My wife and I are planning to take a 3 week trip in May/June to Northern Italy and Switzerland with a 3-4 month old baby. We'd love tips folks have for traveling with very young child. We are planning on taking it slow, with at least a week at Lake Como and a week in the Portofino area (maybe Camogli). Perhaps stop over for a few days in Genoa, Milan, and/or Lugano, and we fly in/out of Zurich.

One particular question is whether we should bother with an infant car seat and stroller for our trip. We are planning to get around by train, bus and ferry between towns and cities, and on foot when we are situated. We have an Ergobaby Omni infant carrier, and given all the stairs and cobblestones in most European towns and cities we wonder if we should just pack light, forgo the car seat / stroller and use the carrier for our trip.

"We have an Ergobaby Omni infant carrier, and given all the stairs and cobblestones in most European towns and cities we wonder if we should just pack light, forgo the car seat / stroller and use the carrier for our trip."

For a baby that young I'd just stick with carrier. A stroller will be difficult in many areas of various cities and towns and you'd end up often just folding the stroller up and carrying your child . . . AND carrying the stroller

I agree - I'd also just go with the baby carrier/sling/backpack. Ours used to be adaptable so our child could face in towards me or outwards towards the world but any would be good.

For your luggage, I suggest a small wheeled case which you can pick up and carry if needed and a day pack, each if needed. That distributes the load, leaves your hands relatively free and you can stash small cases/bags either under your seat or above your head when travelling You can also use the day pack when out for the day. Or alternatively, a single backpack if you can travel light enough and can manage the weight.

My child's father was a musician and we spent several months a year on the road. Snuglis had just been invented and, I see from a search, are similar to your carrier. We found it to be just the thing, as you know babies love them and it saves hauling around a stroller which is no improvement. Use what you have.

Based on our personal experience, I'd opt for the carrier and a portable, lightweight stroller, explained below.

Mind you, our son was a few months older than yours will be when you go. We took all three, which we had to back then (this was nearly 30 years ago!), because we bought our son his own seat on the plane, and needed the car seat just for the plane. Now, they have the resources so you don't have to do that for the plane. We stowed the car seat at the airport, I believe, and picked it up when we headed back home.

Why the stroller was important: the baby is (thankfully) not always awake, and you don't want to be sitting in a restaurant with a sleeping (or even awake) baby in front of you between you and the food/drink. Or walking around with the baby's head hanging to one-side. Or trying to calm the baby when she/he gets fussy. Or trying to feed the baby.

I researched the strollers almost obsessively before we headed to Italy and France. Needed something with sturdy wheels, lightweight, easy to collapse and set up, and went all the way (or almost all the way) down for sleeping purposes, especially since I wasn't sure whether the places we stayed would have a crib. (It turns out that every place we stayed in Italy had cribs set up for us -- Italians LOVE babies!). The great thing was, in the prone position, you could take him to a restaurant and allow him to sleep under the table while you dine! Back in those days, the MacClaren stroller was the best stroller for cobblestone streets.

These days, there's plenty more options from the Uppababy Minu, or the GB Pockit lightweight stroller. Both collapse pretty small, and are easy to transport.

You'll also need a fairly large daypack to use as a combo back-pack/diaper bag.

Good luck! And take lots of pictures because the baby won't remember this trip!

We also got a MacCLaren umbrella stroller 34 years ago, and it was fantastic even though it didn't lie flat. The baby (now 35+) would sleep whether prone or not, and we did not need it in our accommodations. Easy to carry and transport.

We used to travel with a very lightweight foldable umbrella stroller, as cheap as possible so if it were lost or damaged in transit we wouldn't get upset. It had small hard wheels which admittedly are not the best on cobblestones but the juddering lulled our daughter to sleep. We would then go to a café and recline the stroller so that she was lying prone and put a small blanket over her, and stay until it was time to wake up. A stroller is useful to preserve nap times, which we were a bit obsessed with back then. If you think the cobblestones would get annoying then look for one of these sporty three-wheeled strollers with big rubbery wheels, which I understand handle much better when the ground is uneven. We used a stroller for travel until our daughter was 4, and it can be very helpful to carry bags if your child prefers to walk in the airport or train station. Try to use a daypack for the person pushing the stroller, and the other person can wheel the suitcase/s. We also had a small bag that could thread onto the handle of the suitcase and managed like that. You can use the stroller right up until boarding time.

Click on my name for trip reports on flying with a toddler - I have a couple of reports, one talking about how to distract little people on the plane and another one on flying Korean Air with a toddler. I also found trip reports from a Fodorite called Sally30 to be very helpful as she talked about how to manage travel with a baby and she became the template for our travel.

