First (non-beach) vacation with newborn?

Denver. Find a hotel near Union Station. Get a suite so you don't have to share a room with the baby. You can take the train from the airport. No car seat needed. Just need a stroller.

We took ours to Colorado at around 6 months old and it was great. Timed flights with naps. We went to the Beaver Creek area around Labor Day.

Don’t have much to say about where you go but just a few travel thoughts we’ve learned:

1. Book your travel early. Everything is easy in the AM with kids.

2. Even if you are not staying in a hotel, you can rent any gear you need. Not having to travel with the portable crib is great.

3. If your baby is a good breast feeder, travel really should be easy.

4. As someone said book a hotel room with a suite or sitting room set up so you can comfortably be awake in the room when they are asleep. If the bathroom is big enough setting up the crib in the bathroom, turning off the lights and running the exhaust is like baby ambien. We’ve also used a bedsheet, rope and clips to set up a partition.

4. Just lower your expectations overall. With what I assume is still two naps a day, just enjoy what you can and don’t sweat an ambitious agenda.

5. Hotel amenities, particularly a nice on site pool, can really be great. You may not leave the hotel much particularly if they pick up any kind of a cold and get cranky.

6. A nice hotel conceriege will often have a babysitter service they can recommend so you can go out to dinner alone.

Asheville would be a good spot.

Skip the hotel and get an AirBnB, its the only way to travel with children, and you'll spend a decent amount of time there while they nap.

Lots of breweries and hiking. We did Graveyard Fields with our 4 year old this weekend. Lots of hiking trails off the Blue Ridge Parkway.

There are lots of breweries, but like any touristy city avoid any holiday weekend. It gets packed there. I have not been to the Biltmore, but our friends have season passes and go pretty frequently. They love it.

Mountain towns are great so if you have one within driving distance go for it. I don’t like flying with babies until they are closer to a year old. Plus you gotta bring the car seat and all and it’s not as easy. Beware of higher altitudes because they won’t sleep as well until acclimated. We have done North Carolina a lot with babies. Hike, drink at wineries and breweries, relax by a stream, sit in hot tub once baby goes to bed. Babies are pretty easy and totable.

Ya I'll have to disagree with travel strollers being a waste.

Chicago was a good trip in the summer, as well as Seattle. We drove over to Wallace Falls and did a hike with my son. Those were both between 6-10 months old. Flying with a kid under 1 is way easier than flying with a kid older than 1 by a large margin.

At 6 months, I assume your best bet is some light hiking and lots of patio sitting and eating/drinking assuming your 6 mo will still sleep in a stroller/carrier. Which is going to be really weather dependent, as sitting on a patio in 90 degrees with a 6 month old will likely suck a lot. But you're still in the window for decent infant/toddler travel IMO.

Since you scratched CO (you'd likely have a heat/UV issue anyway) I'd scratch Charleston too. It'll be a swamp and you'll want to be outside I'd think. Boston or Chicago seem viable as both will have enough places to pick from that are family friendly. You could also do tours and the architecture tour in particular would work I think.

Ultimately, if you plan a trip for a northern city and it's 90 degrees, you'll be in for it. But that's just a fair gamble. Soon you'll be where we're at - too young to do real kid stuff but too big to peacefully hang out on a patio for long. So roll the dice and get out there while you can would be my recommendation. We're taking the next 6 months off from air traveling

Think we've landed on Asheville, like many said light hiking and eating/drinking + Biltmore with a decent deal on flight/hotel considering the travel demand. I'd like the Pacific NW or hell even Europe but gotta ease wife into long flights with the kid. Appreciate the recs.