What age is the best* for travelling under 2

Thomas D

We're planning a big excursion to the states and will have to bring the baby before he is under 2. By best we mean the least intrusive.

Moonbeam

The younger the better I think,I always find under 1s more wrong word but portable then older kids. They sleep a lot more,they can not talk nor do they want to run around on planes. Then again at 3 they are fine again as they can walk and talk and they get less frustrated and are a lot easier to entertain.
I have never done long haul with my lot but they have been on european holidays.

uck51js9zml2yt

definitely before they start walking up and down the aisle

Peregrinus

We travalled to Australia and back when our daughter was 6 months old, and again when she was two.

Within your age range, 18 months to two years is about as tough as it gets. By comparison, 6 months was a doddle.

How Strange

I'd say 1-2 years is the most challenging. At 1 year they're probably crawling or starting to walk so good luck trying to get them to sit still in a confined space for hours. At 18 months the tantrums may have started but they're preverbal so it's hard to talk them down.

I went away with my son at 6 months and my daughter at 5 months and I think it's a great age for travelling. They've got very basic needs which are usually easily met.

After 2 years it gets easy again.

Xdancer

I've never travelled long haul with our daughter, but we have flown 3 times at 5, 16 and 23 months.
The easiest was 5 months, but the other 2 times were grand. It was easy enough to keep her distracted for 2.5 hours though but I don't think it would have been easy for much longer than that.

Travelling long haul you'd probably be better doing it before 1 year.....the sooner the better probably.

NBO

We did long haul with our baby at 10 months and 12 months. Anything up to 7 hours was manageable but not enjoyable. The flights over 7 hours were hard going. Our little one was too big for the bassinet at 10 months and wanted to be on the move so lots of walking up and down the plane. I would suggest under 6 months is the best time to travel, less to pack, easier to travel with. The other lifesaver for us was a baby sling. We bought a manduca sling especially for travelling and it made life so much easier.

Paddy Cow

Fair play to all the people who travelled long haul with a small child. I found it hard enough to keep myself under control with all the boredom, over tiredness etc