We never saw having babies/toddlers as a reason to stop traveling, so we didn’t stop. We knew they wouldn’t remember, but we enjoyed traveling with them, and we still do (they’re now teen/tween age).

Anonymous wrote:We did some.cruises and lots of national parks at that age. We tried a real European ambitious trip and it was....unpleasant (my kid was later diagnosed with some special needs so a lot of those struggles make sense now). But the cruises and national parks let us go at our own pace and eat simple foods.

At one national park cabin campground type place we stayed at they had "poop class" where we went in the woods looking for, identifying, and discussing the creatures that made the poop. My older kid who was about 4 at the time still remembers it. I like that those trips forced us to be a kid again and appreciate those kinds of things and not taking a trip so seriously.

I'm so glad we did that trips, and now that they are tweens we are getting more ambitious and it's going well.

DP here. Thank you for your honesty, context, relevance and example of your learning curve!

Anonymous wrote:They are really too young to remember these trips - at this age, going to the grocery store is just as exciting as going out west or the Caribbean.
If you think you will still have a good time traveling with them, then go. But they won't get anything out of it - other then being more cranky and prone to meltdowns.

x100000

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For us, yes it was totally worth it. We got to know what kind of travelers are kids were, they learn to adapt to changes in time, schedules, foods. We had to modify what we did and where we went. It took more planning but now are kids are in college and they are very comfortable and capable travelers. They love going places and they share their memories of our trips together. So like I said for us, it was totally worth it.

I’m sorry, but this is the kind of advice my parents give and it drives me nuts. If you were “getting to know what kind of travelers” your kids were and they remember the trips fondly, you are NOT talking about infants and toddlers. You’re talking about, at a minimum, preschoolers who are 4-5 years old. That’s not the question. When your kids are in college and you’re looking back, whether your baby was a young toddler or almost in kindergarten might seem like a rounding error, but they are vastly, vastly different when you’re in the trenches.

OP, your kids are not going to “learn to adapt” or not based on travel when they’re under 3. Don’t stress about that at this stage.

Sheesh, this is like how when I’d been home from the hospital for less than 24 hours and I was trying to soothe my crying baby to sleep, my dad said “you know, when you were a baby we read a book about letting you cry and you’d go to sleep and it worked great.” Yeah dad, not at less than a week old!!! “Oh, yeah, I guess that was later, cause you were sitting up in the crib.” Yeah, dad, you think? Oy.

For reference we started traveling with my son when he was 6 months old - from Maryland to San Francisco. 9 months old Norway. 18 months old North Carolina beaches. A slight gap when baby 2 came along. A similar start for that one as well. Each kid is slightly different in their needs -#1 could only sleep in a crib/cot/bed, #2 was a sleep-anywhere kid. So we adjusted what we did during the day. #1 fondly remembers his trip to England when he was 4- the details he remembers are not from photos he has been shown. We as parents learned from a very early on - what each kid could handle and what type of traveler they were. Sure #1 didn't remember Norway - but it was an amazing trip for us as parents - he started to crawl, elderly family members got to hold him, he loved getting pushed around in the stroller over cobblestone streets. Was there an adjustment with the time? Yes, was it hard - no not really. We limited some of our activities and having to carry the baby stuff can be overwhelming - but it's not impossible if you want to make it happen. To me the bigger question would be why WOULDN'T you try to travel with your kids? Perhaps I summarized too much of their 20 year travel history for you, but my point was YAY travel with your kids when they are young.

Anonymous wrote:Make a list of trips that you want to take and target ages. Like major National Parks in middle school, European capitals in high school. And then fill in the rest with places you'd like to see.

South America is an awesome place to take younger kids/preschoolers. They love children and are so friendly to them. Coming from the DC area it was shocking that people would be nice to children for no reason. Argentina, Ecuador and Chile were all great.

Lol this is laughable. They’re all great countries - I have very close connections to all three - but they’re also all very different from each other. It’s just so funny to hear an American say “South America” like it’s a 6 million square mile monolith.

Not to mention that Argentina is a 16 hour one way trip which with a baby isn’t a blast no matter how welcome the baby will be upon arrival.

We loved to travel before having kids. But we kept it very low profile until our child was older than 6. Basically, we only went on 1 cruise when she was 2 years old ( we drove to Ft Lauderdale from DC) and it was fine, but still a lot of preparation. So, no it's not worth it to travel much with small kids like that. I couldn't relax anyway. Then pandemic hit, and no one really was going anywhere. Now, that our child is 8 years old and doesn't need any toddler stuff ( like strollers, car seats, diapers etc.), it is so much easier. So we plan on travelling more and it's gonna be much more fun.

The best vacations we had with our kid when he was under 5 were at my MIL's condo in Florida. My H and I traveled a lot before he was born so going to Florida multiple times a year was not what we would've considered ideal as a vacation. But being in the condo was so much more relaxing than a hotel somewhere new. Our kid had a pack in play in a second bedroom (meaning we could hang out during naps and after bedtime), it was an easy and short drive to the beach (so if we were only there an hour it was no big deal), we kept toys and books there, there was a nice pool in the complex, and a playground close by. Plus we could cook or order takeout. It worked out since it was still a relaxing vacation for us and we weren't shelling out lots of money for it or having to go to bed at 8.

