Five Tips for Traveling Internationally with Kids

FAMILY TRAVEL

JENN ALBRECHT contributing writer

The Albrecht family in France in 2020. Now that the COVID pandemic is coming to an end (fingers crossed). Many of you, like us, might be considering international travel as a family. Traveling internationally not only builds relationships as a family, but also opens kids’ minds to new cultural experiences and builds confidence. Yes, traveling with kids — especially internationally — can be overwhelming. I often find myself asking questions like, “How far can the kids walk?” “Where are the nearest bathrooms?” “What if we get lost?” and “Will the kids enjoy cultural activities, such as museums and historical visits?” All of these questions and more often keep people from venturing too far out of their comfort zones, and sometimes keep us from traveling altogether. However, working through these worries is well worth the effort.

Over the last decade, both for work and for pleasure, our family of seven has had the opportunity to travel to South America, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Here are a few tips and tricks that we have learned along the way:

JUST DO IT Sometimes the hardest part is just doing it! Buy the plane tickets, reserve the VRBO, and get the ball rolling. That first step is often the hardest, but for our family, once we sit down and set a budget, plan the dates, and purchase the airplane tickets there is no going back, which is a good thing because it forces us to get out there and start making memories!

KEEP IT SIMPLE — YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO IT ALL As parents, it’s important to not get caught up in what we CAN'T do on the trip and instead … continued on next page

continued from previous page … focus on what we CAN do on the trip!

Obviously, we won’t be able to hit every beach, attend every museum, and/or visit every tourist or local destination. No one has an unlimited budget and no one has an unlimited amount of energy and patience. I have to remind myself to pick a few things that I know we will enjoy as a family and focus on those FEW things — remember to stay in the moment and not worry if our family hits every major tourist site in the country we are visiting.

HAVE A BASE Whether it is an all-inclusive resort for a week, or a six-month sabbatical in another country, have a base! Our kids loved the consistency and familiarity of a “home away from home.” Going out on excursions and then returning to the same place gives them a sense of security. While living in Europe for a semester, we had an apartment in Barcelona. That’s where we lived and spent our days, but each weekend we would venture out and travel to Rome, London, Sicily, or Paris. It’s amazing how quickly coming back to Barcelona felt like home. Even while going on shorter visits to all-inclusive resorts in Mexico and Jamaica, we used the resort as a base and then did daily excursions to other areas.

GIVE KIDS RESPONSIBILITIES As parents, we found great value in empowering our children while in a new environment and culture. For example, before going to South America and Southeast Asia we taught our children a few key phrases and then gave them the opportunity to use those skills. In Barcelona, we would ask our kids to leave the apartment each morning to buy bread for the day. Of course, we would always send them out in ‘twos,’ but we would not go with them. It was their responsibility to go down the block to the store, speak in Spanish, pay in the foreign currency, and return home all by themselves. Similarly, we taught our kids to read the subway and bus maps to get around the city. Each time we were returning to our ‘base camp’ we would give the children turns to read the map, and ‘lead’ us home. They could ask for help if needed, but it was totally up to them to find the way home. We took a few wrong turns, and even took the wrong bus and subway a couple of times, but these were great learning and confidence-building experiences. We had many similar experiences in airports. Just stop and ask your child to look at the signs and figure out which way to go to get to the right gate. EXPERIENCE THE CULTURE We were surprised to find that even at age 3 our youngest son enjoyed visiting Buddhist temples and other cultural sites in Thailand. From this experience, we learned that even young children can enjoy cultural and historical visits. It helped all of our children enjoy the visits when we took the time to teach them a few simple facts about what they were seeing. From the museums and colosseums of Europe, to the ruins of South America, kids are naturally interested in history! However, it was important to find a balance between fun activities and cultural visits.

While we spent one day exploring the Louvre in Paris, we spent the next day running from ride to ride at Disney Paris. Similarly, while we enjoyed visiting Buddhist temples with the kids one day, we would spend the next day canoeing through caves along the beach. When visiting museums, we quickly learned that our kids LOVED engaging with the museum. For example, our kids would take their journals and sit in front of a famous work of art, they would try to replicate that piece in their own journal and interpret what they were seeing. Such immersive activities helped our children understand more complex cultural places at their own level.