15 Tips For Travelling With Kids: Help For Overwhelmed Parents!

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It’s the last day before the weekend and you’ve got an incredible trip lined up, the first one as a family.

You’ve got an action-packed itinerary, you’ve got a lovely hotel booked, and you know where you’re going to eat – but somethings eating away at you.

Could it be the anxiety of travel with kids?

Don’t worry, this is normal. It’s ok to feel overwhelmed about the idea of travelling with kids, it’s going to be different from before you had children, and I won’t lie, there will be challenges too.

But it will also be the best trip you’ve ever had. There is nothing like a family vacation with your own little family.

In this guide, I’ve shared some of my top tips for traveling with kids, so you can have a stress-free trip!

Travel Tips for Traveling with Kids

Here are our top tips for making your vacation stress free and enjoyable.

1. Know the Right Age to Travel

We have been traveling with our kids since they were babies, but we can honestly tell you that toddler age is the worst age to travel.

They have so many needs, both physically and emotionally, that it will cause you a lot of stress trying to keep them happy – and that can take away from the experience.

That’s not to say don’t travel with your toddler, but we recommend those with younger kids take road trips from home rather than international travel.

When you fly, you need to pack so many things it’s impossible to travel lightweight. You need diapers, wipes, travel strollers, snacks, possibly a car seat, and toys – and that’s just in your carry-on backpack!

Once your child hits school age, international travel becomes much easier.

2. Give Your Child Independence & Responsibility

You can easily stress yourself out by spending every waking moment of your trip worrying about your kids and doing everything for them.

Give them a little freedom to be independent, such as carry their own luggage or pack their own suitcase.

Buy them their own pair of headphones and a tablet so they can entertain themselves on the airplane by watching movies or TV shows they selected.

If you have older kids, such as teenagers, give them their own room in a hotel and plan for some downtime where everyone can be alone.

The thing that makes family travel the hardest, is living in each others pockets.

3. Get Away From Theme Parks

Disneyland is great because it’s fun for all the family, but it’s hardly an enriching experience. There’s only so many zoos, playgrounds and parks that one person can take.

You might think your kids are not interested in temples in Thailand or food tours in Europe, but you’d be surprised.

Plan some cultural activities as well as kid-friendly attractions and you may find your child has a new interest.

After all, it’s your vacation too.

4. Plan Ahead

“Fail to prepare, then prepare to fail” is one of the most poignant quotes when it comes to traveling with children.

Be sure to research your destination and create an itinerary that includes a variety of attractions, but also suggestions for places to eat.

Allow plenty of time between the time you book and the actual trip, so you can keep going back to your itinerary and adapting it.

Be sure to look for accommodation that offers family-friendly amenities for children, such as play areas or swimming pools, and that the rooms are child-friendly (no balconies).

Check our travel resources page with our favorite providers.

5. Pack strategically

Make a list of essential items for your kids, including diapers, wipes, extra clothes, snacks, toys, and any medication they may need.

Use packing cubes to separate things and make them easier to find.

Pack a variety of healthy snacks and drinks to keep your kids energized and hydrated. This will help avoid meltdowns and keep hunger at bay.

Try to plan their outfit for each day in advance, so you can avoid meltdowns picking clean clothes each day.

Pack more socks and underwear for them than you think you need, and prepare a change of clothes for them to sleep in if you have a layover flight.

6. Stick to routines

It can be overwhelming for kids to travel, with so many new senses and experiences coming at them.

Try to maintain some sense of routine so they don’t feel overwhelmed.

Keep your children’s regular bedtime routine and meal schedule as much as possible.

By sticking to familiar routines, kids will feel more comfortable and less cranky during the trip.

7. Take breaks

Plan regular breaks during long days so your child can take time out to just play, stretch their legs, or take a nap.

This is especially true for those long road trip journeys when kids need to stretch their legs, use the restroom, and burn off some energy.

Look for parks or playgrounds where they can run around and play.

8. Be flexible

Understand that traveling with kids may not always go according to plan, especially if they are young infants.

Be prepared to adapt and make changes if needed.

Embrace unexpected detours and enjoy the journey together.

