Two Little Monsters Take on Europe

This was such a new trip for the 4 of us. First international trip for Jameson, first time to Europe for the boys, and longest flights for the boys. As this could easily turn into a novel, we decided that this European write up will be 4 parts: General Information, Norway specific, Sweden specific, and Denmark specific. This first part will cover general information around traveling with young kids to Europe, flights, jet lag, etc.

Documents – Print off a document that has all the booking information you need! We stayed at 4 hotels, one friend’s house, had a rental car reservation, and 6 flights. That can be a lot to manage and search for in your inboxes. This is a very Type A tip, but it helped us multiple times. When we lost our luggage, we were able to easily show them what addresses we’d be at for what length of time. When we got taxis from the airport, I could just show them the document with the address instead of having to take my phone off airplane mode. And in the airport, it was a lifesaver with the number of different airlines and confirmation codes we had. Our document was relatively basic: Dates, Airlines, Code, Times, Car Rental Confirmation Code, Car Rental Brand, Hotel Names, Dates, Addresses, and if it had already been paid or not.

Packing – We were hitting multiple countries, but were going to be gone for 2 weeks, so packing was tough. We didn’t want to be lugging multiple suitcases into airports every few days. Airports can be difficult to navigate in general, and then doing it with multiple suitcases, multiple kids, kids backpacks, Brad’s backpack, and my diaper bag, it becomes a straight up nightmare. We were staying with family friends the first portion of the trip, so we figured that we would bring half the clothes we would need for 2 weeks and wash them right before we left their house. (Several of our hotels offered laundry service too so that could be another option) We were able to get everything into one large suitcase, including packing the travel crib in the suitcase, and we were only 3 pounds over weight limit (They waived the extra fee)! Unfortunately, our luggage did not make it on the plane from Amsterdam to Oslo, so we learned a very valuable lesson of making sure you always have spare sets of clothing and toiletries in your backpack.

Car seats – We were renting a car in Oslo and were taking taxis in the other countries, so I wanted to make sure that we had car seats for the kids. I’ve shared before the ultracompact car seat that we have for Kent. However, Jameson is still too young for that so we brought his infant seat. Before we left for Europe, I thought this was a great idea! And it honestly wouldn’t have been so bad if our car seats hadn’t been lost on the way to Oslo with our luggage. Because of that, when we rented the car, we also had to rent car seats. Renting car seats is something that people either hate doing or love doing. I personally prefer bringing my own for several reasons. But because we had to rent car seats, we never used ours. Not once. Lots of taxis in Sweden have car seats, and Denmark was such a short drive that didn’t worry about it. But that meant Brad lugged pointless car seats across Europe and was about ready to kill me. DON’T BRING CARSEATS TO EUROPE!

Rental Cars – I’ll go more in depth on the Norway write up, but figured I’d touch on renting a car in another country in this section too. Basically, American driver’s licenses are great! If you have an American Driver’s license, you can pretty much rent a car anywhere. We didn’t have to get an additional driver's license, pass a test, or anything. This makes it super easy to rent a car internationally. Thankfully in Norway they drive on the right side of the road, so it made for a relatively easy transition to driving abroad. I will note that we rented an electric car because it was about half the cost of a gas car. This seemed great in theory, but came with some challenges. If you get all the instructions, all the components that you need for the car, and are fine being off airplane mode for the entire trip, then by all means go with the cheaper, electric option. I'll go more in-depth on the next blog on the challenges we faced with the electric car, but giving a short warning here.

Airports – Airports can be hard with kids. You have to get there several hours early before sitting on a plane for several hours. Our biggest advice with airports is to find a play area if they have one! This is a constant tip for us whether we’re going on a 2 hour flight or 10 hour flight. Portland has several play areas, so we had the kids burn as much energy as possible before having to sit for awhile. If an airport doesn’t have a play area, we find other creative ways to burn energy like running through empty gates or making laps on the moving sidewalks.

Flights – Snacks, snacks, snacks, and screentime. Our flight to Europe worked out well timing wise so the boys were only up and needing to be entertained for a few hours before we made them go to sleep for the night. Kent is 3 ½ years old and is honestly a pro at traveling! He’s fully entertained by his games on his tablet (we only let him use his tablet when traveling), so we didn’t have to worry about him much. Kent even became best friends with his neighbor on the flight home and she kept saying how much she wished we were neighbors in real life so she could babysit. Jameson is almost 18 months, so he’s not at entertained by screens. We could entertain him for 15 minutes at a time with the screens and then would have to introduce new toys or snacks before putting him down for a nap or bedtime. Pro travel tip for kids that still nap: Bring an eye mask! Delta provides eye masks and earplugs which was extremely beneficial for naptimes. Jameson will refuse naps at times because he doesn’t want to miss out, so we’d pop the eye mask on and it would dramatically help him go to sleep.

