Traveling to Europe with a 2.5 year old

[Anonymous]

I'm going to take my 2.5 year old to visit her great-grandmother. Expect to be gone for a week (give or take) and will be staying mostly with family.

This is a trip I've done many times before - but the first time with my daughter. For those who are experienced travelers with toddlers - please provide your advice in two terrifying areas....

1. How do I handle the direct flight (not so much worried about flying there - where I hope she'll sleep, but the flight back).

2. The 6 hour time change? Tips?

[Anonymous]

I did this last spring with a younger child (1.5), so not sure how many of my experiences will apply, but here goes.

Does she still nap? Nap on a plane might buy you a couple hours.
Other inflight entertainment for little kids: stickers, crayons, books, DVDs, more DVDs, snacks (candy). One that I read on another online forum recently is cheerios and a set of pipecleaners--you show the kid how to string the cheerios on the pipecleaners, and then you can make edible bracelets. Apps on a phone. Pictures of relatives on your phone.

I found the time change to be not so awful. If you fly the redeye flight, you will arrive early in the morning after having slept. It will be a shorter-than-usual sleep, but if you can keep your kid awake until close to regular (adjusted) bedtime that night, you should be well on your way to shifting.

Two great resources for flying with kids are
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-children-221/
http://flyingwithchildren.blogspot.com/

[studiojmm]

Flight: Sticker books, color wonder markers and paper (only writes on color wonder paper), little plastic animals, books, ipad/iphone, special snacks, make it an adventure . . . I always found I over packed for activities for long flights because my toddler was programmed to sleep a lot on airplanes. I still would have packed it all anyway.

Time change: Let go of expectations. That tip is for you. Do your best to encourage plenty of rest regardless of how it matches with local time and go with the flow. When we traveled to Paris, we just let my 20 mo daughter's whole schedule shift back and gave up on the idea of being anywhere before 11 am. Travel was exhausting, so she took extra naps during the day, often falling asleep in the Ergo or stroller a little before dinner so she was often up until 10 or 11 pm, which actually matched local grown-up time well and we ate late often. We figured we'd get back on track at home.