Travel must haves
My 6 year old has been on more flights than I can count. My daughter went on her first flight at 5 weeks old…
Cars/planes/trains - you name it and we’ve done it. Along the way we picked up a few tricks and favorite ideas that I’m happy to share below. I hope these help others to have confidence to travel with kids!
Let them carry the carry it
It seems pretty obvious, but one of the best pieces of advice I can give, is to get them their own little back packs. They get excited to pack and bring it along and it creates a sense of ownership.
What to put in their bag?
SNACKS! - Every parent knows, kids survive on snacks. But it’s also one of the most frustrating parts of travel. They are constantly (!!) asking for snacks… So when you start the day. Let them help pick out their snacks and have them carry them. Then when they want one - they can get it themselves.
Notepad and crayons
Their own camera (such a great way to get kids engaged with traveling)
Small toy - for my son it’s always a car, for my daughter it’s her lovey.
We tend to carry their waters as they can get heavy. But pretty much everything else they “need” when we’re out and about is in their back pack and they can get it themselves.
I found these online and we absolutely love them. Perfect size for my kids.
Get them excited
Right before we left on our trip to Europe I was stressing on if our kids would enjoy museums and being a tourist in a city. Usually we did the typical beach vacation. How do we get them excited about art and history? I started to thinking about why I cared?! And I realized I wanted to see something new, something I had read about. So I hoped the same would work for my kids - and it DID! I bought them books, we watched shows and we got them excited about the locations we were visiting BEFORE we left. We tried to teach them words in French. We got theme excited about seeing a boulangerie!
These were some of my favorites:
Capture the memories
This was probably my FAVORITE idea. I couldn’t believe how great this was…
This may seem crazy, but get your kids a camera with printable paper. Buy sticky paper. Let THEM capture their own memories and put it in their notepad. Not only does it entertain them, but it has made for one of my favorite keepsakes. Get the camera that will allow you to go back and print out the pictures after the fact, so that during meals it gives them something fun to do so that you can enjoy that well deserved glass of wine with your partner.
Example camera here.
Make it fun! - Scavenger Hunt Style
This was probably the one thing I spent time on before we left. But it was worth it. I’ll post the sample file under my Paris trip. We did two Scavenger hunts, one for the city of Paris, the other for a museum. I’m an art geek so I really wanted to go to at least one museum. But I was worried we couldn’t keep our children interested long enough to enjoy it. Y’all, we spent 4 HOURS at this museum (including lunch). We got the head phones and went searching for the paintings on our list. We broke it up with lunch in the middle. Then we went back to exploring. The kids really enjoyed this.
Don’t let the car seats drag you down…
We’re big on safety, and for a long time I hesitated traveling because I hated how much STUFF we had to bring. But we had family across the country so we had to figure it out. Once our kids were big enough we discovered these amazing vests. Highly rated and SO EASY to put on and take with you.
Great for cab rides, rental cars, friends’ cars. Instead of a large car seat or boosters we now bring these flexible vests that fit in a suitcase and come with their own carrying back pack that the kids can wear or you can stuff in the bottom of the stroller.
Roll with it
Literally.
The week before we were supposed to go to Paris they were having strikes, and I was worried public transportation would get shut down. I don’t mind walking, but it’s a big city and my son is too big for a stroller… so what to do?! We packed his scooter! Little did I know, this is a thing that the locals do. There were other kids around, and he loved doing this!
Side note - pay attention though! Most churches will not let you bring them in. Ours folded up and fit under our stroller, but even then - NOPE. On the entrance sign it said no guns, knives, and scooters… cool. But the city is used to this and the next door restaurant held it for us without a question.
