working the desk at the lounge. Here are my impressions.

Location

As we discussed on the last Saverocity Observation Deck podcast, I was deciding between confirmed suite in unfamiliar location (Hyde Park) and smaller room in a favorite location (Covent Garden). The Hyde Park location, while a 30 minute walk, is still fairly closely situated to the West End all things considered.

Hyatt Regency London the Churchill — Being close to Hyde Park is very convenient

Oxford Street gets very busy, but as long as you’re okay with that the location proves quite convenient. Hyde Park lies steps away and a lot of the big stuff lies 15-20 minutes east, so the location is great. As I mentioned, there is also a small park nearby which is great if you have kids.

London sites spread throughout the city, so there is no one location, it’s just a matter of what you are interested in doing. But the Marble Arch area pleasantly surprised me.

Room

Obviously, this would be more useful if we had stayed in a standard room, so I won’t go into too much detail here. Our suite had its own living room, a separate bedroom with door, and 1.5 baths. The second bathroom was really nice since we didn’t have to disturb the kids after they went to bed.

Basically, the Regency Executive Suite is a super nice suite. I think the biggest difference between our room and the standard DSU upgrade is the Regency Suite King doesn’t have the extra bathroom. Here are a couple pictures which basically say all that need to be said about the room.

Lounge

The Regency Club served a nice breakfast. There were a couple of hot items (usually eggs and some kind of meet) and your standard continental fare. One thing I think people will appreciate is there are two lounges: one for adults only. I’m sure those of you who hate my kids will appreciate it :). That also helps to reduce congestion though if you go to breakfast late you still might have to wait for a table.

We never got much of a chance to take advantage of the evening canapes and wine, I’m sure they are your standard fare though. As I’ve mentioned multiple times the lounge attendants are great and probably were one of the highlights of our stay.

Final Thoughts

If you are looking to stay at a Hyatt, you only have two options in London. The Andaz is in a less desirable location (to me), so that makes the Hyatt Regency London: The Churchill (phew!) the desired option by default. Still, the hotel is more than just a location: the staff is great, the rooms are nice (recently refurbished), and while it feels business-like the hotel still has a pleasant vibe. Diamond suite upgrades are nice, great hotel staff are nicer. On to Scotland!

Surveying Scotland: Free activities for young kids in London

One of the benefits of visiting a city repeatedly lies in familiarity. Having visited London multiple times before we had kids, we know our “favorite” places and areas to hang out. Of course, with two kids under four in the mix, a lot of things change by necessity. However, we found that having a nice baseline and knowledge of the city helped us greatly when touring our kids – especially since it was our first stop and we were still in the throes of jetlag.

Despite the stroller unfriendly Tube, London actually turned out to be a great city for our preschooler and infant. Better yet, nothing we experienced had an admission fee. Here are some attractions we found worthwhile (granted we only had three days), and some reasons to consider each.

Walking is free

Walking is the perfect place to start because it’s one of the best ways to get around the city. The very first day (aka the get off the redeye at 7 AM day), we spent the majority of the afternoon walking from our hotel to Covent Garden and back (roundtrip about 4 miles).

kids in London — Stopping for a bite to eat at Borough Market. Note: not free

The next day we walked from the Bank Tube station to see the Tower Bridge (M insisted on seeing London Bridge and we decided that was the best looking one), through Borough Market, and then over to the Tate Modern. After taking a ferry to Embankment we walked to go see Big Ben, had dinner in Covent Garden, and then walked back to the hotel. Another 4 mile day.

Our last day we did a shorter walk through Hyde Park, maybe 2 miles tops. If you’re willing to put the mileage in, you can see almost all of London’s major sites on foot. You avoid the Tube and gain the ability to go at your own pace. Pushing two strollers isn’t that bad, though some parts get very crowded (I’m looking at you Oxford Street!).

Parks are Free

We also spent a lot of time in various parks. Hyde Park is a lovely place – like Central Park there are a lot of different things going on. We of course spent a bunch of time on the playground and looking at ducks.

As a bonus, we were there during British Summer Time – a festival they have in the park two weekends in the summer. Basically: food stalls, free Wimbledon viewings, and free movie viewings. While we did not have the attention span for the latter, the former two were pretty nice!

The nice thing about London (and Europe in general) are there parks everywhere. There was a little park, Portman Square, right across the street from the Hyatt Regency London. They too had their own little summer in the city event. Again, free Wimbledon viewings and food carts.

