Travel Mom Casi Hough, the cofounder of the Well Traveled Club, joins us to share her tips for traveling with an infant including her trips to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and Italy. Her daughter, Lily, is now 18 months old and has been on 22 flights.
For more family vacation ideas, check out all the podcast episodes. Adventure Awaits!
Many put off traveling with their little ones. How did you embrace it?
Don’t let yourself be intimidated by it. As older millennials, we grew up traveling, and there’s no reason you can’t do this with children.
Getting started early gives you the confidence to travel with them. And if you put it off, it can just get more intimidating.
What are your tips for traveling with an infant?
There are the traditional tips like having a bottle for take-off and landing and giving them toys they’ve never played with before. But here are some of the tips I’ve found the key to our travels.
- Create a safe space. I had to wear Lily a lot during the pandemic to get things done and it’s become a safe space for her now. She snuggles up in a restaurant, on a hike, and on perfect travel. One of my friend’s created a safe space in their car seat. It’s about creating an environment that feels comfortable for the baby.
- Longer Layovers. If you can’t do a direct flight, get connecting flights with a longer layover and get a day pass to one of the airline clubs. There they have space to run around. I did this with my daughter from LA to NY to Rome. She tired herself out and slept the whole flight from NYC to Rome.
- Bags within Bags. I take a bunch of drawsting bags…one for toys, one for snacks, one for diaper changing supplies. That way you can just grab the bag of what you need out of your bigger bag and don’t have to dig around for things.
- Redefine what ‘family friendly’ means. It doesn’t have to mean a place with a kid’s camp. For us, it’s a hotel with great service and easy access to restaurants.
Tell Us About Traveling with an Infant Internationally
We took Lily to Cabo when she was 9 months old and Italy when she was 12 months old.
Our trip to Cabo was all about relaxation. We stayed at the Nobu hotel, outside the tourist area, as we didn’t want to leave the resort. We wanted a relaxing stay and to have fantastic food. I didn’t want it to feel like a family hotel with a child-filled pool.
Nobu has bungalows around the pool that you can use for free. They provided us shade all day. We could jump in the pool as we wanted and have our own private space. We actually had a vacation.
Then when Lily just turned 12 months, we went to Italy. My husband and I like to do a lot when we travel, but the key to traveling with a one-year-old is to simplify your itinerary. We did 3 hotels in 2 weeks, so we stayed longer in fewer locations.
In Rome, we stayed at The Hoxton, which doesn’t feel like a family hotel but is very family-friendly and small, so you get great service. In Tuscany, we opted for more of a resort as things are more spread out. We stayed at Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco and Belmond Castello di Casole, which were great. We were able to do things like truffle hunting with her strapped on my chest and wine tasting. We had lovely lunches out then we’d hang out at the resort. It’s so family-friendly.
Why do you think it’s important to travel with kids?
Our philosophy is we want to bring our children into our world. At a young age, she’s learning flexibility, patience, and how to be part of a family unit.
What’s the next trip your planning?
We have a few weekend trips coming up, like to Palm Springs. Then in a few months, we’re going to New York City for a wedding and to visit east coast friends.
Tell Us about Well Traveled Club.
It’s a travel club designed for a new generation of travelers, foodies, and adventure seekers — to make it easier for you to find, share and book places you actually want to go.
We created Well Traveled because we love exploring new places but hated wasting hours researching and never being able to find recommendations for the types of things we wanted to do from people we could relate to. If you’re someone who prefers to travel more like a local and less like a tourist, we built the platform for you.
You can also follow Well Traveled on Instagram and Facebook.
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For more family vacation inspiration, tune in to all the podcast episodes. Adventure Awaits!