Now our kid is almost 11 and we've been to Europe, Asia, and Hawaii in the past few years. So doing something low-key is not forever! When he was a toddler it felt like we'd never be able to "travel" anywhere again. But earlier this year we visited a bucket list item of mine, and I got to experience it with my son knowing he will remember it his whole life. Totally worth waiting for.

We did some.cruises and lots of national parks at that age. We tried a real European ambitious trip and it was....unpleasant (my kid was later diagnosed with some special needs so a lot of those struggles make sense now). But the cruises and national parks let us go at our own pace and eat simple foods.

At one national park cabin campground type place we stayed at they had "poop class" where we went in the woods looking for, identifying, and discussing the creatures that made the poop. My older kid who was about 4 at the time still remembers it. I like that those trips forced us to be a kid again and appreciate those kinds of things and not taking a trip so seriously.

I'm so glad we did that trips, and now that they are tweens we are getting more ambitious and it's going well.

Anonymous wrote:I think the answer to this question depends quite a bit on what your expectations of the travel are. My husband and I love traveling before we had kids and wanted them to love to travel, (or at least be used to it so they could join us on trips when they got older), so we planned, low-key itineraries, nonstop, flights, and comfortable accommodations to set everyone up for success. We’re not billionaires, but between work travel and credit card points and a healthy travel budget, we didn’t put too much pressure on any individual prep or activity, because none of these or once in a lifetime experiences for us or the kids.

My kids are older now and we do a big international trip every other year or so. My least favorite age to travel was between two and four, where you’re still stuck with car seats and strollers and diapers, and the kids are old enough to complain, and still need naps. Outside of those ages, though I found things I loved about traveling with my kids and, unbalance, I do think it’s worth it.

Just a heads up, you don't have to travel with small kids for them to "love travel." We didn't travel with mine beyond family beach rentals until at least middle elementary school. They now travel all over and "love travel." We didn't have to drag a carseat to Europe to achieve that.

I think the answer to this question depends quite a bit on what your expectations of the travel are. My husband and I love traveling before we had kids and wanted them to love to travel, (or at least be used to it so they could join us on trips when they got older), so we planned, low-key itineraries, nonstop, flights, and comfortable accommodations to set everyone up for success. We’re not billionaires, but between work travel and credit card points and a healthy travel budget, we didn’t put too much pressure on any individual prep or activity, because none of these or once in a lifetime experiences for us or the kids.

My kids are older now and we do a big international trip every other year or so. My least favorite age to travel was between two and four, where you’re still stuck with car seats and strollers and diapers, and the kids are old enough to complain, and still need naps. Outside of those ages, though I found things I loved about traveling with my kids and, unbalance, I do think it’s worth it.

We did rented houses within driving distance at that age. We had all the comforts of home being in a home and bringing things with us. We didn’t have the hassle of restaurant meals or sharing a hotel room. If you go with family, it’s even better because then you can relax, maybe even get a date night dinner out.

Mine were excellent sleepers (12 hours at night and a 2 hour nap) but on a schedule so we only went places in our time zone and where we could rent a condo/house with a separate room for them to sleep. We had very relaxed vacations until they got older and could easily handle schedule changes.

OP, do you want to go somewhere? Do you want to see someone? You make it work. At any age.

Anonymous wrote:For us, yes it was totally worth it. We got to know what kind of travelers are kids were, they learn to adapt to changes in time, schedules, foods. We had to modify what we did and where we went. It took more planning but now are kids are in college and they are very comfortable and capable travelers. They love going places and they share their memories of our trips together. So like I said for us, it was totally worth it.

I’m sorry, but this is the kind of advice my parents give and it drives me nuts. If you were “getting to know what kind of travelers” your kids were and they remember the trips fondly, you are NOT talking about infants and toddlers. You’re talking about, at a minimum, preschoolers who are 4-5 years old. That’s not the question. When your kids are in college and you’re looking back, whether your baby was a young toddler or almost in kindergarten might seem like a rounding error, but they are vastly, vastly different when you’re in the trenches.

OP, your kids are not going to “learn to adapt” or not based on travel when they’re under 3. Don’t stress about that at this stage.

Sheesh, this is like how when I’d been home from the hospital for less than 24 hours and I was trying to soothe my crying baby to sleep, my dad said “you know, when you were a baby we read a book about letting you cry and you’d go to sleep and it worked great.” Yeah dad, not at less than a week old!!! “Oh, yeah, I guess that was later, cause you were sitting up in the crib.” Yeah, dad, you think? Oy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do it for you. We started flying with them when they were 4.5 and 1.5. They did great on the planes (short direct flights to the Caribbean). Stayed at AIs. It may not be as relaxing as traveling child free, but it's a nice change of scenery and pace for us, which we sorely needed.

Same here. You can also opt for a place that offers babysitting services.

+1 - our kid was 13 months we took him to Norway- we all had a great time and then Grenada with grandparents just under 2 - both times stayed in air bbs. He’s now 6 and is a great little traveler. We also make photo albums and show them to him since he doesn’t remember.