Our idea was to stay at each location for at best four weeks so as not to stress baby Frida, who was about eight months old at the time, and ourselves too much. The time of travel: mid-December to mid-February, over Christmas and New Year’s Eve, we wanted to lie in the sun and let Frida discover the sea and the beach.
Sobering.
The research was very sobering. The houses I imagined living in Hawaii for four weeks cost up to 1000 euros per day. Yes, per day. I registered on a house exchange platform and wrote to a few people, but the response was virtually zero. Well – I remained optimistic and thought about it again. Bali would be great. I had already traveled to the island alone for three months and had made up my mind to return there. A week later the volcano became active and I realized: Unfortunately, it’s not a perfect option with a small baby. Back to work: Thailand. I was there 12 years ago, right after my studies, and I thought it was great back then, and it seemed like an option that fit the budget.
Puppy cake. Thailand over Christmas and New Year was supposed to cost as much as we had planned for our trip in total: 6000 euros. And that, I thought, was planned extremely generously.
The deeper I plunged into planning the trip, the more unsure I became: Dengue fever, the hot sun, air conditioning, hanging out on the beach all day with a baby isn’t possible either. On the outside I seemed like the cool mom who fearlessly traveled with a baby, but in reality the doubts were gnawing.
On social networks and in our circle of friends, it seemed like every other person had traveled to Thailand with a baby, so why should something happen to us of all people? Still, I asked myself: Would I really find it relaxing to put mosquito repellent on my baby day and night and run to the doctor every time she had a fever to check whether she had dengue fever? No, I wouldn’t think so.
So: Europe?
The only place where the weather could be reasonably good in Europe is the Canary Islands. This immediately comes to mind: mass tourism, German pensioners and hotel castles. But no matter: curiosity and my seemingly inexhaustible will to find great accommodation there win out.
Because I don’t want to miss out on a pinch of exoticism and adventure, we are gradually developing a European route that makes us feel good and that still takes us to places we have never been before:
Black Forest – Lanzarote – Tenerife – Marrakech – Rome
It sounds fun and it was!
The advantages of a European winter tour are obvious: What you save on airfare can be invested in great accommodation. For me, beautiful, inspiring accommodation is the highlight of every trip, especially with a baby. Especially in winter, you should make sure that you want to stay there for a long time if the weather doesn’t cooperate. Of course, a heater or a fireplace can’t hurt either. Because even where the sun shines, it gets very cold in the evenings.
We celebrated Christmas with my family in the Black Forest and then flew to Lanzarote on New Year’s Eve. We had the best lobster paella of our lives and fell into bed at 10pm. On January 1st, bright sun and a pool were waiting for us in the hippie-esque accommodation Casa El Morro. The accommodation is quite generous with a baby, the facility is a bit old, but it’s enough for us for a few days – we’ll stay here. Over the next few days we will explore the beautiful installations and lava houses of Cesar Manrique, who campaigned for sustainable tourism on the island throughout his life.
We have the most spectacular accommodation of the trip in Tenerife – a beautiful house with a natural pool carved into the rock that we found through this provider.
We definitely don’t want to go back home after six weeks on the road. Where to then? We hadn’t actually planned for Marrakech, but it’s right next door and the flight only takes 1.5 hours. We spontaneously decide on Africa and are not disappointed. Beldi Country Club is one of the most beautiful hotels we have ever visited. Frida’s blue eyes make us celebrities here, we are stopped everywhere and quite a few try to kiss Frida – according to Moroccan belief, this brings good luck. After the first ouch moment, we interpret it as a good omen.
However, it’s a lot colder here than we thought and I’m getting very creative with the only two sweaters I have with me.
The crowning conclusion of our trip is Rome – a city that has been waiting to be discovered for a long time – best in the low season, because then the always overcrowded city is a little emptier. Here we stay in a hostel apartment in the Breda district, which can certainly be bettered, but for us and our budget, which is dangerously approaching the end, it suits us. The two rooms are also perfect for setting up Frida’s travel cot. We feast our way through the best restaurants and Frida flirts like crazy with the Roman chefs – in the family restaurants, which are often run by the owners themselves, all baby wishes are fulfilled and bread and olive oil are always right on the table.
By the way, you can find the restaurant tips for all locations and even more impressions from the trip here.
And how much does that cost?
On average we actually only paid 45 euros per flight – in Rome the taxi ride into the city was more expensive than the flight there. Since we don’t own a car and do everything by bike at home in Berlin, the European flight routes are just about acceptable for us with an environmental conscience.
Our accommodation in Tenerife is relatively expensive, but because we are staying for four weeks, I can negotiate a generous discount on site. The stay in Marrakech is quite expensive and Rome isn’t as cheap as we thought, but in the end we get there exactly and can pay for the trip from our vacation account, to which we both transfer a fixed amount every month.
The 5 hour flight with Ryanair to Lanzarote is not necessarily recommended, but somehow we managed. In retrospect, it was fortunate that Frida couldn’t walk at that point and wasn’t an extremely active baby, so we were able to keep her happy with magazines, diapers and our fellow travelers. The best thing of all is, of course, sleep – the flights we booked based on her sleep schedule went much easier.
Still in the travel bug
And how is the traveling self feeling after the European tour? I can see that my joy of traveling remains undiminished, only the criteria have changed. Spacious accommodation, establishing routines on site and a simple everyday life count more than any tourist attraction when traveling with a baby.
Traveling educates, that’s true. Even more so with a baby, because my partner and I are learning a lot about ourselves and how we function well as a family. There are no outside distractions, no job issues, just the three of us and the sea, the wind, the sunlight.
Europe in winter, we’ll be back. Next time with one or two more sweaters.
