Sometimes, you just want travel to be easy. Because sometimes, getting to the grocery store can feel monumental, especially with multiple little ones, or if you’re all just out of practice existing in public, or if someone decides to drop a nap without warning. (Ahem!)
But spring break? Vacation? With a toddler, I want a trip like that to be as easy as possible. I just need sunshine, stat. Because I live on the east coast, that naturally means I’m looking at the Caribbean.
That’s why I’m excited to introduce this week’s newsletter guest, Mirva Lempiainen, a Finnish travel writer and journalist based on the island of Guadeloupe with her husband and two children (ages 3 and 6).
What I wouldn’t give to be on an island right now! It’s 15 degrees out where I live.
What’s great about interviewing other toddler moms that travel so often for their jobs is that they’re very focused on the little things that make travel work. I don’t know many moms IRL that have criss-crossed all over the world with her kids like she has, from Brussels to Doha to Bangkok. I am SO impressed by this!!
I don’t have it in me to travel like that at this stage in my life. Maybe you don’t, either, which is why the Caribbean is one of the destinations that appeal to me the most right now: Gorgeous sand beaches, resorts with every possible kid-friendly amenity you can think of, great seafood. I can hear the ocean now…
Mirva Lempiainen on Travel with Todders
Mirva and her oldest in Doha.
Read on for Mirva’s recommendations on island-hopping, her favorite pieces of gear with two kids, and how she handles everything from long flights to picky eating with her little ones:
How has your travel style changed before and after kids?
“Prior to meeting my partner and having kids, I was very much into the typical backpacking scene, couchsurfing, hostel life, with long trips of 3-8 months. As a travel writer, I was always on the road or planning a new trip, and spent months at a time touring around Asia, South America and Africa. I have visited close to 90 countries on six continents. Some of my experiences are chronicled on my travel blog, such as my roadtrip through West Africa.
Naturally, my travel style nowadays is quite different from my younger days. My trips are shorter, the destinations slightly less exotic, and my accommodations way more comfortable, but I am very grateful to have been as adventurous as I was when I had the chance! We tend to travel several times a year, usually to review luxury hotels for my work in the Caribbean and to visit family and friends in Finland and France, with some additional trips on the side.
I am also sure I will get to venture out to some really exciting destinations again as my children get older and their interests evolve past this stage of pools and playgrounds.” (Editor’s Note: I’m definitely looking forward to this as well!)
What was the first trip you took after having a baby? How did it go?
“When my oldest daughter was two months old, I flew alone with her from Guadeloupe to Finland. The trip went much better than I expected. The white noise of the plane actually calmed down the baby really well, which was a nice surprise.
During that summer in Finland and France we visited lots of family and friends, and stayed in at least 15 different households. It was a great relief that my kiddo turned out to be such a good traveler! I started traveling with our second child when she was four months old and thankfully she has also been an easy-going travel buddy since the beginning. Now I often travel alone with the girls and we have a great time.”
Take your time.
“I really recommend reserving a ton of extra time for everything with a toddler. That way you can move really slowly from place to place and not get stressed, as you are not in a rush. For example, I had an 8-hour layover at Paris CDG when my youngest was 3 months old and my oldest was 3.
It was wonderfully relaxing to be the last to leave the plane, to move around the airport at snail speed, to take lots of snack breaks and to let my toddler run around at her heart’s content before the next flight.”
The best Caribbean destination with toddlers is…
A toddler + a pool = a happy afternoon.
“Most of the Caribbean islands are great with children, as sun and swimming are pretty much guaranteed.
St. Maarten/St. Martin is a particularly comfortable island for families with young kids as it’s quite flat, so there are no winding mountain roads a’ la St. Lucia or Dominica.
- St. Maarten’s capital Philipsburg has a fun kids’ playground on the beach sponsored by the nearby Gelateria Milano. It’s a great place to enjoy the early evening hours with many local and expat kids.
- Our favorite place to stay there is Sonesta Maho Beach, which is an all-inclusive with a lively kids club and several waterslides. I have reviewed it for my work and have also gone back on my own dime as I feel like it’s really good value for money.
- That’s on the Dutch side, where the kids also love watching the planes land at Maho Beach.
My adopted Caribbean home island of Guadeloupe is an ideal place to travel to when you have slightly older, more mobile children as then you can do some of the more challenging waterfall hikes, snorkel with turtles and zip line through the rainforest in addition to enjoying all the gorgeous beaches and hot springs.
