One of the questions I get asked regularly is how to travel with kids, particularly young kids. So I thought it would be worth it to outline how we got them prepared for a life of travel.

Preparing for Travel

If you have a young child, how much do you actually need to bring on your trip? I would start with how much you’d think you need to bring for a long day at a local park. And then add on a few key items for sleeping. Some parents may think they need to bring a lot on their trips, such as a crib, strollers, pump and bottle system, toys, a case of diapers, and a full wardrobe of clothing. If this is you, you’re probably packing too much.

I’ll admit this was closer to us at the start. We believed we needed to bring a lot of stuff, and then proceeded to pack extra just in case something went wrong. We had to remind ourselves that we can always buy things if we run out and the hotel likely has what we need (crib) if we ask in advance. If you’re panicking about a big international trip, try a short domestic trip just to make sure you know you have enough hands to carry everything you need to bring.

Speaking of things to bring, car seats may or may not be important for your trip. I try to avoid riding in cars internationally, opting instead for a bus, a train, or subway. One big motivator is a potential avoidance of having to lug that big car seat around. When I’m not so lucky and need a car seat, I might not want to bring my own–sometimes airlines might damage it or it can just be difficult with everything else we’re bringing. Some car rentals might not charge for a car seat, but many do, and it could be cheaper just making a quick run to Walmart (or equivalent international store) to pick up a cheap model rather than paying the car seat rental fee.

We got the feel of it over time, but it is difficult to resist the desire to overpack.

Conquering Jetlag

Before getting into how to handle it for kids, it’s probably best to first identify how to handle it for adults.

When I was younger, I always thought the best way to handle this was to gradually shift my sleep schedule to my target destination, and then to never fully get used to the destination’s time zone if I was going to be there for less than a week. While that might not fully be a bad strategy, it’s a bit difficult to do this while living a normal life and having a job during normal working hours. And while it might work on a trip to the opposite side of the US, it didn’t exactly solve for times when the time zone difference is great (as in going to Europe or Asia).

Lately, I feel like beating jetlag is easier by having a strategic use of naps and also by adjusting when meals are eaten.

Let’s say you’re headed to Europe on a flight from the US. Generally these flights are times such that the flight will land in the morning. Regardless of how much rest you get on a plane, it may be difficult to survive a full day at your destination. Enter the effective nap. Rather than immediately going out to explore the city, I would instead feel like it’s time to take a good shower, get settled in, and take a nap of no more than an hour. You want to feel recharged for the rest of the day but not get so much sleep that you’ll be up all night.

But how do you ensure you have a room when landing? You could try asking the hotel if early check in is available (this is where elite status with the hotel is helpful) or you can book the night before you arrive (just make sure to let the hotel know you will not check in until the morning so they don’t think of you as a no-show). You could even book an airport hotel at a day rate.

As for meals, I am a firm believer in trying to adapt the timing of meals to the destination. If I have an option of when to time meals on a flight, I try to time it with when meals would normally take place at their destination, and not necessarily when everyone else gets their food. I find it’s easier to adjust to a new time zone if I feel hungry at normal times–it certainly is tough to go to sleep on an empty stomach, when local restaurants might be closed.

With that all in mind, what about kids? Younger children aren’t going to fully understand the concept of jetlag, and even if they aren’t aware of it, they’re not going to have the willpower to resist their bodily functions.

I have been known to try to wake kids from their slumber, but once they go down, you’ve already lost. It is tough to get an overly-tired child back awake. Remember that a nap is still fine, as long as it is still early in the day. But once the time creeps into the middle of the afternoon, the goal then is to keep the child active as long as possible. Use the power of the sun, as it’s hard to take a nap with the sun beaming down on you. Go outdoors, perhaps to a local park, to a beach, or go shopping. Just don’t stay indoors, relaxing in the room because that leads to drifting off to sleep a bit too early.

Our kids tend to get a bit grumpy if they’re feeling hungry and have no interest in shifting their meal times. But having snacks can help kids shift their eating schedules without them fully realizing it. Eating a snack or two might help shift meal time just enough to get them better set up for the destination. It’s a far more difficult conversation to have with a child who is starving in the middle of the night, so make sure you have snacks.

Infants generally can follow the same advice as other young children, though it’s a bit more difficult to make sure they’re active. Naps will likely be more often, as they would normally be at home, but you might need to make sure they don’t oversleep and the sun can definitely help get them back awake. As a parent, you might know of other ways to help keep your infant awake and interested to help shift their sleep schedule.

Slow It Down

I think the biggest change we had between traveling on our own and traveling with kids was how little we did each day and how much more tiring it felt. Kids need more breaks throughout the day and they might want to stay longer at certain attractions, so we’ve made it a priority to not schedule more than one main and one side attraction per day. And we’ve found it more enriching when we slowed it down. A big reason we bring our children is to help enrich their lives during their formative years, and if we rushed through all the attractions, we wouldn’t be helping them along with that goal.

Stop Trying For Perfection

Perhaps the biggest thing in all of this is to go ahead and plan all you want, but things will inevitably not go the way you planned. This feels especially true with kids, who might be on a different schedule or not understand everything you have lined up. Or perhaps despite your best efforts, the kids are more jetlagged than expected. Improvise and come up with something else that makes everyone happy. Besides, you’ll have a much better trip if you’re not pulling out your hair every step of the way.

These are just a few of the things we’ve picked up since we started traveling with children. Do you have any other tips you’d like to share?