Several years ago we took our girls to Europe for a 6 week vacation. Our family motto is we have to do something educational, we must eat like a local - visit markets, restaurants and cultural foods, and do something Fun - something the kids want to do.
We were going to be visiting several countries on our trip: Albania, Hungary, Austria, Germany and England. We bought travel guides and I read MANY blogs on each of the main cities and their attractions so we knew at least the basics of what we should know for each leg of the trip. With my travel books out, we got to work planning. Our girls made a list of all of the top things to do, eat and see and we made sure everyone got to pick at least ONE. Our only condition for London, was that it was ALL FOR FUN. London was our last stop, the girls were getting pretty homesick and we wanted to make sure that for this stop they didn't have to go into EVERY museum.
(If you are going to Europe, see my other posts about each city, where we stayed, ate and activities)
My EXPAT tips for traveling with kids:
Express Security - in a lot of airports you can now book your security arrival. For a family on the move this is a much less stressful experience than waiting in a long line.
Pack light-I pack and then unpack. I can ALWAYS pack lighter if you stick to the list.
Wash clothes, pack laundry pods in a little case so you can pack lighter
Break in ALL of your shoes before you travel for everyone in the family
Bring jackets - I packed light summery rain jackets for my girls, and a more stylish dress jacket for evenings when it would cool down.
Vacuum seal bags for longer trips. I packed for each destination, unseal the bag and you're in fresh outfits, and sealed the ones we were done with. I asked housekeeping for their vacuum or if they could do it for me when they cleaned my room.
Research the dressing requirements for the cities or countries you are planning on seeing. You might be surprised to learn that there are known / unknown dress codes in many cities. Vienna for example was one of our favorites and we dressed to impress every day! My husband didn't believe the blog posts we read about Vienna and was impressed that I had his entire week of fresh button downs and walking shorts.
Research which airports you are going to. This saves time, and headaches when you are in a foreign country and cannot read the signage. I got lost in Frankfurt airport trying to find my way to the hotel WITHIN the terminal between airport and train station. Once I had my map memorized it was MUCH easier. ( I was alone with my girls for this city, so it was all on me to get us to where I wanted to go).
Research train schedules as well as the airport. My girls were expert level navigators by the end of their trip.
Book the seats behind premium economy if you cannot afford to upgrade for anything long haul. You have EXTRA leg room, and are close to bathrooms. I always try to book these rows when we travel with our girls from the time they were very small.
Airplane tips: order inflatable leg rests if you are flying at night with your family and taking up a row. They extend your seat area like a bed, I brought one light, small blanket each with their inflatable pillows and it was like a slumber party with arm rests up, they had more than enough room to sleep and be rested for a full first day of tourism when we landed.
Hand wipes, sanitizers, diaper wipes are essential for cleaning while traveling. We did our trip pre-covid, and was thoroughly grossed out when I wiped everything around us on planes, trains and cabs.
Backpack for mom and dad and don't forget your water bottles and umbrellas!! A good fitting backpack, cross body bag or now the essential belt bag are the best things ever when being a tourist. We travelled in the summer- it was blazing hot the entire trip with days of heat, and a few days of rain which was a GREAT DAY of sight seeing in Vienna.
Lounges: if you have lengthy layovers, it is often worth it to hit the lounge. As expats we were fortunate to have enough points with international travel every month, so we specifically booked airline tickets that had lounge access. Depending on the airline pass is $100 per person / kids however, if you are eating in airport it would be cheaper in the long run. We did the same in Europe for train passes. We utilized the VIP passes to access free food and drinks while traveling with our girls.
Anywhere in Europe is our favourite destination. Our biggest takeaways after being abroad for 6 weeks was
We loved taking trains and transit, and wished that in Canada those were more accessible. The girls have big opinions about this and we could see their point of view.
We loved riding bikes EVERYWHERE and seeing bikes everywhere; and again found that where we live is severely lacking in bike lanes and appreciating small city infrastructures to make that accessible
We LOVED the markets, I love how people shop for food, I loved going to the market, the bakeries, the fruit and veg stands. LOVED it all. Loved that we could have dairy and our family are all foodies. I have a blog dedicated to just the FOOD we ate in Europe.
We found that after our many adventures in Europe that we are not quite the beach people we once were. If you're interested in hearing more about our travels, check out my other posts about each city / country that we have been to, and our favourite finds along the way.
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