How backpack Europe with a baby - Last week Cameron, our new Family Budget Travel Guru, spoke
Nomadic Matt:.! Imagine all
Marcus: Paula and I are a young couple (24 and 25) lucky enough to call New Zealand home. We are currently living in Auckland, where I worked as construction work Surveyor and Paula is a part-time occupational therapist. Our little man Cohen keeps us pretty busy, challenges us and helps us appreciate the little things in life.
Our goal is to live an adventurous life, to make the most of the opportunities that surround us, and lose ourselves in wonder at the extraordinary world which we find ourselves. we try Cohen in our camping and traveling lifestyle fit. Last summer we took him (then only 10 months old) in a month-long backpacking trip through Europe.
What inspired your trip to Europe?
trips to Europe has long been a dream of ours. We were greeted by a trip to the Cook Islands, where (because I screwed up) we had to clarify our accommodation at the last minute motivated anew. We ended up in a hostel and discovered that we are actually the budget backpacking style trip to the resort preferred hopping we have for the rest of this trip!
Fast forward a year and our dream to travel to Europe was a recurring theme, inspiring a lot of thinking and talking. We could not our dream no longer ignore, so we bitten the bullet and took with Cohen.
How you have saved for your trip?
Before Cohen with, we worked diligently and save an income towards buying a house. We have many sacrifices to make this happen, injected mainly through not on fancy gear and with the same robust furniture from the period of study. Realistically, it was relatively easy to save quickly when we had both full-time, skilled jobs.
What advice to you to save money you have for others?
I think it is important to think carefully about what priorities you have in life, and be aware that it often take considerable sacrifice to make it happen. For example, at an age when many of our friends buy houses, we have a pretty big step from that goal back overseas travel through. We have, however, do not regret it, because we are different cultures on experience to give us a higher priority.
How did you stay on budget when you travel?
had We mixed to keep experience on a budget while traveling in Europe. We knew that Europe is not the cheapest place and that traveling with a child would mean we could not so cheap to travel, as if we own our. We were staying not too keen on the cheapest and nastiest accommodation with a little one, and we knew that food and diapers would cost us extra.
That being said, we have a lot to keep our accommodation costs low by allowing them to remain in a few places, CouchSurfing, with friends of my sister with Airbnb and camping. We used a Eurail Pass train (15 days within two months) for most of our trip. I am still undecided as to whether this actually works cheaper than to book our own itinerary, but it was a good way to get.
Although we were not perfect! to spend a little more than a week in Switzerland, was not a good budget choice, but we regret not going there. We have definitely not budget enough for the "Swiss chocolate funds"!
How old was traveling with a 10 month?
There was, no doubt, harder than solo or as a couple traveling. At the same time it was clearly pleasant and moved us into a series of experiences we would never have had if we had not been with Cohen.
, we found that with a toddler traveling easily broke down many of the barriers between us and the locals. It was the beautiful woman at the Italian camp which could not speak a word of English, but only loved Cohen and enjoyed holding him as we clumsily tried to sign, how old our bambino was. She gave Cohen a small Italian picture book when we left. There were countless discussions with local public transport, such as Cohen tries shamelessly she smiles at them and waving woo over.
We are very proud of the fact that we managed to "pull it off." We still love the reactions we get from people when we, that we say to them already in Europe with Cohen. Although none of this notice, it will be fun Cohen to tell how he had eaten for the first time chocolate in Switzerland and Gelato in Italy. We still fight the travel bug and can not travel to some of these places are waiting back when our children have grown older. Now that we traveled with a 10 month old we feel like any other trip we will do his very relaxing!
What advice do you have for other couples with a young baby?
you can (and should) still pack light if you have a child. We first two packages (one baby carrier was) and a daypack. After only a few days in Amsterdam, but we realized we had and wrote too much stuff, so a box at home, we could throw the DAYBAG overboard! We operate on a package with both Paula and my gear, and a package for all transmission Cohen (including diapers, clothing, bedding, etc.).
I would recommend to be proactive about planning in advance a hotel directly. I had romantic notions of just things alata and organization of accommodation than we went. In reality it is not a nice feeling when you have to take care of a baby and you do not know where to stay the night. It can be used as a single person feeling adventurous that may crash in some shabby old hostel room, but it feels sickeningly irresponsible if you are traveling as a family! This meant only that we emphasize too much time spent in Internet cafes and not enough time to the cities to enjoy we were in.
It is important when traveling with a young baby to try, and some of the routines, as best can store. We performed a particular purpose Bedtime Teddy Cohen in the months preceding our trip so that Cohen would have a familiar toy when we traveled. We tried also relatively consistent to keep his bedtimes (as best we could) in all the places that we were.
What was the hardest part of the trip?
Without a doubt the most difficult part in the location was not the night life in the cities experience we visited. As already mentioned, we have tried to keep Cohen routine as regularly as possible ... and that meant him to bed at 07.00 most nights. With Cohen in bed we could not do much other than sit in the hotel room, reading books and playing cards. This is another case where CouchSurfing was very convenient. Although still bound in the evening to the house, we could take in the culture even in the late evening with our hosts enjoy chatting.
The easiest?
As I have already mentioned, led a baby in tow, the. Too many simple openings in friendly exchanges with the locals This meant that we found actually easier it is to get involved with the culture, than we would have without Cohen.
After Cohen with us also had advantages, as we have sometimes referred to the head of the queue, and when dealing with customer service personnel. People seemed generally more inclined to help, when we clearly were a few lost tourists with a baby.
Have you have parting advice?
If you are traveling without children, make sure the little things to enjoy as able a whole, without interruption, on a long film ~~ POS = TRUNC to see, to be able to have meals eat at your own pace, without take turns eating watching the other person while keeping a kid throwing food everywhere. Or walk from your chosen accommodation on a whim, without having to worry you forgot something important such as diapers or wipes. Perhaps the best thing signified with a toddler about traveling that we have a new appreciation for the simple pleasures we have granted a young couple for that.
There may act as a deterrent to travel with a baby, but as Cameron and now Marcus has shown us, it is possible. Stop waiting, start planning, and go. Your baby is not getting any younger!
If the next success story
is one of my favorite parts about this job to do people who travel stories. You inspire me, but more importantly, they also inspire you. I travel in a certain way, but there are many ways to finance your trips and travel around the world, and I hope that these stories that show that there is more than one way to travel, and that it within your reach your journey to achieve goals.
we all come from different places, but we all have one thing in common :.
we all want to travel more
to the day Make today a step closer to travel - .. whether it is buying a guide, a hostel booking Create an itinerary or the whole way to go and a ticket to buy
Think it, may never come tomorrow, they therefore do not wait
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