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Written by Alison Gresik

Chances are good that you’ll leave the family minivan behind when you take off around the world — even a Smart car won’t fit in the overhead bin!

Giving up a personal vehicle takes some adjustment but you may be surprised how quickly the car-free lifestyle becomes second nature.

Shawn and I live in downtown Ottawa, Canada, and we sold our Honda Accord five years ago.

When we decided to have kids, people asked, “Does that mean you’re going to buy a car?” But several of our friends had wee ones without wheels, so we thought we’d give it a go.

Living car-free certainly has its ups and downs, but I’d be loathe to go back to owning a vehicle now.

The Ups

Save money

Compared to owning and maintaining a car, our costs for getting around by foot, bike, bus, and rental are much lower.

The 2010 edition of Your Driving Costs (from the Canadian Automobile Association) reports that the average yearly cost for driving a four-door sedan 12,000 km would be $7,768 CDN.

In comparison, we paid $2,481 CDN last year for bus tickets, taxis, and car rentals.

Get more exercise

I don’t need a pedometer to tell me I walk a lot — trips to the park, library, and daycare really add up.

We used carriers when the kids were under 2.5 years old. Now, I push a double stroller that weighs 85+ pounds fully loaded.

We’re not big into biking, but we know families who get their cardio from cycling everywhere.

Reduce consumption and carbon footprint

Not only do we avoid purchasing a car, use less gas, and produce less pollution, we also buy less stuff because it’s not as convenient to shop at malls and big box stores.

Experience the city in a different way

Walking gives us an intimacy with the neighbourhood — we know every garden, cafe, and drink fountain in a twenty-block radius. We often run into folks from playgroup and swimming lessons on the street.

Riding the bus is a communal event, whether the kids are charming fellow passengers or entertaining a baby in the stroller opposite.

The Downs

Planning ahead

For every appointment or excursion, we have to figure out the best mode of transportation and make arrangements.

That may mean looking up bus schedules, booking a Vrtucar (our local car-sharing service), or arranging a carpool.

In China we used taxis a lot, so Shawn found an iPhone application with translated taxi cards and made sure he had the address of our destination.

The physical demands

Carrying and pushing kids and stuff can get tiring, I have to admit.

Not to mention being exposed to the elements — there’s no protection from rain showers, strong winds or snow drifts and there’s no air conditioning!

Limits to activities

Our choices for school, daycare, and lessons are constrained by how far we’re willing to walk or bus on a regular basis.

We do fewer trips to rural parks and attractions, and it’s harder to see friends who live in the suburbs.

Shawn plays Ultimate Frisbee but finds it a challenge to get rides to the fields.

If you’re new to car-free living with children, here are some things you’ll want to consider:

Think about ground transportation for young kids

Carriers and backpacks are great for smaller children: we loved our BabyHawk mei tai carrier and used it until the kids were about 25 pounds. It’s easy to put on and comfortable for long periods.

For trips with one child, we have a folding umbrella stroller. Our double stroller is a Joovy Caboose Ultralight, which we chose because of its narrow profile, light weight and easy folding. That stroller was invaluable in Beijing!

Consider walkability and public transit when choosing a place to live

I’ll take a smaller living space any day if it means convenience in getting around.

Our Beijing apartment was a 10-minute walk from a subway station, several malls and numerous grocery stores and restaurants. Lia’s Chinese kindergarten was also close by.

In Ottawa, we’re a few blocks from the major bus routes and Shawn can walk to his office in 20 minutes.

Use cars on an ad-hoc basis

There are times when only a car will do, so you’ll want to rent, borrow, or hire. We belong to Vrtucar, which lets us book shared cars online for short trips. We also rent cars once or twice a month when we travel out of town or have errands to run.

Shawn uses these strategies to get great deals on rental cars in the US and Canada:

• Check websites like AutoSlash and KAYAK to get a general idea of rates
• Sign up for better deals and frequent renter programs
• Take advantage of promotions that get you free days and weekends
• Enter your information online to minimize your time in the rental office
• Use FlyerTalk and FatWallet or search the Internet to find discount codes that drop your price further
• Sign up for a credit card that gives you good insurance coverage and avoid the prohibitive cost of coverage being pushed by the car rental companies

It is often not a good idea to rent car seats from rental companies — they can be expensive, their availability is unpredictable and they’re often dirty.

We suggest lightweight car seats that are quick to install like the Cosco Scenera, or folding ones like the Sunshine Kids Radian.

Check out the forums on Car-Seat.org for unbiased, up-to-date, recommendations.

Figure out how to use the transit system

Many cities have online trip planners and maps.  Google Transit has integrated 446 transit systems around the world at last count.

You’ll also want to determine the cheapest and/or most convenient way to pay fares (using tokens or passes) depending on how much you travel.

Guidebooks often have transit information or you can stop in at a transit info booth.

Decide whether to sell or store your vehicle

On one hand, vehicles lose value over time and don’t do well sitting. On the other hand, if you still need to use the car a significant portion of each year, you may want to keep it.

If you decide to keep your vehicle, reduce the insurance to basic coverage. In some jurisdictions this has the benefit of allowing you to maintain an insurance record, so it doesn’t affect your premium rates in the future.

You may also want to loan the car to someone to keep it in good running condition.

Going car-free in Beijing felt easy because we were used to living that way in Ottawa. We have fond memories of people-watching on the subway, and not-so-fond memories of lugging the stroller up and down stairs when the subway elevator was out of service.

Have you lived car-free with kids? What ups and downs have you experienced when your family leaves the vehicle behind?

Image by Yukon White Light

Our approach to “stuff” has radically changed since being location independent – and we applied that same mentality to having a baby. We were about the only couple at the Parenting Classes who hadn’t stuffed our house full with every baby gadget known to man.

