{"id":4084,"date":"2026-08-24T05:33:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T13:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nehrlich.com\/blog\/?p=4084"},"modified":"2026-08-24T06:49:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T14:49:03","slug":"tips-for-traveling-with-young-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nehrlich.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/24\/tips-for-traveling-with-young-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips for traveling with young children"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier this year, a friend who was about to travel with their first child asked if I could share any tips on traveling with kids, and I shared my thoughts via email. I&#8217;ve shared that email to a few people now, and one requested that I post the tips so they can be shared with others. And since we just returned from six weeks of travel in Europe with our three kids (7, 5, almost 2), I figured this was the time to write it up since the experience is fresh. <\/p>\n<p>Disclaimer: This is what has worked for my kids and my family. Every family is different. We have the privilege of having the time and money to travel, thanks to generous maternity leave (x3) for my wife and a commitment to pursuing new experiences together. <\/p>\n<p>Many people assume that they can no longer travel once they have kids. We decided to test that &#8211; when our first kid was 2 months old, we spent 6 weeks traveling around Spain and Italy, figuring that if we were not going to be sleeping anyway, we might as well do so in beautiful European cities. That trip went spectacularly well, so we kept going, traveling to Bulgaria that summer to visit my wife&#8217;s parents, and then spending a month traveling around New Zealand in an RV with a baby at the end of that first year. Since then, we&#8217;ve had two more kids, but we&#8217;ve kept on traveling. Last year, we traveled with three kids to Singapore and Malaysia for an extended spring break, spent the summer in Europe (including an epic 3-week road trip through northern Italy and the Dolomites) (we also had to work remotely a couple weeks while the kids were in camps), and went to Costa Rica for Christmas. <\/p>\n<p>People ask &#8220;Isn&#8217;t traveling with young kids hard?&#8221; Yes. It is. It would be easier to stay home and stick to the routine. But if you love traveling, then you&#8217;re already committed to breaking the routine and collecting new experiences, so this post is to give you some ideas of how to keep doing that with kids. <\/p>\n<p>Kids can handle more than you think they can. It is the fear of parents that hold them back from traveling. I mean, don&#8217;t be stupid &#8211; use bottled water when traveling in places without reliable infrastructure, and cook food yourself when you can for the kids. Admittedly, we have been fortunate not to have any medical emergencies &#8211; we&#8217;ve had a couple health scares with rashes, but found clinics to take care of them. And we haven&#8217;t traveled any place more exotic than Mexico or Malaysia with the kids yet, so it&#8217;s been relatively low risk. <\/p>\n<p>But I have been regularly surprised with what my kids can handle:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Going to camp in Bulgaria (my wife is Bulgarian so we go every summer to visit her parents for a few weeks) where they spend the day speaking in their second language with kids they don&#8217;t know &#8211; that&#8217;s more than I could handle!\n<li>Enjoying a street food tour (our kids were 6 and 4 at the time) in George Town, Malaysia, where they cheerfully tried everything at several different restaurants. My son loved it so much that he wrote the experience up for a school assignment that fall.\n<li>I signed my older kids up for ski team last winter, and by the end of the winter, they were both able to ski expert runs.\n<li>My son and I did <a href=https:\/\/vicente74.github.io\/Accrobranche\/index.html#>a ropes course<\/a> a couple weeks ago that said it was for kids 7 and older. It included zip lines, tight ropes, wobbly hanging logs and nets you had to walk across. We were tied into a safety rope, but it was tough even for me! My son sailed through it and wanted to do it again, and I was the one that actually fell off one of the challenges and had to figure out how to hand-over-hand my way back using the safety line while panicking.\n<\/ul>\n<p>Young kids are adaptable. They will accept whatever you tell them is normal. So <a href=https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B0CL1BJDRR\/ericnehrlisho-20>decide the experiences you want to have<\/a> and then figure out how to include them in those experiences. <\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a few tips for each age range that I&#8217;m familiar with. <\/p>\n<p><b>Traveling with a baby (0-1 years old):<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The first year is the easiest time to travel with a kid &#8211; you can go anywhere with them in a stroller. Don&#8217;t worry too much about their schedule &#8211; they will fall asleep anywhere if they&#8217;re tired. And if you&#8217;re going to be awake in the middle of the night anyway, the jet lag doesn&#8217;t matter.\n<li>File the passport paperwork ASAP once you get the birth certificate. My wife had to go to the embassy to do the emergency paperwork for us to make our flight when our first kid was two months old.\n<li>Find a diaper pad you like, and keep it stocked with diapers so you can change your baby anywhere there is a bench. Also, keep a spare set of baby clothes with you at all times when you&#8217;re out so you can handle unexpected messes.