Published: The Points Guy

Location: Worldwide

My daughter, just 16 months old when we visited Europe a few months back, will never remember the time she plunked a 2-euro coin into the palm of a Frenchman in Biarritz to take her very first spin on a carousel.

With the ocean stretching wide in front of her, it was the best view from a merry-go-round this mama had ever seen — and one of those sweet child-rearing moments you commit to memory since they come around just once.

For my daughter and her brother, these early memories will almost surely vanish before they are old enough to retain them. Some would say that the kids might as well have never seen that spectacular Basque coastline from the back of a carousel horse. 

Wouldn’t a merry-go-round ride back home in Tampa have been just as good? In a word — no.