10 Approaches to Travel with Kids
While family travel is a privilege, it can often feel daunting. So many think of the season of raising kids as a time to stay close to home or keep travel as quick as possible. When you’re young and single, you go on your adventures. Then you have kids and put away those plans, exchanging them for trips to places with kids clubs. Hear me, there’s nothing wrong with kids clubs, but it isn’t the only option.
Sharing travel with kids is a gift and a wonderful way to bond together as a family. You have the opportunity to introduce them to the big world around them, as well as explore and learn together.
Of course, setting out with kids requires different tactics, creative thinking and probably a bit more work, but the reward is great. With that in mind, today I’m sharing 10 of my most valued approaches to travel with kids.
These strategies have really benefited my family. Do we have a 100% success rate? Definitely no, but these are kids we’re talking about. I have been thrown up on in a taxi, had to sprint through airports carrying toddlers, worried that a kid just broke a bone in another country and changed time zones with babies more times than I can count (and slept less hours than I care to dwell upon). Yet, I wouldn’t trade a minute of it (maybe besides the taxi – that driver was really mad) and happily sign up for the next opportunity to go with them somewhere.
Traveling with kids requires a good sense of humor and provides a constant reality check that we have a very small amount of control over what these little people will do in most situations. However, I have found that there are some fairly straightforward ways to set my family up for success on our travels. Let’s talk about those.
1. Work together to decide your destination
One of the hardest choices for a lot of us is where to go. There are so many ideas and options that it’s hard to prioritize the one that we will put our vacation time and resources towards.
Do a bit of groundwork, narrowing down your options to those that fit within your budget and the length of time you have to be away, but then involve the family in deciding, maybe talking a bit about the options, asking for opinions, watching a short video so they can see what that place looks like. It creates the feeling that the trip belongs to everyone, not just mom or dad. If someone doesn’t get their way, it’s important to remember that you really can’t choose wrong – there is something to love about all of the places you’re considering. Talk about that as you present the options.
2. Remember that planning is a part of the journey
Embrace reading and learning about your destination in the months ahead of your trip. Seek out podcasts about your destination and hear from locals what makes them love their home and what they like to do on Saturdays. Read blog posts from others that have visited that place, maybe searching for posts about traveling with kids to that destination or authentic experiences to have in that place. Visit the local library for travel books. Involve the kids by letting them check out either fiction or non-fiction books about your destination. Introducing them to a place through reading or movies before your trip is a great way to build excitement as a family.
Make notes of what you hear or see that appeals to you. This doesn’t have to be a cumbersome experience! It can be fun to build it into your Friday night movie or your drive to and from work. The more you familiarize yourself with the names of things around that place, the more the place will start to take shape in your mind and help you to build out a plan.
3. Pick the right place to stay
On a family trip, the place you stay matters more. It’s just the facts. If you’re two single adults, you drop your bags and stay out all day and night. Any clean hotel room will do. Not so in the days of family travel. Because kids need different amounts of down time at different ages, the place you stay matters way more. Choose a place that allows you to still feel connected to your destination, even if you’re at home for nap time or an early evening in. Pick up the local wine or ingredients to make a charcuterie board from local favorites and enjoy a piece of the place you’re in while your kids are catching up on sleep. If the accommodation continues your experience of the place you’re in, you won’t resent having to spend time there.
4. Choose transport that isn’t unbearable
We all want the cheapest option when we’re heading somewhere with the whole crew, and sometimes that’s certainly the way to go. But when you’re traveling with children you really need to consider if the amount of money you’re saving is worth the sacrifice you make to sleeping schedules and time spent in airports.
Be realistic about the amount of time your travel days will take – clearing customs, picking up bags and figuring out how to get where you need to go all take more time than you think. Alternatively, if you’re setting out on a road trip, you may need to build in more significant breaks to burn off energy or bite off smaller amounts of time in the car each day. Look for national or state parks, museums or parks along your route – maybe you’ll detour a bit, but the adventure of the day will make the whole thing feel more like an adventure than simply a long car ride.
