Late last night, I arrived home for the first time after 39 nights. After more than a month on the road with a now 13-month old baby, I have some insight into why people have said that traveling would be a lot different with a baby and what they meant when they said that the first six months are the easiest time to travel. That said, we lived to tell the tale — and not only that, we had a fantastic time. This trip was different than previous trips in many ways and it certainly taught us a little bit about what it’s like to travel as a family. We’ve got a long way to go and I’m sure that the veteran parents are familiar with many of these lessons, but here are some of the key things we’ve learned about travel with a baby and using miles & points to do so.
1) Extended stay properties for the win
I’ll admit something here that is probably somewhat heretical among mile-and-point enthusiasts: I’ve always liked Hyatt Place. Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy all the swanky luxury my points can buy and have stayed (and will stay) at places where I’d never dream of paying the cash rate. But there’s something about the relative cleanliness, sterility, and familiarity of a Hyatt Place that never made it feel like an extended stay property in my mind. A couple of surprise Priceline or Hotwire stays years ago at dingy, run-down hotels that were probably more of a reflection of my cheapskated-ness than they were representative of all extended stay properties had distorted my notion of what most long-term-stay hotels are all about.
In reality, we’ve discovered that extended stay brands like Residence Inn / SpringHill Suites and the like can be gold mines for family award travel. Not only do rooms at extended stay brands often offer the additional crawl / play space that comes in so handy in entertaining a tiny tot for an hour or two in the room (and practicing walking — he took his first steps on the trip!), but they often have a fridge (great for keeping milk and leftovers), a stove/microwave for heating things up, and sometimes a dishwasher (which is nice for bottles every now and then). And they often cost fewer points. Even when all else is equal, the extended stay property can just be a better value for me, which is a major change from the way I’ve used miles and points to travel for the past few years. Pictured above is the first floor of a 2-level loft suite at the Residence Inn La Jolla, just north of San Diego. The staff is great and the breakfast is extensive. The rooms aren’t nearly as nice (and if I’m being honest just aren’t nearly as clean) as the Hotel Republic in downtown San Diego, where I spent a few nights previous to this, but my son slept like a baby in a separate room here whereas he was awakened multiple times in the night when sharing a room with us.
2) Hotel hopping with a baby is a pain
My wife and I have never been great packers. Maybe that’s not true: I feel like I’m awesome at packing a suitcase to its absolute limit without breaking the scales (though I have broken a few bags). The above picture shows two suitcases on the bottom that had 48.5 and 49lbs in each (which I somehow managed without even using a luggage scale at home). Then you’ll also see a car seat and a bag full of toys, bottles, and other assorted paraphernalia to come on the plane. I kid you not, that picture was only the stuff I carried through airports in my right hand. And no, my wife wasn’t empty-handed. We surely bring too much.
And I can say that last sentence with confidence because in the past 39 days, we have stayed at 14 different hotels as well as 3 friends/family member homes. We packed all of those bags more times than I prefer to count. Each time took us at least an hour or two to pack up. Added together with the time spent prepping the baby for movement, putting a car seat in / out of a car, etc, we felt like we lost way too much time in transit. Hotel-hopping, which was at one time no big deal and fairly common for us, has got to go for at least the next few years.
3) Access to laundry is a huge win
I’ve never really thought before about whether or not my hotel has laundry access, but when traveling with a baby it is nearly essential. I’m sure many families enjoy AirBnB properties specifically for access to laundry, but I was thrilled to find a number of chain hotel properties with laundry, some free and others paid. The Grand Hyatt Kauai, Andaz Maui, and Hyatt Regency Maui all had laundry (Hyatt Regency pictured). The aforementioned Residence Inn La Jolla had laundry as well, and it seems obvious in hindsight that extended-stay brands have this available more often than upper-end brands. Laundry came in really handy and will now be a factor in choosing one hotel over another as it’ll save us time over looking for a nearby place to do it (and hopefully help us pack less in those suitcases).
4) I need to concentrate more earn with Marriott
I can’t believe I said it, but there you have it: I need to earn more Marriott points. That’s because I’m finding Marriott particularly good for those extended stay brands. Before having a baby, I don’t think I had ever stayed at a TownePlace Suites or SpringHill Suites, and maybe only a time or two at Residence Inns. I’m now often finding them to be a great value and I’ve had a few really nice Residence Inn stays, including in San Jose, CA last month and one at Midway airport last fall. While they aren’t all quite as points-cheap as the Albany locations above, many are available for 17.5K or less in places that are convenient enough for me. Since we’ll need a car seat for a while yet, we’re usually renting a car, so I don’t even mind if it’s a few miles away from where I need to be. Thankfully, Marriott is an Amex Transfer Partner and Chase Transfer Partner, so it should be easy enough to rack up points. I’m surprised that I went from being fairly uninterested in Marriott to much more Marriott-focused than I’d ever imagined, but they have some good extended-stay brands.
