How to Travel With Kids: Our Best Tips
Travel with kids can be challenging especially if you’ve never done it before. In our experience, kids tend to travel best when they are given the space to experience a wide range of emotions. Depending on their age, they are likely going to have cranky moments and meltdowns and expectations need to be managed from a parent standpoint. Keep in mind that travel is new and exciting and some kids respond well to that, but others can find it very overwhelming. Having realistic expectations of your kids when you travel is crucial. Here we list some of our best tips for travelling with kids and how we make it enjoyable for everyone.
Let Kids Help with Planning
We always ask our kids for input with choosing our destination and planning activities. They are given a choice of 3 parent approved destinations to choose from and then discuss amongst themselves to come up with the best option. If they don’t agree, then the person left out will get to choose the first activity or tour that we do. Letting them have some input makes the anticipation that much greater when they know what’s in store.
If your kids are old enough, get them to pack their own bags. I like to give them some freedom of choice but also give them a checklist and let them fill in the individual items to fit in those categories. Always make sure they have a small comfort item of their choice.
Learn About Your Destination
Kids have a hard time getting excited about something they know nothing about. There is a great series of books from “Who HQ” that has hundreds of different titles about places in the world and people in history. They are designed with young readers in mind. We have read about the Colosseum, the Vatican, The Tower of London, The Parthenon and many more. We have found this an invaluable way to get them excited about travelling and it gives them a head start on learning about some of the highlights we are going to see.
Teach Them a New Language
Teaching your kids a few words or phrases of a new language will help them to feel a little more empowered when travelling. At a minimum we encourage them to say please and thank you and they usually try out general greetings as well once they gain some courage. Our kids are always excited when they can understand something that someone has said to them and it helps them gain a little more confidence to try out new words. Teaching them how to ask for help is also very useful in case they wander away from you. Thankfully our kids have never needed to do this but its a good thing to know.
Consider using an app like Babbel when you travel with kids. Its great for beginners and unlike other language apps you can tailor your learning to travel which is very helpful. Plus there is a one time fee for a lifetime subscription, so if you are planning on travelling to multiple countries in the future this is the cheapest app to use.
It’s important to teach kids to respect people in all countries and attempting to speak the language is a big part of that.
Kid Friendly Accommodations
Hotel vs vacation rental? This is always a big question when travel planning with kids. When its just Ryan and I we will usually stay at hotels but we have learned that hotels don’t always accommodate families of 5. And since our daughter is celiac, we like to have a full kitchen to prepare meals when we can’t find a safe restaurant for her. Finding this in a hotel is possible but much more difficult outside of major centers. When travelling as a family, we often book vacation rentals for this reason.
Here are our most important requirements for booking a stay with kids:
A Full Kitchen
Having a kitchen to prepare meals or at the very least a kitchenette with a fridge is a must for us. It makes for easier mornings and a place to come back to midday to have a rest and a snack. As soon as we get to a new destination we go in search of a grocery store to stock up the kitchen even if its only for a day or two.
As much as we love eating out and discovering new culinary experiences, when it comes to kids, they don’t always appreciate it as much as we do. Kids need food frequently and eating out for 3 meals a day can really add up. We certainly indulge here and there but having a fridge to store some fruit, sandwiches and milk for cereal is more cost effective and makes every day run much more smoothly.
In House Laundry
Laundry is essential when travelling with backpacks but even more so when we travel with our kids. When its just Ryan and I we can manage without laundry facilities and can hand wash in a sink when we need to. But throw 3 kids in there and hand washing becomes a bit overwhelming. Laundromat’s are certainly an option but finding one close to your accommodations can be challenging. Not to mention waiting for your clothes to be cleaned could take the better portion of a day. With in house laundry facilities in at least every other stop, we can wash in the evenings and hang to dry overnight. Don’t forget to pack a travel clothesline to make this easier!
A Balcony
When we travel with kids, it inevitably means that we won’t get any date nights unless we are with friends or family who can babysit for us. This is why we book accommodations with a balcony and a view whenever possible. We put the kids to bed and then have the entire night to ourselves.
Some of our best talks have been over a bottle of wine, listening to the city come alive beneath us. Our balcony in Venice was so small Ryan barely fit shoulder to shoulder but the view of the canals was all we needed. It isn’t always possible but it sure is fantastic when it works out!
Air Conditioning
We usually only travel to warm destinations so air conditioning is a must when we travel with kids. We have stayed in places that didn’t have A/C and we suffered for it. A good sleep is imperative and tired kids means more whining and complaining the next day which doesn’t help anyone have a good time.
