Trip Report - Madrid adventures of a family and their stroller

Great report! I agree with all of your comments even the snide ones ! Looking forward to hearing more.

Thank you for taking the time to report on your trip. Your post so far is helpful for anyone traveling anywhere with an infant. Looking forward to the rest of your report.

I am so happy to have just joined this fodor's forum and found this thread. My husband and I live in LA and we are traveling to Madrid (and San Sebastian) this September with our fourteen month old daughter. I think it will be a little trickier for us because our daughter may be learning to walk then and we get the same responses from friends about how nuts we ar but decided to risk it and just go. We did book a seat for her with miles so I think we will take the car seat but I was wondering if it was more of a hassle to do that? I have been wondering about restaurants too. We are planning on keeping her on later schedule so she can go out to eat with us at night. Is this doable? I really am looking forward to hearing more about your trip.

i'm curious about what you did for cabs and getting around the city with your baby...? did you hold her on your lap?

Thank you for the compliments, everyone. I apologize for the slow going. i have had to complete this trip report in pieces, as and when time allows with a 7 month old.

westcoastdreamer - Good for you that you are travelling to Madrid and San Sebastian with your little one! You will not regret it. If you have a seat for her, I would take the car seat. it is a little bit of a hassle, but the most secure and safest way for her to fly. Well worth it, in the end. Re: the later schedule, it would depend on your daughter. My daughter gets up at 6:00 am every day regardless of what time she goes to bed, so keeping her up late does not usually work well for us. How about you? You could experiment over a couple of weekends out here before going over there to see how it goes. I think it could be doable, but once again, it depends on the baby. I am a major fan of experimenting, so I would try out before I go.

Now onto the trip report:

Day 1 – Let’s figure out how we can add as many hours as possible to this journey

We were originally supposed to fly San Francisco to New York to Madrid with a 45 minute stopover in New York. Bad idea. Our flight from San Francisco is delayed, so we get out of the airplane in New York 5 minutes before the Madrid flight is supposed to take off. Our car seat and stroller do not come out of baggage hold in time. So I leave DH to wait for them and with DD in my arms scramble over to the Madrid flight. They take off on time (for once) and do not wait for us. I don’t understand why Delta could not delay a trans-atlantic flight for 10 minutes to wait for a family with a baby to make a connection. But I can’t get too mad at them since they rebook us on Air France, which we have flown before and loved. Good food and the service is excellent. The flight attendants are so helpful. However, we have to fly through Paris and have to get re-ticketed in Paris.

So long story short…after making a long haul from Delta Domestic to Air France International Terminal, rechecking in, going through Security Check again, a flight to Paris, Passport Control, re-ticketing, nearly missing our Paris to Madrid flight, we finally arrive in Madrid only to find our bags not on the baggage carousel. As we walk to the Lost and Found, I mentally prepare myself to never see these bags again (unfortunately, this has happened to me before. I have yet to see my red 26 inch bag that Delta lost on my flight from US to Dubai over a year ago). As it turns out, the bags have arrived on the Delta flight that we missed. So after a 20 minute walk with our carry-on bags, stroller and car seat, we finally get our bags, get into a cab and are at our hotel. Phew!

I wish I could share some tips about the trans-atlantic flight with the baby. However, I have none. I will be honest – it was tough. I over-prepared and over-packed which meant we had too much stuff. DD is breastfed but refused to nurse on the flight. Thankfully, I had my pump along, so this helped. I just gave her what I pumped on the flight and supplemented where I could. She refused to sleep in the bassinet that Air France so nicely gave us. She cried even in her father’s arms and would only sleep in my arms. This meant no sleep for mommy. I say all these things not to scare you. I say all these things so that you know that we had such a great time in Madrid, I would do the flight again. Remember, the flight time is only a small percentage of your trip. It will be over. Stay calm. Be patient. Drink lots of fluids. Eat well. Get tips from this article for travelling with a baby:

http://flyingwithchildren1.blogspot.com/

If all else fails, give the baby to your partner, go to the restroom and scream.

Tip: When flying to Europe, try to fly direct. If you cannot fly direct, try to fly direct to at least some European city and then fly from there. There are flights within Europe virtually every hour, so you should be able to find a convenient connection soon. Also, if you fly direct to Europe, at least you will be done with majority of the trip when you get to your layover. Your body will have had some opportunity to rest from all the major carrying of baby gear & baby through airport & security. We were completely exhausted by the time we got to New York and we had not even started the remainder of our trip.

