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43 real-world family travel tips that actually work

Editor's Note

Family travel is a whole other ballgame. The strategy, gear, planning, expectations and number of times you may answer "Are we there yet?" make it an entirely different sport than solo or adults-only trips.

While traveling with kids is arguably quite different than taking a trip without a child (notice we didn't call it a "vacation" with kids), it doesn't have to be intimidating. In fact, there are countless ways to experience memorable moments and make lifelong memories with your kids, whether you hike the mountains of Machu Picchu or ride the newest coaster at Disney World .

Related: TPG's 10 top family vacation destinations

To make the journey a little easier, we've compiled our 43 favorite family travel tips. Whether you're traveling with infants, teens or some of both, these tried-and-true tips are bound to ease travel headaches and ensure your family travels are as fun and carefree as possible.

Travel tips for infants and toddlers

Having a baby does not mean the end of your time as a traveler. It may cause you to temporarily pause your adventures, and it will certainly change how you travel. But traveling with a baby is still worth the effort.

While it's true that your baby may not remember the details of your trips during the first few years, quality time together is invaluable. You will always remember their first big vacations.

Some travel is often easier with a small, snuggly baby than with a growing, active toddler, so don't be afraid to plan something while your little one is still young.

Use the right travel stroller

If you plan on traveling with a stroller, you want one that is lightweight and easy to maneuver through the airport or rough terrain, if necessary, once you reach your destination.

Related: These are the 13 best travel strollers for your next trip

If you choose to gate-check your stroller, foldability isn't as important. Instead, prioritize protecting your stroller from dirt and damage by investing in a stroller with a bag. For long layovers, you can request to have your gate-checked stroller delivered to you between flights so that your baby has a safe and comfortable place to rest while you navigate the airport. Just ask the gate agent when you check your stroller.

To keep your hands free and your baby snuggled, you may choose to baby-wear through the airport or on a flight (though most airlines don't allow it during takeoff and landing).

The Transportation Security Administration rules state that infants may be carried in a sling or carrier while going through the walk-through metal detector, so you shouldn't have to remove them for security — at least, according to the rules.

If it's not too hot, baby carriers and slings also come in handy at theme parks, which allow baby-wearing on many family-friendly attractions. Just be sure you ask about safety restrictions before you ride.

Breastfeeding mamas should consider carriers that allow easy access for on-the-go nursing, such as those in sling or wrap styles.

Consider a Doona

If you don't want to lug both a car seat and a stroller and your baby weighs between 4 and 35 pounds, you're in luck: The Doona can serve the function of both. It transforms very easily from a stroller to a car seat and back again, all while your baby is strapped in.

Because of their convenience, Doonas are great for flights, cab rides, Uber rides and, frankly, any part of your busy life with a baby.

Think twice about flying with a lap infant

Most airlines allow children younger than 2 to fly as lap infants instead of purchasing separate seats for them.

The cost savings can be hard to pass up, and during those early months when the little one is nursing or sleeping a lot, it can be the easiest way to go. However, if your baby is fussy or you are flying solo, you may feel more comfortable keeping them in their car seat. If they can sleep through anything or you have someone you can split baby-care duties with, you may have more success flying with a lap infant.

If you do purchase a seat for your baby, there are dozens of portable car seats out there that are much easier to travel with than the bulky car seat you may have at home.

Get a car seat just for travel

The Cosco Scenera is a perennial favorite when it comes to travel car seats. At around 10 pounds and only $50 to $60, this car seat is a winner for travel when you need something easy and affordable. It's rated for rear-facing little ones weighing between 5 and 40 pounds or forward-facing kiddos weighing 22 to 40 pounds.

Another model to consider is the WAYB Pico portable car seat, which was recommended by several TPG readers.

Use a car seat on the plane

Every kid is different, but if your little one sleeps well in a car seat in the car, they may do the same on a plane. If your kids are generally comfortable in car seats and have their own seat assignments on the plane, consider bringing the car seat on board for a secure flight experience.

