travela

Just wondering. We have never done a Europe trip with a baby before so wondering if you have seen couples with toddlers on the day long bus tours? Like viatours to pisa from florence for example that are like 11 hours total? are there people with toddlers on them or is it frowned upon? Do you have personal experience doing it. Our baby will be 18 months and we have a few day trips in mind but wondering peoples thoughts?

StCirq

I don't do tours, never have, but it sounds like a nightmare-in-the-making to me and for everyone else on the bus.

janisj

If it was me -- I wouldn't care if it was frowned upon or not... That would be torture - for you, for the baby, and for the other passengers. You can't just get off the coach if the baby is fussy -- well you can but then you'd be stranded somewhere.

socaltraveler

I cannot even imagine carting a toddler on an 11/12 hour day of buses and touring. And as a touring adult, I cannot even imagine being on a day like that with one. You should think about renting a car, with car seat, and structuring your day around your child, not your child around a tour bus.

adrienne

Don't do it.

It's unfair to your child and unfair to other adults on the tour who have paid good money for the trip. What's going to happen when your child gets tired and hungry on the bus and starts crying. When you need to change a diaper?

nytraveler

You need to check with the company. Many of these tours have age limits for children - and would not welcome an infant or toddler. Plus that's an awfully expensive thing to do for a child with no interest/capability to enjoy the process.

I would;t even consider it.

MonicaRichards

We traveled a lot with our kids when they were little like that and I would never have taken them on a full day tour because of the lack of flexibility. How will they nap (if you rent a car they nap while you drive somewhere and you can time it right)? What if they really hate the tour, what do you do then? Short tours like a couple of hours, okay, but not a full day one.

Ackislander

Have not seen a baby/ infant of any nationality in a group tour ever. . Many historic houses and some museums do not allow anyone under 6,7, or whatever. My son, aged three, was tossed out of Monticello, Jefferson's house in Virginia.

Christina

I've never seen it on organized bus tours like that. Of course if you do a day trip on your own by public transporation, some people might have their babies with them (as they could be local). I've never even seen small children on day tours, although that would be more possible. I have been on day tours where people had some teens with them, of course. Some of the day tours I go on are very small vans, so that really wouldn't work (ie, maybe 6-8 passengers) as there isn't even that much room for people to have babies with them. There would be more room in a regular big coach.

I think most people just don't do this, but curiously, I looked at the websites for a few day tour companies I know in Paris and Prague, and they don't forbid it. The one in Paris actually doesn't charge for babies, only from age 4 up. The one in Prague does the same thing.

But I've never seen a baby on one. I think it would depend on the tour as to whether it would be a problem, I think in a lot of places, the toddler could get in to some site. Last one I did was to WWII sites in Normandy and that was all outdoors anyway. But there is a lot of walking around on some of these tours, so you couldn't do that very well with a baby.