jogger/carrier

Instead of bringing a double stroller, we chose to bring a single jogger stroller and our Bjorn baby carrier. The decision to do this really couldn’t have been any better for us. The jogger was mostly used for our toddler, while the 9 month old usually sat in the carrier. However, we planned on using the stroller for whoever needed it at the time. For instance, if our baby was due to nap or getting fussy in the carrier, we would shift her into the stroller and have our toddler either walk with us or carry her on our backs. Having the jogger with us instead of our other strollers was especially nice too. I loved having it because it wasn’t too big like our tandem would have been, but it was also big enough to take on cobblestone and uneven terrain. The bottom basket was super convenient to have as well (think grocery shopping and carrying things back) and the sturdiness of the stroller in general was a life saver during travel days. It allowed us to attach our diaper bag to it or even pile up our backpacks when the kids weren’t in it. I considered buying a travel stroller for awhile, but after bringing our jogger and having such success, I don’t think we will. To read more about why we chose to bring our jogger and how it worked for us, you can read my blog post here.

Clip on highchair

This is definitely not for everyone, but it certainly was a game changer for us and one of the best things we brought. Maggie turned 9 months a few days into arriving in Italy. She was at a point where experimenting with food was important, so I wanted to make sure she could easily feed herself and reach food on the table. A clip on highchair was the answer for us. I was initially hesitant because it seemed bulky and extra, but it was actually super easy to pack and didn’t take up much room. It breaks down into pieces and depending on which one you buy, you may even have one that’s entirely collapsible. and lies flat. Ours had a metal bar that fit snug in between clothes in a suitcase, and two push up locks. It ended up being quite compact. We brought this specifically for our airbnbs. Once we checked in, we would set it up and keep it in place until we checked out. It was the perfect set up for us. You can always request highchairs through airbnbs and a lot of times, if they offer cribs, they also have access to highchairs. But in my experience, requesting a highchair will always narrow down the search results that much more. So I prefer to bring our own and maybe have a better accommodation.

bed bumpers

We transitioned Izzy to a big girl bed before our trip abroad on purpose. We were planning on staying in airbnbs and not traveling with our own travel crib. So this meant narrowing our search down to listings that had cribs/travel cribs available. If we had to find two cribs, we probably wouldn’t have had much luck. So about a month before our trip, we moved Izzy to a twin bed to get her ready for 5 weeks away sleeping in big girl beds throughout Italy. I specifically ordered inflatable bed bumpers so we could deflate them and take them with us as well. This is something I am so glad we did. She obviously needed bumpers in her bed at home, and these killed two birds with one stone. They were so easy to travel with and blowing up took less than a minute. We actually got away with only taking one as well. Most the beds in our airbnbs were up against walls so we opted for one and saved room in our bag.

wash cloths

Sounds ridiculous, but with kids you will always need something to wipe them up. With traveling in Italy especially, we were eating plenty of red sauce and I wasn’t about to stain someone else’s towels or wash cloths while cleaning up my kids. I’m partly considerate, but also, people will charge you for messing up their linens, lol. This is even true in some hotels if you remove your makeup and ruin their towels. Just not worth it in my opinion. We brought maybe 3 wash cloths and will definitely be bringing them again on our next trip.

familiar snacks for first week

You can obviously load up on snacks once you get to your destination, but familiar snacks from home are key. Both our girls ate pretty well in Italy, but the first week was trial and error. We were so lucky we brought plenty of pouches and baby snacks with us. The first couple of days were quite the adjustment and our kids clung to anything familiar. At one point, Izzy was even refusing to eat pizza, which was so unlike her. It took Ben figuring out that she wanted the pizza slice she could “fold in half like at home” and he went half way across town to get her a different pizza that she devoured. Having something that feels/tastes like home helps ease into being away. Side note- you can bring liquids through security for your small kids. I even had a few juice boxes in our bag.

Thermometer / Tylenol

If you’re traveling far with a baby and/or toddler, chances are a thermometer and Tylenol are already on your packing list. And if not, add them. They’re those items you bring and hope not to use. We used both the very first day we arrived in Italy. We don’t use Tylenol often, in fact, we’ve only really given it to the kids when they have had fevers. Sure enough, as soon as we got to our airbnb in Rome, we took Maggie’s temperature, she had a fever, and we gave her the Tylenol. We used it that one time and didn’t have to use it for the rest of the trip. Soo glad we had it when we needed it though.

