Traveling with kids is no easy feat. It requires a lot of dedication, time, energy, money and planning on the part of the parents.
Here I share our journey as a family that has extensively been traveling with kids.
The four of us carrying all our luggage for a 9 days Baltic cruise trip in Copenhagen in October 2017
Before becoming a mother, I was determined to do some big trips which I thought would be challenging once I have kids such as backpacking across Central Asia and diving in the Caribbean and Palau.
The daughter of a couple I know in Spain (I met the parents when traveling in Africa) had been to 10 countries in her first year.
I was determined to follow their footsteps.
Having kids was not going to stop me from traveling.
Me and the boys in Monaco in September 2017
I had booked all kinds of trips during my first pregnancy and got all worried about how to nurse the baby while on the go amongst a million other things.
I have since learnt to slow down, to take one step at a time, and to stop worrying unnecessarily.
Our sledging trip to Leukerbad (the largest thermal spa resort) in the Swiss alps
My motto is “Don’t Over think, Just Do.”
We completed a trip to Canada, Mexico, Colombia and Panama with 3 kids under 4 in the summer of 2018. (Our newborn was 2.5 months old on his first flight to his second and third continents)
How much traveling have we done since we’ve had kids?
Our first son visited his 15th country at 16 months of age and visited his 30th country and sixth continent at the age of 3.
Our second son visited his 17th country at 14 months of age.
Our third visited his 14th country and has been to 4 continents at 14 months of age.
Random strangers were taking his picture in The Hermitage, St Petersburg
We travel both domestically and internationally. Although the boys have been to many places worldwide, funnily enough their top two favourite places in the world are here in Switzerland.
How do we afford to travel with them?
Life is certainly a product of our choices. Undoubtedly traveling with kids can be expensive but it is possible depending on what we choose to spend our money on.
Both my husband and I have average respectable incomes for Swiss people. We don’t spend a lot on a normal day. We hardly eat out in Switzerland (it is expensive).
Our firstborn with a giant tortoise in Seychelles
I try to maximise the travels we do as a family using the annual holiday allowance I have on top of the public holidays by planning and booking many things well in advance to save costs.
An example I will use is London – the place I consider my home away from home. We used to travel there on weekends up to 4 times a year.
Keeping this up with the kids has only been possible by ensuring we are on Easyjet’s subscription list, being informed as soon as new flights are released.
I generally wouldn’t pay more than 70 CHF per person to travel to London.
Embracing the natural fish spa in Borneo, Malaysia
Traveling with Kids – Coronavirus?
Unfortunately coronavirus has certainly aftected our travel plans in 2020.
We cancelled seven trips from April to July but have instead started to hike with the kids, explored more places around Basel and spent more time in the mountains.
Luckily for us, we had just gotten back from an amazing two weeks in India in early March just before the lockdown.
We survived six internal flights, ten accommodations, saw seven cities in three states with just two hand luggage for the five of us. Read more about our trip here.
We also spent two amazing weeks in Italy, hiking in the Dolomites, swimming in Lake Garda and exploring Tuscany.
Tips and more – Traveling with Kids
I hope to share as much as possible about our traveling adventures with our kids and share some tips that have worked well for us.
Hopefully you are now inspired to book those flights and plan some awesome travels with the young ones!
Hobbiton is certainly a destination not to be missed when in New Zealand!
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