2009-03-01

Family travel in Venice

Travel magazines and sections definitely tend to privilege luxury travel and adventure travel over the cheaper, less ambitious plans that traveling with young children requires. I was therefore very happy to see today that the lead article in The New York Times travel section is about budget travel with an infant. And in Venice no less.

The article is titled "Frugal Venice, Family Style" the baby in question was only six weeks old, and the author Matt Gross (a regularly columnist on inexpensive travel for the paper) writes with all of the besotted joy and bewilderment of a new parent. I was amused by his admission that it is in fact different to travel with a little one - he was shocked to discover that he and his wife (who, mind you, was of course six-weeks postpartum and nursing) couldn't get up early and stay out all day. Surprise surprise, they had to make accommodations like leaving their hotel late in the morning and then returning before dinner for a rest and pumping of breast milk. But he was also surprised to find out how much fun it was to travel with his young daughter.

I like all of his advice. There are loads of recommendations about where to eat and stay and also what to see. And I especially enjoyed his ingenuity when it came to finding a babysitter so that he and his wife could have a night out alone. I'm also a fan of figuring out how to do this on the road, and have done so successfully in London and Austin.

I recently wrote about my desire to go to Venice, so it's great to see someone recommending a visit with kids in tow, especially in the wintertime when prices are low and the city is less crowded. We may need to think about a visit next January.