9. Safety first

Ensure your kids are properly secured in car seats or booster seats while traveling by car. If you are getting a rental car, make sure you book a car seat.

You may need to take your own car seat with you if you’re traveling to places like Southeast Asia.

Teach them basic safety rules, such as staying close to you in crowded areas or holding hands while crossing the street.

Have a meeting point at attractions incase you get separated, and make sure they know the name of your resort so they can ask someone for help should they need it.

10. Stay positive and patient

Remember that traveling with kids can be challenging at times, but if you let yourself get overwhelmed and stressed, your child will too.

Kids tend to feed off of their parent’s emotions, so if you maintain a positive attitude and be patient, it will go a long way to help keep your kids calm and peaceful.

11. Remember The WOW and LOVE Moments

The reason why I overcome the pain and challenges of traveling with kids, is because I remember the moments when it was all amazing.

Travel with kids has way more WOW and LOVE moments in between the parenting challenges. There’s more connectedness to each other and to life. We feel our bonds grow stronger with every step into the forest.

Yes, the tantrums are still there, there are many cons as well as pros to family travel.

Sometimes I want to scream “this sucks!” and then in the afternoon I’m filling up of awe as I watched Savannah’s fearlessness riding the flying fox with me and Kalyra’s enthusiastic determination, or see her try to hit bullseye on her first game of playing archery.

This is who my children are. That crazy meltdown in the forest earlier was sandwiched between sooooo much goodness.

It didn’t stress me out or make me feel like a failure as a mother, which is how I feel most of the time when I’m trying to cope as a parent in a normal-life setting.

12. Go slow and go with the flow

Start off slow. Go to the edges of your comfort zone. Give up the worry of getting it right and the fear that you won’t cope.

Go with the flow and just enjoy doing something different and fun with your kids.

Yes, routine and structure kind of slips away when you travel, but that’s the beauty of it and it’s where you’ll find a lot of ease and fun.

It’s actually easier than trying to fit into the rules.

If you plan and prepare for it correctly, it won’t be hard at all.

13. Pack entertainment for the flight

If you can, choose an airline with child entertainment, like Qatar Airlines who have kid’s boxes with sticker books and other things they can do.

Go on Amazon and get some cheap new toys before in case you have flight delays and you need something to keep them busy in the airport.

Airports are usually boring for kids and don’t have play areas. There’s only so long they can watch the planes take off before they get bored.

Take an ipad or electronic devices and download movies, games, and stories for them. Remember there’s no wi-fi on the plane, so be sure to have everything downloaded before you leave home.

14. Take a comfort item

Take one comfort item from home, such as a stuffed teddy or a blanket, so they have something familiar with them.

Keep it in your carry-on bag and bring it out when they need comforting.

Be sure to look after it though, you don’t want to loose it!

15. Remember you can buy things there

We’ve all done it, we’ve left the house, got to the airport, checked in, and realized we’ve left some essentials at home.

It happens, but don’t let it stress you. There are shops at your destination.

Most necessities you can buy when you get there, or maybe it’s a blessing in disguise and you really don’t need it anyway.

Relax mom and dad, you don’t need everything in that purse, you’re not Mary Poppins!

16. Book your child their own airplane seat

If it’s not too expensive, get your child their own seat, so you can stretch out and have space.

If your child needs to sleep, they can lounge over two seats, or rest their head on your lap.

17. Get TSA Precheck

TSA Precheck is a new-ish thing where you can enroll online and bypass the long security lines and breeze through security in about 10 minutes.

You also don’t need to remove shoes, take out your laptops or liquids, or remove jackets and belts. This is a lifesaver for parents!

All you need is your passport and boarding pass, and to complete the online enrollment. You can do that here.

Why You Should Travel with Kids

Does traveling with your kids stress you out?

Family travel is not as hard as your freaked-out fears tell you.

You’re possibly judging it from that of living a normal parenting life.

It’s draining and hard and you DREAD the thought of that coming into a holiday, which is meant to be light, relaxing and fun.

When you travel with kids, all your pre-conceived notions of what a holiday means are smashed and that can be hard to handle.

Simply change your perspective. Think of the rewards, not the challenges that family travel brings.

