10 Family Travel Tips

Hey there fellow travelers and welcome to my post where we will outline my 10 family travel tips for some fun adventures this year. Now this is probably stating the obvious, but family travel can be a uniquely fun experience with memories that can last a lifetime.

However during these times, there are also the stresses of keeping everyone happy and entertained, managing the budget and keeping everyone safe as well.

So in an effort to keep your family trip fun, let’s see when we can do to help you out below…

Family Travel Tips

Ok, so in an effort to ensure you and your family have the best time ever, let’s check out my 10 tips below:

1. Do some planning

For me, this is a very crucial step. Planning your family trip means you are able to ensure not only that the places you are looking to visit are suitable for the little ones, but there is actually something for them to do there as well.  Also, if you include them here, this step increases the excitement of your children, which is essential for them to appreciate travel at a young age.

As you plan your trip, you should factor in the weather at your planned time of travel, accommodation options (we will discuss this more below) and the cost of living in that spot (we will also cover this below) so that there are no surprises when you get there.

When you are doing you planning, also look for times when flights and accommodation are not as expensive – this can be a problem when traveling as a family as you may be restricted to school holidays but if you can get away in off peak periods, then you will save a fortune.

Check out these: 10 Tips for Going on a Cruise with a Family

2. Accommodation is key

Now, this next tips is one of many aimed at keeping the little ones entertained. I mean with all due respect to them, their attention spans can be a little short at times. And something that we learned from a Disneyland trip with our kids a few years back is that if you choose the right accommodation, then a lot of these problems are taken care of.

The trick here is to choose a hotel or accommodation that has as many added extra as you can afford – we are talking pools, games rooms and the like here where the kids can play and relax all without having to leave the hotel. Also if you are there in the holiday periods many will also offer extra activities such as face painting and crafts groups etc. as well.

It can also pay here to look for digs that are just a little out of the major tourist hotspots as well. They are generally cheaper, quieter and larger in size making them perfect for family travel with many including kitchens for some home cooked snacks too.

Tip: Many caravan/RV parks offer plenty of extras including water parks and the like with cabin style accommodation as well. This can be a great budget option to keep the kids entertained whilst you relax.

Check out these: 10 Best Family-Friendly Resorts in Bali

3. Have a fluid budget

Ok, so this is travel 101 I know, but if it is one thing I have learned from traveling both as a couple and then as a family, that when it comes to the latter, budgets are harder to manage. Kids just cost more! I mean you are saving money not hitting the hottest bars all night I guess but with kids, there is always something that needs the old wallet to be opened.

This can form part of the planning stage but make sure you have an idea of what food costs are where you will be as well as the general cost of groceries and medical supplies such as pain killers etc. so that you can keep the kids fed without breaking the bank. And if you are looking to save some cash, then look into taking some extra stuff such as beach toys, blow up surf boards and like from home as well.

4. Take it slow

I think the biggest thing I learned from traveling with the family is that children do not like to spend all day running from one tourist ‘must see’ to the next. Hence my next tip – which I could have called “expect meltdowns” – is to take things a little slower than you might have in your pre-children days.

As you consider this, think about the things that usually cause our children to lose their you-know-what:

1. Tiredness
2. Hunger
3. Boredom
4. Heat

Again, in my experience, I am pretty confident that if you slow down and let the family soak in smaller parts of the trip at a time, then many of the above influences can be managed a lot easier – and now of course you may also see why the old budget can take a hit with extra drinks breaks etc. too though.

5. Pack smart

Ahhhh, if you are like me, then your brain hurts just thinking about this next tip. But when it comes time for packing, you know you can’t fit everything in so you will need to seriously consider what you take with you. And whilst I didn’t list it above, another common cause a childhood travel meltdown – well it was with my girls anyway – was that we didn’t bring their favorite hot pink sequenced tiger shirt.

