Your Questions Answered – Plane or Car for Travels with Baby

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We recently had a reader ask us about the logistics of traveling with her baby. Kathy, who has a 5-month old, wanted to know about the relative benefits of flying by plane or driving by car from Pennsylvania to Vermont. She wrote:

1) I could drive 5 hours to my Dad’s house (across PA to Bethlehem, PA) and then travel with him to VT (7 hours). So, this would be a 12 hour car ride with a 5 month old with breaks. We traveled a lot when he was younger and he did great, but recently he gets very fussy in the car going long distance.

2) I could fly (for the first time with him) from Pittsburgh to connecting flight in DC and then to Burlington. The total time in air and ground would be 4 hours.

What are your thoughts or advice?
Thanks, Kathy.

Great question, Kathy! First of all, you wouldn’t believe the numbers of moms who express surprise to us about traveling with their babies: “He traveled so well when he was one month old, but now that he’s 8 months old he doesn’t,” that sort of thing. This makes sense, of course; as our infants grow into babies and toddlers, their curiosity and resistance to being confined for long periods of time develops too. At 5 months old, your little boy won’t understand the reason for being strapped in for what seems like forever to him; he’ll only know that he doesn’t like it.

Is price a factor? Even with gas prices being what they are, a long car trip is still less expensive that 2 seats on a plane. And yes; if you choose to fly, please buy the second seat. He will not want to be in your lap the whole time, and you won’t want him to be, either. Do you have a portable DVD player? If so, and if he likes those baby shows like Little Einsteins, this trip is a good time to let him watch more TV than you’d normally feel comfortable with.

You can see that I’m advocating the plane. The actual traveling part of trips can be very frustrating for babies your son’s age, and 4 hours is…well, it’s a third of the time it would take you by car. However, if the plane is not an affordable option, then be sure to take more breaks than you’d think you should along the way. There is a truck stop on a NJ freeway that my daughters, when babies, actually thought was great fun (it wasn’t: it just had maps and snack machines, but the automatic flush toilets were miraculous to them, heh heh).

Something else to consider is what you’d take with you. Clearly, he will want his favorite blanket or whatever. You will want his stroller and car seat. If you can afford to, I’d recommend shipping some items in advance. It may not be possible to reduce your packing to carry-on only, but the less luggage you need to check, the better. Several airlines charge for checking second items now (although there is no fee for strollers or car seats).

If all this sounds like it’s getting too expensive, then you know you can shove all his stuff in your car, and just suffer through the drive. But, for me at least, travel shouldn’t be about suffering!

One more thing. I traveled with my daughters their whole lives. They are now excellent travelers, because they are used to it. I do believe you are doing your son a service by getting him started early, too. Keep it up, and by the time he’s 3 or 4, he’ll be a pro.

Please don’t hesitate to write with any other questions. Have a great time in Vermont!

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October 17, 2008 | Filed Under Family Travel, Flying High, The Cookie Jar 

Comments

4 Responses to “Your Questions Answered – Plane or Car for Travels with Baby”

  1. Mara says:
    October 17, 2008 at

    This is all excellent advice and I agree with every word of it, especially the tip to buy a seat for the baby. We always did this even when our sons were very young and it made things more comfortable (and safe) for everyone. I feel that it is infinitely worth money. We also always ship stuff ahead, even when we drive – makes for a more comfortable car.

    As someone who has often done the very drive that is mentioned here (and will do it again at Thanksgiving) I can say that it is doable, even with a slightly fussy baby. And practice does make perfect. My children are now 3 and 6 and can handle ten-hour days in the car like true pros (and we don’t have any kind of electronic devices for distraction except a CD player). One thing we’ve started doing now that my kids are a bit older is stopping midway and spending the night at a hotel with a pool. Yes this adds some expense, but not as much as four plane tickets would cost, and we usually only do it one direction. For a description of how we did the drive this summer, please see here: http://motherofalltrips.blogspot.com/2008/07/on-road-again.html

  2. soultravelers3 says:
    October 17, 2008 at

    Good one! We did all traveling by car with out daughter when she was a baby and toddler. She always hated the carseat ( from birth!) so it was a challenge, but we managed.

    We did a lot of traveling at night as soon as she was asleep. We also had a pillow case filled with small toys and books to pass to her to keep her occupied when confined in car seat.

  3. Kristy Hall says:
    October 17, 2008 at

    This is a great question! We struggle with this issue every time we visit the family in Maine (a seven hour drive). We generally drive to save the expense of renting car on the other end. We try to stop as often as we can and will stop overnight if we need to. At 21 months, he does seem to be getter a little more “distractable” with toys and videos. Of course it can’t get worse than last Christmas when we didn’t even get through the Holland Tunnel (about 2 miles from our house!) before he vomited all over the back seat. That was a a very long day!

  4. Keith says:
    October 18, 2008 at

    It hasn’t been mentioned, but I suppose it goes without saying … there MUST be someone else in the car besides you and your baby.

    (I speak as one who had £3000 worth of damage done to his car, when it was hit by a mother attending to her child while she was driving.)

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