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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]On traveling with young kids….do it if you want to do it, but they won’t remember much/. They might remember a particular slide or an animal or one thing you ate.  My four year old adored Costa Rica but now a decades later does not remember any of it.

I don’t think early travel really makes them better travelers in the long run — those of you with good travelers that are older probably would have had good travelers anyway/. A lot of it is genetic. Also if your kids were bad travelers (eg didn’t sleep well at night) you probably would have stopped.  So you didn’t create good travelers — you just lucked out with them.  We traveled a ton when my kids were little but my oldest (now an adult) is just not an avid traveler due to sleep and dietary issues.  And I never traveled as a kid because my parents didn’t have the money but I am a great traveler and was pretty much immediately that way as soon as I was able, because my personality type is just laid back, like to try new things and I have no sleep or dietary issues.

I do think early travel can help kids develop interests that will sometimes stick with them.  So a kid that takes a great hiking trip at 6 might discover a love of it that causes them to hike more at home and get really into nature.  Or a kid might develop an interest in animals or history or something that sticks with them.  Like any kind of learning, it’s good for brain development even if it doesn’t stick with them.
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All of this is perfectly reasonable but so often when people discuss traveling with young kids the question is whether the kids will remember anything. Another perspective: I don’t care what they remember, if anything. I will remember it! I want the experience of traveling with my kids and seeing the world with them. I want my memories to include the fun places we went together and the experiences we had. My kids are now late teens and we have been traveling together since my youngest was a few months old. We have had years of amazing experiences, I remember all of them and they remember the later ones or funny snippets from the earliest ones. It is all worth it.[/quote]

+100.  Also, its easier to plan longer vacations before the kids hit HS. DH and my main splurge is travel, I would have regretted waiting till kids turn 7 to travel with them. So many missed travel opportunities for us personally. We are not getting any younger and then in college kids will also want to travel with their friends and SO. So really, travel when you can. Travel for us is not a dollar optimizing strategy. If they can't remember London, hopefully they earn enough to go back there again. Plus travelling with younger kids is cheaper, you can fit into one room, lots of stuff is free for kids in Europe, in some resorts children under 12 eat free, airlines have discounting prices for kids etc. All this is of course if you can afford it. If it's a once in a lifetime trip to London, then you may be better off waiting. [/quote]

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