Flying long-haul with two under two is daunting. Flying around the globe — after which some — with two under two sounds borderline reckless.
But, when the prospect to attend a household Christmas in New Zealand coincided with a New Year’s marriage ceremony in Scotland, restraint went out the window. As temperatures dropped in Toronto in early December, we set off — six-week-old and 20-month-old in tow — sure for Auckland through Orlando and Dallas. We made it by one three-hour flight earlier than issues went fully awry.
At check-in in Orlando, American Airlines’ system repeatedly misinterpret my son’s passport quantity, unable to hyperlink it with his visa. The delay snowballed… the gate closed… we had been stranded. Two exhausted mother and father, two infants, no baggage and no alternative however to regroup at an airport lodge for twenty-four hours. It was the primary in an extended line of classes we might be taught over six weeks, six nations and 10 flights.
Over these weeks, we zigzagged throughout New Zealand, briefly by China, then on to London, Edinburgh, Finnish Lapland and Helsinki, earlier than my newborn and I continued to Tallinn, Stockholm and Turku. We eschewed widespread recommendation to keep put with younger kids, and paid for it later. Nap schedules slipped, luggage had been endlessly unpacked and repacked, issues had been inevitably left behind and public meltdowns weren’t at all times averted.
Still, now again in Canada, deep in a fog of child jet lag, I don’t remorse a second. It wasn’t a trip — we knew that from the beginning — but it surely was deeply rewarding: an opportunity to see cities otherwise, to transfer slowly, and to realise that having a young family doesn’t imply the world shrinks, it simply asks you to travel on its phrases. Hard doesn’t at all times imply don’t. Here are my prime ideas for travelling with two under two: