Each summer children finish school for the year and parents travel for family vacations. For some families travel is a glorious experience, for others, it is a horrible experience that no one ever wants to repeat. This post will share some ideas on how to make your travel less onerous.
I am the mother of four children ages 23, 16, 12 and 12. In addition, I am work at home mom with a small business that needs my attention every day even during vacation. The biggest trick I ever learned for having a good travel experience with my children is to treat their play, the way I treat my job. In other words, bring the equipment needed to get the job done.
When our family drives on vacation my husband does all the driving. That means the rest of us are passengers and need something to do to pass the time. Of course you need to pack the clothes, toiletries, first aid kit, and things of that nature. Those things are important, but for traveling with your kids, they are not the most important. When traveling with your kids, their fun stuff is the most important. So be sure to pack their tablets, hand-held video games, e-readers, chargers, and rechargeable batteries. Be sure to have an emergency power charger like for your cell phone for each child.
In addition, don’t forget low tech options. This includes pen, paper, crayons coloring books, construction paper. Playing cards, and trivia games are also great travel companions. All these options are great for traveling by car, plane and train. IN addition, once you get to your destination they are great to have at the hotel. If the weather doesn’t cooperate, all these items will help save your sanity if you are stuck in a hotel for days at a time. By packing all the toys, gadgets and fun things your children need, you can keep them occupied and happy while you travel. When it comes to travel, happy kids really do mean a happy life.
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In conclusion, it is fantastic to travel with your kids and to survive the experience with a smile. So, the question for you on this fantastic day is how do you survive traveling with your kids?
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This sounds like such a great trip and I just love your little collections of mementos! I’m heading to Paris for the first time later in the fall and would love a travel guide — especially on places to eat! ?Visit site for more info.jasa pembuatan patung fiber
I have traveled to Paris and Italy in February. The weather is fabulous (I HATE the heat) and the crowds are MUCH less, although, admittedly, there were still PLENTY of tourists. I couldn’t imagine going to either place in June…. I’ll be traveling to Germany in March next year. I’d MUCH rather see places on a budget than save for 5 years to get that luxury room in Paris. In June. Not worth the extra money to me.long let london
What a wonderful idea for travelling light but keeping memories. This week we are starting a four month journey through Italy and Croatia. I am stealing your idea for a weekly photo. Thank you!Thailand Holiday Package
Hello, It is always good to have something with you to keep them distracted during travels. It can be something you eat or a great travel toy. I find origami as a nice way to keep your kid’s distracted. fantastic tips and ideas.
When I travel I usually tend to avoid uncomfortable items that dig into my body, especially trousers whose button goes straight into your stomach, ouch! That’s why I’m starting to love jeggins/treggins with side zips and no buttons on the front; they still look like trousers, but are comfortable to sit in for long periods of time! Also, comfortable shoes: having fussy feet, they’re a must for me, even if I’d like to wear heels without doubling over from pain after 30 minutes I’m walking in them!
Hi! This is a great inspiring article.I am pretty much pleased with your good work.You put really very helpful information. Keep it up. Keep blogging. Looking to reading your next post.
I enjoy reading through your site. I learn a lot of good recipes and definitely I will try. I love your travel document through China. Most of the ancient cities are beautiful. For every picture of the “Venice of the East,” I feel as if I live through a character of the story books in Song, Minh and Qing dynasties. It’s good to have a dreamy moment once in a while through those pictures. Your site run very slow and sometimes does not move. I wonder if the file is too big for loading? any way, post more new recipes and travel. I feel as if I travel with you guys without the pain have to go through the TSA at the airport. 🙂
It’s important that I be his voice and express to the agent that while he may seem non-compliant, it’s not the case, it’s just that he doesn’t exactly comprehend what’s being asked of him. When I did that the agent actually offered for me to stand next to her and help with giving him directions – what a relief, seriously. Something else that is key for us is to be sure he is flanked by myself and his Dad so there’s someone on either side of the screening machine to guide him.Amalfi
Great tips as the winter weather sneaks in. Too bad we have rain instead of snow down here in the South. Still having to make sure it doesn’t drop in puddles.
Hi! This is a great inspiring article.I am pretty much pleased with your good work.You put really very helpful information. Keep it up. Keep blogging. Looking to reading your next post.
It is always good to have something with you to keep them distracted during travels. It can be something you eat or a great travel toy. I find origami as a nice way to keep your kid’s distracted. fantastic tips and ideas.
