International travel really isn’t so different from domestic travel with a baby! If you think about how big the US (and Canada) are, you know about how much variation there is from NYC to the Rocky Mountains, just as an example.

When you travel domestically, the things that remain constant are the language spoken, the currency used, the units of measurement (degrees Fahrenheit) and the side of the road that the cars drive on. Some of this will change once you leave the US, even for Canada!

In this guide, we explore how international travel might be different from domestic travel when you travel with a baby. For us, we like both! The following is a list of all the ways each is unique.

How is international travel different?

In general, you’ll experience “more variables” when it comes to visiting other countries just feel slightly different from home. On top of that feeling, you’ll be with your baby! We think it’s a fun experience to grapple with.

Typically longer flights

International destinations are “typically” farther away from home. That is, unless you live at one of the “edges” of the US, like how San Diego is closer to Mexico than it is to New York (by a lot!).

In general, the flights to international destinations will be longer. But seriously, it is not always the case. When we flew to Mexico City (5 hours), it was still not as long as it would’ve taken us to get to Los Angeles (nearly 6 hours!). So, base it all on where you call home and where you fly from. If you want a short flight, prioritize that factor, regardless of if it’s to a domestic location or an international destination! How fun!

“How things work”

Once you leave your home country, there may be what we call a “limited support system” for your knowledge of “how things work” in the new country. For example, how do pediatricians work in Mexico? Can we see one, if we don’t have Mexican insurance? Would they make time for us if we really wanted to see a pediatric professional and we didn’t want to go to an urgent care clinic for adults?

If you have local contacts, or friends who live in that country, ask them first. Then, ask local people like your hotel concierge staff or your travel planner.

Language barrier

The language barrier, which also refers to the different “measuring systems” (Celsius for temperatures, child weight taken in kilos), is one of the harder things about international travel. The language barrier simply does not exist at home, regardless of how cultures change region-by-region in the US and Canada.

Availability of baby products

As you leave your home country, there may be less availability of high chairs, changing tables and other baby products that we tend to take for granted. In another culture, this may be very normal. In the US, we have it pretty good when it comes to the offers of and availability of baby products virtually wherever we go, from diners to fast food restaurants to public parks with changing tables in the restrooms.

Time changes and jet lag

Again, with an asterisk (*), traveling internationally to places like Europe and Asia will present time changes and jet lag as a factor of your travel with a baby. For that, we suggest checking out our guide to baby jet lag in this course.

Then again, places like Colombia presented zero difference in time differences for us, when we traveled there during winter, from NYC. It was the same time as it was at home! No jet lag there. And when we went to Mexico City from NYC, it was two hours behind.

For us, having traveled mostly within North and South America with our baby, we kept jet lag to a minimum, despite going international several times. You may experience more jet lag from the most eastern provinces of Canada and the US to Los Angeles, than from New York to Lima, Peru (which has the same time as NYC during winter).

Less stroller accessibility (or more!)

While not exactly dependent on being “international” per se, we did find that the US was more stroller-friendly than Colombia, for example, where we used our baby carrier instead of our stroller because of how challenging sidewalks were to navigate.

Of course, this is place by place. Many visitors to NYC would say that on side streets, tons of sidewalks are broken and lack repair because of tree roots, and in places like San Francisco, despite being a modern city, the steep hills and steps are just plain hard with a stroller!

And more ways international travel is different

There are even more factors that cause international travel to differ just a bit from domestic travel. See below.

Passport requirements

You may have issues traveling out of your home country (even to Canada, from the US) if you haven’t gotten your baby’s passport yet. Here’s how to get a passport for your baby, just like we did.

Visas

Visas are not something we think about too often, because so much of the world is visa-free for Americans. But, things are changing. The hardest thing to keep in mind is that your baby is a citizen of your home country, so whichever visas you need, they need as well. This is even changing for visiting a lot of Europe, which has not had visa requirements for Americans, for decades.

We recommend checking the guide we wrote about how to find out if you need a visa for travel.

Customs and immigration lines are typically longer

With domestic travel, there’s no immigration to go through! With traveling internationally and arriving in Japan, or India, or Argentina, heading off the plane with your cranky baby in the carrier and your stroller full of luggage means waiting in line to have your passport stamped and be questioned about your reasons for travel.

The one redeeming factor is that many countries abroad actually are nicer to families than the US is: families or groups with children under a certain age can usually fast-track to skip the line.

Vaccinations

Vaccinations is probably one of the places where you could say international travel is quite different from domestic travel. And to be honest, yes: places in the tropics have threats of malaria, and places in Southeast and South Asia still ahve threats of diseases like dengue fever and polio (among others).

Talk to your pediatrician before booking trips to places like South Asia, Africa, dense rainforest regions of South America and Southeast Asia. Your pediatrician will be able to advise on the minimum age for such vaccinations, or the risk tolerance you should be considering for bringing a child under 2 to destinations that strongly suggest vaccinations for adults.

Transportation concerns

Well, “concern” is a big way to talk about transportation, but now that you know that car seat belts don’t quite “tighten” and “ratchet” the way the ones in the US do, that’s why you’d need to bring a seat belt clip of your own, to fasten your car seat safely in a rental car or taxi.

The next thing to touch on under “transportation” is that sometimes car seats aren’t widely available in your destination, if it is international. It really depends on the country, and it’s hard to generalize. You may have to do some asking in online forums (Reddit, Quora, Facebook) to learn about the experiences of families very recently.

A conclusion

Overall, the good news about traveling domestically if you come from a place like the US is that the US is absolutely gigantic. You could spend 100 years traveling in the US and never even see it all.

So, if you’re feeling antsy, go somewhere wild within the US, and you can still enjoy things like the same currency, the same language, no passport nor visas needed and the same cultural norms.

If traveling internationally is what inspires you, like how it is for us, use this list to help guide your decision-making so that you’re taking the best trip possible with your baby.