Travelling with Children: A Practical Guide for rewarding Family Adventures
Travelling with children can be one of the most rewarding experiences a family shares, but it also comes with its own set of challenges. With the right preparation, mindset, and flexibility, family travel can shift from stressful to genuinely enjoyable. Whether you’re planning a weekend getaway or a long-haul journey, understanding how to approach travelling with children makes all the difference.
The benefits of travelling with children
Travel exposes children to new cultures, languages, foods, and perspectives. These experiences help develop curiosity, adaptability, and confidence from an early age. Beyond education, family travel strengthens the family bonds through shared memories and adventures.
Should you travel with your children?
As you can read above, travelling with children has many benefits. But this doesn’t mean that every parent, who can afford it, should suddenly take their children on a long journey to South America. When parents ask me if I can plan a tour for them and their children in Ecuador, Peru, or Bolivia, I always ask them: “How old are your children?”. Of course, not every child is the same, but if your children are younger than six years old, I wonder if they are really going to enjoy the trip? Won’t they be better off in an all-inclusive resort with swimming pool? In my opinion, if you want to travel with your children, you will also have to think about how they will experience the journey.
Minimum age for travelling with children
If you search on Google, you will find many stories from parents who travelled with their children on any different age. Most of you will tell you that it is all possible and not as difficult as you might think. However, most of these stories look at traveling from the perspective of a parent, not the perspective of a child. Yes, you can bring your infant of one and a half year on your holiday to Peru. Great, you don’t have to pay yet for their flight ticket, but is your infant also enjoying the trip? Would he/ she not be happier in their own home and bed? Personally I think that when you want to travel with children, you should also consider their needs and interests. If your children are younger than six years old, I don’t think that they will really enjoy long journeys to and in Ecuador, Peru, or Bolivia.
Planning ahead is the foundation of success
Generally you can say that preparation is key when travelling with children. If you and your children decide to travel together, then it is very important to prepare your trip well. Start by choosing a destination that suits the interests of all of you. Consider factors like travel time, climate, healthcare access, and child-friendly activities.
Booking accommodations with family-friendly amenities such as kitchens, laundry facilities, and/ or extra space, can significantly improve comfort. It’s also wise to plan a loose itinerary rather than a packed schedule. Children need downtime, and flexibility helps avoid unnecessary stress.
Health and safety when travelling with children
Worries about health and safety become even more prominent while travelling with children. As usual, good preparation helps a lot. Not only with keeping yourself and your family healthy and safe, but also with taking many of the worries away. A good travel insurance is indispensable to provide a peace of mind and safety net when travelling. Other preperations that will help include:
- Keep all your emergency contacts accessible
- Know the location of nearby medical facilities
- Bring basic medications and a first-aid kit
- Teach children basic safety rules (e.g., what to do if they get lost). Additionally, it might be a good idea to attach a ‘luggage tracker’ keychain to your children’s trousers.
- Use appropriate car seats or safety gear.
Altitude sickness with children?
We’ve been asked by travelling parents if they could take their infant on a Salar de Uyuni tour at a minimum altitude of 3650 m (11975 ft). We advised them not to. The risks of developing and not recognizing altitude sickness with young children is too big. The general consensus is that altitude sickness develops similar with children, as with adults. This isn’t helpful, because it is still unpredictable when exactly adults will develop altitude sickness and who is more susceptible. Add to this that young children are generally poor at communicating their physiological discomfort, i.e. unlikely to say they are dangerously cold, or can’t feel their fingers (assuming they already have enough language skills). They would probably just become very quiet and still. On top, a child’s thermal regulation is immaturely developed, as is their ability to adapt to hypoxic exposure when compared to an adult. https://www.theuiaa.org/children-at-altitude-essential-advice/
Packing Smart (Not Heavy)
Packing for travelling with children often feels overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Focus on essentials like:
- Travel documents and copies
- Comfortable clothing suitable for the climate
- Favourite toys and/or comfort items
- Snacks and reusable water bottles
- Having a small “entertainment kit” for transit-books, colouring supplies, or downloaded shows—can make long journeys much smoother.
Managing the Journey
Whether you’re flying, driving, or taking a train, the journey itself can be the most challenging part of travelling with children and delays and disruptions are almost inevitable. The following tips can help managing your journey:
- Try to approach (unexpected) interruptions of your journey with patience, flexibility and a sense of humour.
- If driving, plan enough (short) stops.
- Encourage movement during long trips to avoid restlessness.
- Bring games and snacks as ways of distraction and small rewards.
Keeping Children Engaged
Remember why you’re travelling with your family. It should be an unforgettable experience for all of you. Most children thrive on engagement, so try to involve them as much as possible in the whole travel experience. It starts already with including your children in the decision making about your travel destination and activities. Explain them the options, advantages and disadvantages. Teaching your children (and yourself) a few simple words in the local language of your travel destination will help with their ability to interact with local children and deepen their experiences. While encouraging them to keep a travel journey and/ or make drawings of their experiences, will ensure a much deeper travel experience
Embracing flexibility when traveling
Even the best-laid plans can go sideways, especially when travelling with children. Travel delays, unexpected weather conditions, (travel) illness, protests, missed naps, mood swings, etc. can disrupt schedules. The key is to adapt to the unexpected, rather than trying to resist. Sometimes, the unplanned moments become the most memorable ones.
Final Thoughts about travelling with children
Travelling with children isn’t about perfection, it’s about connection and new experiences. There will be challenges, but the rewards far outweigh them. With thoughtful planning and a flexible mindset, family travel becomes an opportunity to explore the world together while creating lasting memories. In the end, travelling with children teaches not just kids, but parents too—about patience, resilience, and the joy of seeing the world through fresh eyes.
Check also our other article for travel advice for senior travellers.
