5 Tips to Make You Enjoy Big-City Travel with Kids

Are you intimidated to travel with kids? Last week we took our kids to New York City for Spring Break. I think the phrase we heard most often from the local New Yorkers was “you are brave”. I suppose to most of the world, traveling with four kids sounds like a daunting task. For us this is just normal life. I mean, when you’ve traveled across the world twice, NYC sounds like a piece of cake! If you want to tackle Big-City travel, I’ve gathered …

Five tips you can use to travel with kids, and enjoy it!

1. Bring hand sanitizer

We all know that kids touch stuff. All. The. Time. And when they are in a new setting, everything seems interesting and worthy of a touch or two. Add onto that the subway poles, stair rails, and doorknobs that they are actually supposed to touch, and your kids’ hands become a germ factory. Instead of reminding them every five minutes to keep their hands to themselves (which makes everyone unhappy), I suggest bringing a nice supply of hand sanitizer. Attach some to your backpack, your stroller, your kids – whatever you have with you. Then after they’ve touched that suspicious gum-shaped blob for the hundredth time, all you do is give their hands a little squirt.

2. Pack Light

I know, this seems almost impossible when you travel with kids. There are about 50 things they seem to require just to get to your destination! But, when you have to cram your entire family plus luggage into a taxi, or forge your way to your hotel on public transportation, you will be so happy that you did. Here are few suggestions to help you accomplish this impossible task:

• Everyone gets one pair of shoes, and they wear them!
• Pack snacks and food for the airplane only. You can always find a grocery or convenience store nearby to stock up on additional food.
• Bring outfits that can mix and match. This allows you to pack less clothes, but still have something “new” to wear every day.
• Use packing cubes. We discovered these when we traveled to China the first time, and they are one of my favorite things. Each kid gets one, and that’s it!

3. Avoid Overscheduling

Remember that time you were supposed to be gazing at an important monument learning about its impact on our country, but in reality you were dealing with one child crying about how hungry they were while the other one ran around in circles nearly knocking over all of the other tourists in the nearby vicinity? No, just me? When you travel somewhere new, of course you want to take everything in. Sightseeing from sun up to sun down! While this might fly on an adults only trip, when you travel with kids it’s a disaster waiting to happen.

This trip I learned from my past mistakes. Before we left we made a list of everything we would like to see. Then we picked our top five things and scheduled one for each day. That’s right, only one! We obviously did more than one thing each day, but this allowed us to have flexibility. And that, my friends, is the key.  When the kids were tired, we stopped at Starbucks. When they were hungry, we found lunch nearby. And when they were full of energy, we went to one of the other things on our list of sights. Guess how many meltdowns we had? Zero.

4. Embrace being a tourist

When I was in my 20’s I didn’t want anyone to know that I was tourist. I know it’s crazy, but I suppose I just wanted to blend in with the locals. Now that I have four kids, blending in is never a possibility. This leaves me free to embrace being a tourist! That means it’s ok if I need to stop at a street corner and consult Google maps again, or ask someone for help or directions. I’m not bothered if I pass the same people on the street three times walking back and forth because I went the wrong way again. We might miss our train because we took a little extra time figuring out how to add money to our Metrocard, but there will be another one! And there is no shame in asking someone to take photo for us. Allowing yourself to be a tourist frees you up to enjoy the experience of travel and the mishaps that come with it.

5. Talk about “hard stuff”

As parents we all want to protect our kids and keep them in a bubble of safety and happiness. Unfortunately at some point in life this bubble is going to burst, and our kids are going to come face to face with the harsh realities of the world around them. When this happens, I want my voice to be the one my kids hear. I want them to feel prepared and not shocked, so I am always looking for ways to broaden their world view.

When you visit a big city, you are probably going to come into contact with some things that you would prefer your kids not experience. Instead of avoiding those things, I encourage you to look at them as great learning opportunities. On our trip to New York we had multiple conversations about graffiti, people who are homeless, why the subway smells like urine, the Mafia, and immigration. These are topics that I probably wouldn’t have thought to bring up, but which led to great discussions about the world around us.

If you’re still hesitant to tackle big-city travel with kids, don’t be! While you may hit some snags along the way, it will be an experience you’ll never forget.

If big cities aren’t your thing, you might want to consider a family camping trip! Read some of my camping tips here!