5) Loyalty has its benefits
The above statement is no newsflash for a miles-and-points blog, but yet it stood out for me on this trip. Greg put together Marriott Bonvoy Titanium status with 75 nights last year. My wife recently asked me what Titanium status gets beyond the Platinum benefits we already enjoy. While the first things that came to mind weren’t wildly different than Platinum status, in hindsight I left out a big one: United Silver status. That would have gotten us free access at check in to the Economy Plus seating that really came in handy in the photo above. Instead, we used airline incidental credit from my Ritz-Carlton credit card — but at $89 each, “free” would have freed up that credit for a better use.
Furthermore, the guaranteed 4pm late checkout that comes with Marriott Platinum status (or Hyatt Globalist, which also applies on guest of honor stays) came in really handy with a baby. Our son usually takes an afternoon nap, but the exact timing is still a little unpredictable, especially given the way we crisscrossed time zones this past month. That 4pm late checkout made it easy to get nap time in even on check-out days. Any parent knows how that can make or break the rest of the day.
6) Phones should not be plugged in. Garbage cans should be shelf-level.
At checkout one day, the agent mentioned a long-distance phone call that didn’t ring any bells for us. In hindsight, I realize that in the past month or so my son has developed a love of anything with buttons. I now suspect that he might have picked up the receiver and gotten the right combination of digits on the keypad to make a call out. Thankfully, the front desk removed the charge — but I proceeded to unplug phones from the wall jack in our next couple of hotels as soon as we got into the room.
Garbage cans are also a lot of fun for a baby who is cruising from one surface to the next in an attempt to get enough confidence in his legs to walk. More than one mess of discarded objects scattered about the room taught me to put garbage cans at shelf-level from the get-go.
7) Hotels have cribs. And pack and plays.
I’ve been surprised by how many of my childless or new-parent friends didn’t know this, so I realized after publication that I should have included it: every hotel at which we’ve stayed since our son has born has had some sort of crib or pack and play. Many of the nicer hotel shave a proper crib with metal or wooden bars. Our son hates those. He is a mover and shaker at night and constantly makes rounds around the edge of his sleeping quarters. He just hits his head all night on the bars and wakes up (we eventually had to go with bumpers on the crib at home).
The good news: almost every hotel that has given us a proper crib has been able to replace it with a pack and play upon request. That surprised me — I kind of figured they had what they had, but that’s apparently not the case.
Also, we had one experience prior to this trip where we arrived at a hotel that was out of cribs. I thought we were going to have to book elsewhere (and take the loss on our nonrefundable hotel) as he was too little to sleep in bed with us.
To my surprise, the desk agents all picked up phones and began calling around other hotels until they found one that could lend them a pack and play. Within half an hour, it was delivered to our room. So don’t give up if you need one — it totally makes sense that hotels lend that kind of thing to each other in that situation, but I wouldn’t have thought of it myself as a solution. Now I’ll know.
8) There’s just nothing like it
Like any parent, I could go on about how much fun it is to show my son the world. The truth is that I know he’s too young to remember these experiences, but I at least hope we’re showing him enough to build a curiosity within him to see and know more and a fearlessness of the new and unknown. Maybe it’s pie-in-the-sky thinking right now, but we’re awfully fortunate to be able to earn the miles and points to get him out to see places and meet people.
Speaking of meeting people, never has there been a better conversation starter than a baby. While I think we feared the worst in terms of glares we would get carrying our son on airplanes and complaints from patrons in restaurants when he gets fussy, the few times we’ve experienced those reactions have been far overshadowed by the smiles and friendly interactions we’ve had with strangers who want to say hello or let us know that they know. If you’re thinking about traveling with a baby but you’re concerned about the reactions you’ll get, don’t be. Not every flight has been easy and not every night has been smooth sailing, but after 39 days on the road, we were ready to take a bump voucher last night and extend one more night if that says anything (though we did ultimately get on the plane). Not only is it doable, it’s enjoyable. We look forward to new lessons learned on each trip, but this one taught us that while our travel may be slower, we won’t slow down our travel plans. If anything, we just keep thinking of more places to bring our son — which is a result of the travel bug that bit us long ago and we hope will infect him, too. Here’s to many more years of earning the miles to incubate that virus.
