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Thinking of going on a short holiday to Amsterdam (the Netherlands). Do babies enjoy travelling and going to new places? Is it easy to travel with a 6 month old? Flight is 10 hours so not too bad. Will the experience will enrich my baby in some way? Is Amsterdam safe for babies? She has started solids but is not eating much so I'll be breastfeeding her. She is not a good sleeper though but loves going on walks and looking at people and the scenery.

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  • If your ready to handle them and all the evil glares why not
    – DnrDevil
    Mar 22, 2016 at 0:40
  • Where you are starting from might be useful to know.
    – Dave Clarke
    Mar 23, 2016 at 12:36

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Babies are pretty adaptable, and lets face it largely blissfully unaware of anything beyond their immediate surroundings and physical needs as they exist in the moment.

So will your baby get any enrichment? No, it will not remember it. At all. Exposure to travel might help make for a more situationaly adaptable child if you continue to travel, but one trip won't do it.

Does a baby enjoy travelling to new places? Every place is a new place to a baby. you've probably got rooms/closets in your home that would be as exotic to them. They aren't going to notice cultural or language differences, that's not yet in their frame of reference. Keeping a sleeping area as consistent as possible with what you have at home might be the biggest stumbling block.

Is Amsterdam safe? As safe as any western city. It's more about how YOU care for the baby and its immediate environment.

Main concerns:

You baby is unlikely to enjoy the start and end points of the flight. Sensitive little ears and pressure changes do not tend to go well together. At all.

Your baby is starting on solids, which means you need to be very careful in what you are feeding them as you are essentially giving them an allergy test. Are you going to be confidently able to read baby food labels?

Do you co-sleep? Or are you bringing some form of bedding for the baby? If not, check in advance for crib/other options from your hotels. If bringing a bassinet or whatever, you might want to get the baby used to sleeping in it before you go.

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    Breastfeeding is quite good for dealing with the take-off and landing. The baby will be sucking, which helps neutralise the pressure in the ears.
    – Dave Clarke
    Mar 23, 2016 at 12:37
  • Don't worry about reading labels. Everything in the Netherlands is labelled in English as well.
    – Erik
    Mar 28, 2016 at 6:28
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It's not a bad idea, but if you're hoping it'll be a particularly enriching experience for your baby, you may be disappointed. She is too young to get anything much out of the experience. She will likely enjoy herself, but no more so than if you took her to a new mall, or park.

There are other reasons though why it may be a good idea to take the holiday now. 6 month old babies are quite easy to travel with. At that age they're usually very happy to be carried in the baby carrier most of the time, and just put down now and again for a bit of a crawl. They're actually much harder to manage when they're a bit older.

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    Yep, at 6 months they are immobile. Once they start walking then you spend your vacation watching them, and them alone pretty much
    – Michael Broughton
    Mar 21, 2016 at 14:27
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    We travelled to India with a 18 month old. That was stressful. Constantly worried about the water, the mosquitoes, the food, the dogs, the monkeys, the beggars etc. Pretty much everything really. Overall though a great time was had by all, and well worth the effort.
    – user1751825
    Mar 21, 2016 at 14:31
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    I enjoy travelling with mine too -especially now that they are old enough to really enjoy things independently. It was the age 2-4 years that were the worst I found as they are mobile, sneaky fast, fearless, impervious to reason, easily distracted, and easily bored at that age. For those years we didn't do much significant travel.
    – Michael Broughton
    Mar 21, 2016 at 14:43
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Yes, 6 months is a great time to travel with babies. They're big enough to not cry randomly and have a schedule you can plan around, but small enough to still be easily portable and immobile.

Now obviously they're not going to get much out of the Rijksmuseum, and they're still going to limit the things you can do and the places you can go, but hey, that's parenthood, and you as the parents can still get something out of the experience. And it's much easier to travel at 6 months than it will be once they start crawling, much less get into the "terrible twos".

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