Ron and I have always enjoyed traveling and exploring the world, even before we met each other. In fact, our shared love of travel was one of the things that drew us to each other nearly 13 years ago. I actually didn’t grow up flying and traveling internationally. I am from a small town in Oklahoma, and the first time I ever flew on an airplane was when I was 19 (all the way to Germany!). This ignited something in me though, and I quickly found a passion for traveling the world.

In the beginning as newlyweds, we were scraping every bit of money we had to afford our 300 square foot apartment on the Upper West Side. I, the keeper of the budget, would tell Ron, “no, you cannot take a taxi home. Take the subway.” And so Ron would then proceed to carry a 50 pound air conditioner up and down subway stairs, and 3 blocks over to our apartment. Bless him.
Yet somehow, we always managed to make room for travel in our budget. It was a non-negotiable for us. And so, as our family continued to grow, our philosophy around travel did not change. We adapted and figured out how to make it work with children in tow. In the beginning, we were young, naive, and rigid, confining ourselves to dark hotel rooms while our daughter kept her nap schedule perfectly. The first time we flew with a child, our daughter was only 5 weeks old. We were terrified, overpacked, and stressed! But after nearly 11 years of traveling with children, we’ve learned a lot on the way, and so have our kids. We’ve been to 24 states and 5 countries with the kids, and more without them. We’ve taken a 2 & 4 year old on a 24 hour flight to Australia. Not only have we figured out how to see the world with children in tow, but we’ve grown to a family of 7 and still keep up our travels! Yes, traveling with kids is tough. Yes, it is not as relaxing as going without them (which I do recomend doing from time to time too!). Yes, they tantrum. Yes, they spend two seconds looking at the Mona Lisa and skip off. But is it all worth it? Absolutely. The memories we create will last a lifetime, and we are pushing our kids out of their comfort zone to see a whole world of cultures and ways of life beyond what is their day-to-day.

So if I’ve convinced you to take your little ones on a trip, but you’re feeling nervous about the logistics of it all, I’ve got 10 tips to help make your trip as smooth as possible!

A 10 day winter trip for our family of 7

Pack Light

This is a pretty simple tip, but so incredibly important when traveling with kids. No matter how light you pack, babies still require so much extra “stuff” like travel cribs, car seats, strollers, etc. If you can really hone in your packing, it will make maneuvering the airports and destination much easier. As a general rule of thumb, I always pack exactly one week of clothes for everyone. This is true whether we are gone 1 week or 2 months. This helps me set a limit and not overpack clothes, and then we can always do laundry if we are staying beyond a week. We also only bring two pairs of shoes for everyone. Everybody wears their bulkier sneakers on travel days, and then I pack everyone’s lighter flip flops (if a tropical destination). There are some items that I find it worth the extra bulk, like our Hatch Rest+, but for the most part, you can do without some things for a short trip. If you’re questioning whether or not to bring it, leave it at home!

Buy Food & Diapers at Your Destination

Along the same lines of packing light, this tip has been a game changer in the last few years. Diapers are one of those necessities that babies need lots of, but you don’t necessarily need to pack them! Pack just enough for your travel day (plus a couple extra!), and you can purchase what you need when you arrive at your destination. I do the same thing with food. I pack just enough food to get us through the travel day, and then purchase everything else at our destination. If your destination is in a highly populated area, you can order your diapers, groceries, sunscreen, etc. ahead of time! The week leading up to your trip, build a local grocery pickup order set to your destination’s location. The day before you leave, set your order for next-day pickup. Once you arrive, you can swing by on the way to your accomodations and just load it up! If you aren’t renting a car, alternatively, you can have them delivered to your door. Many local grocery stores offer these delivery services as well.

Age 2 & 4 fast asleep on an overnight flight!

Inflatable Pillows

This one has become more popular over the past several years, and for good reason. When we flew 24 hours from New York to Sydney in 2019, we brought along 2 inflatable pillows (similar to this one). They are very compact and easy to add to your carry-on. These pillows helped extend the seat space so our kids could sleep overnight on the plane. That particular flight, our 4 year old slept 10 hours straight!

