Travelling across the world with a 9 month old – is it easier than you think?

We have friends over in Mandurah, just outside of Perth who we wanted to visit with our 9-month-old.

Whilst we were trekking to the other side of the globe, we thought we may as well stop off and see some of it! Most people said we were crazy to even go that far, and it’ll be too much like hard work. My son had a cow’s milk allergy and he was also still weaning. Well that just added to the fun!

After lots of research, I’d decided we would stop over in Singapore on the way there and Hong Kong on our return.

Why Singapore? The airport is one of the best airports to transit with kids – they have the most incredible facilities. Singapore is super clean, green, organised and incredibly safe. It is one of the most family-friendly destinations in Asia. Everything from the immaculate, buggy-friendly pavements to the spacious hotels makes traveling with kids easy. It has a clean and efficient public transport system and its relatively compact size which makes it easier to navigate around using prams and strollers. Its also got loads to see and do for families! 4 nights there just wasn’t enough.

Why Hong Kong? Unlike Singapore, Hong Kong with kids can be a challenge. If you are travelling to Hong Kong with a toddler or baby, you will find that hardly anywhere is stroller friendly, as it is hilly and there are steps everywhere. But we just carried the stroller up and down the steps, that wasn’t an issue for us but its worth knowing. The Hong Kong Metro is great. It’s clean. It’s easy. It’s fast. It’s cheap. And extremely accessible for people in wheelchairs or people with strollers. Its also full of luxury malls that have clean accessible changing rooms. In both these places, the staff at the hotels were fantastic with us and our son. Nothing was too much trouble and they were so very attentive. We had connecting flights from Manchester to London so all-in-all it was six flights over 3 weeks.

My top tips for flying long haul: 1. If the purse allows – purchase an extra seat on the aircraft.

We did for our long haul flights and it was a dream. Especially when they were night flights. My son would sleep in the middle of us on his own seat and we would be able to stretch out without having a large lump on our knees making the flight super comfortable!

2. Avoid flights with long stopovers or try an airport transit hotel Don't go for the cheapest flight if it involves a long stopover in an airport - it's just not worth it!

But also give yourself enough time with the connecting flight for e.g., our flight out from Manchester to London was late to depart, therefore when we got to London we had to run very fast to the gate to board our connecting flight.

We made it of course, but sadly our luggage didn’t which was left in Manchester. We found out when we landed in Singapore that our luggage was still at London airport! Thankfully they were great and 24 hours later we had our suitcases sent to our hotel room.

3. Bring extra baby’s milk in your cabin baggage if not breastfeeding. Especially if they have an allergy to cows milk like mine! Thankfully I had, therefore with not having our luggage for 24hours I still had enough with me.

4. Prepare for popped ears. Try to make sure you have a bottle available for take-off and landing (or a dummy if they use it) to help their ears to pop. This definitely worked a treat for my son!

5. Keep to routine If it’s a night flight – pretend its bedtime and do your usual routine. Our flight to Singapore was a night flight. I took my son to the toilet and changed his nappy, brushed his teeth and put his Babygro. He then had a bedtime story and a bottle of milk and away he was for the night... Zzzzzz We sat watching movies together, it felt like a date! Kids feed off routine.

6. Pack a new toy They instantly are engaged with anything new so if you need to kill some time, let them see what’s inside the bag… Create excitement and build up the suspense before producing something new for them to play with.

7. Snacks, snacks.. and did I say snacks? This is dependent on age – but you can never have too many snacks. Also remember that when you arrive you may still have 40 minutes to get to your destination and they are bound to be hungry again.

And best tip of all? Travel to these places whilst they are young and are happy to sit in their pram for hours gazing up at the tall buildings and sights. Because as soon as they can walk, most want to get out of their pram and walk for themselves!

Flying long haul or exploring the world can be overwhelming when you’ve little ones and many people just don’t think they can. Or they worry about what could go wrong.

Would I do it again? Absolutely 100%. Take everything in your stride, prepare for the bumps in the road but you will find it’s a much more pleasant experience than you imagined.

And best of all, think of the world of adventure you are introducing your children to.

If you are thinking of going long haul and want some tips, or maybe you have tips to share with me – get in touch, I would love to hear from you.