I actually liked Portman Square’s event better, you could borrow blankets for a small donation (or free if you insist) and there were lots of fun activities for kids to engage in. Giant Connect Four? Yes please!

You can spend plenty of time exploring London’s different parks – we were hoping to picnic at Kew Gardens but decided to bail due to the aforementioned junk (for strollers) London Underground.

Museums are free

Before we had kids, I thought free museums in London were pretty great. With two kids in two, I think free museums are game changing. Why?

Well, we enjoy art quite a bit, but have only taken M to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston twice. Why? Because if your kid has a meltdown in an art museum, you have to leave. Pretty much immediately. Then if you can’t settle them down outside, all your admissions fees are down the drain.

In London? Hop into the National Gallery for 15-30 minutes, see your favorite pieces, and get out of dodge before the kids even have a chance to think about losing it. Before our trip, I just assumed we wouldn’t be visiting the National Gallery at all, even though it’s a museum we enjoy. But the kids passed out on a long walk and we had a nice 30 minute visit. Is it the same as spending a couple hours there when we were without kids? No, of course not, but we still appreciated it nonetheless.

We also brought the kids to the Tate Modern when they were awake. H, being only 1, of course could have cared less. But at three and a half, M is at an age where she can “appreciate” the art a little more. Modern art lends itself to playing a simple game we came up with: “What do you think this looks like?”

Modern art is so…abstract…that there are no wrong answers really! M happily played this game for about 30 minutes and we got to visit the Tate Modern. But if she had been bored after 5 minutes we still would have gotten out of there without losing money. The free museums really allow you to take more “risks” with the kids.

The third museum we visited was the Museum of Childhood, a new one for us. I really enjoyed this museum. The exhibits feature a bunch of old toys – stuff that will make you nostalgic, stuff that you will think is cool like toys from other time periods, and stuff that you wish you had to play with as a kid.

Sprinkled throughout are more interactive play areas for kids – a sand pit, a kitchen, stuff you would find at a regular children’s museum. The play things are a bit worn and simple, but kids under 5 should have a blast. School aged children should be okay provided they aren’t the type who need the fanciest toys (so 99.8% of them).

The absolute highlight for H&M was storytime, which lasted for-eh-ver. Like half an hour! I was so bored by the end but M loved every minute of it and acted out the story again and again throughout the rest of the trip. A craft at the end of storytime was just the cherry on top. A delightful visit and I will be sad when the kids are too old to appreciate a museum like that.

We didn’t have time to hit up the British Museum (aka wow England sure took artifacts from a lot of different countries), Victoria and Albert (aka home of my favorite Chihuly chandelier ever), or the Tate Britain (aka learn about English history I guess?). I’m sure there are other free museums I’m missing too!

Final Thoughts

If you are introducing your kids to international travel, you could do worse than London. Sure, it’s filled with tourists, but there is a reason for that. Take advantage of all the things you can do for free in the city and you can have a great time on a small dime. We left realizing we could have spent an entire week there and been happy, but Scotland lay ahead!

Surveying Scotland: Getting Around London with Young Kids

One thing I neglected to research before leaving was accessibility in London and Scotland. Did you know that the majority of Tube stations in Central London, where the bulk of tourists spend their time, do not have elevator access for strollers or wheelchairs? I do now! Here are some suggestions for getting around London with young kids (the ones who can’t walk far).

The London Underground is not your friend

When we went to Hong Kong with our then two year old, my mother warned us Hong Kong’s subway system wasn’t very stroller friendly. It turned out to be okay, though not great. Let’s not sugarcoat this: the London Underground is horrible if you need to use a stroller or a wheelchair.

Look at this website before planning your trip to London. When an official page detailing how hard it is to find elevators exists, you know you’re in for it. When I booked the Hyatt Regency Churchill, I didn’t bother to look into any of this stuff. I saw that it was near a Tube station (Marble Arch) on the Central line. Perfect, right? Woops.

Our first experience on the Tube, we wanted to take the subway six stops or so, from Marble Arch to Bank (gotta see London Bridge even if it isn’t falling down). Like the unprepared geniuses we are, we left the house with two strollers, diaper bag (in the caddy), and a backpack.

To be honest, I blacked out that experience. Our stress levels were high but somehow we got the kids down (and up) 5 or 6 flights of stairs and a long escalator. We returned home via a ferry and walking.

