Welcome to Toddler Travels!

My name is Ariana. I love to travel. So does my husband. Before becoming parents, we used to talk about how we wanted to travel with any children we might have. We planned on waiting to cross any oceans until those hypothetical children were old enough to appreciate--or at least remember--the history and culture of other countries. We'd use those years while the kids were little to destinations closer to home.

Well, at least that was the plan. About a year after our daughter was born, my husband had the opportunity to take a work-related trip to Spain. We packed up the family and went. My parents had always wanted to visit Spain, so they came along for the ride and offered extra help. This summer we again found ourselves with a transatlantic travel opportunity. We needed to buy a car, and we could save several thousand dollars by picking up the model we had chosen--in Munich. We were intimidated by the prospect of taking our now 2-year-old to Europe without any grandparents to help, but the lure of the trip won out: we leave in July for a 10-day journey through southern Germany and western Austria.

While planning both of these trips, I have searched the internet for tips on traveling to Europe with young children. General suggestions, recommendations for particular places, I read whatever I came across. Though I found some good advice, it was scattered all around cyberspace and didn't always offer the specifics I was looking for. My goal for this blog is to help parents who are considering big trips of their own by bringing together all that I have learned about traveling with a toddler--and all that I am figuring out as I go along.

Thanks for reading! I hope you come back and follow my posts!