Baby Travel Check List – Things to Prepare Ahead of Your Holiday

Preparing for a holiday with a baby shouldn’t be stressful, but there are so many things to think about; milk, nappies, cots, passport, steriliser, car seats, aaarrrrgghhhh!!!

Let us alleviate some of that worry with a check list of things to do for your baby before you travel. It’s a list of all those things you need to do either when you book your holiday or at least a few months in advance. Here’s the list to tick off, the detail is below.

• Check passports are in date/applied for
• Bassinet booking
• Car Seats
• Car Seat Regulations
• Book cot and high chair
• Check available sterilising facilities
• Check if you can buy baby milk, nappies, baby food at your holiday resort.
• Apply for European Health Insurance Cards (EHIC)
• Book Travel Insurance
• For Spain – complete medical form

For the journey ahead.
• Passports:  All UK children including babies need their own passports. Check that the passports for all the family are in date. If you need a passport there are several ways to do it. Read more here

• Bassinet. If you’re flying long haul and need a bassinet for your baby to sleep on the flight. Be sure to book a bassinet as soon as possible as airlines will have a limited supply.

• Car seats. Check your airline’s policy. If you want to take them for your child to sit in on the aeroplane, check to see if they need to meet an approval list first. If you are putting them in the hold, most airlines will let you do this at no extra cost. But do check first.

• Car seat regulations. Check the car seat regulations for your destination before you go so that you’re prepared as soon as you land. Read the regulations for Spain, Italy and France here.

Check the baby facilities available at your accommodation.
Cot and highchair: Make sure you have booked a travel cot and high chair at your destination if you need these. If either is unavailable check your airline’s policy on the carriage of cots as some do charge. There are some websites that offer equipment rentals. If there isn’t a high chair, take an easy to pack travel chair. See our range of travel chairs here.

Sterilising facilities: If you have a microwave you can sterilise bottles using microwavable bags. If you don’t, you might want to consider disposable bottles or sterilising tablets and a collapsible bucket. You can buy all of these here.

Are you going to pack baby milk, nappies and baby food?
Check what baby products including milk, nappies and baby food are available at your holiday destination. Then you can decide how much to pack and what to leave behind. You can check what’s available for the most popular holiday destinations on the BabyAbroad site.  Alternatively, order your products for delivery at your holiday destination; see baby-holidays.com for more information.

Prepare incase your baby is ill abroad.
European Health Insurance Cards: The whole family needs these to visit a doctor in a country within the EEA to be entitled to receive the same level of free healthcare as the nationals in whichever country you are in. You can apply for them online and the process is really easy.

Travel Insurance: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office recommend that you purchase travel insurance to cover medical costs not included in the EHIC cover, for example costs of an air ambulance should you require one.

Medical translation form: If you’re travelling to Spain, download our ‘visit to a Spanish doctor’ form in case you need to go to the doctor and are worried about language difficulties. You can record general symptoms and personal information in English, which the doctor can read in Spanish, and likewise in reverse for the doctor to write out prescription requirements. Clever eh? UPDATE – we’ve now got this form in 8 different languages; take a look.

A bit of advance preparation hopefully means less last minute running around. Well a bit anyway. Wherever you’re going, enjoy your holidays and if we’ve forgotten something from this list, we’ll be happy to add your suggestions.