Edinburgh in 2 Days

I think you could easily spend 2 weeks in Edinburgh but most people allow 2 days. If that is the case for you, prioritizing is key. Most of historic Edinburgh is clustered around the Royal Mile which is actually slightly less than a real mile.

I have spent 2,500 days in Edinburgh and there are always new places to discover and explore. It is easy to get stuck in a museum and spend all day there but if you have only 2 days, then you have to plan carefully. It is also important to see places in the correct order so you don't waste hours ping-ponging between the extremities of Edinburgh.

Remember 2 days does not give you time to see other great sites within a few hours' of Edinburgh. Check out my day trips from Edinburgh post. Also see a fuller list of places to see in Edinburgh here.

Here is an example of a 2 day in Edinburgh itinerary.

Day 1

• Travel to Prince's Street to see the Sir Walter Scott monument - this is near the train station and also in the general vicinity where the airport bus terminates.
  
• Walk past the art museum (which is free but you don't have time on a 2 day trip)
  
• up the Lady Stair Close to the Writer's Museum (you can do this museum which focuses on Scottish authors like Sir Walter Scott, Stevenson and Robert Burns)
  
• Explore St. Giles on the Royal Mile
  
• Not to forget the Covenenters who signed the National Covenant and died for it, go to Greyfriar's Kirkyard.
  
• Visit the grave of Greyfriar's Bobby, the love-able dog, outside the kirkyard
  
• Also see the Elephant House where parts of Harry Potter were written
  
• Then progress to the Museum of Scotland on Nicholson St.
  
• On certain evenings of the week you might take the Christian History of the Royal Mile tour - or arrange a private tour in advance. The majority of tours are ghost tours other than this one. See their website at http://www.soulofscotlandtours.com/index.html
  

Day 2

• Visit Holyrood House in morning (give yourself 1.5 hours tops)
  
• Soak up atmosphere on the Royal Mile and explored Dunbar Garden Close, good for picnicking
  
• Pop into Museum of Edinburgh or Museum of Childhood, both free on on the Royal mile
  
• Spot the Heart of Midlothian outside St. Giles's main entrance
  
• Find the Mercat Cross near St. Giles
  
• Search for John Knox's grave under parking lot number 23 behind St. Giles
  
• In the summer months between 1-4 pm you can visit the Christian Heritage Centre in St. Columba's for an overview of the Christian history of the Royal Mile, plus free tea or coffee. This year there are delays with the building work so the Christian Heritage Centre team is taking to the streets.
  
• Edinburgh Castle for the remainder of the day
  

This is the sort of trip only an adult with a lot of energy could pull off. We do not recommend this itinerary for anyone traveling with children.

A two day trip with this itinerary means you don't have time for sites like the People's Story museum, the Royal Botanics, Arthur's Seat or the zoo.

The NOT to pack list

Here are the top things I have learned not to take on our outward trip.

• We rarely take gifts back for family - we order things online to be shipped directly to them. There are exceptions to this rule - for example if there is something that can only be bought abroad or is much higher quality, like chocolate. However I know from experience that 12 bars of chocolate can make a carry-on rather heavy.
• 
• shampoo and conditioner - most hotels and homes you go to will have some in the bathroom. You may want to pack baby shampoo for any babies or small children on the trip. If you are doing a hostel or backpacking tour or university dorms, you will want to pack shampoo and conditioner or maybe a combo.
• bathrobes
• jewelry or anything valuable
• towels
• electrical appliances or anything with motors - which need adapters and sometimes converters. Transformers are often more expensive to buy than just purchasing a cheap one in the UK. 
• guide books - a whole guide book can be quite heavy and do you really need the whole thing? We recommend photocopying or even slicing out the parts of the book you think you'll need. If you are only doing a week in London, why lug around the entire Rick Steve's England guide? 
• extra books. A 200 page book should take 5 hours to read at average speed. I would always prefer to take a kindle or a phone with a kindle app for the compulsive reader, or limit everyone to one book (except toddlers who usually get 3 small ones).
• neck pillows - most transatlantic flights have inbuilt head-huggers which make neck pillows superfluous or even uncomfortable
  
