Five Top Tips for Traveling with Kids
1. What to See and How to See it
Think "Quality not Quantity". If you over-schedule your day, there is sure to be a melt-down (theirs? yours?) and your kids will not only be miserable, but they'll have unpleasant memories of the places you worked so hard to take them.So, then...what is Quality? It is whatever your family will love, enjoy and remember. It's not necessarily what the guidebooks tell you what you have to see. We visited Amsterdam and did not go to the Rijksmuseum! We went to the Dutch Resistance Museum, the Anne Frank House, the Canals Museum, Zaanse Schanse, and the Maritime Museum -- over the course of four days. We avoided the crowds (tickets online to Anne Frank House), saw cool places, and learned interesting things. My kids don't want to look at paintings.When your kids are little, "Make Proximity your Priority." If it takes forever to get there and get back, there might be a melt-down on your agenda, too. On the other hand, if riding the subway, or long, leisurely walks are part of your family fun, and you can roll with a little unpredictability, then far-flung places can be great...and away from the crowds. But you have be the kind of person who isn't going to be upset if you get there a little late because your child is walking slow or the train isn't on schedule. Your child will pick up on your frustration. And you shouldn't plan more than one or two destinations in a day like that.
2. Food
Try the local stuff, but let your kids stick to their favorites and comfort foods. We ate Italian food three nights in Amsterdam. Our brave forays into Dutch food were cheese and pancakes. To be fair, my son's pancake had bacon cooked into it! We wandered around markets, grocery stores, snack shops, ice-cream shops, bakeries. They looked at more food than they ate, which is a start. We bought some interesting things that we could take back to our apartment, and they could ease their way into these foods (cheeses, cold cuts, fruits, juice combinations, breads). Their days were so full of new experiences that by dinner, they were ready for something familiar.3. Getting Around
Let the journey be part of the adventure. Don't underestimate the thrill of the taxi ride (or Uber ride!) for the suburbanite kids accustomed to mom's minivan for all of their journeys. Likewise, subways, trains and long walks in busy populated cities -- these provide endless thrill that may be talked about more than the attractions you're headed to. Let the kids read the map, buy the tickets and understand how they re getting around the urban jungle -- or actual jungle.
In Amsterdam, we had 24-hour tram passes, and had to scan them to get on and off the bus. A few days later, we bought passes for the U-bahn in Vienna, only to see that no one used them. I asked my cousin, who lives in Vienna, about the tickets. She explained that residents buy annual passes. Every few months, the station police do a sweep, and if you're caught without a ticket you pay a hefty fine (and you're publicly humiliated). My kids were fascinated by the transportation comparisons.
4. Where to Lay Your Weary Head
Apartments, Vacation Rentals, Farmhouses, B&Bs, and of course, hotels.We usually look for apartments or vacations rentals when we travel. We get more space for less money. We have a kitchen, which further saves money on meals, and my older son can eat breakfast at 5:00 or 6:00am -- when he wakes up!
Places to look are Tripadvisor.com (click on Vacation Rentals), www.vrbo.com, www.homeaway.com, and www.sabbaticalhomes.com, (ideal for longer stays). Hotels are great if you like turn-down service, valet parking, concierge service, on-site restaurant/bar, etc. (although at some vacation rentals, the owner will give you lots of local advice.)
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