Traveling with kids of any age is different than traveling as a couple or solo, obviously! The key to travel with kids is to be patient and give yourself and your family plenty of time to adjust, learn, rest, and enjoy.
In this essay, I share my experience of traveling with my almost-teenage daughter, and what I learned.
1. Give yourself time to rest and adjust
Give yourself at least one complete day to rest. Never schedule anything on the day of arrival. And then, give yourself one day of complete rest and adjust to the new time-zone. If you arrive during the daytime, you can situate yourself and adjust your sleep with the new time zone.
Give yourself at least one complete day to rest. Never schedule anything on the day of arrival.
On your day of adjusting and resting, which is your second day in the new location, take your kids and family around where you can familiarize yourself with the metro stations, bakeries, groceries, parks, and amenities. It is particularly helpful for later in your stay to know exactly where to go for a quick stroll among trees, or where to go to grab a pack of sugar when you need to.
2. Don’t book early-hour tours
My number two recommendation is never schedule anything early in the morning. It can be very stressful for kids, your hubby and yourself to schedule anything around 8 a.m., which means that everyone needs to be up around 6, get breakfast, shower, be ready by 6:30, and leave around 7. In new city, you get lost easily, you may lose track of your whereabouts, your kid may need potty, or you may have a planter facilities, like yours truly, and walk slow. I recommend you plan to start your day around 10 ish, to have time do leave your place a bit more peacefully.
3. One thing at a time
Try to plan one thing a day. If you travel to megacities like London, Paris, Rome, Milan, or Madrid, you cannot see everything, and that’s OK. Your goal for long-distance and expensive trips should be to go places to visit and have enough time to rest and enjoy.
Try to plan one thing a day. If you travel to megacities, It’s Ok you don’t see everything.
In one of my more stressful London plans I booked Buckingham Palace tours in a way that was inconvenient for all of us. I traveled to London for the first time this summer. I didn’t know that by booking the Buckingham Palace tour, I’d sent embarking my family on three separate, and related, tours.
First, we had to get ourselves on the path that took us to the palace. We spent 25 minutes walking toward the palace. Then, we needed to navigate to see where the entrance for our tour was. By the time we got there, everyone was hungry. We thought we couldn’t enjoy the tour with empty stomachs. Besides, my almost-teenager daughter would remind me of my mistakes and mishaps every 4 seconds. I had to fill her up if I needed to save my a…!
We managed to visit two of the three locations.
4. Limit traveling to many cities
Try to visit one or two cities for two weeks or less. The younger your kids are, the less train travel you should have. Because imagine getting ready to leave your hotel or Airbnb, then take a taxi to the train station. Europeans travel by train most of the time. Then, you need to find your train and wait for the train to open. You may have less than 10 or 15 minutes to transfer all the luggage, the stroller, yourself, and the kids. I still haven’t mentioned finding the car you need to be in, and the seats.
If possible, try to have a companion for your kid(s), yourself, and your hubby, so then you can get the responsibilities (and headache) to be distributed more evenly.
My best tip is to stay in one country, if possible. And, just go to one, two, or three cities while giving yourself enough time in each city. Or, just enjoy one major city during your trip.
5. Travel with friends
If possible, try to have a companion for your kid(s), yourself, and your hubby. In that case, all the responsibilities, stress, and headache will be distributed among more people. Less burden on you. For my next trip, I’m taking two of my best friends with their kids and hubbies with us. Or, I’m taking a tour for the duration of my trip. In that case, I do not need to be worried about companionship, hotel booking, or train travel. I just need to pack light to move around easily.
I suggest you travel far and wide with kids, and enjoy every moment of your life. Just remember some trips require more planning and more attention than others.
Keep on traveling and enjoying life.
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