The next day, we decided to take the Tube again – twice. This time, infant in carrier, preschooler in umbrella stroller (with shoulder strap – key), no diaper bag, just a backpack. We made it down but it was still pretty rough. I understand it’s an old system and all, but unless you are gluttons for punishment for us – skip the Tube. With two young kids it’s really tough, if you have just one, at least one parent can carry the stroller down and the other can escort the kid.

Bottom line: if you are parent to a young child, don’t think being next to a Tube station makes life more convenient. Oh and make sure you get Oyster Cards, even if you don’t return them you’ll probably save money if you take public transport at all.

Buses and Ferries are much more family friendly

If you want to stick to public transportation, the buses and ferries work much better for families. We didn’t take a bus but those famous double decker buses all seem to have a dedicated section for wheelchairs/strollers (“buggys”). They even lean over to make rolling onto the buses easier.

We also took a nice ferry ride from the Tate Modern over to Embankment (near Trafalagar Square). The ferry system uses the same Oyster card system as the rest of public transport so you can save a few pounds. Riding on the water brings a sense of calm and peace and the kids seem to enjoy it. You can ride all the way up and down the Thames if you’d like!

We also enjoyed the ferry because there was a lot more room to spread out and it was much less crowded. Bear in mind we never traveled during rush hours, we do not love punishment THAT much.

London Taxicabs and Uber work well

I probably should Uber more but…I don’t know, I don’t have a good excuse. I’ve read that Uber runs well in London, so putting that out here first.

We did use taxis, which I thought were pretty great. London taxis have this neat feature where all the luggage goes in front of you. They are these funky black cabs where you can fit 5 people in the back and/or luggage. This works out well for strollers: they can go in the back without the need to open the trunk, etc. etc. I just found it super convenient. We are not heavy cab users (except Cab Sauv RIMSHOT) but for those of you who are, I found the London system pretty family friendly.

Walking works great but be prepared to go slowly

I’d say we averaged 5-6 miles of walking every day in London. We walk because we love it; with the kids we add on the benefit of stroller naps. From Marble Arch it’s a 30-45 minute walk to Covent Garden or the Theater District; we did that multiple times.

One thing I noticed with the kids that I hadn’t noticed before is just how crowded London is. Without kids impatient Americans can just cut in and out of the crowds with ease. With strollers, even when we split up, it took a bit of navigation. Oxford Street proved especially difficult: TONS of tourists.

Still, we love walking and really enjoyed walking through all of London with our kids. The real benefit of visiting a city multiple times is you know it well enough to focus on what you love and can use energy to explore as you wish. This works out really well with kids since you have to expend so much energy managing them!

Quick thoughts on the Heathrow Express

I really love the Heathrow Express and the Hyatt Regency is just a quick 10 min cab ride away from Paddington Station where it drops you off. If you book 90+ days in advance, tickets only cost like 6 quid which is a steal. The express train runs every 15 minutes and gets you from Heathrow to London in 15 minutes.

However, since M was still feverish the night before we left, we opted to take a loss on our return ticket on the Heathrow Express and take a cab all the way to Heathrow (about 70 pounds). Up until the very last second we considered pushing her, but ultimately decided taking a more expensive and convenient route would be best for her health and the family’s sanity. Parenthood.

Final Thoughts

Other than the Underground, London feels pretty accessible for young kids. So make sure you don’t plan to use it unless you are staying near an accessible station (and only plan on visiting accessible stations). The odds of that are low. Still, everything else is great and feet work great too! If you are one of those crazy step counters, London can do wonders for your goals!

Surveying Scotland: Handling kid jetlag and other potential disasters

Here’s the thing. When you take a redeye (or any flight) to Europe, you lose five hours that you will not get back. Not until it no longer matters at least. That means that even if everything goes perfectly to form, you have to find a minimum of five extra hours of sleep for your kids. Of course, being low on sleep means your family is more susceptible to potential catastrophes.

Last time we came to Europe with M, she was 18 months old, we had a great flight in Lufthansa first class, and I still slept for 16 of the first 24 hours in Germany. Subtract two grandparents and add a one year old baby: that was our situation in London for the first three days of this trip. Here’s how we dealt with our travel mishaps.

jetlag — Prepared to quickly prove his ability to break out

Delta One

I’m not going to review the flight too much except to say that Delta One stands as a pretty solid business class product. The seat and bed were comfortable and the Westin comforter/pillow a nice touch (though not necessarily game changing). The food did not impress, it was maybe a step or two above economy food, but I am a sucker for ice cream sundaes and the wine was solid.