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Your family is a seemingly good fit for timeshare, Nick. Frequently cobbling together hotel stays at properties that have all you need above is exhausting. Buying into a ts brand you already know has all those things before you arrive leaves more time & energy for better enjoying your time actually spent at a location. Buying into Hyatt, Hilton, or Marriott also means you can convert ts points to hotel point stays when you absolutely want that, too.
From a social aspect, kids like meeting other kids at ts pools, arcades, kid zones, too. Parents are more prone to interact with other ts families (than at hotels) as there is more a sense of community & safety. Or not! Point is ts would offer you & your family the amenities you say you want EVERY stay & not just when you can finagle them from a hotel property. Over your lifespan & as much as you & your wife enjoy travel, the cost becomes reasonable & justifiable. When I read these type family travel stories I wince & feel for you as you could make things so much easier on yourselves!
You noted that travel before 6 months is the easiest. But aren’t you concerned about flying with the baby’s relatively undeveloped immune system that young? Plus, doing much outside the hotel at many destinations would be tough since baby is still napping for so much of the day at that age. These are some concerns my wife and I have when thinking about travel with our two-month old.
Good points.
I feel like a lot of people told me that travel is easiest during the first six months, precisely because babies nap so much and more or less sit still — i.e. they don’t kick any seats, crawl on strangers, grab anyone’s hair, or try to touch *everything* the way that say a 13-month-old may. At this point, I understand why people said that — at six months or less, our son was pretty easy to care for and easy to bring anywhere. Want to go to a restaurant for dinner? He’ll sleep through that. Have to wait in a long line? He didn’t notice much difference between that and an afternoon in the living room with his toys. Things change eventually, and I now “get” that more saliently than I did at the time when I was thinking “but he needs to eat every two hours” and “there are a billion diaper changes” and “sometimes he won’t stop crying”. Those things were all true….and they still are, we’ve just added more challenges :-).
But to answer your question, I was absolutely concerned about him flying that young. Since he was born in the winter and last year’s flu season brought one news story after another of someone passing away from the flu, we were very worried about bringing him anywhere. We mostly stayed at home 24/7 for the first 4 months and limited visitors until the end of flu season. Then, at 4 months, he took his first flights. The first “big” trip was between 7 and 8 months and we’ve kind of expanded from there. I think he might have had one cold in the first year. Maybe two? He didn’t get sick for a long time and these days he’s an absolute tank. Don’t get me wrong, we wash his hands and try to keep him away from people who sound sick and we don’t try to put him in situations where he’s likely to get sick, but we’re much less worried now and want him to be able to build up some immunity. Actually, he’s got a bit of a cold right now and just woke up crying as I was typing this, but it hasn’t slowed him down much during the day.
I’m not saying not to be concerned nor do I suggest flying with your 2mo old during flu season, but I know that most airlines will allow you to fly with a baby who is more than a week or two old, so it’s possible. It’s probably worth checking with your doctor. Ours told us he’d be good to fly after a week or two — we wouldn’t have done that, but I did ask.
Can’t agree more with point #2 about changing hotels. But that conflicts sometimes with my cardinal rule – connections are death. Since that means having to overnight at the layover point, I have had to stay at more airport hotels than I like. But that inconvenience is a small price to pay for my sanity!
Connections are still OK at this point I think, but an overnight layover at an airport hotel on the way to and from Hawaii was definitely a good decision. Breaking that trip up over two days was much easier than it would have been in one.
Did you mean “Hyatt House” instead of “Hyatt Place”? While I’m a fan of using Chase UR points to stay at Hyatt Places, it’s not an “extended stay” concept. It competes in the high-end limited service camp with Hampton and HI Express. Honestly, it’s a step above those chains — more style, more non-bed room space, better breakfast (especially recently) — which is what makes them good hotels.
Hyatt House is their extended stay brand. I like them too, but I’m less familiar with them because their footprint is much smaller. They compete against chains like Resdience Inns, Homewood and Staybridge.
I meant Hyatt Place — I’ve always liked Hyatt Place. I know you’re right that House is actually the extended stay brand, but wouldn’t you say Hyatt Place is almost cut from a similar thread? I guess it doesn’t have the kitchen of an extended stay hotel but instead has a microwave in the breakfast area you can use at night. I don’t really think of Hyatt Place comparing with Hampton or HI Express because of the larger rooms, sectional sofa, second sink outside the bathroom, etc at Hyatt Place — there’s a lot more extended-stay functionality with a standard room at a Hyatt Place. I didn’t previously associate them with Embassy Suites or Candlewood or whatever my previous extended-stay experiences were, but I feel like they have more in common with those places than a Hampton Inn or HI Express.
