[perihelion]

Looks like me, my wife, and our (at that point) 17-month-old baby girl are going to be in Bristol towards the end of April.  My wife will be involved in a conference for most of that time leaving me and baby girl to our own devices.  Is there anything you locals can recommend me and baby-girl checking out (that won't require me to rent a car)?

Also, what are the laws about child safety seats in England?  I think we're going to be doing most of our travel by train, but I have not been able to find anything explicitly stating that we do or do not need a child seat for the train rides.  I assume that we would need one should we need to hire a taxi, but again, I seem to be looking in all the wrong places to get firm confirmation.

Any help would be appreciated.  It won't be the first time we've been to England, but it will be the first time in Bristol (and our first foray out of the States post-baby).

[Colonol Dekker]

Baby seats are are a legal requirement as far as i know.
Bristol has a zoo but to be honest i spent all my time at the bars on the waterfront in the town centre propositioning women.

[perihelion]

Baby seats are are a legal requirement as far as i know.

On trains as well as cars?

[Ford Prefect]

Listen to trip hop?

[Colonol Dekker]

Trains ??? No you should have a buggy /parambulator for that or just count the tyke as hand luggage

[perihelion]

Ok, thanks Colonol.

You have to understand, we don't really have passenger trains down here in Texas.  I mean, there is a relatively new light-rail system in downtown Houston, but that was after I'd already moved out.  It is pretty much car, bus, or airplane around here.  I have so little experience with trains I wasn't sure what the rules would be.

Sounds like it might be best to ditch the safety seat entirely.  We won't need it for the plane trip, won't need it on the trains... we'd only need it if we had to use a taxi.  I haven't planned things out far enough to tell whether we could get by without any taxi rides or not.

[haloboy100]

wouldn't it say these rules on "www.greatbritain.uk" or whatever the country's website is?

[Colonol Dekker]

Taxi's & cabs are fine if you're holding said child. I thought you were speculating from a driving perspective. Can't hurt to do a bit more in depth research beforehand:)

[perihelion]

You aren't kidding.  The rules change so much depending where you are within the US that I'd be crazy not to look them up when going to another country.

@haloboy100, that's more or less what I was trying to do.  Rules for a particular mode of transportation at a particular location are generally posted by the local transit authority.  At least, that's how it seems to be done where I live.  So, I checked out the British Rail website along with a couple of the more local companies.  I finally found some by-laws posted on a website for one of the Welsh lines (can't remember which one) but it still didn't say diddly about children except how much their tickets cost.

Obviously I was looking in the wrong place, but I'm still a bit baffled that it wouldn't have been put in the by-laws.

[captain-custard]

as i understand children under 2 or 3 yeras of age travel free on the rail network in the uk as they dont technically have a seat , as for hire cars if you hire a car u can hire the kiddie seat aswell.....taxis i the uk usualy have a child seat if you ask for it when ordering your taxi, as for bristol its a great city and so close to many interesting places , stonehenge being one of them ( about an hour or so away by car).... if you can tell me what your into i can get my daughter to mail me some info about things that are happining in bristol as she lives in bristol....
 other things in bristol it has a good circus schoolhttp://www.circomedia.com/
a good theatrehttp://www.bristol-old-vic.co.uk/
 and some great little communitys and some nice chilled out pubs with real beer (yummy),
it has a city farm project in the centre of the city http://www.windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk/

if i can be of any more help pm me

[Hellstryker]

Andi, no offense, but it sounds like a Korean wrote that...

[captain-custard]

Andi, no offense, but it sounds like a Korean wrote that...

does that mean at last id be good at starcraft ?

yip i didnt put enough .................;; in it or even some     and i havent lived in bristol for the best part of 20 years now , i go there occasionaly to see my daughter, and end up in the same old pubs and so there you go.......... i cant realy recomend going on a pub crawl with a 17 month old kid now can i ..........

[haloboy100]

No, if you were korean you'd be good at guild wars and maple story (that god forsaken game)
Plus you'd be obsessed with ^_^ smileys like all the other otaku in the world.