Ditch Your Car Seat For CARES Infant Harness

When flying who doesn’t feel sorry for the exhausted-looking mom or dad dragging a gigantic car seat down the plane aisle? If that mom or dad has been you and you’re a frequent air traveler with kids, you may want to consider the CARES infant harness.

We shelled out the $75 for this tiny little contraption and for us it’s been money well spent.  There’s a great demo video on the company’s website but, in a nutshell, the harness converts the adult lapbelt into a 5-point harness for children between 22-40 pounds and in their own seat. The harness is small enough it can literally fit in your pocket. No more schlepping a heavy car seat down another concourse.

Here’s the Kids Go Global rundown of the harness.

What We Love About CARES

• Small, compact, lightweight
• Very easy to use – it just slides over the back of the seat and then the lapbelt slides right through it.
• You know your child is safe in case of turbulence
• It leaves the seat free so, once in flight and the seatbelt sign is off, your child can stand on the floor and use her seat as a platform for toys or coloring. Not so with a carseat
• It’s FAA approved for all aircraft, although you may want to print off the documents on the company’s website in case of a skeptical flight attendant. We encountered one who had not seen it before but thankfully she thought it was wonderful.

The Downsides You Need To Know

• The harness is not a substitute for a car seat in any other kind of vehicle. You’ll still need a car seat at your destination but at least with CARES you can check the car seat or borrow one at the other end.
• It’s not as comfortable as a car seat, especially for a child trying to sleep.
• Once the flight is airborne, you may find your child does not want to stay in it. Grace fought so hard she was able to slip her arms out of it and we finally gave up and let her get out of it except for when the captain turned on the fasten seat belt sign. A child may be content longer in a car seat since they’re used to it and it’s comfy, but on a long enough flight little ones are going to want to be free. At least with CARES the seat is free to be used in other ways as mentioned above.
• At $75 it’s probably only for families who travel a lot. We saw some for rent on ebay which would be a good way to go if you’re not sure how much you’d use it.

Overall we give CARES infant harness two thumbs up. It makes boarding and deplaning so much faster and easier, plus we can get through the airport faster without a carseat in tow.

Have you tried CARES? What’s your take on it?

Tegucigalpa’s Offerings For Families

The last week of our trip to Honduras was spent in the capital, Tegucigalpa, or “Tegus” for short.  This was a return visit to Tegus for us, and it seems to have improved with time.  The airport is newly renovated and a much nicer experience.  The streets seem cleaner and better organized, even with political campaigns in full swing.  Truth be told, though, Tegus is probably not somewhere you’d seek out for a vacation as the culture and vibe is not quite the same as you might find in Antigua, Guatemala.  But, if you find yourself with kids in Tegus at some point, here’s our experience.

First, it’s hard to find a decent hotel with enough comfortable space for kids.  We’ve stayed at Leslie’s Place in the past before Grace, and it’s really nice but doesn’t have any suites available.  Fortunately, Humuya Inn is the top ranked hotel on TripAdvisor and deservedly so.  It’s in a quiet residential neighborhood, run by competent and attentive American expats, beautifully appointed and has huge 2 bedroom apartments for a reasonable price (and smaller hotel style rooms are available as well).  The kitchen is decent and flexible too.  Humuya staff also arranged a daily driver with van for us, which was a positive experience and well worth the moderate cost.

Humuya Inn

In Tegus itself, the highlights for us included El Mirador del Picacho, a park with huge Christ statue overlooking the city.  The overlook is next to a somewhat-maintained park commemorating the United Nations and some playground equipment.  There’s also a nearby zoo which apparently has seen better days (we gave it a miss).

Another worthwhile outing with kids is the Chiminike Children’s Museum, a fairly new site with a good variety of hands-on exhibits that appeal to a broad spectrum of ages.  Vacuum tubes, water games, karaoke, and a walk through the human body kept Grace entertained for several hours.

One of the most popular day trips from the city is Valle de Angeles, a small town about 40 minutes drive from Tegucigalpa.  While sometimes touristy, it’s still a pleasant colonial village with a profusion of leather shops, wood handicrafts, traditional pottery, a nice plaza and church, and cool breezes.  The bustling groups of people on the weekend provided an entertaining distraction for Grace.  We were pleasantly surprised to find a unique shop off the main street selling interesting ceramics, iron sculptures, and a plant nursery.  Called Hierro Barro y Verde, we found some beautiful ceramic Christmas tree ornaments, tiles, a cross, and iron hanging card holder to take home.  It’s a new shop, run by mother and daughter, is only open on weekends at this point, and is across the street from the Museo Santa Maria de los Angeles.

While in Valle, we made a return visit to a restaurant we discovered on a previous trip called El Turistico (not as bad as the name might suggest).  It’s on a hill overlooking the town, has great anafre (melted cheese appetizer) and well priced steak.  I would be remiss if I didn’t also put in a plug for the venerable chicken institution in Central America, Pollo Campero, which has several locations around Tegus.

Hopefully this brief overview of Tegus’ possibilities is helpful for your next visit there with kids!  Have you found other good spots for kids in Honduras?  Please share!