How to start traveling around the world with children. Tips and steps to plan your trip with kids, based on our experience.

 

Before the first trip abroad with our older girl we were a bit worrying, then she was two years old already. But everything new after a few times is going much more easily.

With two kids we already went abroad when the little one was almost one year old and the older girl was 4 years old.

We have prepared for you a step by step list of tips, based on our personal experience, for planning a trip with children:

Step 1:

The first thing to do is to decide, that even with your little kids you want to continue traveling.

Step 2:

Before traveling abroad with children, make a trip in your own country for a few nights. So you will see your behavior in a trip with your kids and also their behavior.

Step 3:

Choose the dates of the holiday abroad, if it is possible, choose dates which are flexible plus or minus a couple of days. We choose dates about six months before the trip. There is no reason to wait for the last moment if you travel with small children and just put pressure on yourself and constraints of high prices, availability of hotels and trip planning on the run.

Step 4:

Select the type of trip you want to make. We usually prefer to stay in one accommodation and every day to drive to different attractions maximum an hour from the hotel. We do so because moving from place to place requires packing and unpacking luggage a few times, so we do not particularly like it. If you still want to make a continuous trip and every day to stay in a new place, maybe you should consider taking a trailer or a caravan instead of a car and hotel, so your home always travels with you and the children will be able to rest on the road. Not yet tried that option, but soon we’ll try.

This kind of trip is suitable for nature travels with children. During such a trip you can also jump to some big city, park your car for all day in a downtown parking, and to walk around in the historical center. Getting around in big cities with a car is not recommended at all. So if you are planning a trip of several days only in a big city, it is better not to rent a car at all. Just take a taxi or shuttle bus from the airport to the hotel and get around in the city by public transport. Even if you want to make a day trip out of the city, you can do so by train or daily car rent.

Step 5:

Choose your destination for abroad trip using recommendations from other parents. With small children under five years old, it is better to choose a relatively close destination, up to 3 -4 hours flight. In addition, you should select a destination by the weather in those countries in that season of year. Make an approximate estimation of the cost of a trip according to the following steps and reviews from other parents. After all, everyone knows whether that country is cheap or expensive. Add 10% to your estimation and check whether it is in your budget.

Step 6:

Before you start to read the material about a destination country and to choose attractions, the first thing you should do is to book flights. It is better as soon as possible, a few months or even half-year before the trip.

Do not look for the destination airport only in the capital city. If you rent a car at an airport, you can look for airports within a few hours’ drive from the region you want to travel. Sometimes it is better to fly to an airport in another country which is closer to your accommodation and flight prices are lower. I do not recommend with small children to fly non direct flights, even if it comes out cheaper, waiting between flights can tire the kids and you. But in the end all a matter of cost function to your personal benefit.

Another tip from personal experience. When you are looking for flights, cars or hotels in different websites, select in your Internet browser incognito browsing mode. In Google Chrome click the three dots on the top right and choose “New incognito window”, in Internet Explorer8 and newer versions enter Tools and select “InPrivate Browsing”. Otherwise these sites know that you were already visited them and you are looking for a specific deal, so they just raise the price of this deal to make you think that you have to hurry and order.

Do not use only one website for booking flights, check and compare several websites. Sometimes some flights do not appear on all websites and flight prices may differ from site to site.

We use Momondo, there is also Expedia, Mytrip, Cheapflights, Skyscanner, Kayak. Sometimes also the websites of Low Cost airlines themselves.

Step 7:

After you finished with flights, you can build the trip plan without hurrying anywhere.

There are popular countries and places, where you have to order accommodation six months in advance, but in most areas we have been traveled, you can reserve B&B also two – three months in advance. We usually rent a log house in a forest, farm, ranch or resort villages. Usually I book accommodation after recommendations of people who were there before, but sometimes the rating and reviews on Booking satisfied me. Another grate site for renting private apartments and houses all around the world is Airbnb. We often use it and we are glad to give you $41 discount in travel credit for your next booking via our link to their site – Airbnb.

Before you rent an accommodation, you have more or less to plan the attractions you are going to see on a trip. You do not have to plan in details what you want to do on each day. We just choose the attractions that are recommended in travel blogs, websites, books and what looks interesting, and mark waypoints on the map in GoogleMaps, GoogleEarth, or Android application Maps.Me. This KMZ file with all the waypoints also can be kept for navigation during the trip.

So we see the layout of the interesting attractions and then we can choose accommodation more or less in the center of the waypoints area. Of course, you should check driving times from home to each attraction. In the Alps Mountains, for example, the distance on the map seems short but driving there can take much longer than the same trip in the Netherlands or Lithuania, the plain countries. You should also check in the web the quality of country roads. In Cyprus, for example, the mountain roads are very different from coastal highways. The simplest way to estimate drive times is using GoogleMaps.

Step 8:

The trip plan itself we usually plan last month before the trip, even then we do not plan what exactly will be done every day. Every morning we decide where we are going today according to the weather and attractions’ location on the list.

Step 9:

Car rent you can also make in the last month, unless you want a special car, then you should pre-book in advance. The most important thing to make sure that there is full insurance, it means no excess for car damage or excess return (Excess Reimbursement Insurance which you buy separately) . Please check expenses if you want to cross the border between countries, there are also companies which don’t allow to cross the border to certain countries. Check also for the free pass on toll roads, sometimes it is already included in the rental price. If your flight arrives to and departs from different airports, check that it is possible to return a car in a different place, because it usually leads to extra costs. Even if you are late to return the vehicle, the company can charge you a whole day cost, according to rate different from what you have ordered in the website. You can reserve safety seats for children with the vehicle, but we always take our seats. The seats weight is not included in the baggage weight. Price of rental booster seats for children for 10 days of a trip can be quite similar to the price of buying a new booster.

I usually use Rentalcars that works with various car-rent companies (see the search box below):

Step 10:

Travel insurance you can make in the last days before the trip, unless you want the insurance to cover the cancellation of the trip in last-minute. You should explore possibilities for expansion of basic insurance of your credit card and compare it to others in terms of coverage for a day hospitalization abroad and maximal total coverage.

Step 11:

Usually about 3 days before the flight, you can already Check in through the website of the airline and choose seats. For children up to age two, you not committed to buying a ticket, you’ll have to keep them on hands. Airlines usually give the first row with bigger leg space for those flying with children up to the age of two. A few days before the flight, you can also order on the airline website which kind of food you would like to get. You can choose vegetarian, vegan, etc., each company has different options.

Step 12:

We do not make roaming cellular plan, actually we are also at home do not talk much on the phone. Abroad it is much more cost-effective to buy a local DATA SIM card in the airport.

Step 13:

For navigation abroad we usually use free offline Android applications. Simply download the maps of the country and POI database before you travel and use it offline. My favorites are Maps.Me, Here, and IGO. Of course if you buy a DATA SIM then WAZE is the best application for online navigation by car, it gives you traffic warnings and shows you different ways to destination. GoogleMaps you can use for street walking navigation and public transport in a big city.

And the most important, don’t forget that You can discover beauty in every country, in every place, every moment!