Road Trip in Florida with a Toddler

Twelve nights, five different beds, five visits with family and friends, a thousand kilometers of driving. Bookmarked with international flights, complete with time-zone changes, and all accomplished with the presence of a toddler.

It was a pretty ambitious trip, if I do say so myself.

The idea of our Florida trip was birthed last summer, during a visit with my aunt Louise to the majestic Mohonk Mountain House in New York State. “Florida is on the way to France,” Bruno told had her. “We’ll just give ourselves a layover in Miami and pop in for a visit to your winter home.”

That fall, while failing to coordinate a meetup on the Gulf Coast with my oldest childhood friend, Nanette – who has a boy six months older than Phoenix – I mentioned we’d try to be in Florida on our way to France and swing by for a visit instead.

Then, I thought of my high school best friend, Lizzy, who now leaves near Tampa. I hadn’t seen in eight years nor met her two kids. So, I committed to another visit.

Then, I remembered that my aunt and uncle winter in Florida, and found out that my cousin would be there in April with her hubby. And then, I found out that another childhood friend would be in Florida the same week as us, with her father and newborn baby, in their family winter home. So, I committed to another couple visits. They were along our route, after all.

Before I knew it, we had one helluva road trip planned.

Despite the fact that we live in a bus and travel overland full-time, we hadn’t ever done a traditional road trip with a baby (or even as a couple, I might add). Our traveling lives very rarely involve set itineraries, and they never involve lugging around suitcases and moving into and out of sleeping quarters every few days. This was definitely a new experience!

The first thing we noticed is that, unlike our pre-baby days, we no longer travel light. We had to visualize prior to packing, how we would actually carry all our luggage – I could manage a backpack, my purse, Bruno’s laptop, the stroller, and the toddler, and Bruno would have a backpack, Phoenix’ travel crib (which is also a backpack), and two rolling suitcases (poor guy). I was very relieved to find out we could carry a small piece of luggage for Phoenix without extra charge, as I have no clue how I would have packed that travel crib into a suitcase with all the rest of the stuff we were lugging for him.

What, exactly? Well, besides the bed (which was a godsend, allowing him to transition from one new place to the next without feeling unfamiliarity at bedtime), we brought 24 reusable diapers, his foldable high chair, and his potty. Yes, we packed all those large items into a suitcase, and still managed to bring toys, books, and clothes! Oh, and of course, a gigantic backpack full of food for our flights (this is me we are talking about, after all! We could just barely carry all our luggage, which was essential, because later in our trip we’d have to transfer from the Barcelona airport to the train station via the metro.

We’d booked an Air BnB in Miami because we were arriving at 5:30pm and had to pick up a rental car. Had we been alone, we could have driven all the way to Vero Beach that evening (though my aunt Louise might not have appreciated the late arrival!). But we knew we’d have a tired baby on our hands (he slept once for about an hour in my arms during the flight from Mexico City to Miami). We’d actually also booked an Air BnB near the Mexico City airport the night before our midday flight, as it was a 50km ride from our campground to the airport which, in Mexico City traffic, can take as much as three hours! One thing I can say is that convenient travel with a toddler sure is pricey!

So, how was Phoenix during our road trip? Well, our car was very comfortable and easy to drive, so we made good time (relative to our bus, anyway!). And, we timed our drives for his nap times (something we do in our bus, too) so that we could drive for longer periods without him getting bored or fussy. So, the drives themselves were pretty easy. The only issue, truly, was finding good places to stop for diaper changes, snacks, and meals. In the bus, we have everything we need, so I had forgotten the perpetual search for picnic tables and bathrooms that is a regular road trip!

We figured the drives would be a cinch, but we had assumed Phoenix would have a tough time adjusting to all the new people and spaces. After all, when we moved into our rental home in Cuernavaca, Mexico, he wouldn’t let us put him down on the ground at all the first day, and he cried himself to sleep for the first few days.

It was probably great that we took Phoenix out of his comfort zone a couple months before our Florida trip, because he was an absolute gem. He took each new person in stride and explored each new home with gusto. Not only that, but he fell asleep each and every time in each new bedroom without so much as a peep. I attribute a lot of that to having his familiar travel crib with him (he’d slept in it for 7 weeks in Cuernavaca), but we were nonetheless totally amazed. It turns out that Phoenix is an incredibly well-adjusted, flexible toddler!

It was a lot of fun seeing our baby boy interact with dear family and friends. In our regular lifestyle, Phoenix simply doesn’t have that much chance to socialize. The first babies he’d ever “played” with were 14-month old twins that we met in a campground, a mere ten days before our trip, and he’d been terrified of them for the first half-hour (until we brought out the toys, that is!).

In Florida, he played with a few different toddlers (and four different dogs, no joke), and it was heart-warming to see. In Tampa, he spent an afternoon at the park with Lizzy’s almost-two year old, which also happened to be his first time playing at the park! He took to it like fish to water, climbing up steps and slides and walking (with me) high above the ground.

And in Naples, he got to spend five nights with Nanette’s 20-month old, Teddy. I think they are best friends in the making, seriously. Phoenix watched Teddy like a hawk, mostly because he could walk and do a bunch of other things Phoenix can’t yet do. (To be fair, Teddy watched Phoenix pooping in a potty like a hawk, so I guess they’re even!). They played in water buckets together, went swimming, stole each other’s toys. Teddy fed Phoenix snacks, and Phoenix finally started taking an active interest in walking practice.

What was even more great was putting the boys in the bath together. Nanette and I have baby photos of us taking baths together, so I cannot express how special it was to do the same with our own babies.

This trip was special for me in so many ways. I got to return to Vero Beach, a place which holds so many childhood memories for me. I got to connect with family and reconnect with long-lost friends. This is something I miss in my overland life – connecting with special people – so our road trip to Florida filled my heart with a lot of love.

So, I guess the challenges of traveling with a toddler were worth it for me (I can’t speak for Bruno, who still looks exhausted, haha!). We might not plan such an ambitious trip again anytime in the near future, but the one that we just completed will go down in the books as a total success!