Originally written December 2015 for Outdoor Families Magazine.
Giving the Gift of Travel
Memories last forever. It’s a cliché usually printed over inspirational Instagram photographs, but it’s also true. As a family with three kids under age 10, we’ve taken it to heart. And we’ve done so with travel.
Unlike many friends who choose to travel the world non-stop with their kids—which I greatly respect—we’ve opted to keep a home base. The kids have stability, attend a fantastic school and have formed friendships. Then we squeeze in a few trips throughout the year. Doing so means the kids learn it’s always fun to go away, and it’s always great to come back home. Here’s how we manage to give our kids the gift of travel.
We Minimize Other Gift-Giving
We don’t have many presents for birthdays or Christmas. This is made easier by the fact that the kids have gone through previous Christmases where they received toys that never lived up to the TV commercials. They matured quickly, not asking for much other than a few things – the occasional LEGO set, books, stuffed animals, the usual. So we’ve made Christmas especially about family and not about shopping. And birthdays have always been fairly minimal. Our kids have never wanted friend-oriented birthday parties. They put a few small things on their Amazon wish lists, we have cake, and we celebrate with family.
We also incorporate birthdays into our travel when we can. This is typically my youngest daughter’s birthday, since it falls over a school break. For example, two years ago she turned 4 in Bora Bora. This year she turned five in Mexico. And for her 6th birthday? On safari in Kenya. Talk about not needing any presents to top that!
Update: Her 7th birthday was in Costa Rica, her 8th birthday was in the Galapagos, her 10th birthday was in Morocco, her 13th birthday was in Thailand and her 14th birthday was in Ireland! She opted out of traveling for a couple birthdays, and the pandemic interfered as well.
We Budget for It
Travel is our largest budget item, but it’s by no means an open-ended budget. Our goal is usually to spend 5-6 weeks every summer in Europe, winter break somewhere fun in the world, spring break closer to home (Hawaii, Mexico or the continental US), and Thanksgiving and Christmas close to family. In addition, I let each of my kids pick any destination in the world every year for a one-on-one trip with me. So to make all of that work I plan extensively and book wisely. I sketch out our trips a year in advance and start searching for airfares and hotels or apartments so that not only are we able to stay at the places we want (specific hotels during peak times), but we’re getting the best possible rates. We play the mileage game to get as many plane tickets free as possible. When I book hotels or rental cars early, I constantly check rates to see when it makes sense to re-book and save money. I love to travel well but not pay any more than we have to.
We Become Locals
We realized early-on that it wasn’t working simply heading to Europe and wandering around cities for a few days before moving on. There weren’t any lasting memories being created. So we lengthened our stays. When we choose a destination, we now try to go for several weeks at a time. Twice we’ve gone to Paris for multi-week stays. We rented apartments, got into rhythms, explored neighborhoods, had a lot of picnics at the Eiffel Tower, and largely became locals. Do our kids remember the first time they saw the Eiffel Tower? Probably not. But they remember all of our evenings there, eating and playing as the sun went down and the tower lit up. One summer we spent a month in the small town of Cortona, Italy. And we knew that island hopping in Greece would be more about travel logistics than enjoying the islands, so we chose one island this past summer, Naxos, and stayed for several weeks. We discovered favorite sites and favorite restaurants and explored the island. Our kids didn’t want to leave!
We Incorporate Things That the Kids Love
All three of our kids are foodies, partially because of growing up surrounded by California’s farmers markets and having a mom who’s a great cook, but also because of our travel. When we’re traveling we add in cooking classes as much as possible, we visit farmer’s markets, and we go to farms when we can. The kids are constantly exposed to different foods in different countries, and we expect them to try new things – not that we need to work very hard at that. My 7-year-old son’s favorite meal of the year? Roasted duck with a raspberry and peppercorn sauce from a bistro that we stumbled upon in Zagreb. We went back multiple nights!
And my son loves LEGO. So last summer I took him to the LEGO Inside Tour in Denmark, where we visited the LEGO factory and went behind the scenes at LEGO headquarters and Legoland park. We met with the designers and saw the entire process that goes into designing and marketing a new LEGO set. So much more interesting than simply buying and putting together a model!