I guess that was part of my point here: I knew I liked Hyatt Place for the spacious rooms / couch combined with cleanliness. I knew I didn’t like extended stay brands (or so I thought). But I’ve now come to realize that the features I like about Hyatt Place are available in more extended stay brands that are actually pretty nice (contrary to my admittedly outdated opinion) and that’s all super useful for traveling with a young child. Had I not already known I liked Hyatt Place and realized early on how helpful the extra space would be, it may have taken me longer to migrate to the Residence Inns and Spring Hill Suiteses of the world.
Yes, I agree with you about the quality and general pleasantness of Hyatt Places. I just disagreed with your characterization of them as “extended stay” hotels. Because they are usually a good deal with Chase points, Hyatt Places are often my first choice when I just need a night or two somewhere and I’m not looking for anything too fancy. My “problem” with them would be value if I couldn’t get them as a good deal on points. Many Hyatt Places have room rates well north of $150 and sometimes north of $200. They are many decent places I could stay for significantly less than this that would be almost as comfortable with only a slightly worse “free breakfast.” The “style” factor probably wouldn’t be enough for me to pay the differential. Happily, thanks to the Chase program, I don’t have to pay this premium, so I prefer Hyatt Places.
For those commenting who have or will soon have young children: I added an additional point (the new #7): Hotels have cribs / pack and plays (and you can often request a pack and play over a crib if that’s what you want as I’ve found most hotels that have cribs actually have both). Furthermore, if your hotel is out, try asking if they can borrow one from another hotel. The hotel referenced in the post that borrowed one for us was not in a chain — I imagine it’s even easier for a chain hotel with other locations nearby to borrow one.
This is why people buy Timeshares. Resale – of course !
I couldn’t agree more. This was coming to my mind while reading this (excellent) post. Timesharing spoils you in terms of space, amenities, expectations… Thankfully ‘extended stay’ hotel properties are available – and often a better value – with points on all the major hotel groups.
Please do not transfer MR or UR to Marriott. That is ludicrous. You can buy Marriott for ~.75 on the open market.
I don’t buy points from brokers (and it costs me less to generate MR and UR points via MS techniques). I certainly won’t disagree that MR and UR points are generally much more valuable than Marriott points, but I’ve run into a number of chances to get perfectly good value out of the Marriott points as of late. Your point isn’t a bad one, just not universal.
Do you consider the opportunity cost of earning those points via MS when that spend could have gone on a 3% (Discover Miles) card?
i.e get 2x Marriott / $ on Marriott card vs. get 3cents / $ on Discover Miles and pay cash for the Marriott room.
When you pay cash also keep in mind paying with CC (or discounted GC), earning points for staying, and any portals.
Certainly a good point. I do consider opportunity cost. Here’s a post on that:
https://frequentmiler.com/cost-of-miles-and-points/
That’s certainly not a bad strategy. And in fact I did pay cash twice last week when rates were low enough.
To add to that, it really varies with the return you get for the Marriott points. Lately, I’ve been getting decent return. See the two hotels in the post. I didn’t cherry pick that — it was the first set of dates I plugged in sometime within the next week or so. You certainly won’t always get a room that’s $200+ tax or $244+ tax for 7500 or 12500 points, but lately I’ve found pretty good value at the bottom end of the Marriott chart (and those extended stay properties happen to fit my needs in traveling with a baby, whereas in the past I’d have been more apt to choose a more expensive property downtown).
“We look forward to new lessons learned on each trip, but this one taught us that while our travel may be slower, we won’t slow down our travel plans. If anything, we just keep thinking of more places to bring our son”
I love your perspective Nick! We have an 11 month old so we know what it’s like. Our only airplane trip we took her on was to Orlando when she was 6 months. Next trip will be to Mexico in a month. We’ll see how that goes!
Thanks for all the tips. I always suspected that hotel hopping would be a pain. So my wife and I are already anticipating slower travel. Your tips on laundry, garbage cans, and phones are helpful.
Thanks again!
I read about your first trip and subsequent travel plan adjustments :-). I’m sure your trip to Mexico will be great. Everyone has a parenting and traveling-with-children opinion, but our experience has really been that we need to make adjustments on our end when things aren’t working well. That’s really another thing I probably should have mentioned: not every day is going to go according to plan. Some days are just fussier than others, which is true whether at home or traveling. Sometimes, it just takes some adjustment of expectations and acceptance that while we were really excited to pay $90 to bring him to the aquarium because he loves the fish tanks at Petco, he was ready for a nap. We’ve gotten decent at figuring out what’s going to work and when it’s time to throw in the towel, and having the miles and points to go back and do it again someday makes it less anxiety-producing that we’re missing attraction A or restaurant B.
