Like anything in life, our big year-long adventure wasn’t initially supposed to look like this. We had imagined a year exploring South America. My partner wanted to do a big mountain adventure there, and then we planned to head closer to Central America to finish the trip on a more relaxed note. Then we thought about going to Asia and spending the winter skiing in Japan. But we figured our kids were too little to actually enjoy skiing in Japow, so we left it on our bucket list. Same thing for the big mountain adventures—life isn’t over yet!
And then, we had an opportunity. Old friends who have moved back too France, offered us a place to stay on their farm… So we said, why not!
I’ve never really liked overly planned trips, and my partner isn’t a big planner either. We’ve always traveled with a list of possibilities, without booking everything in advance. I found that after having kids, we planned even less. Not everyone would agree with us, but for us, this has proven to be the best way to travel. Don’t get me wrong, we do plan the essentials, but everything else stays as a list of ideas rather than a tight itinerary.
Here are my do’s and don’ts when planning a trip with kiddos:
- Make a wish list
- Ditch the calendar
- Listen to others, but not too much
- Plan the essentials
- Map things
- Feed those kids!
Make a wish list
Even before traveling with our kids, we always made a wish list. We would google places, follow links on Instagram, and read blogs to get a feel for what our next destination had to offer. Once we had a list of things we could do, we determined the things we really wanted to do—our bucket-list items.
We do the same thing with our kids. We ask if there’s one thing in particular they want to see or do. It could be a museum or a beach they saw in a picture—whatever they choose, we always make sure we get to it.
Ditch the calendar
Yes, it’s true that when you only have four days to visit a place, you need to plan a bit if you don’t want to miss anything. But when traveling with kids, you also need to adjust to them. When we first started traveling on weekends or longer trips with our kids, we tried to plan as much as possible so things would run smoothly.
Well, it turned out to be the opposite. It seemed like every time we planned something on the calendar, we ended up having a terrible night of sleep, or the weather would be awful. There is nothing worse than going to a trampoline park (because you promised) when it happens to be the only sunny day of the weekend. So we learned not to plan day by day.
Listen to others—but not too much
When you plan a trip, people are always excited to share their experiences. I say: listen to them, but not too much. Every child is different, and every family has its own way of doing things. Just because your friends loved something doesn’t mean you will too.
A good example for us was Paris. We heard so many great stories about visiting with kids—wandering the streets eating crêpes and croissants. Well… our kids hated it. Big city, too many people. One of our kiddos really wanted to see the Eiffel Tower—and maybe climb it—but ended up underwhelmed and didn’t want to go up. They thought it was spectacular, of course, but the park underneath was way more fun. In the end, we were very glad we hadn’t booked tickets to climb it.
Plan the essentials
So yes, I keep saying “don’t plan,” but let’s face it: you do need to plan a few things. The only two things we ALWAYS plan are housing and transportation. Sure, sometimes we wished we could have stayed an extra day somewhere, but we found it helpful for our kids to know what comes next.
Map things
When creating our bucket list, I tag everything on a map so we don’t end up walking back and forth from one end of the city to the other. Our kids don’t mind walking, but oh dear—if you make the mistake of passing something we already saw, they will let you know.
Here’s what I do: I open Google Maps on my phone and “like” every place we want to see. If you don’t have data while traveling, your map will still work as long as you keep it open.
Feed those kids!
Another thing we kind of plan is restaurants. Without choosing exactly when and where we’ll eat, we always try to check our options the night before. Depending on the destination, restaurants aren’t always open when you feel like eating. Knowing their opening hours ahead of time can prevent having two very hungry kiddos in front of a closed restaurant. And when everyone is hangry, that is not the time to start looking around.