Alright, so we are finally in Madrid! We are staying at the Westin Palace in Madrid. The hotel is in a very convenient location and you can walk to most of the attractions. The hotel staff is friendly, warm and very helpful. The hotel itself is quite beautiful. The room is reasonably spacious, I will give it that much. Other than that, the hotel room itself is not much to speak of. But I have braced myself for this, after spending four days in Paris on an earlier trip in a tiny Marriott room on the Champs Elysees. It seems the fancier the location, the smaller the room.

After resting for a bit at the hotel, I feed DD her dinner and milk. She passes out in the stroller. We walk over to Plaza Santa Ana to have dinner at a restaurant called Lateral. Great food, great ambience and most importantly, it fit our stroller! DD does wake up towards the end of dinner, we rock her back and forth which seems to work sometimes here in California, but not tonight. So she sits on my lap for some time, we finish up dinner. We put her back in the stroller, walk back home to the hotel and she falls back asleep.

Good night, Madrid. See you tomorrow!

westcoastdreamer - also for cabs, yes I kept her on my lap (I can see all the responsible parents on this board shaking their heads). We took a cab on two occasions, and it was easier to just keep her on my lap. However, the safest thing of course is to buckle in the car seat.

westcoastdreamer, find out if the airline will allow you to bring a car seat on board. Not all of them will, particularly European carriers, and of course that will greatly affect your comfort.

Good to read about travelling with a baby!

I must say; you are brave. I already thought my recnt 2,5 hour flight to Corfu with a 10 month baby and 3,5 year old boy quite stressfull...... But it is indeed as you say; the flioght is only a small % of your trip!

Good point from WillTravel; a lot of (European) airlines don't allow you to take a (full-size) car seat in which they sit straight up. The type in which they sort of lie down mostly are allowed. But they are only suitbale for infants (up until 9 motnhs or so).

Good to read about travelling with a baby!

I must say; you are brave. I already thought my recnt 2,5 hour flight to Corfu with a 10 month baby and 3,5 year old boy quite stressfull...... But it is indeed as you say; the flioght is only a small % of your trip!

Good point from WillTravel; a lot of (European) airlines don't allow you to take a (full-size) car seat in which they sit straight up. The type in which they sort of lie down mostly are allowed. But they are only suitable for infants (up until 9 months or so).

WillTravel - thanks for the advice. We are flying Iberia so I will check with them on the seat.

Manisha - Thanks for the advice. My daughter is the same way - wakes up around 6:30 every day. I'm just hoping I'll be able to reset her schedule so we can go out at night. She can't sleep in her stroller in restaurants anymore.
We have a wedding in Boston so we fly there, spend three days, and then have a direct flight from Boston to Madrid. The way home is all in one shot, with the stop in Boston. I'm dreading that trip. We rented an apartment in each city so that at least one of us can get sleep if the other is up at weird times with the baby and if we have to stay in at night, we have balconies to overlook the cities while the little one sleeps.

westcoastdreamer I think renting an apartment and the balconies is a great idea. Good thinking! I think she will probably be able to reset her schedule and hopefully sleep in a little bit. Since she is older, she will probably be more resilient to all the time change, jet lag, change in routine, etc. Even though she did not get too cranky while on the trip, after we got back here, I could tell DD was relieved to get back to her old routine let me know if you have any other questions. I am sure you will have a great time!

Onto the trip....

Day 2 – Checklist out the window

Even though DD went to bed at 2 am last night (yikes!), she sleeps in until 10 am (wow!) We are very grateful for this uninterrupted stretch of bliss and wake up, energized and enthusiastic to start the day. DD and I head downstairs for the breakfast buffet and I let DH sleep in. Our room rate includes breakfast, which is very nice. Westin serves breakfast in The Rotunda dining room, which has a beautiful painted glass ceiling and a grand chandelier. Great natural light.

