7 Disaster Stories – Traveling with Kids

We have traveled to 30 countries across 6 continents in the last 3 years with our kids. I could list one disaster story after another that we can still remember to this day.

Disaster Story 1:

We somehow survived a 40 hour journey to get to Paihia, New Zealand from Basel, Switzerland.

Firstly, just imagine us with 2 kids under 2 walking from home with our luggage to the train station and taking the train from Basel to Zurich Airport.

From there it was a 6 hour flight to Dubai, a 3 hour layover and another 17 hours on the plane to Auckland (one of the longest flights in the world). After we got our car rental, it was a 5 hour drive north to Paihia. When I caught Peter almost falling asleep on the wheel, we stopped at a gas station so he could have an hour nap.

Can you imagine dealing with a 12 hour time change with 2 kids under 2?

We found ourselves holding kids who fell asleep while in the swimming pool at 4 pm. I would fall asleep at 6 pm and all of us would be awake at 2 am and go back to bed at 5 am till 8 am.

Entertaining a 22 months old toddler at 2 am is challenging. We were trapped indoors. It was dark outside. There is only so much fun one can have with sticker books and toy cars.

This lasted a few days.

We had a laid back 5 days based in Paihia to deal with the jetlag and explored places like Russell 

On our recent holidays to Toronto, the kids would wake up at 4am and we were out walking along the Toronto Waterfront by 6.30am.

I can remember us dealing with jet lag with the kids in many places – Washington DC, Osaka, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, home.

Disaster Story 2:

You must remember the epic earthquake that struck New Zealand in November 2016.

We were in Wellington, asleep, when it happened.

A picture with Noah and the Wellington skyline 12 hours before the 2016 earthquake

Waking up to a flurry of texts from everyone back in Europe asking if we were alright, I was bummed that I had slept through yet another earthquake (the first happened whilst I was in University).

We were to fly to Queenstown in the morning. Many flights were cancelled or rerouted. Luckily ours was scheduled to fly as normal.

What we didn’t know was that Queenstown’s airport is considered dangerous as the plane has to go through the mountains, make sharp corners and drop fast before landing. The wind there also keeps changing directions. Pilots have to be specially trained to land there.

Unfortunately for us, our flight couldn’t land in Queenstown even after two scary tries! The winds were ferocious that day.

We were initially diverted to Christchurch to refuel but then re-diverted to Invercargill in the southern end from where a bus took us north to Queenstown.

We weren’t sat together as it was a small plane with 3 seats on each side meaning there wouldn’t be enough oxygen masks for the 4 of us should there be an emergency.

Peter was sat next to two kids who were traveling on their own without their parents. They were both crying and screaming saying that the plane was going down and we were all going to die. It was REALLY scary!!!

I was not at all pleased that we then had to endure a 3 hour bus ride to Queenstown.

Ilyas was entertained with sticking stickers on the bus window

When we got there, it was raining. No cabs would pick us up as we and they did not have car seats for the kids.

Luckily for us, my dad’s friend lived there and was able to pick us up. I don’t quite know how we would have gotten to our accommodation otherwise.

What should have been a straightforward flight from Wellington to Queenstown ended up being a whole day’s journey.

Disaster Story 3:

After finally arriving in Queenstown, we had to wake up at 5am the next morning as we were booked to go to Milford Sound. 

At 6.30am we were already out with both babies (Ilyas was 22 months, Noah was 3.5 months) waiting for the bus to pick us up from a Copthorne Hotel which we soon realised was the WRONG Copthorne Hotel.

Frantically looking for wifi to get directions to the right Copthorne Hotel, we ran in the rain getting to the correct pick-up point. We got on the bus, and ten minutes later it broke down.

We had to get off said bus in the rain and got on another one that passed by which took us to Te Anau.

Of course, a poop explosion had to happen and we changed Noah once the bus stopped.

A tired, dizzy, unhappy baby (and parent) contributes to a disaster story

This happened on top of the fact that we were told that we were no longer going to Milford Sound, but to Doubtful Sound. I was furious! I didn’t come all this way half way across the world to be told I couldn’t go to Milford Sound because the bus broke down!

Fast forward and we managed to get ourselves on a bus heading to Milford Sound after all.

The trip to Milford Sound was worth it

Getting on our third bus of the morning, Ilyas was happily eating a banana and asked for another one. In the 3 seconds when I reached down to grab another banana from our Cabin Zero bag, he had managed to throw up the entire banana he just ate all over his sweater. Of course it was because the road was really windy.

