Taking a tour with a baby - is it possible?

Taking a tour with a baby – is it even possible?

My hubby and I are self proclaimed culture vultures.

We met when I was travelling the world, we have seen much since, and we plan to continue to do so even now we have a little man in our lives. But it’s become trickier.

You see, the hubby and I love a good tour. That’s how we get our culture vulture on when we are travelling about.

Provided the guide finds the balance between history, human interest and humour, there’s no better way of getting under the skin of a city.

The problem is that since having little Sir Harrison, we’ve found that taking a tour with a baby is hard. We’ve tried a few times and failed miserably. When Harrison was 9 months old we made our way to Vietnam. While enjoying the first part of our Vietnamese adventure in Ho Chi Minh we booked a tour to the Cu Chi tunnels.

This was to be an opportunity to see ‘real’ Vietnam and give our culture vulture a good day out.

Despite pre-booking our adventure to the minutest detail before leaving Melbourne, we did not have a child restraint fitted for the little man from the airport to the hotel. We knew we needed our concierge to do some local wheeling and dealing to make sure we had a restraint for our road trip to the tunnels.

If subtitles were to run while the conversation between our concierge and the tour company was underway they would say: “Our guest will require a child seat suitable for a nine month old child.” To which the tour company would say: “Not a problem at all. Thank you for your call and confirmation of said tour with party of three.”

So we were confident that the ‘travelling with a baby’ memo had been received and a car seat would be fitted in our bus.

The next morning our luxurious air conditioned bus arrived and a brand spanking new booster seat was there to greet us – with its pristine black cover glistening in the sun. The seat was twice the size of Harrison. Unfortunately the subtitles were wrong and it was too late to change our plans as we flew out the next day.

So a booster seat it was, but I did not move my arm from across Harrison’s body the entire journey. It’s fair to say that journeys on Vietnamese roads are character building at the best of times, let alone without a baby seat fitted!

We saw some creative license taken on child restraints while cruising the Vietnamese streets, where a cane bar stool had been repurposed to become a baby seat using cable-ties to attach it to the back of a Vespa. So perhaps we should have been grateful for the booster seat?!

Fast forward six months and I was ready to give this taking a tour with a baby business another try.

It was Melbourne Day and we’d just been announced the world’s most liveable city. I knew that already ‘cause I live here, but I was eager to soak up more of this great city and booked a walking tour of the CBD. It was due to start at 10am and I thought, brilliant. Perfect kick-off time. That’s when the little man has his morning nap so this is totally doable. I’ll recline the City Mini GT seat to snooze position and I’ll let the rocking motion of mummy pounding the pavement work its magic and put H to sleep.

In my mind H would know this was the plan and he would follow it to the letter. This was a kid who loved his two-hour morning nap, so there should have been no issue with him sleeping his way through the tour. It was meant to be, I thought.

Have you guessed already that he didn’t sleep?

Of course he didn’t! And not only did he not sleep, but he fought like nobody’s bizzo to get out of his cosy pram and put his new crawling skills to work.

So our plans to take tours in H’s short life have failed. Taking a tour with a baby is impossible unless a few things are adapted. I think the reality is that big group tours are a thing of the past (no more Contiki tours for this mumma!). Itineraries need to be tailored to allow for little leggies to be stretched and at the bare minimum, a restraint needs to be provided if it’s to be a long day on the road.

Once we start touring with a toddler and/or tween, we’ll need to add family-friendly meal breaks to our list of minimum requirements.

We’re not a unique family. We’re pretty average and like many other families we want to continue to see the world with our kids. We want to immerse ourselves in culture and we want to do that by taking guided tours.

Learning from the experts and seeing the hidden gems off the beaten track – now that’s my sort of holiday.

From our experience, taking a tour with children is challenging particularly when the provider and/or tour are not geared towards families. But it’s definitely do-able with the right company and the right attitude.

I’d love to hear your experience taking a tour with a baby or toddler, please feel free to share your stories in the comment section below.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.com

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20 Comments

- - mom94125 said
  - 18 Oct 2015
    5:40 pm
cheers to lauren for sharing this article

- - mom113055 said
  - 11 May 2015
    2:17 pm
it is really great to read

- - deb_gs said
  - 15 Feb 2015
    10:44 pm
I enjoyed a few tours before children but I would never subject the tour travellers to travelling with a baby. These tours are regimented day by day:they have to be to contain costs and time. By joining a tour with a baby, there is an unrealistic expectation that the baby will fit into the regime and that the other travellers will tolerate children.
- mom94125 replied
  
  18 Oct 2015 , 2:36 pm
  yeah i reckon that is very considerate but i don’t mind kids
- - mom105503 said
  - 05 Dec 2014
    11:07 pm
We have travelled and holidayed a reasonable amount with our daughter but have always done it independently so that other than flight times we could be flexible to suit her needs. We have done some guided tours of buildings, caves etc but generally we have picked places that are child friendly or its an expectation that children are likely to come to this place.