This is really helpful information to have especially since we are having a baby in a matter of weeks. We have already planned the first, second and third trip for the kiddo so hope he enjoys flying!
Any time someone asks me how our son does with travel, I always say this: he’s pretty good at it. We stink at traveling with a baby. I’m sure it varies as every child is different, but I think it’s (initially) more of an adjustment for the parents than anything else.
But we’re slowly improving, and that has meant it is getting better for him as well. Congrats and best of luck with your trips! If you discover any key tips, don’t be afraid to share. I’m always happy to pick up on smart tricks.
Great writeup Nick. The content resonates well as my daughter turns one today and over this past year we have utilized the points community to continue our quests for relatively cheap travel. Thanks again for doing what you do as we wouldnt be able to continue our relatively lavish travel lifestyle without the knowledge gained from the travel and points blogs/forums. Years from now I’m sure my daughter will thank you too as she’s been on more international and domestic flights this year than I did over my first 20 years of life.
Side note. Hyatt House is my top extended stay property on points as the 1br suites seem to be bigger than Hyatt Place, may vary by area. Also the ratio at redeeming points typcial yields the best for Hyatt (~.02 to .025 cents/pts range avg) vs Marriott etc. So on Chase typically nights range between 6k to 12k, very nice for the points balance.
I like Hyatt House a lot, too. It was just a function of the places where we were that it didn’t work out for us to stay at one on this trip. Unfortunately, I’ve been finding that more and more Hyatt House locations (at least the ones I’ve looked at) are offering some type of one-room “studio suite” as the standard room and the full one bedroom rooms are some higher level that isn’t available for the standard award redemption. In places where the 1-bedroom rooms are available, we’d definitely be happy with those, too.
And for the record, in 13 months, my son has been on more international and domestic flights than I had in almost the first 30 years of my life, so I am as thankful for the things people have taught (and continue to teach) me in this space. Glad it’s helping you and yours as well!
+1 to the extended stay properties – and not just for families with children! Two friends and I like to travel together and at these type of places we can often get rooms with two beds + a sleeper-sofa. As the three of us are each accustomed to having our own beds we really appreciate these type of properties. And having breakfast included is a bonus!
United offers economy plus seats free of charge on international aircraft when requesting a bassinet for an infant under 22 lbs. You just need to call the United Customer Contact Center
From the Traveling with Children page on the United website: “A limited number of complimentary bassinets are available for use on international aircraft only. Bassinets are large enough to hold an infant weighing 22 pounds (10 kg) or less. They may not be used during taxi, takeoff or landing, or when the seatbelt sign is illuminated. Bassinets are available for customers traveling international segments in United Polaris® business class on select 757, 767, 777 and 787 aircraft and in United Economy® on 757, 767, 777 and 787 aircraft. Bassinets are not available for customers traveling in United Polaris first class, United First® or United Business® at this time.
Customers can request a bassinet by calling the United Customer Contact Center at 1-800-UNITED-1 (1-800-864-8331) within the United States or the appropriate Worldwide Contact Center. We will provide accompanying seat assignments for an adult traveling with an infant and up to one travel companion. You can arrange these seat assignments with the United Customer Contact Center or with a United representative at the airport free of charge. Bassinet availability is limited, and these arrangements are not guaranteed, so we recommend requesting a bassinet early for your flight.”
Awesome. That’s good to know. He’s a big little fella, so it’s been a while since he was under 22lbs, but I’ll file that away should he have a sibling someday.
If you have another kid, this:
” but my son slept like a baby in a separate room here whereas he was awakened multiple times in the night when sharing a room with us.”
will become even more stark. It’s why we made the transition to Airbnb’s on almost all trips.
Also, good luck with the next few years- in my experience the age range from 18 months-3 years is really tough for travel because they really don’t like being cooped up in small spaces like airplane seats and security lines.
Truth be told, he already hates being cooped up — he has no trouble with the pressure changes during ascent/descent, all the difficulty at this point is in being confined to a small space. Hopefully the extra room of his own seat on some of our flights this year will help. I’m sure you’re right that a second child will only expand our space demands.
Awesome — great write up!
As a father of four, I loves me some Hyatt Place! And free breakfast is a big deal, not just for the money but for the convenience and time-saving factor.
And yeah, hotel-hopping sucks as the # of kids increases. We strongly prefer to set up shop in one place for as long as possible.