I wrote last week about our trip to Hamilton Island. The night before we were about to leave I asked Hubby if he was excited, and he replied with a “Ah, not really”.
It wasn’t that it wasn’t a beautiful destination or that we weren’t grateful for heading off to one of the most beautiful places in the world, it’s just that traveling with kids isn’t like traveling without kids. At all. Traveling without kids is something we took for granted. It’s reading a magazine on the plane, and sleep-ins and doing whatever you like without having to go to the pool every minute of the day. It’s just very different.
I was so anxious about the kid aspect of our trip. I’m an over-thinker so I think about the worst situation possible and replay it in my head {in this instance it was a screaming baby at night waking up all the people in the hotel}. Thankfully I didn’t need to stress at all. It was perfectly fine and enjoyable.
Traveling with kids isn’t like traveling without them, but it’s not a bad thing. It can be fun. I’ve learned a few things over the past 6 or so years, and more so this year traveling with two of them. Here’s my hot tips:
Be prepared but don’t stress out
Turn that over-thinking brain of yours off. Prepare as best you can but don’t imagine things that might not even happen.
Plan your travel around sleep times
This is for those who have babies. I’ve learned, now that we have Luella in a good sleep routine, to plan flights and road trips around her sleeps. It just makes it easier. On the flight to Hamilton Island we couldn’t book at her sleep times, so we had to keep her entertained the whole flight. On the way home it was timed perfectly so she passed out for the whole flight home. People actually congratulated me for having a perfect baby. Woot.
Pack the comforts of home
I pack my own fitted sheet for Luella’s cot and not a clean one. I pack one that she’s been sleeping on for a few nights so that it’s really familiar to her. I also take her sleep machine, her sleeping bag and a little lamb that she sleeps with. I’m super prepared when it comes to sleep.
Take snacks!
Kids love to eat, and not at meal times… well not my kids anyway. Lacey never, ever eats a good breakfast when we’ve paid for a buffet breakfast {Murphy’s Law or something} but will be asking to raid the mini-bar 20 minutes after we’ve returned from breakfast. I take rice crackers from home, and sometimes I ‘borrow’ fruit from the buffet for later.
Don’t jam pack your days
Kids love being busy but they need some downtime too. With Luella I try to make sure she’s still getting good day sleeps as best I can. She doesn’t love the pram, but she loves being in a carrier so some days she can sleep in the carrier and some days I make sure she’s back in bed and having a good sleep.
Take advantage of the free stuff
Since having kids I’ve realised how accommodating some holiday places can be. Lots have the option for all kids to eat free, and there are also often lots of free activities for kids to do. Do a little research to see what’s available.
Be prepared for failure
I don’t know when it’ll get easier, but going out to dinner with Luella just isn’t fun. She sits in a high chair for about 3.4 seconds and then she’s over it. I’ve learned that sometimes it’s worth trying to eat out at dinner time, but lunch is better. I don’t mind a little room service and a lazy night in though.
Pack extra outfits
Someone is bound to spill something down their top on the first day, so pack something extra. Lacey likes to wear every single outfit I pack on the first day. I kid you not. Every single time she gets dressed and undressed and tosses the contents of her suitcase around the hotel/caravan. It’s fun, except it’s not.
I think managing your expectations is important when travelling with kids. I recently travelled on my own with my three kids (3 months, 6 and 9) and my 15 year old nephew from Switzerland to Brisbane – everyone thought I was crazy and it wasn’t easy but I wasn’t expecting it to be!
I think if you expect the worst, they may end up surprising you! We just travelled to the UK with my two very active boys aged 2 and 4. They were amazing on the plane. I packed loads of activities is found and made after searching busy bag ideas on Pinterest. I had a little pot of playdough in their bags, some new stickers, textas and books and with the movies/tv on the plane as well as a borrowed iPad mini that was loaded to the Max with kids apps, we were so surprised at how good they were. A stopover on long haul is also your best friend! When my boys got overwhelmed or overtired a walk away from the situation with my husband and I often calmed them down. You’re right travelling with kids is exhausting but to see places through their eyes was such a magical thing. We feel our boys have grown so much in confidence and development because of travelling.
I flew to Australia from the UK when my eldest was 14 months old. He started walking the week before the flight – I was not impressed. As I was with my parents & my husband I expected him to take turns with us all. Nope! He was a little mummy loving limpet from when we stepped on the first flight in Manchester to when we disembarked in Perth. He was quiet, happy & affable though so we were all happy. Even if I was a little tired! During the 3 hour stopover in Dubai (when he theoretically should have been sleeping) he was so excited about everything that he treated customers in a duty free shop to an impromptu dance session in his cowboy babygrow. 🙂 Kids surprise you by being the best, often when you think they’ll be at their worst!
Great tips on travelling with children, very informative.
Great tips for sure. Another life saver for traveling mums, I found was Steri-bottles. I had to formula feed my babies and once on a flight to UK was faced with packing 10 sterilised regular bottles which was a nightmare. If I had known about these disposable pre-sterilised bottles before it would have made life soooo much easier!!! I was happy to find out they were BPA free and recyclable too. You can get them online http://www.icdonline.com.au. Happy Travels all!!
We recently caught an overnight ferry from Helsinki to Estonia. Our recently toilet-trained boy was terrified of the toilets onboard (noisy flush like on the plane). I wish I’d taken nappies & more spare clothes.
Great tips! I don’t have kids but I do have a 7 year old brother so this is very helpful.
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I try to prepare the kids as much as possible for what to expect in travel times. Like we’ll be on the plane from morning tea time until dinner time. That sort of thing. Or we’ll drive for as long as a whole day at school. It seems to help them get their head around the times and distances involved and be better able to cope with them.
Love your tips Chantelle. We travelled to Hamilton Island 2 years ago – Ella was 4 and Ryder was 9months…and we sometimes ‘borrowed’ fruit and yoghurt tubs from the breakfast buffet too {hey…just getting the money’s worth haa}.
And I hear you on the dining out with bubs tip – sometimes it’s lovely and other times we just can’t wait to get out of there and wonder why the hell we even bothered – that’s when room service or delivered pizza in pj’s is so much better with little ones in tow! Even now, Ryder is almost 3 and we still don’t hang around in restaurants for lengthy times….coz once they cross that line…there’s no going back and all chaos breaks out 🙂
Claire x
I want to go on a holiday so we can use these tips, it’s been years since we’ve gone on a family holiday… I want to do something next year so I had better start making some moolah to get there! x
Room service and a lazy night in is kind of my ideal night haha.
Hi Chantelle, thanks for these tips. We’re about to fly to Broome with our boys, 16 mths and 4, so this is really timely. May the force be with us for five hours on the plane!! Larissa
Funny you should mention Hamilton Island! Our first family trip was to that very place with our then 3 month old baby. My husband and I travelled the world before kids and wanted to open their world with similar adventures. We have largely explored Australia and will embark on our first overseas trip over Christmas now that they are 8 and 6.
We are blessed to always have wonderful travel experiences perhaps because we lowered our expectations after quickly realising our typical travel days would look different with kids. Like you Chantelle, we plan around sleep times, keep food fairly consistent, bring along a few familiar lovies and have a more laid back attitude to each day.
When we travelled as a couple we would jam pack our days and try to see everything we possibly could each day so we wouldn’t ‘miss’ anything. These days we create our ‘Bucket List” for adventure, the must see items we want to see and plan around that. We’ve slowed everything down which I thought would make our trips less fulfilling BUT they have actually allowed me to soak in much more and I don’t need holidays from my holidays anymore.
I loved your holiday snaps. I hope it was as fun as it looked.