5. Take the right gear, not all of the gear
Especially in the days of travel with younger kids, it’s really important to have the gear that just makes your life easier. If it’s a kid-carrying backpack for hiking, a jogging stroller that can handle cobblestones or a fold-up umbrella stroller that can easily collapse for train travel is completely dependent on your destination. It’s important to take the most useful item, but not all of the items! Don’t burden yourself with everything you own, because when you’re moving from place to place and it’s up to you to haul everything and manage your kids, the stress level will be through the roof. Really consider the best fit for getting around where you’re going. The same applies for your sleeping situation. Traveling with pack n plays is cumbersome. Check the Airbnb or hotel listing to see if these are available on site, or turn to your second option if at all possible. For older kids, make sure you have the right clothes and shoes, but not ALL of the clothes and shoes. I have made the mistake of overloading my family with luggage and gear to manage – it makes travel days impossible.. Think efficiently.
6. Intentionally plan activities for different age groups
Not everything that you do has to appeal directly to the children! The key is to think through and pair things together that appeal to different members of the group. If you want to go to a history museum, pair it with a local park stop afterwards. If you’re planning a day hiking, choose to make it an early evening, picking up some local ingredients to make dinner at your place and letting the kids play freely. Don’t expect too much from them, but also don’t expect nothing from them either. So often, there are ways to meld adult and kid activities together.
7. Don’t expect perfection all of the time
Neither yourself nor your kids will magically become perfect people on your vacation. There will still be complaints and tiredness and frustration when something doesn’t go to plan. If anyone is promising you tips that will make kids love everything, they’re simply lying to you. When you travel, you must adopt a certain degree of flexibility. Give each other grace, choose option B and, as my husband likes to say to me, put the rest in the shredder. There will inevitably be the day that doesn’t work out like you thought it would. I can promise you this – the day will become a part of the legend of the trip, a part of your family history. When things don’t go our way, we get tougher and we learn to adapt. Your kids will learn this, too, from the way you react. You’ll either have a good time or a good story to take home with you. Believe it or not, both have their place.
8. Engage with your kids about the place and culture you’re visiting
I know this seems obvious, but as adults, we often make assumptions about what our kids will find interesting. We think they’ll hate the food at the restaurant if it’s different than their usual fare or we expect that they don’t care about whatever history happened in the place we’re visiting. They’ll be bored to tears if we dare to venture to a non-kids centered museum. Now hear me out – sometimes all of those things are true! Sometimes our kids will not like the food and sometimes they might get bored somewhere we take them, but that’s OK! All of these things are character building and even if they don’t immediately pay off, I believe that these experiences will build up in them as they grow and help them to be better able to embrace the world as adults.
Despite the fact that sometimes we fail, I have learned that if I talk about the history that makes a place unique, or if I bring up the foods we want to try often, or if I include them in whatever museum I want to visit by explaining why I find it interesting, it builds a curiosity in my kids about those things. Again, sometimes we still walk away and they let me know that what we just did wasn’t their favorite thing. I always tell them that’s ok and that everything we do isn’t meant for them. When we travel as a family, we have to compromise. Usually, that goes over pretty well.
My last piece of advice (that I still have to preach to myself) is that it doesn’t help me to get offended if they don’t love something that I chose. If I can’t work my magic and peak their interests, then it’s ok. They’re learning a different lesson that I hope they use in the future and that’s enough for now.
9. Leave time to wander
Unless there is a reason I can’t, I always try to leave the first evening or morning that we arrive somewhere for the family to simply explore our location. Just get out the door and walk the town, neighborhood or countryside you’re in. Take note of what’s around you and leave time to return to things you spot. If you discover something that has never made it onto a list on the internet, you’ll probably love it all the more. Most kids love a chance to be out in nature, so find a body of water or a park and just hang there for a bit.
10. Plan some family downtime
It can be really tempting to slam all of your days full, but kids really respond to having some calm, intentional time together as a family after some longer days seeing the sites. Bring a few portable games along and have a low key game night. Cook a simple meal at home and have a movie night after a long day out. Throw in a slower morning if you’ve been out late the night before and make coffee and hot chocolate to drink on your balcony/patio/whatever. Some vacations lend themselves to this concept more than others, but don’t forget to build it in to busier trips.
I hope these ideas have been helpful! Remember to embrace the imperfection and enjoy the journey with your people.
Check out some of our favorite places to travel with kids!