In fact we didn’t buy a baby bath, a changing mat, a baby monitor and a load more things until our daughter was actually born. This turned out to be a really good approach for us since we were able to choose things as we needed them and based on the experience of knowing exactly what would work once she was here – instead of buying things based on guesswork before she arrived.

We’ve used the same approach to travel so far – and packed the bare minimum, knowing that if we needed anything else, we could very likely buy it on location.

Of the few things we’ve researched and packed, here are some of the items we’ve considered, researched and bought. Having only been on the road for around 3 weeks and with this limited experience to judge things on, I’ll save any reviews for a later date but will promise to update you as & when we’ve been on the road for a bit longer and had chance to thoroughly road-test the items listed…

Travel cot

We researched & researched this and decided not to buy those big travel cots which are heavy, bulky and (we decided) just not practical to travel with.

We decided instead to go for a lightweight travel crib (from Koo-di, as pictured) and also considered the Samsonite equivalent and travel bubble.

On the recommendation of numerous people, we have also purchased a UV Travel Centre [aff] – both for use indoors and outdoors. This, we hope, will eventually be used as a bed but can also be taken to the beach/pool and used as a play tent which also protects from the sun.

Key considerations: Weight, comfort, safety, footprint of cot, whether accommodation provide similar.

Baby Bath

If you’re not sure whether there will be a bath or big-enough sink in the place you’ll be staying, then you’re going to need some sort of solution to bath your baby. We decided to purchase a baby bath once we arrived (in fact, my parents are also in Thailand for a couple of months and arrived before us so purchased one before we arrived).

Unfortunately, our daughter’s a pretty big girl for her age (5 months) and in conjunction with the bath support we use, is too long for the bath they bought and others we tried so we’ve actually bought a small paddling pool to use with her bath support which works perfectly.

Key considerations: Size, availability/suitability of existing facilities.

Strollers/Car Seats/Slings

Stroller: Having started out with a Quinny Zap buggy + Maxi Cosi car seat, we traded it in (sold it on ebay) for a City Jogger which we’ve been exceptionally happy with (it reclines almost fully, has an excellent rain/sunshade, is light, comfortable to push and folds away with one hand). We’ve brought this with us and the only thing we’d change is to get it in a different colour (we got black) so it doesn’t absorb the heat so much – not a consideration when we were in the UK!

Car Seat: In many countries, the laws aren’t as strict about using rear-facing baby car seats as in the UK but there’s ever been any question about whether we use one or not. We brought our existing car seat with us and, as per much of the advice you’ll read, opted to take it hand luggage rather than check it in. We have however left this one in Dubai and purchased a new one in Thailand since it’s likely to be a place we’ll be coming back to every year and can store it somewhere when we leave.

Slings: We brought our Baby Björn sling with us and also carried it on the plane with us; this was an excellent decision (we almost didn’t!) since the buggy which we left at the airplane door didn’t meet us there at the other end in Dubai and we’d have had to carry our 8-9kg daughter on the 20m bus ride to the terminal, along the miles of walkways at the new terminal in Dubai and for the 45m+ wait at immigration.

Key considerations: Weight, suitability for climate, safety, whether to check in or carry on.

Clothing

We’ve taken a few weekend trips with our daughter prior to hitting the road for good; each time we’ve over-packed in the clothes department, largely for “just in case” scenarios. We’d probably still do this if she were a little younger and nappy accidents/leakages were still a common feature of daily life but since this happens less frequently, we’ve brought 3-4 of each main type of outfit (i.e. short-sleeve/no legs babygro’s, long-sleeved/long-legged babygro’s for cold plane journeys). A consideration here is whether you’ll have easy access to a washing machine or not.

Key considerations: Climate, availability of clothing on location, growth/development stage, access to washing machine.

Toiletries

No matter where you are, you’ll probably be able to get most of the basic baby care toiletries and supplies. If however, there are specific brands/products you use then you will probably want to consider taking your own supply with you. For example, we use organic skincare products on our daughter’s skin and I was pretty certain you couldn’t get these in Thailand (you can’t), so we’ve bought a 3 month supply with us. Of course if we run out, we’ll use what we can get but it’s nice to primarily use our chosen products 90% of the time.

Key considerations: Availability on location.

Toys

Our daughter’s only really just getting into favourite toys and showing a preference for certain ones, so we’ve brought along the ones she likes and is familiar with to ensure a bit of continuity. This includes her playmat off of which we can hang existing & new toys we buy.

For the most part however, we’ll buy toys & play things on the road wherever we are. As with our previous approach to on-the-road purchases, anything we don’t want to carry with us when we leave, we’ll donate/pass on to locals, a hospital or an orphanage.

Key considerations: Availability on location, familiarity, stimulation/development stage.

Other Equipment

While we’re here, we’ll need to wean our daughter. In the UK, this would be easy (well, relatively speaking!) – we know we can get all the equipment we need, the organic food/baby food and anything else which might help make this process simpler. In Thailand, I had no idea what we could & couldn’t get – although fortunately I could get my parents to go on a reccie and find out before we left – so I bought some of the basics with us and will keep our fingers crossed that we can get the rest!

We’ve already learned a lot about some of the decisions we made and equipment we chose so I’ll update you on these in a future post – but for now, the best tip I can give is this…

Before you hit the road for good, a useful experiment to conduct is to spend a few days away from home at a relative’s or somewhere and see how you cope. You’ll be amazed at how many things you can do without or how much you can improvise when you have to.

Of course, when you’re staying somewhere for a few months at a time, you won’t necessarily want to “make do” but it’s a good attitude to have for the first few days until you get kitted up with everything you need.