14 Mistakes to Avoid When Traveling with Kids
Travelling with kids can be so much fun, discovering all the experiences you just can’t have at home. However, it can quickly turn into a stressful ordeal as many parents unintentionally make common mistakes, even when they’re seasoned travellers.
From using the wrong luggage to trying to do everything in one day, or even as simple as not involving your kids. The good news? Most of these pitfalls can be easily avoided.
What’s in this post?
In this post we delve into the 14 mistakes to avoid when traveling with kids based on the many, many mistakes we’ve made while travelling on different types of holidays with our own two children.
We also answer some common questions about traveling with kids including how to prepare and what you can do to make travelling with your kids easier.
If there’s something on this list you’re particularly interested in you can skip straight there by clicking on that section in the contents below. If not, then scroll down to read about mistakes to avoid when travelling with kids.
14 mistakes to avoid when travelling with kids
Manage your expectations
Expecting too much
It’s important to remember that travelling with kids is totally different to travelling on your own as an adult. Manage your own expectations and remember that they’re tiny humans who probably aren’t going to sit quietly for long periods or be silent in a cathedral. Plan kid friendly activities or cut them and yourself a little slack when they act like children!
Trying to do everything in one day
This is kind of linked to the one above but you’re travelling with kids which means you’ll be moving slower and need to take more frequent breaks. Be realistic about what you can achieve when planning your itinerary – decide what your priorities are instead of trying to fit everything into one day.
Putting all the responsibility on one person
Travelling with kids is easier when it’s a team sport! How we do it when we travel is one of us (usually me) is responsible for carrying the kids stuff and one of us (usually Luke) is responsible for ensuring we have the right documentation. Then we just split the kids between us so we’ve always got one eye on them. This is obviously easier if there’s two of you but not impossible if you’re a travelling single parent – if you have an older child who is responsible enough to keep all the kids stuff safe then use them, if not just give yourself more time.
Missing a teaching experience
We always use travelling to teach our children about different cultures or how to travel and truly believe that letting them aimlessly follow you around is a waste of a good teaching experience, especially if you travel often. Below are a few ideas to help them learn something new,
- Finding out which gate you need to get to and how to get there
- Reading a map if your trip involves driving somewhere
- Searching Google to find a suitable activity that is within budget
- Learning some basics in the local language – our go to’s are 1-10, hello, goodbye, please, thank you, yes and no
- Book for you all to do a cooking class that let’s them explore the local cuisine
Booking one hotel room
We’ve been in the position before where we could only afford the most basic room which meant one room with 2 double beds and no additional living space. However, if the option of the room or apartment with a separate living area is an option for you don’t dismiss it just because it costs more. Having a space separate to the bedroom where you can relax, play games or watch TV is invaluable when you have young children that you’re trying to get to sleep or keep asleep!
Travel days
Traveling without a pushchair and car seat
The days are long and you normally do a lot of walking in different areas where no one knows their way around. Don’t underestimate how difficult it can be to get small kids to walk when they’re tired and how stressful it is when they’re little and trying to run around. This is especially true if your child has just come out of their pushchair – don’t assume that just because you’re fine without it at home that you will be on holiday too.
Not bringing a go bag
It’s always easier to travel with kids if you’re prepared so make sure you have a bag with some snacks, a drink and things to keep them busy like small travel games, books, colouring or tablets. This will come in handy when you need to wait in a queue or have long periods of travel.
Buying gimmicky child luggage – you’re going to end up carrying it anyway
Those little character bags look cute and your child probably loves them but they’re so impractical when travelling. You can barely fit anything in them as they’re normally an odd shape and let’s face it, you’re going to end up carrying it anyway!
Opting for the cheapest flight
Paying less may seem like a great idea but often the cheapest flights have stopovers making them cheap but long! Pay extra for the shortest flight to avoid keeping children entertained in another airport for hours.
Assuming you’ll get seats together
Most airlines will seat children next to at least one of the adults on the booking, however not all do and you can’t guarantee another passenger will be happy to move if you’re not sat with them. It’s not worth the risk – if you’re unsure then just pay to book your seats.
Fail to plan, plan to fail
Ignoring your kids interests
It’s their holiday too and it’ll go a lot smoother if you include things that you know they want to do. If they’re older it’s a little easier as you can just ask them but if they’re young they probably won’t really understand but you can take them into consideration when planning your itinerary. It can be as simple as not going to a cathedral if you have an energetic and noisy child.
Failing to plan
I’m all for spontaneous travel or backpacking through several countries and that kind of travel is possible with kids, it’s also way more stressful. However, for me it’ll always be better to have some level of planning when I travel. At the very minimum you should plan how you’re getting around and where you’re going to stay with your accommodation booked.
Forgetting snacks
There’s nothing that keeps a child still and quiet better than food! Make sure you pack plenty of snacks but keep a few things in mind. Firstly, choose things that are going to have as little mess as possible – no one wants chocolate covered hands while strapped into a seat on a plane. Also, look at the restrictions on the country you’re travelling to in case there are food restrictions for the country you’re travelling to.
Forgetting medicine
We’ve forgotten medicine before when we’ve been travelling and it’s not fun. Plan a first aid kit that is small enough to be able to easily fit in your case but includes the basics like painkillers, plasters and antihistamines.
FAQs for traveling with kids
Is traveling with kids stressful?
Travelling with kids can be stressful but you can take a lot of the stress out of it if you take the time to properly plan your family travel.
How to prepare a child for their first flight?
Flights can be scary for children but you can prepare them by showing them videos on Youtube of flights, bringing a tablet and headphones to block the noise and grabbing something to help their ears pop like some chewable sweets or a drink with a sports bottle top.
How to make travelling easier with kids?
Planningyour travel can make travelling with kids easier, however a lot of it is your mindset. You also need to manage your expectations and understand that they are going to be a bit tired and grumpy sometimes, and you are going to go slower than you would if you were travelling with adults with more breaks.
Summary: family travel mistakes to avoid
As I said at the start, we’ve made our fair share of mistakes when travelling with our kids. We never used to even think about taking a first aid kit until we needed paracetamol for Finley in the middle of the night and we were trying to find a local pharmacy open while also trying to understand Greek to figure out what brand we needed to get.
We’ve tried to pack too much into one day which just led to stressful adults and tired children, and impacted us on the following day too because we were all still exhausted.
Finally, we’ve also fallen into the cute spiderman backpack made for children only to realise we will in fact be carrying it but can’t wear it like a backpack and you really can’t fit anything into it – now we take big backpacks and know that we’re going to carry them.
While there are many things that can go wrong, taking a little bit of time to research, plan and understand your limitations can help you avoid most of the common pitfalls and mistakes that parents make.
