Expert Family Travel Tips – Traveling With Kids

Planning to travel with kids but not sure where to start? Sharing the Wander shares their best family travel tips from a year of full-time travels. After a year on the road, they’ve learned a lot about traveling as a family and navigating the new normal. Are you ready to travel with your family?

Best Family Travel Tips

When we sold our house and set off to travel together as a family in June of 2021, we had little idea where our travels would take us, how we would all adapt to full-time travel, or what we would learn along the way.

We started with a broad itinerary, which has changed many times since we started traveling. As we travel, and as our kids grow we are constantly learning how to make travel work best for all of us.

More than 9 months later, we have celebrated multiple birthdays and holidays on the road, and are still learning what’s best for our family, tweaking our travel pace, and of course, making a few mistakes here and there.

Our kids were almost 4 and 6 when we hit the road. Here’s some of what we’ve learned along the way, that we hope will be useful to other traveling families. Here are our top family travel tips for traveling with kids.

1. Stay Safe

Our first priority when going anywhere with our kids is safety. How to travel with kids safely is also what we get asked about the most! In most places, a little common sense goes a long way.

When traveling with kids as a family, research destinations (and specific neighborhoods) beforehand to make sure you are staying in safe areas. Make a plan in case you get separated – kids should know to stay put, and how to find a safe adult to ask for help if needed.

We also recommend everyone in the family wear ID bracelets. You can personalize these however you like, we include the child’s name, phone numbers for mom and dad, any allergies, and blood type.

This way, whether it’s a separation, or a car accident, the kids have identification on them and information as to how to contact both parents. Remember, most kids don’t have their parents cell phone numbers memorized!

Learn more about ways to keep kids safe while traveling: Your Worst Fears: A Complete Guide to Keeping Kids Safe While Traveling.

2. Set Expectations with Kids

One of the things we have learned over our family travel is that kids need to know what is coming, and what to expect. The more we outline for the kids what to expect from the next few days or weeks, the better they roll with the bumps along the way.

We also try to engage kids in decision-making when we can – whether it’s which museum to visit today, or what type of food we should eat for dinner.

3. Everything Takes Longer when Traveling with Kids

Everything takes longer with kids! A simple bathroom stop can stretch to twenty minutes. Getting through security at the airport, or verifying documentation for four people at check-in takes a lot longer than when there were just two of us.

Plan extra time, especially for airports. Distances between security, the gate, bathroom breaks, and much-needed food can be long for little legs. We often think we’re leaving in plenty of time, and then end up dashing for food before boarding our flight.

4. Get Assigned Airplane Seats

When booking air travel, pre-book your seats when you can. Many US airlines do not guarantee to seat families together if you choose the lowest fare class. Switching last minute or asking other passengers to switch with you can be stressful- you’ll have a smoother trip if you know you have seats together before you arrive at the airport.

Consider the best seating arrangement for your family- as a family of four, we prefer to book two sets of seats in front of another two seats- so the kids both have window seats, and the adults have middle seats. This means we can easily pass things back and forth over the seat, and even talk to each other without disturbing other passengers.

For buses, which often have rows two seats wide, we prefer to sit two on each side of the aisle. Buses often have very high-backed seats, which means if the kids sit together in front of us, we can’t see them well. If they are next to us across the aisle, we can see them, and help them as needed, but they get to play together.

5. Plan A Recovery Day

Especially when changing time zones, plan a recovery day after your arrival. It can take kids up to one full day per hour of time change to adjust.

If you plan a slow day after you arrive, you will all have time to adjust a bit, and the kids won’t be so cranky when you are trying to visit a major tourist attraction. Save the bigger events for when everyone is feeling better.

We also try to schedule the more important visits at the front of our trip. So, if there are a few things we really want to see in a new place, we do those on days 2 and 3. That way, if someone gets sick, or you find the place is closed, you have a chance to reschedule it. If it’s the last day of your trip, you’re out of luck.

6. Look for Family Rooms

Related Topics:ExpertFamilyKidstipsTravelTraveling

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