- - Bonnie-Lee91 said
  - 04 Dec 2014
    8:44 pm
I was blessed with my eldest, she let us travel around SA & NT by car with not a fuss.
Sometimes sitting in the car for 6 hours straight.
Our little man is only young still but he is also amazing, driving 600 kms with 2 feeding stops & that is all.

So I’d say that it all depends on your children.
There needs are met they are ok, if not they are not ok lol

- - mom57665 said
  - 30 Nov 2014
    10:57 pm
Not with mine, yesterday I tryed to go to the shops and my baby screamed in the pram and cryed he hates being restricted in the pram. People wouldn’t stop staring it was quite an experience.

- - christial said
  - 27 Nov 2014
    4:58 pm
Of course it’s possible! But you have to be lucky and have a fuss free baby

- - mel1 said
  - 20 Nov 2014
    7:32 pm
Having just retuned from a tour of Italy with an organised tour company I can’t imagine taking a small child. Tours while very enjoyable are also a bit of hard work with early starts and quick stops. Would be impossible to expect a small child to cope. Also as these tours are very expensive, I can imagine other people on the tour less than pleased if they have to wait or change plans according to the needs of a child. At least this is the case with the tour I just did.

- - mrsdew17 said
  - 02 Nov 2014
    4:30 pm
Just couldn’t do it and have great admiration for anyone that can travel with very small children. Just found it all too stressful..and that’s just a trip to the supermarket with the kids!

- - curlytops said
  - 23 Oct 2014
    9:59 pm
it is fun seeing new places with children and you go at a slower pace so actually see things differently.

- - amyabby4 said
  - 22 Oct 2014
    1:31 pm
Thanks for an interesting article. Photo on Canvas

- - rachaelchara said
  - 20 Oct 2014
    8:50 pm
Interesting experience on tours with children. I have not done this but have gone on holidays with children but not organized tours.

- - cherz said
  - 19 Oct 2014
    8:20 pm
Personally I would be very wary of car seats and restraints that are not my own. Even car seats and restraints that are purchased at garage sales or gumtree and the like can be dangerous as you have know idea if these have ever been in accidents, thus rendering them dangerous. Child car seats and restraints should be installed professionally or at least correctly and checked and this goes for travelling interstate, overstate or out of the country. Children are precious and one slip can be deadly.
- june11 replied
  
  06 Nov 2014 , 2:47 pm
  The only time I would use a hired babyseat of any size as a relative of mine did was when they flew interstate and arranged for one to be included in the car hire fee. She stipulated what size she needed and knew to check whether or not it was correctly fitted. The last time the entire family did that they needed a babyseat and a child booster seat. It is too expensive to take your own on a plane and there is no gaurantee that it won’t be damaged on arrival at its destination either. Have you watched how luggage is loaded onto and taken off of planes?? Friends of mine flew overseas with a 5 year old and an 9 month old. The 5 year old was more problem than the baby was. There was Childrens’ Movies suitable for her age group and other in-seat activities. They were expecting to have a restless baby but he was only restless and a bit cranky when he woke up folllowing a sleep – he still is as a toddler. You very rarely encounter children on coach tours unless it is school holidays. They get bored and become a handful even when the parents/guardians make every attempt to keep them occupied and I don’t envy them at all. Many resent an offer of assistance to amuse them too.
- - mom57522 said
  - 19 Oct 2014
    1:14 pm
Any tours we do we with kids tend to be self-guided.

- - june11 said
  - 19 Oct 2014
    11:38 am
Why do media of any type show children standing on window ledges/chairs ? It is dangerous and these types of pictures do not set a good example.

- - june11 said
  - 19 Oct 2014
    11:33 am
If you are hiring a car and need a child restraint, stipulate what type and in the case of booster seat how large you need. Some booster seats are only made of foam or tthe same as cold storage F&V boxes with removable ligs are and perish fairly quickly if not handled carefully or are stored on cold concrete floors. Some booster seats don’t have harnesses in them or are only “swab”seats.

- - mom92217 said
  - 18 Oct 2014
    2:45 pm
My middle child would not be able to travel he’s too full on

- - hopefullyheidi said
  - 18 Oct 2014
    10:42 am
Family tours sound great. I was just reading down the bottom about the company you run and I think it’s an amazing idea this day and age.