Sometimes when we talk about our recent trips people look at Tom and I like we are crazy. You went where with a toddler and a baby? And then they look even more bewildered (or maybe confused) when we tell them it went great and we had a really nice time. Maybe my kids are just good travelers, but we love taking them along with us and wouldn’t travel any other way. Here are my best tips for making family travel as stress free as possible.
(1) Be organized with your packing.
There are basically two ways to travel for a trip. You can throw all your stuff in a suitcase with no order, or you can use EzPacking to organize everything you bring. And to be honest I’ve done both. And now we will stick only with using my EzPacking system when packing for family trips. This way all of your belongings stay organized which makes life so much easier and less stressful when traveling.
An EzPacking complete bundle consists of these amazing packing cubes of different sizes, a foldable duffle bag bag, a folding board set, 2 shoe bags, and one laundry bag. You can get all of your cubes in one color, or do half in one color and half in another which is what I chose to do. Then I packed my clothes all into the pink cubes. In the large I put dresses and pants, in the medium I put shirts, in the small I put underwear, and in the extra small I put socks. In the blue cubes I put Maddie Grace’s cubes and followed a similar system. In the large went her dresses, pants, and shirts, in the medium her pajamas, in the small her bathing suits, and in the extra small her socks. Since Tripp has less clothes than us, and we could check a bag for him, I put all of his clothes in he foldable duffle. This was seriously the perfect packing system for us. It kept our clothes organized, and because I knew which size and color I needed for whatever I needed was a breeze to locate. I hate when everything gets disorganized and I have to dig through clothes to find underwear or a matching sock and EzPacking eliminated that problem for us! I also loved having a large laundry back to sort out our dirty clothes. If you aren’t ready to commit to the complete bundle you can also buy a starter set, or individual cubes. Interested in trying EzPacking? Save 10% off your order when you use this link!
(2) Know what will keep your kids occupied.
For us this means Peppa Pig episodes on the iPad, coloring books and crayons, and her favorite board books. This isn’t just for the process of traveling, but for downtime at the hotel, or when they wake up earlier than you would like to in the morning. Also having some of their favorite things from home will give them comfort and familiarity as kids can have a hard time with culture shock. In Croatia we didn’t even have any English TV stations so I was really glad they had some favorites from home around.
(3) Bring the necessities.
Even if you are at an all inclusive resort bring TONS of your kids favorite snacks from home. Because if one thing is true children are always hungry. And snacks are one thing that seem to always calm down my kids when grumpy. Also make sure to have a thermometer, Tylenol, and band-aids on hand in case you need them.
(4) Always have extras.
Bring an extra phone charger, camera battery charger, and laptop charger. Bring plenty of converters if traveling to a country where you will need one. Because it is almost certain that at some point you will have a hard time finding one when you need it, or one will break. And that is not something you want to worry about while traveling.
(5) Have days with nothing planned and make your schedule flexible.
On all of our trips there is at least one day where at least one person is sick and we end up taking a day to recuperate. Because we know this we build that into our schedule. I also wait to have many activities set in stone so we don’t have to cancel something that has already been paid for when my kids end up napping later than usual or we just run out of energy.
If you have a trip coming up that you are taking your kids on don’t fret. In fact, kids can tell when you’re stressed and it throws them off. Stay confident and cool and know that even though at times it may be difficult, it’s 100% worthwhile.
Have you traveled with your family recently? I’d love to hear any tips you have for making it less stressful below!
*Thank you EzPacking for sponsoring this post! Regardless all thoughts and opinions are my own and I only recommend products I truly love.
These are some awesome trips. We haven’t traveled with the two kids yet, but looking forward to it!!
Great tips!
I have used these and they seriously make packing SO easy!!!