The breakfast spread is delicious with lots of healthy and not-so-healthy options (yours truly made a beeline for the latter). There is an omelet station where they take your order for eggs, any way you like it. Very nice. They serve you limitless cups of delicious Spanish coffee and fresh Orange juice. There is also a modest selection of newspapers. It might sound silly, but looking back, DD and my daily breakfast routine was one of my favorite things about the trip. While DD sat in her stroller, I drank luxurious cups of coffee, feasted on the lavish breakfast spread and read the newspaper. As someone who does not know how to “sit and relax” without making To Do lists and checklists in my head, I am surprised that I enjoyed this leisurely routine so much. I think I realized that once DD is mobile and crawling everywhere, I will not be able to do things at this pace. Right now, she is so young, that she was happy as a camper in her stroller. Also, the staff and passers-by were just so nice to her – they played with her and kept her entertained. So I made sure I enjoyed my last idyllic hurrah

After breakfast, we spend most of our morning making phone calls to our friends in London who are supposed to come visit us in Barcelona. Originally, we had planned on doing Madrid and Barcelona in 7 days. But the journey to Madrid has left us exhausted and now we just want to spend the entire week here. Our friends are nice enough to rebook their tickets, etc. but we still need to do some coordination over the phone. Lesson learnt – With a baby, one week = one city.

All this leisurely breakfasting, telephone calling, DD’s feedings, DD’s morning napping has us getting out of the hotel room only by 2:00 pm. As a former-travel-nazi-now-reformed-mommy-traveller-trying-to-take-it-easy, I find this unacceptable and we vow to do much better the next day. With a baby, I have decided that I will be more than happy if we do one big thing a day. I am happy to say that on the average, we this item (as you can tell, it is tough for me to get away from checklists).

So anyway, we finally head out to see Madrid. We check out the Fuente de Neptuno (Neptune fountain – bang right next to the hotel), then head to the Plaza Mayor. We enjoy strolling along the Madrid streets and checking out all the activity, watching the Street performers near the hotel and the giant-sized Winnie the Pooh, Minnie Mouse, etc. at the Plaza Mayor and wonder about the fascination with giant-sized cartoon characters.

We have lunch at a place in Plaza Mayor. The food was good, but nothing much to speak of and so I have promptly forgotten the name. I do remember that I took DD to the restroom to change her, only to find no changing table and no surface really to change her on. Since I really needed to change her and all her clothes, I had no choice but to place a changing pad on the floor, use Purell liberally and change her on the floor (horror of horrors!) It was a tiny little room with no lock. At one time, somebody actually opened the door and it nearly hit DD’s head before I lunged for her and protected her head. Yikes. But thankfully, DD was a good sport and did not cry. And her mom decided to never pull this stunt again. DH later gave me the idea of reclining her stroller flat and changing her in there. This was a great idea and what we did for the rest of the trip.

After lunch, we head over to the Catedral de Ntra. Sra. De la Almudena and the neighboring Palacio Real (Real Palace). Both the cathedral and the palace look beautiful. But it is now almost 5 pm and the Palace is closed. So we head towards the Gran Via and walk along it to head back to the hotel. The Gran Via is very busy, crowded and has some very beautiful architecture along it. But honestly, I enjoy walking along the tiny little backstreets more (even though it was interesting to maneuver our travel-system stroller along these tiny streets).

Back at the hotel, we head up to our room. Here, I have to stop and say something about the Westin staff. I have mentioned above that they were very friendly and helpful. But I have to reiterate this. There are some steps to maneuver just outside the hotel and in the hotel lobby. Every time, we are within even five feet of these steps, three men miraculously appear and carry the stroller up and down the steps. DD feels and looks very much like a queen on her throne. While I hope she does not get used to this treatment and expect the same at home, I am so glad that they are so considerate.

The other nice thing about the Westin is the concierge desk. We loved Ricardo and I would highly recommend him! The other Westin concierge staff pales in comparison to him. They are helpful, but just not as good and informative, I feel, as Ricardo.

After I feed DD her cereal and milk, she passes out and I put her in her stroller. We head back towards Plaza Santa Ana to have dinner at a restaurant called Vino P. It is supposed to be a very authentic restaurant. The food is alright, I don’t think I would recommend it to anybody. However, the service is great. Once again, lots of smiling and playing with DD. DD woke up promptly the minute we get to the restaurant and refuses to sit in her stroller longer than 10 minutes. So DH has dinner with her in his lap and she is actually quite well-behaved, so it is not that bad. After we leave the restaurant, we put her back in the stroller and walked back to the hotel. It is a beautiful night and the plaza looks beautiful at night. A lot of the build have lighting illuminating several architectural features, so it looks marvelous. As we admire all the beauty around us, we can hear DD snoring in her stroller....

