Tip nr. 1: it is highly recommended to nurse your baby / let your baby drink / such on something during the takeoff and landing, as when the baby swallows, he/she doesn’t feel the change in pressure so much.

Tip nr. 2: Order a baby crib on your long-distance flight in advance. On the way to Martinique we were flying during the day and on the way back at night. In both cases, Mia was sleeping on the flight. Check with your air company, they usually provide a baby crib on the long-distance flights. We pre-ordered one (it cost us about 75 Euro for both flights) and were very happy with this decision: Mia was happily playing and even sleeping in this crib.

Finally, we chose the second option and went to bed at around 8 pm local time. The first night was very exhausting as Mia was awake many-many times, which is absolutely understandable. I was nursing her what felt like the whole time and she could rest for some more hours. At the end, we decisively woke up at 6 am and had breakfast on the beach with a wonderful view. The temperature was very pleasant, so we decided that early wake-ups are not bad after all. During the whole trip we woke up (Mia woke us up) between 6 and 7 am and started our day on the beach.

On the way back, we crossed the ocean at night and Mia slept in the travel crib for six hours out of eight. We made a “sail” over her crib from the airplane blankets to darken up her bed, which seemed to work well. The next day after arrival, Mia got up even later than usual and was tired after a short time. We let her sleep (almost) as much as she wanted. After two days I started to follow her usual daily routine. 

What I want to say, our time at the beach was wonderful, and funny, and intense, but far from relaxed.

It is also wise to pack at least two swimsuits for your baby, as you will probably go to the beach more than one time a day and putting on a wet swimsuit on your resisting baby is quite a challenge!

Not all accommodations offer a crib, so if you have luggage included in your ticket, think about taking one with you. We had pretty difficult travelling logistics and enough luggage to carry, so we preferred not to drag a travel cot with us from the very beginning. Instead, we bought one already during the trip using the secondhand shopping service from Facebook (Marketplace) and Google translator to communicate with the sellers.

By the way, baby napping during the day puts some additional burden on the organization of your accommodation. Think about booking an apartment with two rooms or a big separate kitchen. I remember us hanging around in a small kitchen on the floor or lying in the dark many times because a sleeping baby (or it’s only ours?) needs her dark and silent environment to nap properly. Being outside during her day naps was possible only for a short time (think of the 38 degrees heat and naughty mosquitoes).

Probably, you could find at least diapers and wet tissues in almost all countries of the world in almost all supermarkets. Here, on Martinique, you have a very good choice, but the prices are significantly higher than in Germany. Same goes for baby food. Other than that we didn’t need anything. This is the list of what we have brought from home on that trip:

On our trip, we booked accommodation with a fully equipped kitchen and there was either a microwave oven or a stove, so warming up Mia’s food was easy. More difficult was planning for three warm puree/porridge meals if we were on the go. I didn’t take a baby food thermos on the trip (it was too bulky for our limited luggage), so the solution was to ask for some hot water at a restaurant or exchange a puree with a jogurt or cereals in a plastic cup. Of course, for the worst case I always had my boobs with me, but I was trying to be persistent in the question of complementary foods during the day. Cooking baby food ourselves didn’t always work as preparing a puree implies having a mixer, and not every accommodation provided it. 

Besides, we mostly ate when Mia was awake and had her sitting with us at the table and sharing our food (the baby-appropriate parts of it). Some hosts were so kind that they even provided us with a baby chair. Normally, we used our portable textile chair for Mia’s meals. Here are some links to a similar model: LINK.

For porridge, I mostly bought a ready mix of cereals for babies from the local shops. As this was always the same boring mix (poor Mia must have been tired of it), I tried to replace it with some usual BIO cereals, but they were quite grainy and Mia couldn’t swallow them smoothly. However, polenta and wheat germ were not as bad and I used them sometimes.

Very few accommodations are fully safe for babies / small kids (think about cables hanging everywhere, unprotected power sockets, detergents standing in the cupboards, cutlery laying in the cupboards without a latch, glass or pottery on the lower shelves, you can continue the list…) However, this is no reason to panic and stay at a baby hotel. You only need to check the location with an experienced parental eye, eliminate the most prominent dangers and not leave your baby out of sight.

In our case, the most dangerous things inside were (slippery) tile floors and stairs, corners of the tables, hanging cables, bird shit on the terrace. I was cleaning the terrace of the birds excrem­ents first thing in the morning and not lett­ing Mia lick the bru­sh the second thing. Kissing the tiles or occasionally pinching fingers was unavoidable. We were just making sure it didn’t come in combination with the corners of the table/cupboard.

At the beach, you have to be all eyes on your baby. It’s obvious, yet I will emphasize that. Mia is crawling so fast but the waves at times are even faster. If these two elements move towards each other, this can get dangerous, as at the beaches, where we have been, the reverse current us so strong, that it can draw a decently fit adult into the ocean in a few seconds not talking about your little one. So the following applied to us during the 100% of our beach time: one was swimming or snorkeling, another was watching the baby on the shore.

On Martinique and Guadeloupe, during the time we spent there, the temperature was very stable (stable hot, ha-ha): 32 degrees during the day and 27 degrees during the night. 32 degrees felt at times like 38 due to high humidity. Surviving on these islands without an a/c in the car and in all accommodations was unthinkable. Thus, air conditioning in our accommodation was a must, but it also had to be quiet and not blowing directly on our or baby’s bed.

Other than that, we started our day around 7 am, when the temperatures were still “low” and spent the most hot hours either in the apartment or in the car and in shadowed places like the zoo, the botanical garden and rum distilleries. Waking up early was easy as we went to bed early as well because it got dark at around 6 pm on the islands. When we left the apartment, we made sure to apply sunscreen to all uncovered parts of Mia’s body and to put her sun hat on. Unfortunately, she took off the sunglasses the moment we put them on.

Therefore, bringing a good sun protector was very important for us. Criteria: easy to apply, water-resistant and baby- (and corals-) friendly. It should also not cost a fortune. We were happy with the creme “Meeressonnencreme” from Paediprotect which could be bought at any DM in Germany.

As Mia will go to the kindergarten soon after our return to Germany, it was important to us to arrange some exposure to other children for her. In the times of covid it is difficult, but still we were showing her other babies and let her crawl to them keeping the “safe” distance. Besides, it was very sweet to see how interested Mia was in other people in general. She was coming to them, sitting next to them and intensely watching and listening to their conversations. Many people engaged themselves in an interaction with her and everyone was happy (including us, as other people were fooling around with our daughter and we had some minutes to chill).

I got the impression that being together 24 hours a day seven days a week two months in a row has melted three of us into a solid little perfectly-well-understanding-each-other family. Mia has learned so much during this trip. I hope, endless crawling on the beach, intensive and sometimes rough bathing in the ocean, tremendous exposure to nature and uninterrupted contact to her parents will lay substantial foundation for her health and further development…

Indeed, traveling with kids is just parenting in another place (c).