One of the coolest things about babies is the leaps they take. I mean, one day they’re a blob that just came out of your body and then two weeks later they’ve doubled in size! My toddler grew a whopping 15 inches in their first year. I mean, WHAT?? And in that one year period, they went from yowling every few minutes to signing to saying a few basic words; from staying still in the swaddle to crawling to walking.
Now, witu a toddler, I notice the biggest leaps right after we travel. You already know that travel expands our perspectives—shows us another way to live—it’s that times a thousand for spongey toddlers just making sense of the world. I’ll admit we haven’t traveled as often as I’d like the last few months…I’ve been feeling guilty about not doing “enough” lately and so this interview with Harmony Walton, owner of the Bridal Bar in southern California, was just what I needed as a reset.
Harmony Walton owns the Bridal Bar, a wedding PR and marketing consultancy in California. She travels all over the world with her daughter in tow!
Harmony’s whole approach is quality over quantity. If you can only take one trip a year, take it. And make it the best ever. As a master in high-stakes events like weddings, she knows there’s always *something* that’s going to go wrong. What matters more is how you respond to it, and how to plan defensively so that you’re making the most of the time you have together.
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Harmony Walton on Travel with Toddlers
Exploring with Harmony’s daughter, age 4.
It’s exactly what I needed to hear as I go heads-down into planning next year’s school breaks. In New England, we have two: February and April. Right now, we’re still paying for childcare except they follow the school calendar, so we get the worst of both worlds? And while I know they can obviously miss “school” at this age, it’s hard to swallow the double-whammy cost. (I’m not ready emotionally for elementary school but I *am* ready to release the shackles of childcare costs from my budget, ugh.)
For our breaks, we’ll probably only try to do major travel during one of them and local/family travel for the other one. Focusing on quality instead of quantity seems obvious but in the flurry of wanting to find something to look forward to, I overschedule. I stretch. I say, “Oh, we can fit this in.”
Reader, I cannot. Here’s how Harmony crafts the kind of trips that last you all year long:
What’s your travel “style” before and after kids?
“Before becoming a mom, I traveled about half the year. I traveled for work and pleasure and would often extend my work trips to stay as long as I could.
Now that I’m a single mom, I’m limited on the travel I can take. I focus on quality versus quantity now. Since I have to pick and choose, I try to find experiences that give her a bit of everything throughout the year, including snow, sand, the city, and nature. I want her to know and experience it all, even if we can only do that so many times in a year.”
What’s your biggest piece of travel advice for babies and toddlers?
“For both groups, it comes down to snacks! For babies, I always recommend feeding during takeoff and landing when flying. My daughter never cried or had issues with her ears in-flight and I think that helped a lot.
For toddlers, always have snacks! I basically take a carry on of snacks. Snacks and small activities bridge the gap when facing travel delays, time changes, missed meals, or just overtired moments. This has saved me when a flight didn’t have the food it was supposed to and she would have been famished otherwise on a long-haul flight.”
How do you recover when things don’t go according to plan?
“Once, our flights were delayed so badly that it took us twenty-four hours to get somewhere that should have taken eight. Our final destination was a two-and-a-half-hour drive from the airport but when we finally landed, it was the middle of the night and the rental car counter had already closed. We had to take a late-night unexpected taxi but I had checked the car seat and the airline also lost our bags. Needless to say, it was not a great experience all around.
But the airline gave us a loaner car seat to use for the week, a voucher for the taxi, and American Express worked wonders to refund our rental car costs. In the end, we were exhausted without clean clothes when we arrived but at least we were able to leave the airport!
If I had to go back, I would have told myself there’s always a solution.”
The top pieces of gear Harmony doesn’t leave home without…
“Now I don’t travel without my car seat. I’ve never had a good experience trying to rent one from a car rental company at the destination or counting on the car service company to show up with one like we ordered. Every time I’ve tried, it has caused significant delays so now I just deal with the extra luggage. (Except in France! Their version of Uber (called G-7) has a child-friendly option that was amazing and always reliable.)
I also love a car seat bag and stroller bag to cover these items when you gate check them at the plane. The bags get destroyed but my important gear does not.”
The best place to travel with toddlers is…
“I loved taking my daughter to Italy because it’s my favorite place in the world. To get to share that with her was extra special. I loved Tuscany with her because of all the open spaces, nature, and freedom to run that she had. It’s not a typical family-friendly vacation, but we loved it. We stayed outside of town but were close enough in proximity to still get to explore.”
And the best kid-friendly hotel is…
“I loved our time at The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain in Arizona. The waterslides, splash pad, pools, s’mores station, game room, kids’ nature center and resident tortoises gave her plenty to do without feeling like we were at a mega resort. We still got the quiet time in nature and it’s an easy drive from a lot of major cities.”
Saying hi to the tortoises!
“The Boca Raton in Florida has so many great activities for kids as well. The splash pad, lazy river, waterslide area, a boat to take you to the beach club (the ride was half the fun for my toddler!) and lots of dining options. The hotel is still luxury for the adults and that’s something I don’t want to compromise on just because I’m traveling with a toddler.”
Tell me your favorite travel memory with your toddler.
“Celebrating my daughter’s first birthday in Italy when she tried pizza and gelato for the first time was a very special memory. I’ll never forget her face. Now she loves to watch the video of her disliking the cold of the ice cream!” 🍦
Plan for an experience that gives them something new
Thank you so much, Harmony! I really needed the permission to do less, but do it well. I love the idea of picking trips that specifically give them new experiences (snow, sand, city, nature, etc.) because that’s similar to how I try to plan against the seasons. Pre-kids my partner and I would do a cold trip in the summer and a beach trip in the winter, just to shake things up.
With a toddler, there’s more at stake. Part of why I want to travel with them is to give them a taste of the many experiences of the world—to expose them to people, places, languages, and ways of being that are different from our own. I know that any time we break the schedule/routine for my toddler, no matter how small, will always an adventure. Sometimes a disaster…sometimes it’s amazing. You never know until you try!
Thanks for being here.
I love how holidays feel like core memory re-dos as a parent. I have such vivid memories of Halloween, the rush to go from door-to-door, the costume planning, the pumpkin carving, the donut strings. To be a little kid again! I’m the kind of person that my parents had to sit me down and have “the talk” when I turned 14—that no, I was not allowed to trick-or-treat anymore. I still remember going as the entire cast of Mario Kart my senior year of high school, and my friends and I literally chased each other around all day long.3
As a mom I exclusively do pajama-based costumes because if I’m going to spend $30 on an outfit my toddler will outgrow in 6 months I want them to wear it more than once. Last year, my toddler asked to be the moon, and this year, we be pirates. Here’s hoping we get to more than two houses this year, since I’m really craving some Twix bars…
Trick-or-treat,
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.
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