The flight attendants and service really stood out. They were friendly, attentive but not too in your face, and great with the kids. Overall they seemed to handle the entire cabin deftly and with ease. One flight attendant even took H for a tour of the cabin for 30 seconds before landing – we got a LOT accomplished in those 30 seconds!

Review over.

Sleeping with kids on the plane

One thing we did not anticipate was how much M wanted to play on the plane. She takes great naps on planes but hasn’t flown long haul for a year or so. We went through her regular bedtime routine and put her seat into its lay flat position but she basically played by herself lying down until Jess finally transferred her over so they could sleep together. I’d say M got around three hours of sleep, Jess one and a half max.

H was my problem for the most part. He slept better than expected. I had to put him in his carrier to rock him to sleep during the meal service (which ran an hour past his bedtime). He fell asleep eventually and when the cabin lights were dimmed I put him down in an empty, fully reclined seat. Having a half filled cabin was great.

The only issue with having H in a separate seat was I couldn’t sleep myself. The seatbelt doesn’t quite fit around him. Well, it does, but he can escape easily. They would have happily let us bring his car seat on but it won’t buckle into a business class seat (shoulda flown coach, the back was empty!). So instead I just accomplished my normal “catch up on movies I wanted to see in theaters but we chose to have kids so I only watch movies in theaters 2X a year” thing.

Zootopia, lots of fun. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, meh but got the “seeing this on a plane” boost plus I’ll watch pretty much anything with Tina Fey in it.

At some point I had to transfer H to my seat and I slept for about 20 minutes with him on top of me. I’d say he got about four hours overall on a six hour flight: decent.

Remember to take all belongings with you

We took the fast track lane through customs so that was pretty straightforward, though we were definitely starting to feel it. The kids to their credit were hanging in there but I could tell they were pretty tired. Adrenaline only accounts for so much.

I bought roundtrip Heathrow Express tickets – if you buy them months in advance they are pretty cheap (like £5.50 each way). It was super crowded for the 15 minute ride to Paddington Station but the kids continued to hold it together.

We made our way up to the taxi stand, taking one of the few elevators that exist in London train stations. As we were entering our taxi, we realized we had forgotten one of our backpacks on the train. BUGGEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! I almost lost it at that point. Steam must have been coming out of my ears because the taxi attendant told me to relax, haha. Good advice.

I ran, literally, back down the platform looking into every single train car for the bag. When you are tired it is quite tough to remember exactly which car you were in besides “the middle.” At some point one of the Heathrow Express attendants said, “Can I help you, crazy person?” I explained my plight and she went into an office and came out with a backpack.

She needed me to correctly identify the luggage tag on the bag. My mind flashed back eight hours to check in when my wife said, “Hmm we should probably tag and put at least your e-mail address on this backpack”. JESSICA YOU ARE A SWEET GENIUS.

Over at the taxi stand, the kids once again held it together and soon we were on our merry way.

Status pays off

Even after all of that we got to the Hyatt Regency The Churchill by 9:30 AM, way too early for check-in. I had a confirmed Diamond Suite Upgrade due to our need for two rooms. Of course, all of their suites were filled with (probably fake) Diamond members like myself. Still, they graciously allowed us to take breakfast in the lounge. Pretty smart business: costs them nothing and makes us feel special.

By 10:00 AM H was about to lose his mind so I took him for a walk outside. He did the “freak out while you are putting me into my car seat and then fall asleep in literally 15 seconds” thing. One kid down. M colored with Jess but by 11:00 she was soon going to lose it as well.

At this point Solhi (sp?), my new favorite Hyatt employee, came over and said we looked so sad and pathetic that he decided to upgrade us to a slightly larger suite so that we could spare the lounge any potential meltdowns. I’m paraphrasing. Dude is the man, though. The bigger suite was nice but not necessary, getting into it at 11:00 was life saving. We were about to go out on the town just to spare people from the aforementioned meltdown but that would have been brutal on the adults in our family.

We got into the room and three of us passed out while the fourth acquainted themselves with the room. I literally do not remember who stayed awake – M maybe? Best not to ask questions.