TommieG - thank you for the compliment. I do think, however, that travelling with TWO kids is definitely more difficult. So hats off to you!

Day 3 – Picasso-esque Baby

Today, we leave the hotel room at noon. I think we are getting better at this travelling with baby thing. We head over to the Parque del Retiro (big beautiful park). On the way, we stop by to admire the beautiful architecture of Real Academia de la Lengua. The Park is very beautiful and nicely maintained. We walk around and take several pictures. It is nice to have a relaxing green space in the middle of the city. We spot the Monumento a Alfonso XII (a beautiful monument surrounded by a small lake – quite spectacular).
There are also some unique sculptures by the Monumento. DD, DH and I have a fun time posing DD on these Piccaso-esque sculptures and taking pictures.

We then head out of the Park onto the Ibiza to find a place to eat. We spot a restaurant and have some sandwiches, etc. We were originally going to check out the Palacio de Velasque and the Palacio de Cristal. But it is cold and raining and DD looks like she might catch a cold, so we decide to head back to the hotel and relax. The restaurant owner and his son very helpfully find us a cab and help us get in.

We spend a couple of hours relaxing at the hotel and then head over to Paradis Madrid for dinner. It’s a restaurant very close to the Westin. Great place, very nicely decorated, nice ambience and very good food. I highly recommend it with a baby. There are two parts of the restaurant. The front part, where they seat us, is virtually empty. This is great to rock the stroller back and forth when DD wakes up during dessert. Alas, the rocking attempt is unsuccessful, she does not go back to sleep and does not want to sit in the stroller. So we take her out of the stroller. She is happy in her father’s lap as we eat dessert. I think her refusal to sit in the stroller is indicative of how much she enjoys all this attention that she gets from neighboring tables and staff.

We walk around a little bit after dinner and admire the beautiful Madrid evening. Then, we turn in for the night.

Day 4 – Baby escorted out of Palace

Today at breakfast, DD and I are seated at a table. I take DD out of the stroller, put her in the carrier and head towards the buffet. I pile up my plate and head back towards our table. Our server, this really nice elderly gentleman, says that he did not realize I was going to put DD in a sling and take her. Otherwise, he would have carried her for me. And then he says “Please allow me to help you” and insists on holding my plate and walking me back to the table. How nice!

Today is a short day. We head back to the Palacio Real but go inside for the tour this time. The palace is quite beautiful. We grab our tickets and our audiophones and make our way through the rooms. At first, DD is quite happy. She is smiling and giggling. As a result of said happiness, she starts talking very loudly and probably disturbing the other tourists. Then, she gets upset as she has had enough of our constant attempts to “shush” her and is probably a little bit irritated at some of the dark rooms. She is over all the beautiful furniture and tapestries and paintings and curtains and wants no part of this Palace tour any more. She just wants to get the heck out of here. So DH grabs her and escorts her outside, while I finish looking through the rooms. Then I take DD and change her in the restroom and browse around in the gift shop while DH checks out the armory. All in all, it is a good arrangement and I feel like we both get to see what we are interested in. But I definitely do not think that we will be heading to the Prado with our little one. Also, I am glad that we did not take an organized guided bus tour. I think with a baby, or at least our baby, we need the flexibility to get on, get off when we want. Perhaps, the Madrid Vision tour might have been a good compromise since I believe its hop on/hop off, so you get the best of both worlds.

For dinner, we feel like eating Paella. Ricardo recommends this fantastic restaurant called La Barraca. After DD eats in the hotel room and falls asleep, we walk around a little bit and then head over to La Barraca. We get lost, find ourselves on tiny streets which are difficult to tackle with our stroller and helpful friendly shopowners who don’t know much English. But we finally land there and have phenomenal Paella and fish soup.

DD actually sleeps through most of dinner and starts stirring as we are paying the bill (we see the little feet moving underneath the blanket). Perhaps tomorrow she won’t wake up during dinner at all!