All that happened before 10am.

To put things into perspective: horrifying journey getting to Queenstown the day before + lack of sleep +running in the rain with 2 babies + stressful situation thinking we couldn’t go to Milford Sound + poop explosion + throw up all before 10am = Disaster Story 3.

Disaster Story 4:

We were flying back to Basel from the Seychelles via Paris on a night flight.

Ilyas was 14 months old and only wanted to sit with me. I was 5 months pregnant with Noah.

Being pregnant made it so difficult to survive a long night flight with a toddler asleep on me.

A highlight of our trip to the Seychelles was to say hello to the giant tortoises!

I was so tired and didn’t know what to do. Peter was asleep.

I desperately wanted to put Ilyas down. I layered two blankets on the floor and tried putting him down.

But with my bump, I couldn’t quite properly reach down to put him down properly. But somehow it worked the second time I tried and all of us finally got 4 hours on uninterrupted sleep!

Obviously I wasn’t supposed to do this but it was the only way I could have survived the flight.

Disaster Story 5:

At the end of 2015, we decided to spend Christmas and New Years in Morocco. We spent five nights across Rabat, Chefchaouen and Fes and another five nights in Marrakech.

What we didn’t realise when booking this trip was that our baby would be an expert at crawling! That meant he needed all the space in the world.

It was a dream come true to finally visit Morocco’s blue city in the north – Chefchaouen 

Unfortunately for us, we had booked to stay in a Riad just two minutes walk away from the famous Jamal Efna square and our room was TINY!

Neither of us were joking when we asked if we should take the next flight home and cut the trip short.

Luckily, we didn’t do that. Instead we spent most of our time outdoors. We actually walked 17 km around Marrakech on one of the days! A day trip to Essaouira also helped.

Another dream come true to see the goats on trees

Disaster Story 6:

We were visiting the Hermitage during our day trip in St Petersburg as part of our Baltic cruise in October 2017.

Little Ilyas was always great when asking him to pose for pictures. Even strangers couldn’t help smiling and laughing watching him. (Unfortunately he never lets us take his pictures anymore)

Ilyas putting on a big smile during our tour of the Hermitage

We had been on the tour for almost an hour looking at painting after painting, sculpture after sculpture. As we had had an early start, the boys were very tired and cranky.

Ilyas was 2.5 years old, Noah was 15 months old and I was 4 months pregnant.

Both kids were crying and screaming wanting me to carry them.

There I was, struggling, trying my best to carry what must have been a combined weight of 20+ kg. Sometimes kids just want one parent more than the other. Being pregnant and having both kids wailing at the same time just made it a lot worse.

Disaster Story 7:

When UBS (our bank) announced they had a special offer for its customers to go up 30 mountains in Switzerland for CHF 10, we knew we had to make the trip to Schilthorn – the James Bond mountain. Reason being that the normal price to go up from Stechelberg would otherwise cost CHF 105!

Our second child was less than 3 months at this time which meant he couldn’t go up to that altitude. As my brother was visiting, we decided to get his help to babysit the baby. As I was exclusively breastfeeding the baby at this time, we said we would go up as quickly as possible and come down immediately.

The issue with going up Schilthorn was that you needed to take 4 different cable cars to go up to 2’970 m. As the cable cars ran twice per hour, it would take a long time going up and down.

We left my brother and baby Noah in Lauterbrunnen, took the bus and then queued to get on to the first of four cable cars. We did a stop in Birg – the third station where the photo below was taken.

What a fantastic view of the famous three Bernese mountains from Birg on the way up to Schilthorn

Unfortunately Ilyas did not deal well with the altitude and cried non-stop.

We clearly weren’t prepared. I did not bring any food or snacks to soothe him, so we stopped for an ice cream before taking the last cable car up.

As soon as we got to the top, we took the mandatory pictures and queued again to get the next cable car down.

I was frantically texting my brother the whole time, worried that the baby needed milk. Unfortunately my brother wasn’t checking his phone! I was so annoyed and worried.

We finally got back to Lauterbrunnen which is only 15 minutes away from Stechelberg where we took the first cable car from. We had been away for at least 3 whole hours!

Crying baby + unprepared parents + worried mom (thinking baby might be starving) = Disaster Story 7

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Have you had a disaster story traveling with kids? I’d love to hear yours in the comments below!