I get it. Traveling with kids is overwhelming. We have six!
We’ve flown with our kids, and driven out of the country with kids, and I’ve done both of those while pregnant. We love to travel and so do they.
That first time you’re considering taking your kids somewhere it can be very overwhelming. What do I bring? How do I pack? What if they scream on the plane? How will we survive together in the car?
I’ve had lots of experiences with the kids in different scenarios so I wanted to offer any tips and tricks I’ve learned to pass on to you. If I can do it, so can you.
Just plan it!
First off, I want to tell you to just take the trip. Don’t let your worries or fears control you. Your kids will get so much out of a vacation to anywhere. They will learn about other cultures, geography, food, language, and living experiences, the list is endless. All of these things they can’t get by sitting in the classroom. So take the trip.
Yes, you can also save more money by staying home. But we don’t want to spend our lives just working and not living. So we work hard and we save where we can so we can do fun things.
Planning the trip
You’ll need to start with where you’re going. That is going to be a personal decision. We have gone to many places with the kids (and places without the kids). My experiences come from taking the kids by car to Wisconsin, Canada, Colorado, Tennessee, and Minnesota and by plane to Mexico, Florida, and Texas. We have also taken the kids on their first cruise to the Caribbean.
We usually start by deciding what types of activities we want to do on the trip. The beach or the mountains? Do you want to spend time at a water park or in nature? Does one of your kids have a special interest? Where can you go so that you can do multiple activities?
Timeshares
In early 2018 we took a trip that we were offered to the Wisconsin Dells. We drove up there and got a good deal at the waterpark for us and our five kids. We had to listen to their spiel about timeshares. My husband was already decided for the most part but we went and we ended up buying our timeshare.
Lots of timeshares have bad raps because they are for one certain place at the same time every year. That’s not how the Wyndham Timeshare works. We LOVE it. You buy a deed at a certain timeshare location (for us was the Dells since we were there and purchased) and get a certain amount of points. To keep it simple, you can then use those points to stay at their locations.
Wyndham has hundreds of locations in the United States and other countries. Therefore your choices for vacations are far from limited. You can also search on their site for the things you want on your trip. Like how many bedrooms and if it has a lazy river!
The other massive bonus for us owning a timeshare is that we don’t have to cram into a tiny hotel room or spend money on two rooms. We have basically a condo size place to stay with 3 or 4 bedrooms, a full living room, a kitchen and a balcony to relax in. Can’t beat having a master bedroom on vacation and a play to chill if you’re exhausted from your day.
Yes, it’s an investment, for sure. But if you factor in going on trips and having to buy two rooms in a hotel for a week and not being able to cook at all that definitely helps. There are a lot of things I can talk about when it comes to our timeshare but I think I’ll save that for another post!
Fly or Drive
For us, this is always based on cost. It’s easier to fly usually. It’s nice to get there faster. But you have to factor in the cost of a rental car. We have to get a minivan like we have at home because it’s the only one that fits 8 people. So it does depend on the cost of flights.
If your child is under 2 they can be a lap child. That will save on seats. You can fly with a cheaper airline like Frontier or Allegiant. It helps to check different cities for the outbound flight to see differences in price as well. For us, Minneapolis is usually cheaper than flying out of Des Moines.
So if you want to take a trip and save the most money, you could drive. Find somewhere like an Airbnb or a hotel with mini kitchens and plan to eat in some of the time or even most of the time. There are also places you can stay for the week that are like cabins or townhomes on the lake or in the mountains and they have kitchens. You could enjoy a peaceful week of just relaxing and hanging out as a family and spend very little.
Timing
I realize sometimes you can’t control when you can take a trip. If you can be flexible that can actually save you some money. When looking for airlines you can use the option that lets you be flexible on when you leave and come back and can show you have much the price differs based on what day of the week you leave and come back. Also, time of year can make a difference depending on where you go. Obviously, if you want to go to Florida in March you are going to run into higher prices for spring break. That plays a part in when we travel and where we go.
If you’re going to do a big Disney trip there are many great websites to help you plan on taking it. One of them helps show you each month at the park and the peak times to visit. It’s something to consider if you decide to take your kids to Disney. I think it would be best to do a separate post sometime about our Disney trip and my tips for doing that vacation.
Getting there
You know where and you know how. Now what?
You’re going to want to plan ahead so you can be prepared to keep the kids entertained.
Make sure to keep on reading on blog post Part 2 for Traveling with kids!