My Stubborn Quest to Turn My Newborn Into a World Traveler
The first time my baby, Felix, laughed, we were in a Lisbon hotel room. He was sprawled on a coffee table I'd converted into a changing station. As I extracted a noxious diaper from his squirming form and hummed a deranged, jet-lagged version of our diaper-change song, sounds of the waking city floated in through an open window. Something in that sensory maelstrom set him off, and he started to cackle: a sound that could clear clouds, move mountains, bring about world peace. He was 4 months old, 3,300 miles from home, on day one of his very first trip. My masterplan, to shape my son into a traveler, was in motion.
In his first eight months, my wife, Maggie, and I took Felix to museums in Lisbon, sea cliffs in Madeira, hikes into the Grand Canyon and a meandering road trip along Ireland's west coast. In between those trips, with Maggie back at work and me on parental leave, I continued his international education at home in New York, introducing him to Uzbek kebab joints in South Brooklyn and Egyptian seafood markets in Queens.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Skift
an hour ago
- Skift
U.S. Tightens Visas, Oyo Enters Australia and Europe Flies Bigger and Farther
Today's pod looks at the U.S.'s latest attempt to scare away visitors, Oyo's latest acquisition, and Europe's longer flights. Skift Daily Briefing Podcast Listen to the day's top travel stories in under four minutes every weekday. Listen to the day's top travel stories in under four minutes every weekday. Skift Travel Podcasts Good morning from Skift. It's Tuesday, August 5. Here's what you need to know about the business of travel today. Some visitors to the U.S. might face a new financial challenge. The U.S. plans to require bonds of up to $15,000 for some tourist and business visas under a pilot program slated to start on August 20, reports Associate Editor Rashaad Jorden. The 12-month program would give U.S. consular officers the discretion to require bonds for travelers from countries with high rates of visa overstays, according to a Federal Registry notice published on Monday. The notice said the rule is a key part of the White House's efforts to tackle threats posed by visa overstays and deficient screening and vetting. The State Department estimates that 2,000 travelers will be required to post the bond. Officers are expected to set the bond at $10,000, but they can increase that figure to $15,000 if they don't believe it's enough to ensure a timely departure. Listen to This Podcast Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Youtube | RSS Next, Indian hospitality company Oyo has bought Australian short-term rental platform MadeComfy in a deal valued at more than $50 million, reports Asia Editor Peden Doma Bhutia. Oyo's acquisition represents its entry into the Australian and New Zealand markets. MadeComfy currently manages more than 1,300 properties with nearly 100 real estate agencies. Bhutia writes Oyo's goal is to expand MadeComfy across Australia and New Zealand and possibly into other countries where Oyo already operates. Finally, new data has revealed that flights in Europe are getting longer and planes on the continent are bigger, reports Airlines Editor Gordon Smith. The average flight distance in Europe hit just over 1,000 nautical miles last year, according to air traffic control organization Eurocontrol. Although the 2024 figure is a modest increase from the previous year, Smith notes it's part of a much larger structural shift as domestic and regional routes are in decline. In addition, the average maximum take-off weight of an aircraft jumped to just over 90 tonnes, up from both 2023 and 2018. Smith notes the increase is a sign of airlines emphasizing larger planes over regional jets.
Wall Street Journal
3 hours ago
- Wall Street Journal
Podcast: How Tariffs Are Changing Summer Travel
In the heat of the summer holiday season, travelers are finding it more expensive to vacation. Airlines, rattled by tariff uncertainty, have started targeting wealthier customers. Hotels are seeing a fall in foreign visitors, while domestic travelers are scaling back. Reporter Allison Pohle joins us to discuss what this means for the travel industry in the future. 🎧 Listen to the What's News podcast here.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
More Europeans are flying to Canada than ever before, aviation data shows
A record number of flights are scheduled between Canada and Europe this month. It's up 40% over the past decade, with Air Canada adding over 100 flights since last year. It comes after both sides showed less interest in traveling to the US since Trump's election. Travel between Canada and Europe is booming — as both sides turn away from the US. According to data from the aviation analytics firm Cirium, a record-breaking 4,276 flights are scheduled between Canada and Europe this month. That's up 5% since the same period last year, 14% since before the pandemic, and more than 40% over the past decade. The rise has been backed by flag carrier Air Canada, which added an extra 112 flights, or 34,500 seats, this month. It opened five new transatlantic routes, including Edinburgh, Scotland, and Naples, Italy, to Montreal. Flights between the US and Europe have been growing too, but not as quickly. Cirium data shows a rise of 4% between August 2024 and August 2025, and one-third between August 2015 and August 2025. Airlines have raised concerns that fewer people are interested in visiting the US since Donald Trump began his second presidency in January. For July and August, airlines cut capacity by 3.5% on routes between the US and Canada, OAG reported in March. "This sharp drop suggests that travelers are holding off on making reservations, likely due to ongoing uncertainty surrounding the broader trade dispute," said John Grant, the travel data firm's chief analyst. While political tensions also saw bookings drop from Europe, price cuts helped encourage a rebound in May, Nicholas Smith, holidays digital director at Thomas Cook and eSky Group, told Business Insider's Thibault Spirlet in June. Nonetheless, it may be that more Europeans are now choosing Canada instead of the US for a transatlantic vacation. In April, the CEO of hotel giant Accor told Bloomberg that forward bookings for Europeans visiting the US this summer have fallen by a quarter. He added that they were instead looking at destinations like Canada and South America. And while many Americans are still enjoying their "Euro Summers," the post-pandemic explosion of such trips may start to wane. The dollar is about 11% weaker against the euro compared to the start of the year, when it was at near parity. That means traveling to Europe is more expensive than before. Meanwhile, the Canadian dollar has dropped too, versus the euro, but only by 6%. Read the original article on Business Insider