We’ve Gotten Smart About How We Travel
Not only do we stay in places for multiple weeks, we pack lightly to make getting to our destinations easy, we incorporate kid-oriented walking tours to make the art and history of a city come alive, and we build in downtime during the afternoons or on hot days. Overall we try to minimize hassles. This goes back to the planning: by booking the best possible early-morning flights that we can, we reduce our likelihood of delays. We want the kids’ memories to be good after all! Sure, amazing things can come out of things not going according to plan, but that’s not always the case!
We Embrace the Unexpected
While we pre-book lodging and activities to enhance our trip, maximize our time somewhere and minimize the chance of problems, we’re always up for being spontaneous. This summer in Naxos we decided to have lunch at our favorite restaurant in the world…on Santorini. The ferry schedule didn’t work perfectly to make it a day trip, so we booked a last-minute apartment, bought ferry tickets and headed over to Santorini. We had a three-hour lunch on the water that was as good as ever, and the kids loved it. We finished at five o’clock and we could have just stayed and had dinner there as well, but decided to wander around Oia a little and take a break between meals! It was a highlight of the summer and utterly non-planned other than a day or so in advance. Public transportation in Europe especially makes it really easy to be spontaneous, even going to a different country for a day if something great is going on.
Give the gift of travel to your kids! Of course even without kids it would be fun kayaking in Antarctica on New Years Day, exploring Easter Island and watching the sun set over Florence from the Piazzale Michelangelo. But bringing kids along makes everything a lot more fun!
So pleased to have stumbled across your blog as the gift of travel is exactly what I want to give my children! I have 4 (aged 9, 4, 3 and 1) and am a single mum based in the UK. I’m currently saving for a two month trip to OZ and NZ in a few years time and we’re heading to France for two weeks in the summer this year. I want to do more though but while I have a half decent budget it probably wouldn’t stretch to more than one or two trips a year. I was however thinking of looking at house swapping, is this something you think you would recommend? It would mean not necessarily being able to plan ahead but it would be free accommodation. Our house is big and in quite a desirable location.
Also have you ever flown with all 3 little ones on your own? I’m a bit worried about doing it with mine without a second adult just yet (we’re driving to France)
Thanks
Louise
Hi Louise. Per your question on house-swapping, we’ve never done it, but it’s supposed to be a great way to save money and live like a local. I’ve heard good things from others who have used homeexchange.com. As with anything in the sharing economy, I’m sure some people have had negative experiences and come home to damage, but I would think it’s worth trying.
Yes, I’ve flown with all three kids by myself – at 2, 4 and 6 I believe. I found it fairly easy for a 4-hour flight, since the kids had electronics, and the 6-year-old was a big help. The only problem was that when we landed two of them were asleep. So I had to let most others exit the plane while I woke up the kids – with a carry-on or two I was only able to carry one through the airport. If you time the flight so that ideally you won’t have more than one fall asleep, it will make it easier!
This is great. My kids (3 and almost 6) asked if we could start doing this instead of gifts (not that they got much as it was!). They decided they really wanted to take vacations instead of getting things that they get tired or bored of quickly. My daughter even suggested for birthdays maybe a walk in the park and go for hot chocolate as she thought that would be the best birthday ever (she is our oldest). The kids got to take their first trip aside from camping across Canada and parts of the USA (smoky mountains, nashville, northeastern US – New York state to Maine) to Hawaii this spring after saving up and a move across the country. They are actively building their bucket lists, my daughter is mostly fixated on restaurants as she loves to watch mind of a chef while my son who is 3 just kind of follows along with what big sisters says!
That’s great Katy! I’d highly recommend cooking classes and food tours when you travel – it’s a great chance for your kids (and you) to try some local specialties and then learn to make them. My kids are amazing eaters, and pretty good cooks, as a result.
We completely agree and do exactly the same with our children when it comes to birthdays and Christmas gifts. We always say that they don’t remember what they received for Christmas five years ago but they know every detail of the trips they took!
Exactly!