\n<li><a href=https:\/\/www.stokke.com\/USA\/en-us\/strollers\/yoyo-strollers\/stokke-yoyo-stroller-6-months.html>The Yoyo Babyzen<\/a> travel stroller is the best. It folds up so it fits under the seat or in the overhead compartment, and most airlines know it, so when you are boarding and they tell you to gate check, you just say &#8220;It&#8217;s a Yoyo&#8221;, and then you can bring it onboard. Our stroller has held up through 3 kids over 7 years and many many trips &#8211; we had to contact them a couple times to get replacement parts, but it&#8217;s been reliable. It&#8217;s also got a ton of room underneath which is great for grocery runs.\n<ul>\n<li>For the first 6 months before the baby can sit up, we used <a href=https:\/\/www.stokke.com\/USA\/en-us\/647909.html>the bassinet version<\/a> but you can also just use your normal car seat with <a href=https:\/\/www.stokke.com\/USA\/en-us\/accessories\/yoyo-stroller-accessories\/6555.html>their adapters<\/a>.\n<li>My favorite random dad skill is walking out of an airplane with a baby in one arm and the folded-up stroller in the other, flicking my arm to unfold the stroller one-handed in the jetway, putting the baby in, and walking onward without holding up traffic.\n<\/ul>\n<li><a href=https:\/\/www.babybjorn.com\/products\/baby-bouncers\/bouncer-bliss\/>The Baby Bjorn Bouncer<\/a> was also an essential piece of travel gear for this first year as it lets the baby see what&#8217;s going on and bounce themselves &#8211; the only unfortunate thing is that it doesn&#8217;t fit into a standard suitcase, so we had to use my giant hiking backpack to bring it overseas.\n<li>We bought a <a href=https:\/\/www.guavafamily.com\/products\/lotus-everywhere-travel-crib>Guava Pack and Play<\/a> but ended up only using it on local trips where we drive, as it&#8217;s too much of a pain to travel with internationally (one more bag to carry!). Most hotels and AirBnBs have cribs, and we&#8217;ve had success asking them to buy one for us (at our expense) if they don&#8217;t.\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Traveling with a toddler (1-3 years old):<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This is the hardest time to travel with kids &#8211; they want to run and walk on their own, but they have no sense of self-preservation (our daughter would reliably run straight towards the street). I used to laugh at parents who put their kids on leashes &#8211; we didn&#8217;t end up doing that, but I understand the impulse now.\n<li>European cities with pedestrian streets or parks with walking trails are great for this age, because the kid can run around on their own without the risk of cars. You still have to keep a close eye on them, though, as it&#8217;s easy to lose them in a crowd. We spent a couple Decembers in Playa del Carmen when our kids were this age because of the walkable streets and beaches.\n<li>It&#8217;s also challenging because they don&#8217;t know how to talk yet. So when they&#8217;re upset, you have no idea why, and they&#8217;re just screaming at you in frustration.\n<li>You also have to build your schedule around their nap time at this age &#8211; they&#8217;re too big to comfortably sleep in the stroller, so you do a morning adventure (preferably one where they can run around a bunch to tire themselves out), come back to the hotel or airbnb for a nap, then head out for dinner.\n<li>Find foods they will eat and stick to them. Our toddler ate a lot of pasta and pizza and bread this summer &#8211; we&#8217;d rather have a full baby than be too worried about their diet.\n<li>Build in buffer time when traveling anywhere, so that you can handle unexpected surprises. I have a vivid memory of a huge poop explosion in Barcelona when we were trying to leave the hotel with our first baby, and having to wash the baby off in the shower while being stressed that we were past our check-out time. This year, we were driving to the airport when the toddler puked all over the back seat, but it wasn&#8217;t a big deal: we pulled over at a gas station, cleaned up as best as we could, changed the baby&#8217;s clothes, and still had plenty of time to make our flight.\n<li><a href=https:\/\/wayb.com\/products\/pico-car-seat>The WayB Pico travel car seat<\/a> is great for this age. It folds up into a carry-on size backpack, but we check ours since car seats are generally free to check. Note that kids can&#8217;t ride facing forward until they are 2 years old in California, but in Europe, they can do so at 15 months, so our challenge was getting the toddler to and from the airport on our end. The WayB Pico also is great at home for a second car.\n<li>If you have two kids and the Yoyo stroller, this is the time for <a href=https:\/\/www.stokke.com\/USA\/en-us\/655701.html>the ride-along board<\/a> so that the bigger kid can ride on the back. When we went to NYC when our kids were 5 and 3, this enabled us to cover way more ground without having to use the subway as I could easily push them in the stroller for a couple miles.\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Traveling with older kids (4-7 years old):<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This is a great time to travel with kids. They are old enough to remember cool experiences, they can tell you what they want to do, and they bond more closely because they are each other&#8217;s primary playmates while traveling. Plus, they are not learning much at this age in school, so we have no problem taking our kids out of school to create travel memories that will last a lifetime.