Scoop Airport/Hotel/Travel Thread

[Galway Eagle]

Headed to Kerry this August for a buddy's wedding. Never been to that part of Ireland, anyone have a favorite restaurant or pub?

Also any tips on traveling with 2 under 2?

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Airport Wait Times

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/us/tsa-wait-times-us-airports.html?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20260324&instance_id=173012&nl=from-the-times&regi_id=129195399&segment_id=217168&user_id=241ba4d41597465e5702c58f7203475b

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

No line at security at all in the Detroit McNamara terminal.  No wait.

[WarriorFan]

Also any tips on traveling with 2 under 2?

Those were the days...
It's very hard to do.
But, my tips:  get 4 seats.  Be mindful of the plane's seating config and 4 across the middle is best.  Get an airline approved car seat and use the car seat for the littlest one, especially if they sleep well in it.  Bring multiple changes of clothes for the little ones, and for you and the missus.  Somehow kids puke 10x more on airplanes than anywhere else.  Feed on the way up and on descent.  Their ears don't naturally equalize but sucking on a bottle helps a lot.  Use Stokke YoYo travel stroller - they fit down the aisle and fold up tiny enough to fit in overhead bin.  Most cabin crew know this is one of the only ones that will do so.  We put about 1,000,000 miles on ours.  Plan on noise and chaos. 

[BM1090]

First time in Raleigh next week if anyone has any suggestions for bars, restaurants or activities.

[pbiflyer]

Those were the days...
It's very hard to do.
But, my tips:  get 4 seats.  Be mindful of the plane's seating config and 4 across the middle is best.  Get an airline approved car seat and use the car seat for the littlest one, especially if they sleep well in it.  Bring multiple changes of clothes for the little ones, and for you and the missus.  Somehow kids puke 10x more on airplanes than anywhere else.  Feed on the way up and on descent.  Their ears don't naturally equalize but sucking on a bottle helps a lot.  Use Stokke YoYo travel stroller - they fit down the aisle and fold up tiny enough to fit in overhead bin.  Most cabin crew know this is one of the only ones that will do so.  We put about 1,000,000 miles on ours.  Plan on noise and chaos. 

2nd on the feeding drinking on way up and down.
Bring lots of new little things to distract them.
Plan on things taking longer. Plan on less activities. If you get more in, great.

[Galway Eagle]

Thanks guys, we're looking into an airplane approved car seat for the little one! We took my 18mo old to Ireland (at 6mo) and France (at 11mo) so we've got some airplane with a baby travel experience.

what I'm mostly concerned about is logistics when there, rent a car seat or get one of those harnesses? Buy a pack n play or bring?

Is it worth even attempting to rent a car given how much luggage we'd have between 4 of us, the double stroller, and car seat?

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Thanks guys, we're looking into an airplane approved car seat for the little one! We took my 18mo old to Ireland (at 6mo) and France (at 11mo) so we've got some airplane with a baby travel experience.

what I'm mostly concerned about is logistics when there, rent a car seat or get one of those harnesses? Buy a pack n play or bring?

Is it worth even attempting to rent a car given how much luggage we'd have between 4 of us, the double stroller, and car seat?

My kids first started to visit the grandparents in Poland when they were 4 and 2.  We would add in a short trip on the way home.  An Amsterdam visit with children is much different than a visit as a 25 year with friends.  I was only using trains.

We bought a portable roll up thing that was super light and came with its own sack.  It had a thin rollup mattress and that fit in a holder that you assembled by sliding foam into the sides that created 4 walls.  It disassembled easy.

[JWags85]

Thanks guys, we're looking into an airplane approved car seat for the little one! We took my 18mo old to Ireland (at 6mo) and France (at 11mo) so we've got some airplane with a baby travel experience.

what I'm mostly concerned about is logistics when there, rent a car seat or get one of those harnesses? Buy a pack n play or bring?

Is it worth even attempting to rent a car given how much luggage we'd have between 4 of us, the double stroller, and car seat?

Ive only traveled with one, so YMMV.  But def rent a car seat, peace of mind and safety and consistency, IMO.  Definitely don't bring a pack n play, don't need to add to the luggage and cargo to bring.  Way easier to rent/borrow one.  Not sure where you are staying (lodging wise), but when we traveled with my son domestically (Flordia/NY) and the UK when he was under 2, we always checked with the hotel cause most always had pack n plays or similar to use.  Otherwise, there are a few apps/websites where you can rent all sorts of baby stuff.  So we'd rent a high chair, some bigger toys/play consoles, and a pack n play (even though my son never cared for them).  They'd drop them off and pick it up at the hotel or AirBNB. 

And I'd totally rent a car.  Its worth it just to not deal with piling all the stuff into Ubers or the like and being able to somewhat dictate your travel schedule a bit without the stress of ordering and meeting the car.  Obviously you just can't get some classic European compact.

