Traveling With Children

BEFORE THE TRIP: Do all of your planning early when traveling with children and let all the family get involved in the planning. You will be able to head off some potential disasters if everyone is involved. By planning early, there won’t be any disappointments if everyone is excited about a portion of the trip and then find out it’s sold out. Make out your own itinerary and share it with the children. Together you can “tweak” it and they’ve been included in the process. Set limits in advance, either monetary or time. Everyone should know what the general limits are prior to going. This will alleviate a lot of problems while you’re vacationing.

PACKING CONSIDERATIONS WITH CHILDREN: During the trip you will have “downtime”. Prepare for boredom by bringing books, games, activities, CD Players, etc. Make sure you have all prescription medicines (you might even want to take a copy of the prescription in case of emergencies), allergy treatments, insect bite medications and the like. Always pack them in a carryon when flying.

DURING YOUR TRIP: Keep everyone involved. When traveling with children, talk about what you’re going to be doing and seeing! It’s a good idea to have I.D. cards made for your children which include their name, your name and the name and phone number of where you will be staying. When you arrive at your accomodations, get a business card from the hotel/resort and attach it to the ID cards. You can make the I.D. cards yourself. Also remember that you and your children will need some rest time. Traveling can be exhausting. Try to rest at various times during the day.