\n<li>Also, they&#8217;re independent enough that you can leave them with others when you want a break. Our kids have been to camps in Bulgaria, Italy, New York, and Spain, and have learned to quickly settle in and figure out what to do in a new situation.\n<ul>\n<li>Pro tip: Higher end hotels will sometimes have a kids club, where a caretaker will lead kids through activities (drawing, storytelling, crafts). Even though it&#8217;s often just a room with basic toys and activities, our kids love them, and beg to go to them for a couple hours each day. They have fun, we get a break, everybody wins. When we see that a hotel has a kids club, we book it.\n<\/ul>\n<li>Kids do have preferences at this age, so it&#8217;s important to include them in the planning of each day so they get to do some of what they want. That might include choosing where to go that day if we have options, or stopping at a toy store so they can browse for a few minutes. Let them have a break if they want one, where they get a snack or a drink and recharge. Make it collaborative, in other words, not just your adventure they are being forced on (although sometimes you do have to pull rank). This is not the age for art museums or guided tours with a lot of talking.\n<li>Don&#8217;t try to do too much. Our best days are when we have an adventure in the morning like a hike or a beach outing, quiet time (or kids club) in the afternoon while the baby naps, and then walk to a playground and then go eat dinner. When we pack the schedule too full, the kids can melt down from getting overtired, and then nobody has a good time. If that happens, get them fed and do whatever it takes to calm them down.\n<li>Relax the rules so vacation is a joy for them:\n<ul>\n<li>Our kids get ice cream almost every day when on vacation.\n<li>They get extra screen time on airplanes. They love international flights as they can watch TV for several hours without interruption, unlike home where it&#8217;s a couple hours a week on Saturdays. And if we need a break during the week, we can just set them up with the iPad and enjoy a couple hours of peace.\n<li>Let them buy trinkets or souvenirs or cheap toys. Not every day, but maybe once a week. It&#8217;s a few dollars, and gives them tangible memories. Our kids have keychains from multiple countries dangling off their school backpacks.\n<\/ul>\n<li>Kids do get bored easily, and it can take longer to get your food at restaurants in other countries, so my wife packed an art bag for that situation. It&#8217;s just a 8&#8243;x11&#8243; zippered bag with markers, crayons, pencils and sheets of paper (it used to have Playdough too) that we throw into our backpack or stroller when going out. When the kids get bored at the restaurant, they can start drawing.\n<li>We used the <a href=https:\/\/shop.saferide4kids.com\/products\/ridesafer-travel-vest>RideSafer travel vests<\/a> once the kids turned 4, but this summer we tried <a href=https:\/\/mifold.com\/products\/mifold-comfort>the MiFold booster seats<\/a> and our kids liked those better. They&#8217;re a little fiddly to get them in and out, but easier than the vests.\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<p>We don&#8217;t have it all figured out, but we have spent close to a year traveling with kids over the past seven years, visiting 15 different countries along the way. While the specific tips above worked for our family, the main principles to remember are:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Travel stretches you. You will run into unexpected challenges, and working through those challenges together will teach the important lesson that <b>you can do hard things together as a family<\/b>. And those are often the best memories.\n<li>Kids are adaptable. They can handle more than you think they can. Include them in your planning, so they feel like it&#8217;s their trip as well, and not just a burden being imposed on them.\n<li>Remember to enjoy each day. Vacation is supposed to be fun! I often need this reminder.\n<\/ol>\n<p>Traveling with kids is expensive and exhausting. But my wife reminds me that living at home with kids is expensive and often exhausting. At least when you&#8217;re traveling, you are having new experiences  and creating new memories together as a family. <\/p>\n<p>If you have traveled with kids, share your tips in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier this year, a friend who was about to travel with their first child asked if I could share any tips on traveling with kids, and I shared my thoughts via email. I&#8217;ve shared that email to a few people now, and one requested that I post the tips so they can be shared with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal","category-parenting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nehrlich.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nehrlich.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nehrlich.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nehrlich.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nehrlich.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4084"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.nehrlich.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4091,"href":"https:\/\/www.nehrlich.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4084\/revisions\/4091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nehrlich.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nehrlich.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nehrlich.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}