So again, pack with the kids and make sure you have a good balance between the things that they seriously can’t do without and the things that you need for – you know- common sense clothing when traveling. And while we are at it, if you wish to travel light, jamming everything into the suitcase in whatever fashion you choose is really not going to work for you!

There are however some little tools you can use here to assist you with you packing endeavors. these include:

• Compression packing cubes – Compression packing cubes are little bags that you place the bag in and then ‘squeeze’ squeeze the air out of to take up less room.
• Vacuum bags – These work in a similar fashion to a cryovac bags for food in that you place your clothes inside and then shrink them down with a vacuum cleaner.
• Mesh laundry bags – these don’t squash down as such but do allow you to squish everything down in the one spot.

And finally here, if you are a little nerdy like my wife (but please don’t tell her I said that), once you have everything sorted, you can crate yourself a packing list for future trips. This allows you to pack easily without having to go through the above every time.

Tip: If you child has a safety blanket, soft toy, book or so on that they never let go of – take it with you! It can be a Godsend – especially if a meltdown is imminent.

Check out these: Children’s Suitcases

6. Count in rest days

As we know, travel is tiring – I mean how many times have you told yourself that you are only here once so you should just power through so you can see everything. However, children of all ages (yep – even the teenagers) tend to share this philosophy. So if you want your trip to be as meltdown free as possible – factor in a couple of rest days.

This can mean simply sitting by the pool, going to the beach or even to the movies in an air conditioned theatre so that they (and you) can have a rest and recharge. And you know what, this may sound like I am trying to sell this one here but my kids have often mentioned that the most fun days they have had traveling were the ones where we spent all day by the pool eating ice cream and hamburgers – the odd beer for me was nice too.

Remember, you may just think of it as a pool, but to them it is a pool that is not where they live!

7. Keep them involved as you go

When it comes to travel, it is a given that things don’t always go to plan. Attractions can be closed down, it can rain or the cost of getting there can suddenly become so much more expensive. At these times, you may need to change plans, activities or even decide whether you go at all.

So as it is with planning your original trip, involving the whole family in the new planning can go a long way to keeping them excited and also cover the disappointment of potentially missing out on an activity that they were looking forward to. This can also include the planning of rest days or anything else they have seen that has caught their eye as well.

8. Let them explore

A few years ago, I went on a golf trip to Las Vegas with some friends of mine. I had been there a couple of times but they had not. I was trying to plan where I was going to take them when my wife told me to let them discover it for themselves. And to be honest, it is close to the best advice she has ever given me as they took me to places there that I didn’t know existed and would not have found otherwise.

So here I am going to give you the same advice. If you are about and about and the kids want to see something, or find a trail to follow – run with it – you never know what you might find. Children of all ages look at things though a different set of eyes so something you might not see will stick out to them – trust me!

9. Take some time for you

We discussed above looking for accommodation that comes with plenty of things for the kids to do. And if you do find one, then once the kids are off having fun, remember that you are on vacation as well so make sure you take some time to sit and relax.

Alternatively, take the time just sit and watch the world go by as the little ones play on the beach or swim in the pool. Oh, and if there happens to be a kids club nearby, then a romantic lunch for two could definitely be on the cards as well.

10. Be flexible

In the first tip above I discussed the need to do some planning for your trip. However without stating the bleeding obvious, when you travel things never go completely to plan. And as we know, this can be even more so for anything that you try and plan with kids – especially young kids.

So if you want to have as much fun as possible on your family trip, you will need to maintain some flexibility in your day to day plans. Firstly because it allows to you discover things that you may not have found otherwise, and secondly, children are very good at picking up on stress if and when things go wrong.

At the end of the day, as long as you are not blowing your budget or going anywhere unsafe – a little flexibility in your day can lead to the most enjoyable experiences of all.

Conclusion

So there you have it, my 10 tips for family travel this year. I hope it has been of assistance but as usual, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to reach out by commenting below.

Do you have any other tips for travelling with the family? If so, please comment below.

Until next time

Have fun

Paul