A Sweet Escape: Traveling with Children

Big City/Sight Seeing:

This is a trip that most parents (including myself) find a little overwhelming.
A less flexible vacation option but you can still have a great time touring and
visiting the sights with your young children.

I’m not big on itineraries but having a schedule can really be a big help, so
you can plan time for your small ones to visit a park and run around and go
back to the hotel to take a nap if possible.

My biggest tip for sightseeing vacations would be to either use a backpack or
get a diaper bag that can be used as a backpack. This has never happened to
us but we’ve had friends who have gotten distracted with children and sight-
seeing that they didn’t pay close enough attention to their belongings in their
strollers and they were pick pocketed. Not only that, but I can’t count how
many times I’ve left my diaper bag behind and had no idea where we left it.
Having your valuables and personal items on you at all times will help avoid
that predicament and let you focus on keeping your children safe and
enjoying the sights.

Cruising:

This is one of my favorite trips to take with young children and yet parents
often overlook it. If you think about it, it’s one of the least stressful trips you
could possibly take with small children. You are close to your “hotel” so you
can run back and take naps, you don’t need to worry about transportation or
meals- all that is taken care of. You just sit back and relax and enjoy the
journey and your family.

One of the biggest challenges we have come across when taking younger
children on cruises is you need to bring everything they would possibly need
with you that cruise ships don’t provide. This includes formula, diapers,
wipes, bottles, bibs, cereal, and special baby food. They do have some of
these things for purchase onboard but sizes and variety is very limited.

Our solution for this was to pack it all in a box and check it rather than take
up valuable real estate in our suitcase so that at the end of the cruise when
all the goods were used up we could just discard the box and not have to
worry about it on the way home.

Theme Park Vacation:

Theme park vacations are a fun option for families who have multiple age
groups to please. But they can be exhausting. Theme parks can be
overwhelming with little children and you likely won’t get to do everything.
Have everyone pick their favorites and take a few minutes to map out your
route and make sure you can get it all in without over exhausting everyone.

One thing we have learned is to take advantage of children care areas. For
example Disneyland has Baby Centers that have changing areas, feeding
areas, toddler sized bathrooms and it can be a great place to escape the heat
and get your baby to sleep.

Beach Vacations:

Another popular choice for parents of young children. It’s popular because
there is not a lot of planning and it’s very flexible which is a key component
for a successful vacation when traveling with little ones. We head to Oahu in
the Fall and are looking forward to it.

Some of the things we have learned the hard way is:

Apply sunscreen before you leave your hotel! You will forget (which can lead
to painful burns) and once they are covered in sand it will be near impossible
to give them a good coat!

It’s tempting to go without flip flops or sandals but just remember broken
shells, glass and bottle caps can send you to the ER pretty quick and can be
hidden dangers in sand.

A fun tip to for making some lasting memories is to bring along some
purchased seashells and planting them along the shoreline for your child to
find. They will be so excited and treasure them for a long time.