Day 5 – Those Days Are Gone

Today, we leave the hotel at 11:00 am! I don’t think we can top this. This is pretty good for us. I think I need to forget the days when I used to wake up at 8 am and hit a new city with a double shot espresso. In fact, in Tokyo, we woke up at 6 to head to the Tsukiji Fish Market. I think that the Fish Market days are now behind us and I am okay with that.

After breakfast, we walk along the Gran Via towards the Plaza de Espana and the neighboring park. We check out the park. There is a nice water fountain to sit by. There are also booths selling hand-made art, clothing, jewellery, etc. We check out the Monumento a Cervantes, then head over to the Templo de Debod in the Parque Templo de Debod. The Park is quite beautiful and is at an elevation, so it offers nice views of the city, the Cathedral and the Palace. Nice spot for photographs. There is a water fountain and several people lounging around. The Templo de Debod is fascinating. This is an Egyptian temple that was donated by the Egyptians to the city of Madrid. It is interesting to see an Egyptian structure in the middle of a Spanish city. Alas, it is 4 pm and the temple is closed. So we grab some gelatos, walk along the Ballen, do some souvenirs shopping and head back to the hotel.

Dinner tonight is at Lateral (again). Once DH loves a place, he makes it a habit to go back again and again (we visited Lateral four times in this one trip). And I guess I am trying to play the “easy-going mommy”, so I don’t complain too much. I really can’t – the food is just too good!

Tonight, DD learns to roll over on her tummy in her sleep. Every time she does this, it freaks her out, wakes her up and she cries for someone to help her out of her “misery”. She never did this in California, so I of course did not pack the sleep positioner. It proves to be a difficult night for sleep and I resolve to buy something to fix it the next day.

Lesson – You can pack and pack and plan and plan, but there will always be some situation that you did not plan for. No way to be prepared for every situation. Just be prepared that this situation will happen.

Day 6 – Mommy escorted out of El Corte Ingles
Well, almost….

After breakfast, we head over to El Corte Ingles (department store) and I proceed to make a fool out of myself by using aforementioned sign language to describe the Sleep Positioner. I first ask the lady behind the counter if she speaks English. She shakes her head but proceeds to say something in Spanish. I think she meant “But Go ahead. I’ll understand”. I begin to perform what looks like a modern dance piece to describe the Sleep Positioner. Her face is completely bewildered and she puts up her hand as if to say “For the love of God, Please Stop!” She then calls this bored looking twenty-something-year old who apparently speaks some English. I try to explain what I want in English and he does not understand. I perform my dance piece again and together the two of them figure out what I want and point me to exactly what I need. I hurriedly pay up and walk out the door, hoping that some other person has not alerted security.

We have lunch at a café at Puerta del Sol. They have the most amazing sandwiches. Small and delicate looking with the most fantastic fillings. Unfortunately, I do not remember the name. It has got an ice-cream counter attached to it, if that helps. We walk around a little bit in Puerta del Sol. I was told this was a beautiful part of the city. Yet, right now, it appears to be under massive construction with scaffolding and bulldozers everywhere. So we could not see much.

After lunch, our friends from London join us. We head over to the Plaza de la Cibeles and admire the beautiful buildings there. It is a beautiful walk along the Paseo del Prado, with lots of green patches, flowers and fountains. We head over to Lateral (where else?) for dinner and have a great time. DD sleeps through dinner! We see the little feet moving from time to time, but a little bit of rocking here and there, and she goes back to sleep

Your trip report is so fun to read...I feel like I am getting a glimpse into my trip but now with some good places to see and visit. I totally understand the loss of sleep that comes with hitting a new milestone...but once my dd rolled to her tummy, she started sleeping great. It sounds like a fabulous trip so far and your dd sounds like a great little traveler.

westcoastdreamer Glad that you are liking my trip report. Yes, the whole rolling over was accompanied by very little sleep that night. But she is doing much better now with her sleep positioner. In fact, now she has a new thing where she rolls over on her side and hugs the crib bumper and sleeps - lol! let me know if you have any other questions - have fun on your trip! Check out this link for more info
http://flyingwithchildren1.blogspot.com/
Another good resource is the "Travelling with children" group on Babycenter

Last Part of the Trip Report:

Day 6 – Addendum

After dinner, we have drinks tonight at one of the lounges in the hotel. We take DD asleep in her stroller and I am surprised that nobody even bats an eyelid as we enter the bar with her stroller. I think they are surprised that we are actually even asking them if its okay to bring a baby in there.