[pbiflyer]

When we went to England and Scotland with a one year old, the black cabs didn't have the attachments to anchor the car seats. But that one year old is now 22, so times may have changed. If you pack not heavy, a rental car may be good. Depends on how often you are traveling not on foot or public transport. We did London and Edinburgh, so taxi travel was limited to airport and train stations for the most part.

[WarriorFan]

Definitely rent a car and rent with baby seats.  Most rental car companies offer options with the different sizes based on the weight of the kid.  Many taxis in Europe are not properly equipped, and you can wait a long time for "uber kids", plus you have to fuff around every time buckling in the car seat, on the side of the road, in a busy street... it's added stress.  Look at the Euro brands like Sixt and Eurocar.  Make sure to take thorough photos of the car when you receive it and upon return because fake damage claims happen frequently and it's cheap protection.  They especially love to claim that you scratched the wheels.

As for the pack n play - call the hotels in advance and organize one.  Most will have.  The problem in Ireland is finding a hotel room big enough to open the pack n play!  Again something to organize in advance directly with the hotel.  When you call you can also ask about parking, something that every Euro city has monetized.

[Hards Alumni]

Lines for TSA were fine at both MSN (duh) and LAX.  We did have early afternoon flights on both so ymmv.

[BM1090]

Lines for TSA were fine at both MSN (duh) and LAX.  We did have early afternoon flights on both so ymmv.

Good in MKE and RDU too

[JWags85]

Lines for TSA were fine at both MSN (duh) and LAX.  We did have early afternoon flights on both so ymmv.

Between my trips and others I know in the last month or so covering TPA, CLE, RIC, SRQ, IAH, JFK/LGA, ORD, and BNA, the only issues Ive heard were my wife's boss out of JFK one time last week and another at LGA 2 weeks ago (though it was just noticeably longer than normal not that it was staggering) and my friend had 1 of his 3 trips out of ORD was a bit snaggled.  Otherwise everything has been pretty normal.  It really seems to be isolated to a number of airports and times of the week.

Meanwhile, I had a friend from Belgium on holiday traveling through Lisbon to Morocco. Had an overnight layover in Lisbon.  Got to the airport around 2 hours and 15 min early.  Had no checked bags, got through security quickly, within minutes.  Got stuck at passport control for LITERALLY 2 hours.  The projected wait time for the non-EU passports (he's Singaporean) when he got to the queue was 20 min.  But the queue was huge once they got around the corner and they had like a quarter of the available stations open.  They tried to appeal for help from airport services, given their departure time, but predictably were denied.  They got to their gate 10 min before departure but gates had closed with no budging.  And of course, since its Europe, they won't put you on standby and they were told they had to buy a new ticket.  Air travel hiccups in Europe tend to be much better than the US cause EU 261 makes it totally fine if you get delayed or flights cancelled cause you get cash in hand.  But if you miss a flight on your own accord, or not due to airline issues, you're SOL in a way that you wouldn't be in the US.  Will never forget arriving in Rome 3 hours late due to mechanical issues departing from NYC and getting to the Alitalia  (RIP) desk and asking what they could do about our tickets and in broken English being told "do you need us to throw them away?  We can take them" 

Ended up flying EasyJet instead of business class on TAP    (though its not even a 2 hour flight so they weren't bothered all that much by that part).  They are trying to get their money back but aren't necessarily hopeful

[pbiflyer]

Yeah the EU is rolling out the new EES system Schengen wide today. Expect craziness the next couple of weeks.

[WarriorFan]

Lisbon has always been a problem.  Even transfer queues can be 2 hours. 

[pbiflyer]

Will be flying through CDG next month. Inbound have a three hour layover so should be fine. Outbound only 1.5 hours. Hopefully exiting Schengen is easier than entering.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Yeah the EU is rolling out the new EES system Schengen wide today. Expect craziness the next couple of weeks.

I'm flying to Germany through Amsterdam on Sunday and am expecting to wait.

[WarriorFan]

I went to Madrid a couple weeks ago and they were forcing our arrival flight to use those machines for the EES.  I tried 5 different machines, none worked.  Just skipped it and went the counter... told the guy none of the machines work.  He says "we know - nothing we can do about it". 

[21Jumpstreet]

Hope it's all worked out by June/July, headed to Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, and Northern Italy.

If anyone has any must hike, must do, or must eat in Slovenia or the Dolomites, I'm all ears.

[WarriorFan]

I checked the pre-registration system today and it's now saying that for US passports the implementation will be 4Q2026.  What this means for me is that upon arrival, when the machines are not working, I'm just going straight to immigration counter.  Not going to waste time.

[21Jumpstreet]

2 minutes to get through PHL this morning.

Edit: The move though is go to Terminal A East if leaving from Terminal B domestically, no TSA Pre in B. Chase lounge between D&E, solid lounge, easy walk.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

I checked the pre-registration system today and it's now saying that for US passports the implementation will be 4Q2026.  What this means for me is that upon arrival, when the machines are not working, I'm just going straight to immigration counter.  Not going to waste time.

Thanks for the heads up.