Strollers – We don’t typically take strollers on trips, but everyone I spoke to highly recommended it. We walked so much that I’m very thankful we had a stroller for Jameson. Hindsight, I wish we had a travel double stroller because Kent rode on Brad’s shoulders for a majority of the trip. The stroller was great for Jameson, but there is a caveat! We realized that on days that Jameson was stuck in the stroller a lot, he would get really fussy. He needed exercise and to burn energy. We had to make a conscious effort each day to find parks or playgrounds for the kids to run around in so they wouldn’t get restless. We were recommended a children’s museum in Stockholm that was incredible for the kids, and found an amusement park in Copenhagen that became perfect days for the kids.

Activities – As mentioned above, the stroller was great for the miles of walking we did each day. However, we realized that the kids would get restless being strapped in the stroller all day. Each day when we would plan our agenda, we would make sure there was plenty of playtime for the kids. Additionally, on days after long travel days, we would focus more on the kids and would have a more active day. For meals, we would do breakfast at the hotel, some sort of fast causal food for lunch, and then a sit down dinner. As adults, we can handle 3 sit-down longer meals a day, but that’s a lot to ask of the kids. We definitely had to adapt from how we’ve done Europe in the past as the two of us, but with a little extra thought and planning, it’s doable with young kids!

Jet Lag – Jet lag is hard for everyone. Thankfully all 4 of us got over the jet lag pretty instantly. It was a trial by fire situation. When we landed in Amsterdam on the way to Norway, the boys had only slept for 5-6 hours, which is about half the time they usually sleep. J thankfully slept for an hour on the flight from Amsterdam to Oslo, but Kent was awake the whole time. By the time we got to the hotel, had dinner, and got ready for bed, the kids were EXHAUSTED. They fell asleep almost instantly, slept long and woke up already on the new time zone. I know the kids were exhausted during the day, but they did well and it was the easiest way to get everyone over the jetlag pretty much instantly.

Naps – Naps seemed to be the biggest learning moment on the trip. Typically Jameson takes a nap around 10/11am, but everything in Stockholm and Copenhagen didn’t open until 10am. Originally we would head out and be at a place the moment it opened. We’d be there for several hours until J started to get fussy and then would grab lunch and head back for his nap. In theory, this was a great idea. In reality, it wasn’t as great as planned. J would be extremely fussy at lunch and make it not very pleasurable. By the time we got back to the hotel for a nap, it would be 1/2pm and he would sleep for several hours. When he woke up, it felt so late in the afternoon that we usually didn’t want to go out to start a new adventure at 4pm. In Copenhagen, we switched things up and it was a total 180! We would play at our hotel for several hours, put Jameson down for a nap, and then when he woke up, we had the whole afternoon and evening to do whatever we wanted, uninterrupted. Of course, we realized how perfect this plan was in our last country. But we know that if we started with this plan originally, with our luck we would've had to adjust later anyways. Traveling with young kids is full of learning opportunities and this was definitely one of them. Just remember to try different things and be adaptable if people are struggling.

Travel Crib - For this trip we bought a few more things than normal. The first was a travel crib. Typically on vacation I just made sure that the hotel we're stay at has a pack n play or crib. It's been easy to and then we have one less thing to bring with us! However, we were planning on staying with family friends who have older kids and don't have a crib, and multiple other hotels. Locating hotels with suites for the family was already difficult enough without filtering to cribs as well. For peace of mind and ease of naps, we found a travel crib on Amazon that was AMAZING!! It fold up small enough that it can fit in your checked luggage, weighs only 10 pounds, Jameson loved it, and it was only $60!! I will be recommending this crib to everyone I know who loves to travel!

All in all, the flights and 2 week adventure was much easier than we expected. When it comes to traveling with young kids, you have to be adaptable and flexible with plans. There were several times that we had plans for the day and had to make changes based on the kid's moods or what they needed.

Stay tuned for the new few posts around the specific Scandinavian countries we visited…