Kid Friendly Activities
Family trips just aren’t the same as adult trips. You can’t drag them around to every single attraction that you want to see. We certainly take them to see the main highlights in major cities, and now that they are getting older, they are ready to go to more exciting places. But when they were little we were visiting parks, hitting the best beaches and going on kid friendly tours. With Locals is a great company that has tours of all kinds including some wonderful child oriented tours that are sure to delight young ones. And they are always hosted by a local which we love so you often get some great tips about the area and local hotspots as well!
Where to Eat
You don’t need to go to fancy restaurants with kids (I actually suggest avoiding it) as kids don’t tend to appreciate them as much as we do. They are almost always happier with a picnic in a park or a small family style restaurant. When our kids were younger, they ate their way through most destinations on spaghetti and butter! However, they still talk about our Paris picnics in front of the Eiffel Tower. They cartwheeled and played for hours on that grass while Ryan and I took it all in with a Parisian beverage in hand. Some of their favourite memories have been where they are just allowed to be kids. Ask the concierge or your Airbnb host for suggestions as they will likely know some kid friendly restaurants nearby.
Check out our post on How to Make Travel Affordable
Take Them to Museums
Don’t be afraid to take them to the occasional museum. But never more than one per day. People always say to me “Aren’t they bored at museums?”. While this has been true when they were quite small, they have now developed a real appreciation for art and history because of those early experiences. We don’t subject them to 4-5 hours of it but a little taste of history and art first hand has been an invaluable part of their education. They actually ask to go to museums now!
Play a Game
Consider playing a game like counting the number of headless statues or find 5 paintings with horses in them. Just make sure these items are in the same room as you are and they don’t go running off to find these things. Museums are an easy place to get lost at the best of times! With Locals has some fantastic museum tours geared towards kids and include games and scavenger hunts to keep them fully engaged.
Consider a Kids Audio Guide
When they were really young our visits often consisted of them sleeping in a rented stroller and that was perfectly ok by me. Now that they are a bit older we get them a kids audio guide and this seems to be the best way to see the highlights of a museum without boring them to death. Since we only take a few trips a year we always try to squeeze in a couple of museums, because for me, art and history are such an important part of travel. And lets be honest, we are paying for this vacation so should be able to do a few things we want to do!
Expert Tip: If you are getting a kids audio guide and an adults audio guide, they don’t always follow the same path. We made this mistake at the Vatican and Ryan and I couldn’t even listen to ours because those artifacts were nowhere around. Ask before you purchase!
Have a Safety Plan
Whenever we travel we always have a safety plan. We come up with a meeting place before we go exploring a new attraction and make sure our kids know where they can find a security guard. This is also where learning a few words of a new language comes in handy. Knowing how to ask for help is an invaluable skill for kids to have. We also make sure we go over our safety plan before getting on a subway or train.
Make sure older kids know your phone number. When our kids were too little to remember, we would have them wear Road ID Bracelets with our contact information on them. This way if they were found we could be contacted right away.
Check out our full post on How to Stay Safe While Travelling
Midday Breaks
Kids get tired. They can’t push through a full 8 hour day of sightseeing without a break. We tend to go sightseeing right after breakfast and then come back for lunch to give the kids a bit of a rest. We usually only travel in warm weather so an escape from the midday heat is often appreciated as well. Our kids don’t fall asleep but usually go on a device, journal, snuggle with a stuffy or read a book to refuel for the evening activities. Everything about travel is different and culture shock usually hits kids a little harder so finding a little bit of familiarity in their belongings helps to combat homesickness.
Let Them Pick a Souvenir
When travelling with backpacks, its hard to bring a lot of things back with us. But we always let our kids pick out a small souvenir in each place we visit. They know it needs to fit in their backpack so they usually go for a small magnet or a sticker for their journal. It is fun for them to have something to look back on and remember where we were. I also remind them that our photos serve as the best memory so that helps them to keep their souvenirs fairly conservative.
Travel Journals
I have always made our kids travel journals that prompt them to write about our trip. The prompts are very important because when you travel with kids, they aren’t going to sit down and journal on their own. This is a great way to wind down together at the end of a busy day and reflect on their favourite moments. Things like transportation, weather, favourite foods and special moments from the day are so fun to look back on after we get home.
Book Some Time to Relax
When we travel with kids for 2 weeks or more, we always try to book some beach time at the end of the trip. Our kids are troopers and we do a lot of activities on vacation. Sometimes near the end, emotions are running high and homesickness is setting in. Taking a few days to rest and recover gives us the time we need to reset and reflect on all the unforgettable memories we have made. When we travel we love to be busy but taking that time as a family to be present in the moment is something that has made our kids appreciate where we are and all we have seen.
Sometimes we take some time in the middle of a trip when we can’t make it work at the end but even a couple of days of down time makes all the difference. If you aren’t near any beaches then the countryside or a farm would do nicely.