TSA Pre-check

If you are American, this is a great option for traveling families. Each adult will need it, but the great thing is, kids can tag along for free! Getting through airport security with kids in tow is the hardest part about the airport. TSA pre-check lines are much shorter, meaning less time to entertain cranky kids in line. You also do not have to take off 7 pairs of shoes, take out toiletries, tablets, etc, making the process much smoother.
Pro Tip: Check your credit card (or look into a new one), because many credit cards offer reimbursements for TSA pre-check as part of their perks.

Pack Minimal Toys

Keeping up with the theme of packing light, my kids all have a tiny Fjallraven backpack that they use for travel days. I purposely keep the backpacks small, so that the kids do not tire from carrying them all day. Each child is in charge of their backpack and what they choose to bring. They pack their water bottles, a couple of thin books, and a small handful of toys in each of their bags. We love Mini Voyager’s travel kits for travel toys. It’s always a good idea to have new toys to introduce on travel days, and these are perfect! Beyond my kids’ backpacks, I do not pack them any toys. We usually have plenty to fill our days, and in the downtime, I’m a firm believer that boredom sparks creativity. I love to see my kids explore their new environment. One trip, they turned a broken tennis racket and a beachball into a full-blown sibling baseball game.

Know Your Limits

Admittedly, this is not my strong suit, but my husband does this really well. I want to try to cram as much as possible and make the most of our trip, even if it means everyone is miserable. Whereas my husband knows when we should slow down, skip the museum and watch a movie at the AirBNB instead, thus allowing everyone to be ready to rally the next day. We once had a disasterous travel day traveling. We were just hopping from one island to another, so it should have been easy peasy. Instead it turned into a 10 hour travel day, where we lost one of our travel cribs, our SUV rental didn’t fit our family, and the “beachfront” AirBNB we had rented was all sharp jagged rocks. We sat down that night, and Ron said to me, “Tomorrow is a new day.” The next morning, I woke up vomiting, in severe pain from what turned out to be kidney stones. After spending a day in a tiny hospital, Ron knew we had hit our limit. So instead of powering through, we called it. We got refunded the remainder of our trip and flew home 10 days early. So my advice, know your limits, and know that if you don’t get to everything on your list, it will be okay!

Matching Shirts

As our family grew, so did my anxiety around losing a child on travel days. As a mom of 5, I can now understand how Kevin’s mom could forget him in an airport in Home Alone. There is a lot going on on travel days. Stress levels are high as we try to navigate our small army through security and to our gate. Someone has to potty. Someone needs to tie their shoe. Someone else is thirsty. Someone else can’t find their backpack. Wait, do we have everyone’s passports?
It’s hard enough with the constant “1, 2, 3, 4, 5…”
Early on, I started matching my children on travel day. This makes it really easy to quickly count and keep track of all of your little ducklings!

Try for a Free Seat for Your Infant

Did you know that if a flight is not full, you can request one of the empty seats for your lap infant? If you think about it, it makes sense. If you find yourself sitting next to an empty seat on an airplane, you are allowed to place your purse there or spread out across the empty seat.
When you arrive at your gate, you can ask the attendant if there are any empty seats, and if there are, often they will rearrage some seats so that you and baby can use the empty seat. But be warned, not everyone is so kind. I’ve encountered plenty of workers who refuse to move seats around to accomodate this. But it never hurts to ask!

Just came off a 24 hour flight and extremely jet lagged, but powering through!

Beat the Jet Lag

After a long day of travel, everyone is exhausted and cranky, and the prospect of a good long nap is often quite enticing. I would encourage you to push through though! The quicker you can get everyone operating on local time, the smoother your trip will go. Getting outside and getting a lot of sun exposure (aka go play at the beach) helps signal to your body what time of day it is. I once heard that whatever the number of hours in a time difference is, it takes that many days to fully adjust. I have often found that to be true (though after a certain point, it stops mattering). If you must, squeeze in a small afternoon nap or an early bedtime, but pushing everyone on that first day is critical!

If I am honest, the actual travel days suck. I can’t tell you how many times we have ended our day of travel and sworn to never fly with children ever again. But just remember that “tomorrow is a new day.” Whatever happened in one rough day doesn’t dictate how to rest of the trip will go. (Unless it’s kidney stones, then just head home). I promise that you will never regret taking the trip with your family.

Top Travel Tips with Children