I am a mother of 4 and these are my tips for traveling with children

These are some key lessons I’ve learned about how to make family travel more fun for everyone.

I’m looking for places to play

Kids love to be active and have time to just be kids. This means that everywhere we go, I look for a playground – which is often easy to find – to spend an hour or two running around.

At first, I hated taking time out of a trip for something as simple as monkey bars, but I’ve found that giving my kids time and space to play outside refreshes them and allows them to focus on other activities as the trip progresses.

As a bonus, I often run into local moms at the playground, who give me invaluable tips on kid-friendly attractions and restaurants that I wouldn’t have found on my own. On the rare occasion that I couldn’t find a playground, my kids jumped into soccer games and played on the fields. There is always a place for children to play if you look around.

I engage with them while doing adult activities

While I could happily spend my days wandering through museums and going on long hikes, my kids often need more to hold their attention.

On a recent visit to Venice, I booked a family tour that included a scavenger hunt workbook that kept my kids busy for hours. I also look for interactive exhibits in every museum we visit and head straight for those exhibits whenever my kids start to get restless.

If none of that works, I usually make a beeline for must-see exhibits when we first arrive to make sure I don’t miss what I came to see.

They can get fast food

Before kids, I always made it a point to try local specialties. Now, I often give in to my kids’ desire to eat fast food.

Embarrassingly, I ate at more McDonald’s on the trip than I did at home. However, when my kids have full tummies and feel like they have some control over what we do, they are much happier. I also relax the rules about junk food and juice while traveling. It’s a small way to make the trips feel special and won’t hurt them in the long run.

I plan some activities just for them

While I never feel like I have enough time anywhere, I sometimes forgo seeing the bigger name attractions to take my kids somewhere I know they’ll love.

On a recent trip to Atlanta, my son happily spent an afternoon exploring all kinds of slime at the Sloomoo Institute. Although our afternoon making slime meant we missed out on some great museums, giving my son a few hours to do something he really enjoyed put him in a great mood for the rest of the trip.

They have jobs when we travel

My kids like to have some responsibilities when we travel. Giving them something to work on helps them feel involved in the planning.

My 9 year old is often assigned the task of taking pictures. My 13-year-old is usually responsible for finding the best route from one place to another. Finding useful tasks that my kids like and are good at helps take the pressure off.

There are fewer limits on screen time

The internet is full of ideas for activities for kids to do while traveling. We’ve tried, and like, many of them. I also keep my kids stocked with books while I travel. However, I am much more lenient with my screen time when we are away than I am at home.

Traveling often involves long hours of waiting on a plane or in a car. Screen time is the only reliable way I’ve found to make the hours pass without major meltdowns. This means I have a less stressful trip, the kids are happier and I have some time to myself. Promises of extra screen time are often effective in getting my kids to do something they’d rather skip.

We bring games with us

I never start a trip without a few little games. Uno is our favorite. Having a few games on hand is a great way to pass the time at night. If my kids are cranky, taking even a few minutes to tune in to a game is a great way to reconnect and resume the journey. Games are also a great activity for my kids to do together while I catch up on work or plan the next leg of our trip.