What We Didn’t Love

Cloth highchair

We brought two highchairs to Italy. The clip on one I mentioned above, and a cloth one that straps to chairs and is super portable. The intention with the cloth one was to keep it in the diaper bag for restaurants and on the go. We had read that most Italian restaurants don’t have highchairs and we didn’t want to risk limiting her to our laps. If we were going for a week we would have taken our chance and fed her on our laps or in the stroller.. but a month was too long to have her potentially too distracted and not able to feed herself. Plus, if you read my post, Why We Didn’t Dine Out in Italy, you know absolute chaos would have ensued with her on my lap. But anyway, don’t take a cloth highchair. The only time we used it was at our one airbnb when the table couldn’t accommodate the clip on.. In the end, we made it work on a different table anyway. The cloth highchair was useful for the day or two in between, but that was honestly it. The idea behind it is great, but it just fell short for us. Since it straps to a regular chair and she sits on the seat, she isn’t able to feed herself because she’s sitting so low. Also, the few restaurants we dined out at did in fact have highchairs. So we didn’t need it anyway. Luckily it doesn’t take up much space in your bag since it rolls up.. but even so, I won’t be taking it on any future travels.

formula

If your baby is flexible with formula and you’re spending significant time away, you can buy formula in Europe. You won’t find it at the grocery store, but rather the local pharmacies. I wouldn’t recommend this though if you’re staying off the beaten path in smaller towns. I’m sure they would have something, but the risk is much too great in my opinion. Maggie transitioned to strictly formula not long before our trip. Of course, this coincided with starting to eat more solids. We transitioned her to a hypoallergenic formula since she was having some issues with eczema and we were starting to suspect possible food allergies. Because of this, we wanted to make sure she had everything she needed, and packed enough bags for the entire month away. As the end of our trip was approaching though, we decided to extend an extra few days, making the entire trip 5 weeks. We were short on formula by only a day and a half maybe, but we were also ending our trip in a bigger city and knew we could find everything we needed. We even surprisingly found a much greater variety than we expected. If I had known that I could very easily find such a variety of formula ranging from organic, hypoallergenic, dairy replacements, and so on, I probably would have only brought enough formula for half the month and picked up what we needed when we arrived in Rome. Side note- the European brands Holle and Hipp that a lot of American families are familiar with were not at the pharmacies we visited. This is not to suggest you wouldn’t be able to find it, but just an observation.

carrier for toddler

This was just dumb. The thought behind this was that we were bringing a single stroller for two kids to take turns in and having a carrier for those extra tiring days would be helpful. Plus, we had one destination that was going to be a lot of stairs, both getting to and from the airbnb, but also all around the town. We were staying there for 6 days and planned to mostly leave our stroller at the house during the day. So we thought both carriers would come in handy. Turns out, we used the carrier for our toddler only once and that was in an entirely different town. It also lasted only 10 minutes before our toddler wanted to get out and walk.. so we were stuck wearing it even though we weren’t using it. In the end, it’s just way easier to pick them up and hold them when they need to be held. It would have been better to bring a carrier that worked for both of them, but sadly, our little one doesn’t do as well in the carrier that can accommodate her older sister. And since we knew we would mostly be carrying Maggie, we had to bring the carrier best suited for her. It’s not a terrible thing to have certain items for ‘just in case’ moments, but considering the space it took up in our bag, it was not worth it.

Too Much Clothing

I never used to overpack when I was a flight attendant or backpacking solo.. but every time I go somewhere now I seem to bring a couple things I don’t need or never wear. Maybe it’s age or becoming a mom, but I always have “just in case” items now. We left for Italy early May and came back mid June, which meant we were arriving in 60 degree weather and leaving in closer to 80 degree weather. I mostly focused on layering for this reason, but I was still worried the kids wouldn’t be warm enough initially. Rain was expected the entire first week as well, which had me remembering the constant chill we’ve experienced in some European airbnbs. That all being said, I brought lots of options. It wasn’t crazy, but I still wish I left a few things at home. If you’re going somewhere with a washing machine or do hand washing while traveling, you really don’t need all the extras. I am happy we brought our toddler’s rainboots and raincoat, but extra sweatshirts, onesies, and bibs were unnecessary. If your kids are messy like mine, chances are you’ll be constantly washing things anyway.