Traveling with Kids, Everyone’s Doing It

Someone asked yesterday about traveling with kids– can you do it?  I don’t have kids, but I do have two 80 lbs labs, and if I can fly them overseas, convince a landlord in Spanish to let us rent a loft and live in the heart of Madrid– then yes, I think you can pull off bringing your kids with you on your travels.  But as much as my dogs are slobbery, need puppy proofing, run off if given the chance and insist on putting everything in their mouths– it’s not quite the same as having a two year old– even if they do most of the same things.

I would have loved growing up abroad.  When I was in middle school, my step father had an opportunity to coach hockey in France.  He’s a former professional hockey player, and the job meant we would all be moving overseas.  In the end, it fell through, but I always think back to what could have been.  I would have grown up abroad, become fluent in French and learned so much about the world at a young age.  My husband and I have always said that when the time comes to have children, travel and second language skills would be a large part of their lives.

While I don’t have the experience to share on this aspect of travel, there are plenty excellent sites that do.  Thankfully these families have blazed a path for living abroad, long term travel and even RTW trips, so if you have a question, they most likely have covered it.

DeliciousBaby.com Debbie writes about traveling with her two young children.

She says, “DeliciousBaby is for parents who want to travel with their children, but don’t know how to start or who already travel with their kids and want to learn how to make travel easier and more fun. I write about travel destinations, share my own travel stories (in the US and internationally) and share my tips and advice on issues like how to keep kids busy on a plane, surviving jet-lag, and flying with carseats. I also share new news and information that impacts traveling families on an ongoing basis.”

TravelingMamas.com Four travel writer moms talk about traveling with children, the best places for family trips, and more.

They say, “We’re Traveling Mamas sharing our adventures with the world. We offer tips on great (and not so great) places to visit with children and how to have the best family vacations — but it’s not all about the kids, of course! Romantic escapes, girlfriend getaways, and solo trips are also important to us. Plus, we cover industry news and review travel gear, and we love to give things away!”

TravelSavvyMom.com These mothers have lived as expats overseas (in places like London and Fiji) and travel extensively with and without their children.

Founder Jamie Pearson’s best travel advice?

“1) Never leave home without peanut butter, 2) No child is too big for a stroller, and 3) Bring plenty of new toys—$50 for three pounds of plastic crap will seem like the deal of the century at 3am in a London hotel.”

TheWideWideWorld.com This family of four is traveling around the world for a year and documenting every step of the way.

How it came about: “I had casually raised the subject with my wife over lunch at a local Latin American restaurant. “Would you think I was crazy if I said we should take a year off, pull the kids out of school, and travel around the world?”  I couldn’t tell if Dani was humoring me or if she really meant it when she said: “Sounds interesting. Could we really do it?””

TravelsWithBaby.blogspot.com This blogger has literally written the book on traveling with a baby.  Her site is chock full of practical advice for traveling with little ones with 47 article length tips and counting.

From her site, “I took my first flight as a parent when my daughter was 5 weeks old, and by the time she turned 2 years old, she’d crawled, cruised, or walked on 4 continents and a handful of islands, and had a brand new sister to boot.”

KidsGoGlobal.wordpress.com This Oregon based family loves traveling.

“The world is an incredible adventure for our little ones. Travel introduces all of us to new sights, sounds, food, weather, colors, music, and ways of thinking. If you start when they’re young, you introduce your children to the wonders of the world and gift them with a love and understanding for people and places that are different from them. You also teach them important life skills such as flexibility, creativity, new languages, new foods, even map-reading and world history!”

There are plenty more where these 7 sites came from! If I missed you, leave your link in the comments. For everyone else… any tips for our parenting travelers-to-be? Would you travel with children?