And finally, Mangrove Beach Corendon Curacao All-Inclusive Resort is another hotel where the price is definitely right. (Editor’s Note: This is a Hilton property if you’re doing the points game.) The pool is huge and the food is nice. There is no kids club at the moment, but the hotel practically has a full waterpark on site which is awesome.”
If you plan to island-hop, be prepared for motion sickness.
“Last December we took a 2-hour boat ride from Guadeloupe to Antigua and the next day another 2-hour boat ride from Antigua to Barbuda. The waves were intense on both trips. If you plan to do boat rides between islands, bring extra plastic bags as children get motion sickness very easily and the waters in the Caribbean tend to be rough. Sit outside if you can.
Small planes are fun too and sometimes in the Caribbean those are your only choice for getting around. Make sure to have a flexible schedule when hopping from island to island, as flight schedules tend to be more tentative than exact around here.”
The gear Mirva doesn’t leave home without…
“In recent years a double stroller has become my trusty travel buddy when I am in Europe or the USA. I currently have the Turboglyde side-by-side double stroller from Delta Children and I love it. It weighs just 17 pounds, fits through standard doors and folds into a fairly small size. Officially it can hold up to 70 pounds, but I have definitely packed even more onto it and it has still worked well.
Last year I traveled by train with my two kids from Paris to Stockholm and then took the cruise ferry to Finland. Visiting cities like Brussels, Berlin and Copenhagen was a breeze with the double stroller. It was super handy to have a place for both children to sit down at any point, and it was nice to know the kids were safely contained in their stroller when we were crossing busy streets and whatnot, even though my oldest is almost too big for it.
Another must for me is a baby carrier. I use a Manduca carrier which can hold a child weighing up to 44 pounds, so it still works well for my 3-year-old. She often gets tired while walking longer distances or wants to take a nap at some point. Having a carrier handy where she can rest makes traveling with a toddler much more relaxing.”
Tell me about your favorite travel memory with your little ones.
Mirva and her gals in Brussels. The Manduca carrier at work!
“Though we travel together a lot as a family and that is always fun, many of my most memorable trips have been those where I was solo parenting. My oldest child and I also traveled around Singapore and Thailand for three weeks when she was 21 months in early 2020, just before Covid closed down the world (good timing, huh!). It took about 17 hours to fly to Singapore non-stop from New York, which was the world’s longest plane ride at the time.
I took it as a challenge. The flight went surprisingly smoothly, though we did have to pace the aisles up and down quite a few times and my kiddo accidentally kicked her meal on the plane floor. In Thailand, the highlight was Bangkok, where we stayed a week exploring the city by river boat. We even stayed at a women’s dorm in Phuket for a night. The other travelers were a bit shocked to see a toddler coming into the dorm, but many later told me they felt inspired seeing us there, especially as my little travel buddy charmed everyone and slept like a champ.” 🌙
Prove to yourself that you can do it.
Thank you, Mirva! These interviews always inspire me. I loved Mirva’s story about going to Bangkok when her oldest was only 20 months solo. What an incredible experience—not just the travel part, but a lot of motherhood for me so far has been about proving I can do it.
My husband did not receive paternity leave 😡 and travels a lot for work, so one of my first solo weeks I packed everything up and drove to the Cape (thank goodness for wonderful aunties to visit). It’s one of my favorite travel memories, because it gave me so much confidence. An 1.5 hour drive BY MYSELF?? I felt superhuman. At the beginning some days felt impossible just to exist, and that trip really made me feel like, Wait, I’m in charge! There’s no rule that I have to stay at home all day long!
Thanks for being here.
All this to say, I hope you find inspiration here, too. Whether you’re planning an outing to a local attraction or working with multiple spreadsheets plotting a multi-destination affair, I think traveling with your little one is one of the best bonding experiences, and it’s proof that you can do hard things too and have fun doing it.
Here’s to taking the leap and doing it anyway,
Kayla
If you liked this post, please consider supporting my work. I’m just a mom in the thick of the toddler years trying to create core memories for our whole family while minimizing meltdowns—I sincerely hope this helps you do the same.
This post was originally published on Travel with Toddlers. Subscribe for more real-talk travel advice, toddler-friendly itineraries, and tried-and-true gear recommendations.