• pillows - they give out pillows on the flight and someone clever told me recently you can bring your own pillow slip which takes up hardly any space for the same feel of home
• pj's - try to set up your destination if it's with family or friends to have pjs and three sets of clothes for everyone. The exception is if you want to dress your kids in pjs on an overnight flight to help them feel it is bedtime. If you are a student/backpacker, try to take day clothes that are comfortable enough to sleep in so they can be your backup pair of clothes. Everything on a trip has to work double-duty!
• two costumes - this is what I packed in my bag on my first solo trip abroad! The long, flowing cloak I only wore once in a Scottish gale took two and half days to dry in my airless dorm room. It took up loads of space in the suitcase and my friend who saw me in it said, 'I hope no one else saw you.'
• Satsumas or any fresh fruit. My family still laugh about the satsuma story - when we brought two satsumas over the border and got stuck in the longest line in creation. We were only saved waiting three hours by our two babies starting to shriek their heads off and airport staff hurrying us to the front of the line. Now we ditch any fresh food on the airplane or don't bring it at all.
  
• If you have kids:
• Your kids' own packing of their backpacks. They are sure to pack their entire homemade salt dough collection, their megablocks collection and Dad's weights. I never let our kids even have their own backpacks because they invariably want me to carry them - along with their coats and half-eaten snacks.
• changing pads - I now take pieces of fabric I've cut up from sheets from charity shops. Then I can throw them away after I use them. They take up less space than these plastic ones.
• bibs - baby is not going to spit up on a bib, he's going to spit up on you or dad or your neighbor or his shoes which aren't washable. The exception is these enormous, plastic, long-sleeve painting bibs that you might only get out during Craft Time. Well pack a few of them for your trip because that's the only bib that will be useful.
• stuffed toys unless you need them desperately. I try to mentally prepare my kids for leaving behind their toys for a month in advance. If they have to take one, it is better if it's a small one and washable. So work on attaching them to the stuffed toy of your choice.
  
• if you are blessed with a direct flight, you might not need three changes of clothes per kid but I tend to pack an outfit per layover (so a two leg trip gets two sets of clothes, a three leg trip gets three changes of clothes, etc.)

The Super Dad Pack

International Travel Dad changes diapers in airplane bathrooms. International Travel Dad carries three bags and children. International Travel Dad goes without sleep for 26 hours to get his family to safety. International Travel Dad is Super Dad under cover.

D said after our first few transatlantic flights with kids that, 'Everyone else always seems so well prepared and to have everything they need. I don't know how they do it.'

So I put my mind to it and realized although we take a lot of things we need in an emergency, they are not always where we need them.

I then researched travel vests and made me own. This was good for me because it meant the essentials were never up in the overhead lockers. I could just pop the tissue out of my pockets, or the wipes and diapers.

But this didn't solve D feeling like he never had what he needed - especially if he and one or both children were far from me.

So we came up with the idea of the Super Dad Pack.

It is a collection of things that D puts in his pockets. He takes it out at Security so I try to keep everything in small baggies - no loose change. Man pockets tend to be bigger than lady pockets so he can usually fit:

• money in different currencies - airports take any but we usually have a certain currency that is cheaper to buy or we have coins that need using up
• phone
• phone charger
• mints
• earbuds
• tissue
• wipes - I repackage 5 wipes into a small ziplock baggie and replenish this baggie as needed
• a pen
• a small notepad / sticky notepad
• a rubber band or two - good for closing up packets of food we leave half-eaten or letting your kids play with for hours, shooting it across airport lounges
• a disposable spoon
• a travel toothbrush in a case 
• ziplock bag
• a surprise! (in photo below happy/sad face stickers which might occupy the children or which might give Mom a laugh if he sticks an 'unhappy sticker' on the forehead of a squalling baby)

Travel has a way of throwing unexpected circumstances at you but with these essentials you can battle many foes.

Being delayed 24 hours while traveling

When I was a little girl I remember an airplane being held for someone who was running late but that seems to have fallen out of vogue these days. Airlines do not hold planes till passengers are boarded. In fact they seem happy to sell your ticket if you merely run a tad late. Many flights are overbooked by two or three seats to prevent waste and it seems airlines almost plan to force two or three to miss a connection.

