Do you regret not traveling more when kids are little?

[Anonymous]

We did not travel much other than trips to family and camping when my kids were little. No regrets.

We did a trip to Costa Rica when they were 5 and 7 which was awesome. Because it was their first big trip they have lots of memories from it.

By late elementary we started traveling a ton and have had all kinds of adventures since. I think 8-14 is a real sweet spot for family travel. My kids are still game for family trips as older teens, and fun to travel with, but it gets harder to schedule, they miss their friends if gone too long, and have much stronger preferences about what we do. The six week road trip we did when they were 10 and 12 was timed ideally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Outside of short road trips, I haven’t traveled much since having a kid who is 4 now (partly because of the pandemic, but also it just seems like a hassle). Used to go all over the world before that. I’m starting to feel like I need to resume traveling though, even if a lot it is just going to be finding things to entertain my kid.

Did any of you not travel much until your kids got older? And do you regret that at all? I know I’ll have plenty more years to travel, and it’ll be a lot easier if I just wait another 2-3 years, but wondering if I should just make a plan and go somewhere now…plus I don’t want to look back and think so what if he was 4, I should’ve just gone!

Also if anyone has suggestions for an “easier” trip abroad with a kid that age, that would be great.

Until the kids were about 10 and 12, we barely went anywhere but north to one set of grandparents or south to another. We did go to ME for 3 weeks once, and that was great.

Once they hit that tween stage is when we started traveling, and it has been great. We've been to Europe several times, South America, Equador, Alaska, Iceland and more. Am working on a trip to Japan for 2025.

No regrets about not traveling sooner

[Anonymous]

We did zero trips before age 4. Several since. No regrets at all. Very little kids do not get much out of the trip and have so many care needs.

[Anonymous]

No, they remember zero, so the travel is for you. Do you like/are you able to enjoy travel with little kids? I personally did not.

[Anonymous]

We traveled a lot when the kids were little. Then the pandemic got and we were so grateful we traveled when we did. But that was such an outlier event. I guess the lesson i learned is just do what you can, when you can. You never know what's going to happen but it's not worth twisting yourself into knots m

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Took my 4 years old to Japan, first night nose bleeding + wee accident, 2nd day and 3 day poo accident, we had to buy nappies. He was fully toilet trained back home. 4th day he vomited on a long trip bus. Not to mention the extra tantrums, lying on the floor and crying times during our trip. We travelled during peak season, paid full adult airline ticket for him.. I don’t think I would take him on any international trip with me until he is a lot older. Me and my husband can just take term to travel if we want to…

Funny, we just took our 3.5 year old to Japan for two weeks and experienced none of that.

I guess the moral of this thread is to know your kid. Ours is finally at an age where we can go out and DO stuff. Who cares that she won’t remember. I will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We traveled a lot when the kids were little. Then the pandemic got and we were so grateful we traveled when we did. But that was such an outlier event. I guess the lesson i learned is just do what you can, when you can. You never know what's going to happen but it's not worth twisting yourself into knots m

we had the SAME thoughts during covid!

[Anonymous]

My Dad's a dual citizen so seeing certain family requires overseas travel. I don't think my kid remembers much from the trip when he was 3 but we had a really nice time and my elderly uncle got to meet him when he otherwise wouldn't have.

[Anonymous]

We have been traveling with our child since they were five months old. They are now 14 and have been all over the world to dozens of countries. Not a single regret and they are memories we will all cherish forever. If you have the money, go for it. Having dealt with cancer and death in our immediate family, I’m all about doing what you can and want to do! Time is never promised.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have been traveling with our child since they were five months old. They are now 14 and have been all over the world to dozens of countries. Not a single regret and they are memories we will all cherish forever. If you have the money, go for it. Having dealt with cancer and death in our immediate family, I’m all about doing what you can and want to do! Time is never promised.

100% this!

[Anonymous]

If they're under age 10, it's really lost on them, IMO. We traveled a ton when my kids were younger because of my job. They have no memories. My DD has been to 18 different countries, but she doesn't count them because she can't remember them. Going to Tokyo is her dream. She's been there twice: once at age 4 and the other at age 6. She has fuzzy memories of going at 6 but nothing solid.

Traveling with teens is the best. They are old enough to leave alone when you want a quiet dinner alone. They are old enough to explore on their own, too, so not everyone has to get dragged along to the same sites/activities. They have more patience and don't throw temper tantrums. They also tend to sleep through the flights as teens. Mine can fall asleep within 10 mins of buckling on a plane and sleep the entire flight. They never did that as toddlers even when we booked night flights hoping they would.

Road trips with teens are also awesome. They can drive and get some practice driving in new locations and on different roads. They're also always SO excited to get to drive. We did a long college visit road trip that spanned a week and both teens loved every minute of it. They bickered over who got to drive, of course, but they had worked together to plan the route and included some sightseeing things they wanted to do along the way. The most miserable road trips were when they are little. I mean, even trying to drive ~4 hours away to Williamsburg was miserable. "I need to pee!" "Does anyone else need to pee?" "Nooooo." *we stop to pee & then 15 mins later* "I need to pee now, mom."

[Anonymous]

Travel where?
To Europe and cities - no way; little kids won’t remember and it would be a pain to work around their needs for those types of trips.

But I did like doing beach or lake trips when the kids were small. Happy memories and mostly just hanging out in that one spot.

[Anonymous]

We traveled with our kids from the time they were babies and never regretted any of it. We do all sorts of things with our young children that they won’t remember- doesn’t mean it isn’t worthwhile. We just went where we wanted and made it work with kids. One kid was easier than the other. But oh well.

I do wish we’d managed to travel more (covid and work obligations stopped some planned trips)… now that my oldest is in HS, there are so many places I would still like to travel as a family, but sports/activities and not being able to miss school easily at that age reduce the opportunity.

To the PPs talking about naps and sleeping…. When our kids were young enough to still nap, they were also young enough to nap in a carrier on my back (or on road trips, in the car). We certainly didn’t go back and sit in the hotel waiting for them to sleep. We were also flexible about bedtimes while traveling, but we’ve never been much for the nightlife anyway.

[Anonymous]

It's fine to travel at those ages, though. We did and don't regret it. We all enjoyed it. But we chose trips that would work for those ages. Like: a trip to the Algarve in Portugal when our kids were 2 and 7 (with a day in London), Disney with a 4 year old, LA with a two year old, Florida with a 2 year old.

Will they remember it? No, but we adapted travel to their needs and I was glad to get out and about.

Now that they are older we travel more. But with such a large age gap, there's almost no famiily travel we'll do where both are under 18 and both will remember any given trip. So, you know, it's not all about memories, but it's all fun. I wouldn't regret it if we hadn't done it though, I don't think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’ve traveled all over with our kids since birth and I really feel like at 4+ they really began to enjoy it so much. My son was obsessed with the Eiffel Tower at 4 and when we took him to Paris he came running over to me after first glimpsing it and told me “Mommy, you made all my dreams come true!”. I don’t care if he won’t “remember” it, I do and it was a priceless moment.
Traveling when they were even younger was also fun and special in its own way but really once they stopped needing to nap it got a lot more fun! My kids have been all over Europe, to several countries in Asia and a lot of Central America and the Caribbean. We are planning a trip to Africa soon, and also hoping to get to South America this year. We prioritize travel and have found a lot of ways to do it that make it more fun for all. Kids are now 8, 11 & 14 and traveling is their favorite thing to do.

That is adorable! Love that they love traveling so much!