I have a glaring newsflash for you: PARENTING IS HARD!! Period. No matter where you are!

It’s the most exhausting and emotionally draining thing I’ve ever encountered. But it’s also the most rewarding.

Here are some reasons why you should travel with kids:

• You live life on your terms.
• You can choose to rest when you see the kids are tired.
• You can work around everyone’s likes and moods.
• There’s no box of should, musts, have to, and needs suffocating you.
• You spend quality time with your kids.
• There’s no freakin toys and accumulation of useless junk piling up around you (I’m banning the plastic bits along with budgie smugglers).
• There are fewer demands on your time like social events, kid’s parties, swimming lessons, drama etc.
• Conversations are no longer about the school friendship dramas.
• Speaking of drama, there are no endless playground social dramas.
• There’s more laughter and ease.
• You have exhilarating adventures together
• There’s no TV with its sneaky manipulative ads and depressing news flashes. (Although we do love X-Factor).
• There’s more fun and adventure.
• You experience life rather than trying to learn about it through text books and irrelevant exercises. Travel gives you a deep knowing.
• You have freedom.
• You’re learning to adapt – to go with the flow, to throw out rules and routines, which only build up walls that tell us we can only be happy and manage if everything is structured in a certain way. What happens when it doesn’t? It won’t because life is a constantly flowing source of energy, it cannot be contained or controlled. So when it wants to tear down the walls it will and then what?
• You get to know and fall in love with your children. They’re not just little beings that you have to somehow manage and work a life around without needing to swill a vodka every hour.
• Everyone gets to express their personalities without judgement. We see that with our daughter’s drama classes she was enrolled in. Kalyra is a hilarious actress. She puts on her own performances and vlogs and hosts her own show. It’s delightful to watch her do it around the campfire and completely express her personality. When she took the classes it was gone. She was frightened of saying the wrong thing, not being cool enough, and not doing it how the teacher said because that was the right way.
• You’re out of the freaking controlling box. Like the school demanding to know why Kalyra was missing school today. My text reply: family commitments. They always come first.

Why I’m Traveling With My Kids

I get asked all the time by parents how I manage to travel with my kids so frequently.

Don’t they drive you crazy? Isn’t family travel too hard? What about all the stuff you have to take? You must be so organised. I don’t think I can cope.

Yes, they drive me crazy and family travel is definitely harder than when I was traveling solo, or when Craig and I spent years traveling as a couple.

I can’t just storm off when the kids annoy me like I did to Craig down a dusty African road because the tyre on our run-down pickup fell off in mid-drive.

I can’t let exhaustion and frustration get a destructive hold on me.

You need far less than you think when traveling with kids and I’m definitely not organized.

As you can see by our attempts to hike to the top of Mount Kosciusko in this photo.

Kalyra is dressed more for the catwalks of Paris than a walk to the roof of Australia – in snowy and windy conditions.

Traveling with kids is NOT always like you see on those happy snappy brochure pictures (just like those baby nappy ads).

However, I keep traveling with my kids because these are only small inconveniences that happen on the way to something far more valuable.

Final Thoughts

Traveling with kids is the best way to travel, in my opinion. Think about all those holidays you had as a child and how much you enjoyed it – now you can provide your own kids with that same level of enjoyment.

If you are feeling overwhelmed or stressed out about the idea of taking your kids on vacation, then I hope our top tips help make family travel easier.

We’ve traveled with our two girls since they were babies, they are now tween and teen age, so we’ve experienced it all and made all the mistakes, so you don’t have to.

We have a free six-part email series designed to help you plan a family holiday everyone will love and overcome potential challenges before you even leave.

Click here now to join the Family Travel Tribe community (including private Facebook group) and uncover the fun of family travel and take control of the challenges.

This is what I believe and what my advice is to any parent that expresses their concern to me that travelling with their kids is too hard:

More Family Travel Tips

• Tips for traveling with a baby
• Travel with toddler tips
• Travel tips for preschool kids
• The Pros and cons of traveling with kids (ages 5- 8)
• Things to know about traveling with teens

Does the idea of travelling with your kids being too hard stop you from doing it? Why do you choose to do it regardless? Let us know in the comments!