Lavandula

I might also chip in here about accommodation - we preferred accommodation with a separate bedroom which can be shut off from the main sitting area (dark, quiet for the baby to sleep while you are being adults and watching TV in the next room after baby's bedtime). An apartment or aparthotel is ideal. A microwave can be useful to heat food (snack, milk), and a washing machine in your accommodation is indispensable (really, don't compromise on this one).

Lavandula

I would bring a stroller too. Not only is it a nice to not always have your kid attached to you, but you can also use it to haul other things around. We had a Maclaren and it was lightweight, but still had a space underneath.

I would not bring a car seat. Those things are a pain to haul around. They can be expensive to rent (if you are getting a car), but worth it. We brought ours on the plane once thinking our daughter would sleep better in it. That was a disaster. The seat had a different pitch from our car, so she was more upright. She didn't sleep at all, and there we had a plane seat just carrying the car seat with kid sprawled on us. Plus, they get your kid that much closer to better kick the seat in front of them.

Thanks everyone for your advice so far. It sounds like folks are split on whether it's a good idea to bring a stroller, but not to bother with a car seat given that we aren't planning on driving. And great advice on having a washing machine! We've decided to go the Airbnb route so that we can a washer and kitchen as we travel.

I've been checking out the places where we are planning to stay (Camogli, Varenna, Lugano) and it looks like they are pretty hilly places with lots of steps and stairs. So maybe that's a sign that strollers wouldn't help us that much either. We're thinking of getting a portable bassinet like the Munchkin Brica Fold N' Go, and then just bringing that instead of a stroller if we need to put the baby down somewhere like a restaurant. Has anyone who has traveled with babies had experience with this, or thoughts on whether it might work?

I have been traveling extensively with my daughter since she was an infant, first taking her at 4 months old to visit my sister in Berlin, Germany. You are fortunate to have your wife with you to help as I was a divorced, single parent and it was rather hard, so you are already ahead of the game! Overall, Europe does not have the amenities that we take for granted here in the U.S. cities, and I found this to be particularly true in Italy. I took my daughter to Italy when she was 5 months old and did NOT take her car seat, large stroller or diaper bag. I consistently utilized public transportation (trains and subways) and found it much easier to pack diapers, wipes, all her baby stuff in a section of my suitcase, then take out whatever I needed for that day and put it in my large tote bag purse (which I carry anyway). There was no extra diaper bag to lug around. I had the lightweight Cosco stroller they sell at Target, and while that may not seem as ideal for an infant as the larger, more complex stroller, my pediatrician said it would be fine to use. My daughter was always secured and wrapped with lots of blankets around, and I used the basket underneath for her items. I found it was so much easier to quickly fold up and carry that stroller since it was lightweight and I had no heavy stroller or additional car seat to lug around either! Admittedly, with a carry-on size suitcase and even those limited items, I still needed assistance getting up and down the many staircases in the Italian train stations. I was fortunate that many Italiano men offered their help in carrying something up or down for me so that was nice! I did not end up bringing my Baby Bjorn baby carrier either as most places I went it was just easier and quicker to use the stroller without having to have extra strain carrying her in front of me for hours!

When our children were babies we quite often put him in a small basinet/basket and put him under the dining table in restaurants. People were often amazed when we picked him up and carried him out as they didn't even realise he was there. It could also be useful for you in hotel rooms as we sometimes found the bed/cot/basinet provided by hotels didn't meet safety standards - and wasn't familiar to him. Everyone has very different parenting styles but one of things we were taught as new parents was to not get into a situation where he/she would only sleep if it were quiet and dark. So we encouraged both our kids to sleep anywhere, even in the busy classroom of my older child (which by the way the school kids liked).

On a side note, we once travelled to Venice with friends who had a 12month old in a stroller. It drove everyone absolutely bonkers as there were so many steps. I imagine that some of the places you are visiting would be similar. There is also the option to buy a stroller over there if you find you need it (I admit that sometimes they can be very useful). I have seen baby carriers that have little wheels so they are multi purpose but don't know whether they would be age appropriate for you.

It sounds like a stroller may not work with your arrangements - you know best what you will be encountering!

Whenever we travelled with our daughter we asked about whether they had a crib (cot in my dialect). Most owners / hotels have something to offer; some also have baths, pots and high chairs. We were mostly pleased with the cots but brought muslins and a small blanket to use as bedding when there was none provided (or if ours was cleaner). If your child is young enough there are even bassinets in the plane. So YMMV but we didn't bother bringing a bed.

Lavandula