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Traveling With Kids
This is one of the sections that separates our traveling with kids blog from any other travel blog out there. We have done extensive traveling as family and are excited to share our experiences, tips and travel advice with you. We have covered a lot of topics around travel with kids such as managing sleep with a child, different modes of transportation, using technology and so much more.
Yes, it’s vacation time… nope just kidding. You are a parent traveling with a child. It’s an 18 hour long flight, jet lag, screaming toddlers, judgy passengers, non-helpful flight attendant and bad airline food. It feel likes the halloween version of vacation.
Trust us, we know how you feel and it’s really not that bad and in this post we have some tried and tested tips for you. By the time our son was two and a half, he’d already been on 40 international flights with us, spanning some 19 different airlines. So, we have some decent experience—and in this blog, we’re going to share a few of the lessons we learned along the way. (We’ve also embedded a few links to some favorite products for air travel, so that you can click and buy them instantly.)
Traveling with your family? First book a suite (hey, we are on vacay we need some space from the kids), then get the over-priced breakfast at the hotel (are those really eggs?) and then have to rent a car because the hotel right in the middle of the city was way out of budget. OR just make your life easier and book an Airbnb: wallet and sanity intact.
Today, there are more lodging options than ever before, especially thanks to platforms such as Airbnb. And we’re here to tell you that, even if you’ve got kids in tow, Airbnb can make your travels much easier and more pleasant.
Quick background: On our most recent trip, we had roughly 100 different destinations, and we used Airbnb for about 85 of them. On the whole, it was an incredibly positive experience, not least because we learned so much about how to use Airbnb effectively.
Whether you’re taking your toddler halfway across the world or simply across town, a good car seat is non-negotiable. With that said, not all car seats are created equal. And, as you consider the best car seats for domestic or international travel, you’ll no doubt want one that’s lightweight and flexible, in addition to being safe and secure.
When you’re in a foreign country or an unfamiliar city, it’s important to be ready for anything. For example, you may wish to take a short trip by bus, either as part of a tour or simply to get around town. Bus travel with a child has its perks, including affordability, but also significant drawbacks—especially when you’re traveling in a bus with a toddler.
Do you remember what it was like in the olden (i.e. pre-iPad) days, when you would go to a nice restaurant with your family? You would spend about 60 percent of your time entertaining your child, 20 percent making apologetic looks to other diners, 15 percent wondering why you ever thought this was a good idea, and maybe 5 percent enjoying your time there. Well, multiply that by a 100 and that is what it can be like to travel with a child. But there is a cure: Technology. And we think it’s a pretty good cure!
We love traveling by train, especially long distance. If we had to pick our favorite mode of getting around, we’d pick train travel in a heartbeat. We find it to be far more comfortable than plane, bus, or even car rides; there’s more space to get up and walk around, and no turbulence you have to deal with! Most trains get you where you need to go pretty fast, yet there’s also ample opportunity to look out your window and take in the scenery.
When people have kids, their life takes a major turn. Whereas they used to go out or travel, now they stay home. They tell themselves that they’ll start doing these things again when their kids are older or when this happens or that happens.
After our son was born, we didn’t want to get stuck in that vicious cycle of always having excuses for putting things off. We weren’t going to put our lives on hold; instead, we would bring our son with us and make him a part of the journey.
Imagine this scenario: You have two weeks of vacation. It’s the only vacation time you have all year, and you want to make it count. You know you want to go to Europe, and you’re presented with the option to take a cruise—11-12 nights, departing from Barcelona and hitting ports all over the Mediterranean. You get to see some sites in France, Italy, Greece, and beyond. Your other option is to fly directly into a city—let’s say Athens—and see Santorini and Mykonos, spending a few nights in each place.
You can’t help but admire the parents who traveled long distances with their children back in the olden days—and by the olden days, we mean the era before smart phones, tablets, and other modern luxuries. How did they do it? How did they maintain their sanity? How did they cope?
This is EXCLUSIVE content from our book, How To Travel With Kids (Without Losing Your Mind)
It took us a few months during our 9-month trip around the world with our 2-year-old son to brave a walking tour with him. We had been too nervous to try a walking tour, but after taking our first tour – and surviving – we discovered we had been missing out. From that moment on, at practically every new city we visited, from Buenos Aires to Rome to Lima to Barcelona, we signed up for walking tours with our son.
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