Just go when you can, because you never know what might happen. Who would have guess the pandemic lockdown and unable to travel for 3 years?

10 to 12.

Once adolescence kicks in, they tend to get grumpy and hard to impress (not to mention cell phone addiction).

I did a once in a lifetime trip, then years later married someone from that country. I'm now a citizen and go there all the time. Never say once in a lifetime!

All my trips are "once in a lifetime" for me. I won't go to Iceland again, or Greece (too far!) but maybe my kid will someday. So I don't care if she remembers because the trips are really for me. We go where I want to go and make sure there is fun stuff for my kid.

Is this a trip for the kids especially (like Disney World) or just an expensive, far flung trip you want to go on?

Is it once in a lifetime for you? or for the child? Or once in a lifetime that everyone can gather?
Kids won't remember much but you will. And as they get older, they want more things that wow them.

It is more likely to be once in your lifetime, not theirs. So go when it suits you.

When they are old enough to voice why they want to visit a certain place and what they want to do there.

Kids need to be teens.

I was brought on multiple international trips starting from a young age, because my relatives lived on the other side of the world. I can only remember a few things from my trip at 10 years old, and a lot more from my trips as a teenager.
Nothing at all from my trip at 5 years old

^ even if it turns out that it is

No trip will go well if it's presented as "a once in a lifetime" experience.

Anonymous wrote:It depends on the kid. My old boss took his kids to hawaii and went all out... two years later they talked about going to hawaii and they didnt even remember. I think they were 11/13 at the time and 13/15 now.

+1. Older teens, OP.

Who cares? You'll remember it. You'll have pictures and can tell them about it. Why deny your family a trip because one kid may not remember all of it one day?

I have loads of memories from a trip we went on when I was 5. There was a little drama (got lost with my brother, my sister injured herself) that really cemented it into my head. If it had been all fun, I probably would have forgotten most of it. We took annual trips, and I don't remember as much about the one when I was 9, because it was fairly smooth.

I went abroad for the first time as a teen with my mom. I don't remember a ton about exactly what we did, but I do remember the highlights. It was a terrific trip. Her main goal was to show me HOW to travel to other countries, and that it really wasn't that hard. With the internet now it's even easier (we went in the early 90s).

Anonymous wrote:I don’t like the idea of once-in-a-lifetime trips. Too much pressure.

This. At least 11. They still remember things from 8, 9, 10 but those memories become very hazy by the time they are in their teens. So they still remember that they traveled ro a certain destination, but those memories fade and are kept only by photos and parent stories rather than their own memories. I’d still do trips, it doesn’t mean that you don’t make these experiences with the kids.

Depends not only on the trip, but also on the impact it has on the child. My DD remembers a trip from when she was 8, quite vividly. It was the most fun for her, and she was fond memories of roaming a resort with her cousins, drinking all the Shirley Temples, sitting at the swim up bar, swimming away from said bar when a drunk guy sat next to them and spooked them, etc. It was a fairly boring trip for us, but made memorable because we were there with extended family.

She has FAR fewer memories of our trips that were taken later, to London, Scotland, Paris, etc. Not quite her scene. She will I think, remember trips from when she's 13 and up, although how well likely depends on how much she enjoyed it. For instance, we the parents, want to do a safari type trip. She would hate that, and in all likelihood, would not have strong memories of it.

Curious as to what this 'once in a lifetime trip' is.