Even Your Kids Can Be Great Travelers!
We do a lot of traveling in our family. We go to Disney World at least once a year, make one or two trips to Michigan to visit my husband’s family, and we love going on road trips! With three kids nine and under, traveling successfully can be challenging, but with so much experience, we’ve found some sure-fire ways to make it enjoyable for everyone! In our family, we don’t only look forward to the destination on our vacations, we enjoy the journey. Here are 5 terrific tips for traveling with kids to make your next vacation with littles easy and fun!
1. If You Are Driving, Plan Options for Stops Ahead of Time
If you are traveling a long distance, kids need breaks. Sure, that means it takes you longer to get there, but adding in some stops throughout your journey will make everybody happier. These could be short stops, like 15 minutes at a local park or rest area. Or it could be an hour break at a museum or a fun place to eat lunch. Before you go, map your route to your destination and research places you might stop in the cities or towns on the way. I always search “things to do with kids in [name of city]” and just look through the results and find what my kids would like.
For example, we are traveling soon to a beach in Florida. I’ve found a cute kids’ bookstore with a play area in Monroe, an Air and Space Museum in Warner Robbins, a cute lunch spot near Tifton, an ice cream place in Valdosta, a park in Gainesville, and dinner options in either Ocala or Tampa. We probably won’t stop at all of these, but rather we’ll know they are options if the kids look like they need a break at any of those points. I also marked a couple of rest areas along the route in case we just need 15 minutes to run around.
2. Talk Up the Journey with Your Kids
Your kids won’t get excited about the journey unless you do. So, talk to them ahead of time about the stops you might make if you are driving. If they are old enough, you can even let them make some of the choices about where you might stop. And if you’re flying, show them the route the plane will take and all the places you’ll fly over.
Also, talk about the fun you will have while in the air or on the road. Let them choose movies to watch if you have a dvd player, and let them help pack coloring books, toys, or a “riding buddy” (a stuffed animal) to bring. No matter what, talk about your trip like it’s an adventure! It will build excitement about the journey.
3. Have Options of Things for Them to Do
Depending on the age of your kids, take things with you that they will enjoy playing with on the way. Include a variety of things and alternate what you do about every hour or so. Here are some of our favorites:
- Coloring books, especially color wonder sets with a clipboard included. Like this one with animals or this Paw Patrol one or this Frozen one.
- Books your kids will enjoy reading or looking at. My six year old loves this Who Would Win book with 5 animal books in one and my three year old is partial to this set of read to me books with an electronic reader since he can’t read yet.
- Mini Puzzles like these in little tins or legos in a school box. Kids can build on a clipboard or book.
- DVDs your kids will enjoy and a dvd player. We have this one and love it!
- Tablets if your kids have them.
- Printables for road games, like a map for license plate bingo.
We love this DVD player for our van!
4. Pack Purposefully
It is important when traveling with kids not to overpack. If kids don’t have room, the trip will not be pleasant. But with kids, you just need so much. The solution is to pack with purpose. Make a packing list, know what container you will store things in, and work within that.
For example, for all of our in the car fun stuff mentioned in #3, we use a caddy like this one to hold it all. I never pack more than the caddy will hold, so I have to be selective about what I bring. This is a good strategy for packing your suitcases as well.
5. Be Flexible
This one is hard because it’s more a mindset than a strategy, but it’s so important! When you travel with kids, you have to embrace the unexpected. There will be unplanned potty breaks, fights between siblings, traffic, and who knows what else.
You have to be willing to adjust your expectations, your plans, your stops, and even your ETA. Be willing to roll with what comes and you’ll find yourself feeling less stressed. Your kids will be less stressed too! Be flexible and you will enjoy the journey a lot more.
There are many other themes available in this series! ABC, Magical World, Birds, Camping, Deep Sea, Dinosaurs, Farm, Farmer's Market, Bugs, Forest, Space, Transportation.
I hope these tips make traveling with your kids easier and more enjoyable! Drop a comment below with your own travel tips or your favorite family destinations!
For more suggestions for kids’ books to take along on your travels check out Children’s Books That Your Kids Will Love to Read!
If you want to bring along some board games for when you reach your destination, check out The Best Board Games for Big Family Fun.
If you need some guidance about the “talking up the journey part,” check out this post about fostering a sense of adventure in your kids.
And if you can’t go anywhere, check out Make Your Own Magic with a Disney Day at Home!
Have a good day!
Note: The links included are affiliate links. That means, if you purchase something through the link, What A Good Day will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. The opinions are my own. We appreciate your support!
Note: Content presented here belongs to Jamie @whatagoodday.com. All images and content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. I’m happy for you to share my post, but please link back to this post. Thank you!
You do a wonderful job planning your trips. I have always thought you spent more time planning than the trip took!
Thank you, Ms Kay! I love planning trips! It builds the excitement and makes me look forward to it even more! 😊