In our experience airlines will send you on the first leg of your trip even though they know there is no way you will catch your second leg, due to bad weather conditions or other issues. It seems to be their policy to enjoy putting people through the rigmarole of rescheduling.

In December 2014, we missed a connecting flight by a few minutes and saw our plane depart.

If we had magically been able to relax at that point for 22 hours, it would have been one thing. But you're expected to manage your kids in queues for two hours. One set of people deal with re-booking flights, another with hotels. Meanwhile your kids get hungry and frustrated.

You wait so long in queues that by the time you get to see anyone you are just desperate to get somewhere you can eat and rest. This forces you to make split second decisions that are sometimes bad ideas.

For example we agreed to take two separate rooms because they had no family rooms available. They weren't even next to each other. We couldn't remember which room was which so ended up banging on the wrong door a few times.

If I were doing it over again, I would

• ask for food vouchers first thing and send my spouse and kids to get something to eat
• wait with the children in the queues so people can see how upset the children are getting and maybe bump us up in the line - rather than leaving them to meltdown in Baggage Reclaim
• insist on a family room or at least getting next door rooms with an adjoining door
• get double sets of keys, one for each spouse
• write everything down
• ask for longer layovers - an hour per kid is my rule with an upward limit of 3 hours and no less than 45 minutes to prevent missing flights
• report the incident later - you might get a voucher from the airline for your next trip!

It was such a strange environment that the boys did not sleep or eat well and so were not themselves.

We had been stranded in Amsterdam, which was in the wrong direction from where we needed to go and which is an hour off in the wrong direction as well.

This meant that by the time we got to our final destination, the boys slept a couple hours and were up at 3:45 am!

On the upside we reported it to the airline and got vouchers to mostly pay for a trip the following year.

Ramen Noodle Seasoning Packets Play Dough

Another cupboard blocker for us is the seasoning packets that come with Ramen noodles. We have bags of them. As they are free and hence cheaper than salt, I substitute them for the salt in a normal salt dough recipe. They make a saffron colored dough which smells super savory especially when cooked. See also my post on Baby Lotion play dough.

Recipe:

• 1/2 cup seasoning packets
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup water
• any glitter or food coloring you like (none included in dough in photo below)

Bake at a low temperature - 120 C or 200 F- for an hour or two till hard.

Baby Lotion Homemade Play Dough

I love storage space and there always seems to be a bottle or bag of something that never gets used at the back of the cupboard. For us, it's Johnson's Baby Lotion. It smells great but we find it dries out the children's skin so I don't really use it except for stubborn diaper changes. I don't want to throw it out but at this rate we'll never get through the two bottles we own.

My main problem with homemade play dough is if it's the normal salt dough recipe it's awfully scritchy-scratchy to work with. That's where Johnson's baby lotion comes in!

See also my post about Seasoning Packet Play Dough.

Recipe for Baby Lotion Homemade Play Dough:

• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup baby lotion (more if you want a wetter dough)
• any glitter or food coloring you would like

Bake at 250 F or 120 C for an hour or two till hard. It smells great in the oven too!

Our boys love the consistency of baby lotion homemade dough! 

Managing Babies through Under 5's on Transatlantic Trips

Being a parent on a 45 minute shopping trip can be stressful but a 21 hour + itinerary can turn into a nightmare. Each age is unique and we have taken our kids at pretty much every stage to see our family on the other side of the world. 

We are only 4,000 miles away from the majority of our family but we are cheap so we tend to fly through one or two 'hubs' which adds the extra time.

Understanding the different seating scenarios for traveling with multiple children and having a plan can make a huge difference. Also see my posts about traveling pregnant and breastfeeding, expressing and postpartum recovering and being delayed overnight. For packing see the Super Dad Pack and how to alter a jacket to make a travel jacket/vest.

