How I’ve Kept Traveling the World After Having My Baby

Posted: 3/24/2023 | March 24th, 2023

Everyone says that you have to stop traveling the world once you have kids. In this guest post, Kristin from Be My Travel Muse shares how she has managed to keep traveling the world — even with a baby — and the lessons and challenges traveling with a child has presented.

For nearly ten years, I traveled to over sixty countries on six continents by myself.

If you had told 26-year-old me, who was just beginning her solo travel adventures, that she would eventually have a baby, she might have searched out a DeLorean to rewrite the script.

Traveling solo meant ultimate, intoxicating freedom. It didn’t matter if I woke up and made a last-minute decision to leave a place, or to stay for two more weeks. It didn’t matter if I completely upended my plans on a whim because of a new person I met or a new destination I became aware of. It didn’t matter what I wanted to eat for dinner or when. I could be totally, deliciously selfish, which I loved at the time.

But a baby changes all of that.

My son has now turned six months old. He has been on 17 flights and has his own passport and Global Entry card. Though traveling with him is beautiful, it is certainly very different in a way I did not expect.

These are the eight ways that traveling has changed for me as a parent.
 

1. I research MUCH more

One of the great things about traveling on a shoestring on an open-ended trip on which you’re time rich (and in my case ten years ago, cash poor) is the ability to coast. Although I did some research for my year in Southeast Asia, I also knew that I would learn a lot from the people I met along the way. For this reason, I didn’t want an itinerary in advance or do much research.

But now there’s so much more I need to learn. What do I need to know about flying with a baby? What kind of streets and sidewalks am I in for? (That will dictate whether I just bring a baby carrier or a stroller.) Is the water safe to drink? Are diapers, baby food, and formula easy to find?

When it comes to accommodation, I have to consider whether it’s going to be safe for him or not, if my son will be mobile by the time we visit, whether or not they have a crib, and even whether or not there’s a microwave or kettle for sanitizing baby bottles.

For our Mexico trip, I had to make sure the home had a water filter for safe bottle washing. I wouldn’t have worried about this for just me.

So, as a traveling parent, I spend more time on…