These are all great tips! I’ll definitely take note of them. I like the idea of going on a trip with the aim of making it a romantic holiday. Sometime in the zeal to see everything and miss out on nothing the romance does get lost. Great information.
Great post – lots of good things to watch out for. The scammers are always one step ahead of you, and do this for a living, so you definitely need to be careful.
It’s definitely different to travel with kids. We do all the low-tech things first and when they are tired of them, we’ll break out the tech.
We love to travel! Thanks for the tips.
These are some really great tips. I always try to pack a few movies, games and books for my kiddo’s when we travel.
These are great ideas for traveling with kids. I’ll have to keep them in mind when traveling with the grandkids.
I love our ipad because it does so much but I agree, we always bring low tech including a box of crayons and plain, white printer paper.
Great tips. We enjoy traveling with our 1, 5, and 6 yo’s. It’s true that taking a few things for them to do helps them to travel well.
My son loves to color when we are out and about. It’s a must to have crayons and even CARS handy to keep him occupied.
We don’t travel often but when we have – YES! Great great tips! I always try to bring everything I can squeeze with us!
We love low tech options. We took some cool crayons that wrote only on the special paper for our last trip and that was a huge hit!
My kids are still little but we wrap little dollar store toys and treats in wrapping paper and then every hour or so on the road trip, if they are being good, they get to open one! Works like a charm!
I had no idea what a big gap you had in kids ages! I totally agree to bring lots of fun supplies when you travel!
Fantastic advice, Technology works to fill in time.
These are great tips. We traveled from IL to FL and back with 5 of our 6 kids last summer and both techy toys and non-tech thiings kept them busy the whole way.
We have 6 kids and I TOTALLY agree with this! Thank goodness for tablets, e-readers, and such – not to mention chargers. We bring a charger for each of our children as well. With 6 kids, we also bring along a Power Strip so we can plug in all their chargers at once. 🙂
Traveling with kids is hard. We used to have a TV in the car but now we don’t! We haven’t traveled far.. 3 hours yes.. but not a 20 hour trip like we do often. I think i will pray a lot.
My Hubs does all the driving too… Poor guy. But, he knows I am not good when I get into traffic or a place that I am not familiar with.
We bring along a lot of books and activities. If they are occupied they forget about staying in one place for so long.
I am not a big road trip fan, especially with kids, so anything to make them happy. I love the ideas tips and you outlined
We always bring gadgets as well as coloring books and crayons. It’s nice to have the options. Hubs and I split the driving, so we make sure we have our books and tech gadgets as well.
Great tips. Not sure we would have mde it from AZ to CA driving with a 6 yo and a 1 yo last month without the dvd player and tablet.
We traveled with our 4 kids last summer – the twins were about 8 months. I thought I was prepared but forgot a few things. The resort was AMAZING and had lots of things on hand.
My kids love technology in the car. Maybe too much. So we always make it a point to get out and run/play at playgrounds along the way. works wonders
We are about to hit the road for a long trip. The high tech things are helpful, but you are right, so are the low-tech!
We travel with the kids several times a year. Actually, we are away as I am typing this.
Ooh what a fun idea for a Twitter Chat! I would love to hear some fresh ideas 😉 Thanks for the invite!
This is a great suggestion, Janeane! I LOVE the tweet! We are heading to Florida in a few weeks. It’s a 6 hour flight, so I’ll definitely treat her fun like it’s a job!
We always play road games when traveling. A lot of “I spy” and license plate spotting. We also sing together and have plenty of coloring supplies!
My son gets to play games on the iPad or watch episodes of his favorite show that I’ve downloaded. I also make sure to pack his favorite books and any other games that might be good for the car. (This is so fresh to me – we just got home from a vacation today!)
When I was younger I didn’t need gadgets when traveling. I think technology has made things to easy for kids and parents.
Great tips but the funny thing here is, my kids are great travelers. I am NOT. I’m the one that needs all of the toys to keep me occupied so I can ignore all of the crazy traffic!
Haven’t we all learned the hard way to take everything possible to entertain the kids! Mine is now 11 so it is much easier unless his iPod runs out of juice! Then we are in trouble, coloring books no longer cut it with him!
thanks,
MItch
You have some really great tips here. We don’t usually do long road trips but even an hour in the car unprepared can be a major pain!
Yes. The more happy they are, the better experience will be for everybody. Great tips.
This statement is so true & powerful “happy kids really does mean a happy life.” You really want them to be happy while you are “cramped” in a car traveling for hours LOL