Also, if you are in the mood for having Chinese food in Spain, you can check out the Asian restaurant at the Westin. We have dinner there on Day 5 (my multiple trips to Lateral have confused me and I realize that we actually visited it thrice and not four times). The food is exceptional and the ambience/décor is BEAUTIFUL. Very unique, I have never quite seen anything like it. It is a little on the expensive side, but well worth it, I think. DH goes as far as to say it’s the best Chinese food outside of China that he’s had.

Day 7 – Bullfighting stadium and shopping

Today, I had hoped to head to the Prado with our London friend while DH watched DD. However, my London friend is an even bigger Travel Nazi than I was and has seen every museum and monument in Madrid, other than Museo Taurino (bullfighting stadium/museum). So we sit in a cab and off we go. The stadium is built in the Moorish style and looks absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, the museum is closed today as there is some event going on in the stadium and will only reopen on Monday. I begin to get upset at the Westin Concierge desk for not calling the stadium ahead of time and finding out, but then realize that there is only so much the concierge can do and there is no guarantee the stadium would have picked up, etc. Anyway, this is one of the only buildings I see built in the Moorish style, so I am still glad we came. We walk around the stadium. It is blistering hot (high nineties) and no shade. So after taking a few pictures, we scramble to find a cab.

We head to Calle Serrano, along which there are many nice shops and boutiques. Most of them are quite posh and expensive, but it is still a fun street to walk along. I spot a dress in one of the boutiques and decide to come back in a bit. We have lunch at the café in El Corte Ingles. It is a delicious lunch and I am impressed that even a Department Store café serves such great food. After walking around a little bit, we begin to head back to the shop where I spotted the dress. But the heat and lack of sleep have gotten to DD and she makes it obvious that she just wants to get back to the hotel and will not take “no” for an answer. We jump into a cab and get back to the hotel. She fusses the entire way back. The cab driver is obviously very disturbed. He spends more time turning around to console her than keeping his eyes on the road. But we manage to get back to the hotel safely.

While DD and DH snooze in the hotel room, my friend and I head to The Rotunda for some tea and light afternoon snacks (and end up ordering chocolate milkshakes and double chocolate cookies). I am glad that we are staying at the Westin as there are many spots to hang out in the hotel at all times of day. This is quite convenient with a baby.

Dinner tonight is at Rincon De Esteban close to the hotel. This is a very nice place with good food and friendly staff. This delightful elderly gentleman is our server. He and the manager shower us with warmth, complimentary food, Limoncello and a pen as a souvenir. DD wakes up briefly during dinner, but after much vigorous rocking, goes back to sleep. The food is great, yet when the bill arrives I am surprised to find a “cover charge”. I have seen this many times in Italy and some places in Paris, but it is the first time we have encountered this in Madrid. My friend jokes that it is to cover all the “free” stuff they gave us. I really hope that he is wrong, as I have taken a real liking to the manager and our server.

Day 8 – Last Hurrah

This is our last day in Spain and we of course celebrate it with lunch at Lateral, followed my day long affair of eating, eating and more eating. It is brutally hot. So after lunch, we head back to the hotel to “cool ourselves down” at the Rotunda. But end up having dessert and drinks. We head back out again and have some gelatos in the heat.

Then, we head inside Museo del Jamon. We have passed this place many times on our trip but have never actually gone inside as we’ve never passed it around lunch time. Well, today we decide lunch time or no lunch time, we’re going in. It is great! One one side there is a counter where people can buy meat to take home. On the other side, there is a counter and people order food/drinks and eat at the counter. The food is great and the atmosphere lovely! We have drinks and meat and share jokes with the fellow behind the counter and people-watch. It is good fun and a very good last hurrah in Madrid.

Our London friends are heading back home tonight. So we bid goodbye and then settle in for an evening of packing. DH runs out to the nearest coffee shop (what do you know – a Starbucks and bring some sandwiches to eat. We eat and pack and turn in for the night.

Day 9 – Adios Amigos

We fly back home. The flight back home is uneventful – thank Goodness. It is still exhausting, but we are lucky to find an empty seat in between us on both legs. So that is great.