0-6 months

• Most useful item: swaddling blanket which is good for 
• making baby feel warm and cuddled in travel cot or arms
• good substitute for a nursing shawl
• lightweight
• fold small so it's easy to pack a few
• can be used as a diaper changing mat if normal mat cannot be found
• great for mopping up 
• spit up
• diaper leaks
• and other spills like older brother's juice
• Another critical item at this stage: backup shirts or easy-to-scrub-clean clothes, like jeans, for the parents. Baby always manages to spit up on you when least expected.
• Pacifier if you can get baby used to it before the trip. I knew a mom who used to teach her babies associations with a pacifier or special toy so on the flight when she handed over the teddy or whatever, the babies would be clued to sleep. 
• On the upside baby doesn't move around too much
• Mostly wants to breastfeed
• A baby of this age might even want to sleep on the flight - if this happens take a nap. The advice Sleep when your baby sleeps has never been so relevant. You need to have your wits about you for the next leg or legs of travel, immigration officers, etc. Even if your husband is wrestling with a tantrumming toddler and you feel guilty you have the 'easy' one, just block it out and go to sleep. Trust me - it's not worth trying to swap because the baby will wake up when you try to change arms and then you'll all be in trouble.
• Flight crew and others give more attention the younger baby is
• More likely to get bulkhead seat which is useful for
• toddlers who want to sleep on a flat surface - aka the floor
• breastfeeding
• having somewhere to put baby so not holding in sweaty arms for whole trip
• more legroom
• less likely for baby to be crushed on lap when your tray is down and the person in front decides IN THE MIDDLE OF DINNER BEING SERVED to lean their seats back without warning. The time this happened to us, my 18 month old threw up in the aisle.
• This is a tiring age for the whole family. The new baby will probably wake everyone up at least once in the night before, during and after your trip.
• So try to shorten your trip as much as possible by taking family/friends up on pick up or drop off offers or getting a taxi if you can afford it to and from the airport. We have the option of taking a 1.5 hour bus or a 30 minute taxi ride to the airport but we feel it is more important to minimize travel time as much as possible.
• baby can ride in a front carrier - which is easier to get around an airport with escalators than a buggy would be, and saves waiting around for the buggy in Baggage Reclaim later. Just do not make my mistake of taking a 5 foot long wrap sling - it's difficult to tie on in the cramped confines of an airpline while everyone including you is frantic to make a connection. Get one of those clippy ones - but not Baby Bjorn as it can cause hip problems with baby.
• Your comfort and stress levels are probably going to affect your baby's so try to think of yourself when packing as well. You probably can't take Dramamine or your usual travel meds as you're breastfeeding, so explore other ways to handle motion sickness like motion sickness bracelets and eating icecream - my favorite coping mechanism.

homemade swaddling blanket - I turned some charity shop sheets into a few extra for our trip!

7-9 months

• Most useful item: books - you only need about 3 picture books because they'll listen to the same ones over and over. If you have a kindle, try loading a ton of books for the kids on it.
• Finger foods
• Pacifier if baby if used to it - and backups
• We forgot nappy ointment and baby ended up with the worst rash of his life by the time we touched down - so don't skimp on packing the diaper rash cream!
• Down side of this age: baby sleeps less
• Feeds less
• Not old enough to take normal milk so you have to breastfeed or bring formula and sample some at security. If you are bringing formula, consider decanting formula powder into zip lock bags to save space. Another space saver is to order formula ahead to your destination or ask your family abroad to stock up on it for you.
• Taking less breastmilk (due to introduction of solids or part/total weaning) or baby is a more efficient feeder so more time to play rather than feed
• Baby wiggles more
• Baby has short attention span
• Harder to change nappies in a confined space as baby is bigger
• Immunizations: regular immunizations are scheduled without regard to your travel plans. I would always recommend rescheduling an immunization shot so it doesn't happen the day before or even the month before travel. My children often weren't themselves for a week or two after shots - more fussy and more likely to run a temperature. It seems cruel to make them travel when they're already struggling with their shots. 
• Baby can ride in a front carrier but is a lot heavier - we ditched the carrier for just juggling between parents at this age
• More likely to have cold or ear infection  - due to babies being masters of sharing toys they've drooled on and exploring the world with their mouths. Even having a slight cold when traveling can make baby irritable. If they have an ear infection and are taking antibiotics, they can become monsters - and the antibiotics may cause really terrible poos. 
• Most moms I know take their kids out of normal activities a week or two prior to their trip to avoid catching anything.

