My husband and I will be taking our two small children to Europe with us and to save space, will be buying diapers as we go. Any tips??? Preferred brands??? Is it better to buy them in a supermarket as opposed to a pharmacy?
You will probably find your regular brand there. At least in Spain, pharmacies don't sell diapers. Pharmacies there are not like pharmacies here, who sell all kinds of things.
You'll find diapers in the grocery stores in Germany, not pharmacies. Pharmacies in much of Europe only sell medications and some "wellness" products.
In Italy buy from supermarkets. Wider range and cheaper than the smaller stores and pharmacies. Here is an on-line site to give you an idea of products and prices http://www.prontospesa.it/
Here is a link to a grocery store chain it Italy: http://www.e-pam.it/
I remember seeing diapers in some of their ads. My kiddo is in pull ups at nighttime and they even had Huggies brand. I priced them out and they were a 5-10 cents more expensive per pullup in Italy than at home....not taking the exchange rate into consideration:( I am sure they have non American brands which are probably cheaper, too.
Might want to consider the age when children in these countries are toilet trained or whatever the phrase is now. It sounds weird but we took my son to Japan when he was 2 1/2. Japanese toddlers do not use diapers after about 1 year. So my son was terribly squeezed in the XL diapers! Of course, Japanese children also tend to be smaller than American children. I am not sure what you could do about diaper sizing but at least you would know in advance.
One of the biggest supermarkets in Germany is Rewe. You might have a look around their site. I use Google Translate so getting around the site is easy if your German isn't up to snuff. Mine usually is but I haven't hunted for diapers recently. They have a good selektion of Pampers. The whole link for the online shop diaper selektion is: http://www.rewe-online.de/index.html#!{"content":{"url":"Babywelt/Babypflege-und-Windeln/Windeln-CT2353.html","node":,"nav":"c91"}} The Pampers are 19€ for different quantities based on size (i.e. 43 Baby Dry Midi, or 30 Pampers Junior Dry size 5) and they also have their own brand. Good luck...