I am so glad we did this trip. After prancing around Madrid with DD, going out to a local restaurant for a meal out here seems like a piece of cake. Muchas gracias, Madrid, for the great time. The city is beautiful, the people so warm and the food delicioso!

Muchas gracias, amigos, for reading this trip report. If you have any questions, please let me know. I’d be happy to help

Thanks for your trip report. I'm glad you had a great time. I totally agree that the flight(s) are miserable but well worth tolerating for the rest of the trip.

I have a few questions for you, did you use the travel bed on the plane? If so, where did you put it?

DO you know if you flights had a bassenets?

Also what kind of stroller did you use?

So it sounded like you guys did not make use of the carseat?

My husband and I have been debating about taking our 14th month old to spain, and I was recomened to read you report. Thank you so much! You really sound like me =)

Sally30<\B> Thank you for reading the trip report!

gulrajani<\B>:
We did not use the travel bed on the plane.
The domestic portion of our flight did not have a bassinet and I was told that most don't. Our flight from New York to Paris had a bassinet but that was an international airline, Air France. Our flight from Madrid to US was Delta and did not have a bassinet I don't think that you could use a bassinet anyway with a 14 month old. So don't worry to much about it.
We used a Graco travel system stroller. It was huge and I wanted to travel with something light but DD goes down for naps like a charm in this thing, so we took it. For your 14 month old, I think you would probably want something like an umbrella stroller.
Yeah, we did not make use of the car seat after all.

I think that you should totally go! Do not overthink it or think about it. Just go - you will not regret it It will obviously be more difficult to travel with a toddler than without. But you will look back on this experience with pleasure and fondness Have fun!

Let me know if you have any other questinos.

Okay...I didn't mean to sound like I was yelling. The font got messed up in the previous post...sorry...

Hi Manish,

THANK YOU for a fantastic trip report. We'll be travelling to Madrid with our 6.5 month old in September as the last stop on our European adventure (we are starting in Paris, then going to Barcelona). While in Madrid, we will be staying at the Westin.

A few questions for you...

Kidco Travel Bed - just wondering why you chose to bring your own bed rather than using the hotel's crib.

Fridge - did you have the hotel clear out the mini-bar for your DD's food and your pumped milk?

Food - by the time we travel, our son will be on jarred baby food. Did you buy any food for your DD in Madrid, or did you bring her food from home? If purchased in Madrid, what stores did you buy in?

Diapers - basically same question. Buy in Madrid or bring from home?

Think this is it for now. Thank you again for your very informative trip report.

Alanna

Hi alannap:
Glad you are finding the report helpful. You will love the Westin - very nice hotel

Kidco Travel Bed - I just wanted to minimize any potential sleep issues, so I wanted to give DD a familiar place to sleep in. I had just heard that was a good idea, because you never know what kind of cot/crib the hotel would give, how comfortable it would be, etc. If your LO is used to sleeping in different places, you will be fine. The Westin did give us a bed (pack and play actually).

Fridge - no, we didn't have to ask them to clear it. There was enough room in it to store my pumped milk. And the fridge was not one of those weight-sensitive types, so no erroneous charging because of the pumped milk.

Food - DD was not doing solids when we travelled, only rice cereal. I took my own and would advise that you do the same, unless you are very familiar with European brands or know someone locally who can recommend stuff.

Diapers - I took my own. they didn't take up a whole lot of space. We went for a week and I packed about 70 diapers, that was more than enough for DD. We didn't even use 50, I think.

Let me know if you have any other questions. Enjoy your trip! Barcelona, Paris and Madrid sounds great! How long in each city?

I wouldn't bother taking diapers. They sell Pampers in Europe. They are a bit more expensive but worth the convenience. You might not get to the store the first day so I'd take a few days worth but not enough for a week or more.

I would also definitely not take a gazillion heavy glass jars of baby food. The food is different in Europe but you can find the same basics that we have in the US (if you are American). just skip the "local" flavors.

Hi Manisha,

Thanks again for the very useful info. We are Paris for 7 days, Barcelona for 5 days and Madrid for 5 days. It should be an adventure!!

Alanna

That sounds wonderful. A good enough time in each city so that it does not get too hectic. Have a great trip!

Hi Manisha,

I was wondering how did you get from the airport to the westin? we are staying at the westin as well, and debating if we should take the public shuttle?
Thanks!