Montreal with a baby

[81MC]

Hi,

For those who travelled with infants, any regrets (beyond the usual crying airplane and diaper changes in questionable environments). My woman really wants to travel over the next year and my daughter is 2 months old now. We’re a pretty good team, but I never gave thought baby-friendly activities as all that worthy of spending time and money to do it abroad.

First up is Montreal in September. Guess some sketchy clubs and motorcycle tours is off the table...beyond that I guess you just walk around and look at ####?

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by 81MC

Hi,

For those who travelled with infants, any regrets (beyond the usual crying airplane and diaper changes in questionable environments). My woman really wants to travel over the next year and my daughter is 2 months old now. We’re a pretty good team, but I never gave thought baby-friendly activities as all that worthy of spending time and money to do it abroad.

First up is Montreal in September. Guess some sketchy clubs and motorcycle tours is off the table...beyond that I guess you just walk around and look at ####?

You can still go enjoy Montreal's famous clubs while the wife and baby relax at the hotel.

[bagofpucks]

We did a trip to NY/Toronto when our daughter was 4 months and then my wife took her to ON by herself when she was 9 months (all before COVID of course, we’ve been stuck at home since then). It definitely was a lot of work. Our daughter didn’t sleep much during both trips, which definitely makes it even harder.

I think the big lessons for us was just how much crap we needed to bring with us (car seat, stroller, travel crib) and how to make plans that could be flexible or cancelled if necessary. We went for a wedding and everything went well until the supper when our daughter ran out of steam and there was not an easily accessible quiet place we could take her to settle her down, so had to call it quits and grab a pizza on the way back to the hotel. I remember it felt like we had “two hour windows” during the day between naps and feeds, which doesn’t allow for a ton of sight seeing. The other thing was trying to find a hotel room big enough for all the stuff, which was a bit tricky in NY.

[bagofpucks]

Thought of a few other tips we learned:
- give yourself lots of time at the airports as you will be hilariously inefficient with a stroller. It seemed like all the airports have decent breastfeeding rooms, which was a super nice place to take a break and have some calm time during the chaos.
- might be worth it to buy/borrow a stroller/car seat. I might actually be able to help you out with this as we have an extra one from our trip.
- have your daughter sleep in the travel crib a few weeks before the trip if you can.
- as you noted, you will have many hilarious diaper changing stories. We changed a complete diaper disaster on the sidewalk of a very busy NY street!

[Northendzone]

Remember those days when you travelled and it was easy. You could quickly change plans, time zones did not bother you…….yeah, those days are long over now…….

[calgarygeologist]

Another tip to go along with what bagofpucks said is that depending on the aircraft type you can request a bulkhead seat when travelling with a baby and they have little beds that attach to the wall. It has been almost ten years since we traveled with a baby so I'm assuming those cribs are still available and they were definitely beneficial for us when we had longer flights.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

You can still go enjoy Montreal's famous clubs while the wife and baby relax at the hotel.

"How to get your wife to initiate the divorce."

[tvp2003]

I remember dragging two tired, grumpy toddlers to Schwartz’s for some smoked meat. Totally worth it.

P.S. it will be cute at the time, and you’ll have some nice memories and photos, but your kid won’t even remember it. So do some fun stuff but don’t sweat it too much.

[calgarygeologist]

Timely offer for you 81MC for flights:
https://forums.redflagdeals.com/west...-2022-2525667/

[edslunch]

Do it while the kid is still in the bucket/backpack. Once they start to move independently everything changes.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by edslunch

Do it while the kid is still in the bucket/backpack. Once they start to move independently everything changes.

This cannot be overstated, you aint going anywhere once the rug rats mobile, accept it and buy a minivan fill it with toys and blankets and various family like crap until it looks like a rec room then drive places, its all you've got

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

This cannot be overstated, you aint going anywhere once the rug rats mobile, accept it and buy a minivan fill it with toys and blankets and various family like crap until it looks like a rec room then drive places, its all you've got

Agree. Travelling with a 2 month old is a piece of cake, aside from all the extra luggage and dragging the bucket seat around. They usually sleep through flights and you can keep them confined pretty easily. Travelling with a 9 month old is a nightmare, they can't stay still.

[8 Ball]

I personally wouldn’t take a baby/small toddler to a place like Montreal. I would definitely take one to a place like Salt Spring. Nature, and beaches occupy the little ones, and you can enjoy it too.

[FormerPresJamesTaylor]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

You can still go enjoy Montreal's famous clubs while the wife and baby relax at the hotel.

The baby and "the woman".

[blankall]

Originally Posted by 8 Ball

I personally wouldn’t take a baby/small toddler to a place like Montreal. I would definitely take one to a place like Salt Spring. Nature, and beaches occupy the little ones, and you can enjoy it too.

Montreal has a few great parks. It's also a great city for waking, assuming your baby like the stroller. I agree with what you're saying, once the baby becomes mobile, but a 2 month old can barely see, let alone enjoy a beach day.

Everything depends a lot on the temperament of the baby. It's a five hour flight to Montreal, with some risk of significant ear discomfort. That'd be the biggest risk for me. Is your baby chill, and do they like to be in the public? Is your baby a bit of a spaz, and do they prefer to be in their comfort zone?

A major perk to flying right now is that flights are still not at capacity, so you have an increased chance of getting a row of seats to yourself. We just flew with our baby to Calgary. Very easy process. They even let us skip all the lines, for boarding and security. Our baby loved it. At five months she was fascinated by everything and got to smile at a bunch of new people. Not all babies are like that though.