Sleeping with kids with jetlag in a hotel

Nothing to sugarcoat here: the first night was rough. Like “hey it’s our first night in the hospital with a brand new baby and we have no idea what we are doing and we are too stupid to let the nurses take her for the night” rough.

We actually spent a full day out on the town. Probably should have taken it easy but oops we’re horrible parents. Nobody was going to sleep in the hotel room that afternoon anyway, strollers were the way to knock them out (it worked).

Still, these kids were a minimum of five hours short of sleep and thus super overtired. H especially was feeling it. From 8 PM-1 AM he essentially slept 45 minutes and then wanted to play for like 45 minutes. We did not let him play, and he let us know his displeasure. With force. At 11 PM I realized that if I put him in his carseat and pushed him back and forth in the room he would at least stop voicing his displeasure.

At some point I was just lying on the couch pushing him back and forth while deliriously dreaming about making better life and travel decisions. At 1 AM I had the hypothesis that it was his normal bedtime so he could probably be put down normally. Even a broken clock is right twice a day and I nailed that one.

The next day he went down for good at midnight, the day after at 11 PM, etc. etc. We’ve actually pushed our kids’ bedtimes later than they would sleep at home; I think next time we come to Europe we’ll just start with that mindset. Go to Spain, for example, and you don’t have to adjust your kids’ bedtimes at all!

M handled the jetlag pretty well, except when she woke up the next day:

She’s got a fever…and the only prescription…is more playgrounds

Travel stresses the body out. When we planned to travel with two kids for 2.5 weeks, I figured the easy money was on one of them getting sick. H had a cold the week before we left, so naturally that kicked in for his sister around when we arrived in London.

M definitely had a fever, we purposely left our thermometer at home to save space so we’re not sure to what degree (oops). We’ve seen enough fevers to get a sense of when they are really bad. Considering all M could talk about was going to museums and playgrounds, we determined she was not that bad off. Judge us if you must.

The fever in and of itself had little effect on our time in London: M still wanted to see everything we had talked about before arriving. It’s indirect effect was a much whinier kid than we are used to and much more bribing than we are comfortable with. Compromises were made, french fries were given, toys were bought. Sigh.

We did take her to playgrounds every evening, and in a weird way it helped. It improved her spirit and also helped us to gauge her energy levels. I probably would have been more worried if she had NOT wanted to go play. Of course, keeping her out at the playground later didn’t help H’s jetlag situation.

I think that’s the real challenge with two kids. Dealing with H’s jetlag and M’s fever should have been no problem separately, even in our sleep deprived state (we’re parents we’re used to that). The combination made it tougher. You just make do.

The aftermath

Considering I have the time to write 1500+ words on this, you can probably gather that things have smoothed out. We made it to Scotland and the Isle of Skye with a much better adjusted son and a still whiny daughter. Said daughter’s fever broke this morning so I’m hoping that means she will revert to her normal “not incredibly whiny but whiny enough to remind us she is three years old” state tomorrow.

Averted disasters notwithstanding, London was actually pretty awesome. We actually left thinking we could have spent an entire week there, especially at a kids’ pace. Next time.

Final Thoughts

Thanks for indulging me this overly long description of stuff that went wrong our first few days. Jess’ has started using a fun new refrain she asks me every time something goes south on this trip: “Wanna do this again?” As of right now, the answer is definitely yes! Some thoughts on how we handled London with kids in the next post.

Surveying Scotland: The Isle of Skye – 11 Photos that will hopefully make you want to visit

Other Posts in this Series

Surveying Scotland: Hyatt Regency London The Churchill Impressions

Location

Room

Lounge

Final Thoughts

Other Posts in this Series

Surveying Scotland: Free activities for young kids in London

Walking is free

Parks are Free

Museums are free

Final Thoughts

Other Posts in this Series

Surveying Scotland: Getting Around London with Young Kids

The London Underground is not your friend

Buses and Ferries are much more family friendly

London Taxicabs and Uber work well

Walking works great but be prepared to go slowly

Quick thoughts on the Heathrow Express

Final Thoughts

Other Posts in this Series

Surveying Scotland: Handling kid jetlag and other potential disasters

Delta One

Sleeping with kids on the plane

Remember to take all belongings with you

Status pays off

Sleeping with kids with jetlag in a hotel

She’s got a fever…and the only prescription…is more playgrounds

The aftermath

Final Thoughts

Other Posts in this Series