9 months-2 years

• Most useful item: medicine, not because it works too well but because it's the first thing people ask you if you have a screaming child. 
• A note about medicine: This is a hot topic and some people say they would never do this. One mom I know gives children's paracetamol and children's cough medicine with a sleepy side effect, and alternates paracetamol/Tylenol with ibuprofen every four hours. Another mom uses Phenergan but please note this was thought to have caused deaths in several small children a few years ago and is not recommended for children under the age of two! I have never tried it. It's not even produced in the UK - there is a drug with the same name but it is apparently not the same thing and a lot less dangerous. 
• I notice my kids will usually not sleep on daytime flights unless they were up all night the night before. On night flights, they tend to sleep an extra hour or two. I never manage to get the kids to sleep more than 4 hours on a 9 hour flight. They usually sleep on our second flight and always in the taxi home.
• Our favorite toy in this age range was reusable stickers. My son loved cars so I told him stories about the cars we stuck and moved around this book.
• Snacks are a great way to pass the time. One lady online suggested you make trail mix with things you know your kids don't like to keep them busy picking out and sorting out for example all the raisins. Another favorite was crackers and breadsticks, which were comfortingly familiar and didn't cause too much mess or excess waste.
  
• They are still technically a lap baby but bigger, heavier, more curious
• You get less attention from flight crew
• Your child does not have enough attention span to focus on anything for longer than five minutes 
• Your child can technically go in a back carrier but is really heavy and doesn't really like being immobilized. A buggy can really slow you down - whether by forcing you to wait for lifts/elevators or in Baggage Reclaim. At this age, they are not old enough for a trunki - we tried and our 18 month old fell off the back and hit his head on the marble floor of Amsterdam Airport.
• Your child is probably walking and may want to spend the whole flight walking up and down the aisles.
• Basically the worst age to travel but you want to take advantage of not having to buy an extra ticket for as long as possible.

We end up chasing kids this age up and down aisles most of the trip

2-4 years 

• Most useful items: 
• Candy for bribery
• children's magazines
• sticker books
• small figurines - NEW toys are best - and wrapped as presents are even better
• children's headphones - the ones they give out have no audio control and could damage the kids' ears
• trunkies to ride on but most of all to have some visible area to park the kids during all the standing around in queues/lines
• an ipad/kindle/phone with kid games/apps on it
• Kids this age have a better attention span for watching movies or playing games
• Also better at bathroom routine. I don't even try to toilet train till my kids are 3 but some 2-year-olds can be convinced to stand for diaper changing which saves toting a changing mat
• Many kids this age can tell you what is hurting or what's wrong
• Most kids with one foreign parent have been on enough trips by this age to know what to expect - to the point of manipulating the situation sometimes ('I want a window seat like last time!')
• They are capable of sitting still longer
• Snacks are still a good idea - esp if one kid insists on eating only icecream for dinner, it's good to be able pull out something healthy and filling later
• For children who have technically toilet trained but still have accidents, we think it's okay to put them in pull-ups. Give yourself some peace of mind.
• A child of this age can walk more and be more patient in queues/lines
• Their passports haven't expired yet - kids get 5 years before needing renewals.
• This is the best age to travel
• But you have to pay for a seat for them.

Buying tickets before the baby is born

We have been in the interesting situation of buying tickets for the family before the new baby was born with the idea that we would pay for an extra lap baby ticket (which is usually just taxes - for us it was $120) on the day of departure. You cannot buy a ticket for a child without a name and birth date.

At our airport, in Edinburgh, they had a clueless person on the desk and overrode our first lap baby's ticket with the second so we almost missed our flights to and from the States because no one could find boarding passes for both our kids. 

On the return flight we had to buy baby a new ticket a second time! It was eventually refunded but it was stressful.

We have never flown with two kids under the age of two since so I do not know if this is common or not. Either way, arrive at least an extra hour earlier than you would have if you are buying a ticket even for a baby!

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It can be a meaningful experience to introduce your children to your extended family in a foreign country but often the transatlantic trip can pose a real challenge. A knowledge of children's ages and stages and possible hurdles with buying tickets can be key to planning a successful trip.