We’re embarking on an incredible long-term travel adventure across Europe! Our journey begins in the eternal city of Rome, then we’ll explore the stunning landscapes of Southern Italy. From there, the world is our oyster – Croatia beckons, along with countless other magical destinations we’ve yet to discover. And here’s the best part: we’re going to do that with a one-year-old!

Getting Back on the Road

A lot has happened in the last couple of years. Apart from the elephant in the room, COVID, and with all the curveballs it has thrown at the world, we had a baby in March 2021, and our lives have changed beyond what we had imagined. Gone are the days of traveling around the world… or so everyone was telling us! Little did they know that if you’re bitten by the travel bug, there is no cure.

We haven’t “properly” traveled for the past 2 years. Well, technically we have traveled: a few trips in mainland US/Canada, and a visit back home. The main culprit has been of course COVID, but we also couldn’t travel much with a newborn. We were planning for a long trip right before the pandemic hit, so had to postpone it. Now with COVID at bay (hopefully for good), and our baby being more mobile and manageable, we finally decided to get back to traveling.

Why We Travel

If you asked me this question some time ago, I would have said because I like photography. But now, I think I have found a more profound reason: I work a 9-5 job, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year (minus vacation). If you ask me what I did in a given two-week period in the past year, I can hardly remember anything. It’s all a blend: meetings, meetings, and more meetings. But when I travel for two weeks, I remember every single day of it. I reasonably remember what I did, what I saw, what happened, and there are photos (and blog posts!) to refresh my memory, when needed.

I believe one reason that people tend to think that “time flies” is living a mundane life for too long. Day-in, day-out, doing the same thing over and over, and looking back and remembering nothing makes you think that time has passed fast. So I travel to seize the moment, to lengthen my (perception of) life, and to create memories to look back at.

The Great Toddler Travel Challenge

It is of course quite challenging to travel with a toddler - and we are going to learn that the hard way - but I like to think that with some planning, flexibility, and lowering the expectations, it should be doable, and even daresay, enjoyable! We’re going to test that hypothesis, and I’m going to report back here.

There is no question that traveling with a 1-year-old comes with a whole slew of challenges: For one, you should be constantly watching a one-year-old, as their primary goal seems to be discovering new ways to hurt themselves. On top of that, there are sleep problems, stroller, baby carrier, diapers, baby food, crying, and all other things that will naturally get resolved with time.

But believing that the future will solve all problems, or that the future will be easier and more suitable is a fallacy that we often fall into. We think that the future holds better. We see our problems disappear in the future. And they will, but at the same time, there will be new ones altogether. Case in point: We conceived of the long-term travel idea as early as 2015. When I look back, I’m unsure why we didn’t do it back then, when we didn’t have a baby, nor was there a pandemic in the world. It would have been far easier than now. But we didn’t, and the reason is exactly the “rosy future fallacy”: We always thought the future would be better for such travels. So long story short, carpe diem!

Why Europe?

My wife and I both lived in Europe for five years as students, during which we travelled a lot, and made great memories. We have always loved traveling in Europe, and although we have seen much of the touristy hotspots, we haven’t scratched the surface when it comes to less touristy, but equally amazing places it has to offer. So this time, we are going to visit some of the more off-the-beaten-path destinations, and also revisit some of our favorite places.

The Beauty of No Fixed Plans

We have already secured transportation and accommodation for the first few weeks of the trip, and we have a rough idea what comes next, but we want to leave some room for spontaneity. We don’t even have return tickets yet, as we don’t know where we will end up. How awesome is that? That’s the whole thrill of it! We have a date by which we need to be back, but we may come back earlier, based on how things go. I’m not going to say it here and jinx it though.

Photography and Gear

Don’t we all love obsessing over camera gear! I certainly do. But this trip is not all about photography. It’s a family-first trip, and photography is a would-be-nice. However, this doesn’t mean that I would skimp on photo preparation. Au contraire; I want to enjoy photography during the trip, but at the same time I need to optimize what gear to take, given that we will be carrying around our baby and the baby gear. I’ll write another post detailing all the gear we will take with us, including camera gear.

Stay tuned as we embark on this adventure and document our journey - the highs, the lows, and everything in between of traveling through Europe with a one-year-old in tow!