While I prefer the train for most city to city transportation, leasing a car has a lot to be said for it when you’re traveling with an infant. If budget is an issue, a car, with room for an infant seat and gear, will be more expensive than the train. Second choice would be train with a railpass. 1st class has its advantages with an infant and a pass will be cheaper than 1st class point to point tickets in most of these countries. Don’t forget the cheaper “adult saver” pass since there will be 2 of you traveling together.

A week per country is reasonable, however you could easily spend longer in England and Italy.

Most important suggestion with an infant is to bring some sort of infant seat. I had a sling type that hangs from the table and there are also fold up booster seats that tie to a chair. Cafes and Restaurants usually don’t have high chairs or booster seats and you don’t want to end up eating every single meal with a 10 month old sitting on your lap.

Hostels often have private or family rooms. You’ll want to research hostels and hotels carefully (send e-mails about your specific situation) as you may find a huge variance in how willing/able they are to accommodate an infant.

I would go for a base city/day trips type of itinerary. You’ll want to stay in one place for at least 4 or 5 days. You can take day trips to a number of interesting places — without worrying about excessive gear.

Thanks for the quick reply. Your suggestions make a lot of sense and have given us more insight as to which of our ideas we should keep researching, and which to drop.

We’ve recently completed a 3wk trip to Canada to visit friends, and I’ve found my previous traveling style from when I went through there and Europe last, (lots of walking/hiking, camping, public transport, driving, racing around seeing as much as possible as cheaply as possible!), has had to change a bit now with having to look after an infant as well! Well, maybe not the style as such, but the time involved!

Thanks for that seat suggestion. We’ll have to look around and see what we can find.

There used to be a rule on European railways that children under 4 are transported free of charge. I think most European rail carriers will transport an infant under a year of age for free. But you better do some research beforehand, like write to German railways and ask, they tend to know everything

Most countries have special cars for children in long distance trains. In poorer trains this is just a designated car that looks like all the others, otherwise there may also be a playroom, room for changing diapers etc. All high quality trains should have at least some kind of baby friendly zone.