Related: Car seats that are airline approved

Bring a Boppy pillow if you're holding an infant

TPG's senior director of engineering Mitchell Stoutin recommended using a Boppy nursing pillow for long flights with an infant. In addition to being handy for nursing, it gives your baby a comfortable place to rest. He also advised stashing your Boppy in a vacuum Ziploc bag to save space when not in use.

Sign your kids up for frequent flyer programs

Once you make the transition to buying your child a seat — either because they turn 2 or because you think having a separate seat will work best for your family — sign them up for a frequent flyer account and let the miles start rolling in.

No minimum age requirements exist for kids, so enroll them while they're young to maximize their earnings.

Related: Earning frequent flyer miles for your kids just got a little easier

Most airlines let families with young children board early in the process, but as long as your family has assigned seats, you don't need to worry about rushing to board before others.

Instead, have one parent get all the gear ready and board first while the other waits as long as possible before bringing the baby on board. This will help minimize the amount of time you have your little one in tight quarters, reducing the likelihood of a meltdown or further disrupting their schedule.

Pack your carry-on strategically

Think about everything you may need to easily access for yourself and your baby before organizing your carry-on. That way, you don't forget any of your must-have items or struggle to find them while on board.

Consider packing food, diapers and extra outfits for at least twice as long as you think you'll need them for your little one while in transit. Don't forget to also bring clothes, snacks and drinks for yourself so you have everything you need.

As a general rule of thumb, it's a good idea to have enough essentials to survive at least 24 hours off of what you bring on board, as you never know what is going to happen.

Bring large Ziploc bags and black trash sacks

Avoid packing a suitcase without tossing in a few Ziploc bags, grocery bags or trash bags. They can be used to stash snacks and store wet or dirty clothing.

As TPG executive editor Scott Mayerowitz shared, large black garbage bags can also work as blackout shades in a pinch.

Related: The best family beach vacation destinations to kick off summer

Find a space in your hotel for the baby to sleep

In the best-case scenario, you'll have accommodations with at least two bedrooms so your baby has a dark, quiet place to sleep while you relax without disturbing them. However, there are times when having multiple rooms isn't possible.

If you only have one bedroom, try putting a crib in a hotel closet or bathroom to achieve the same result.

Travel with gear that will help your baby sleep in the hotel

When it's time for the baby to sleep, there are numerous sleep tents, shades and white noise machines to choose from. Here are a few of our most trusted options:

• SlumberPod .
• SnoozeShade for Pack 'n Play .
• BabyBjörn Travel Crib Light .
• White Noise Lite app for iOS and Android .
• Hatch Rest Nightlight and Sound Machine .
• Portable Travel Window Blackout Curtain .

You don't always need to buy new gear for a successful trip, though. One reader suggested using painter's tape to cover outlets as a quick, cost-effective way to baby-proof your hotel room.

Related: These are the best New York City hotels for families to check out

Have diapers and essentials shipped to your final destination

While you need plenty on hand for that first day or two, you can purchase what you need from Amazon and have it shipped directly to your destination instead of traveling with an entire week's worth of needed items like diapers and wipes.

Alternatively, you can use a service like Shipt or Instacart to have essentials delivered to your hotel or home rental after you arrive.

Pack the snacks

This is true for all ages but especially applies when traveling with infants.

Don't ever assume anything baby-appropriate will be available while you are in transit. The last thing you want is the stress of scrambling to find what you need at the last minute.

To avoid this potential headache, pack enough formula, snacks and more so you have whatever your little one may need to stay happy and content.

Related: How to pack — and prepare — for travel with a baby

Travel tips for preschoolers

The good news is that when kids are old enough for preschool, they don't need quite as much sleeping and transportation gear.

With preschoolers, you'll want to pay particular attention to toys and activities that will keep them entertained, night lights that will help keep the "scaries" away and a few other important travel essentials.

Bring mess-free toys

When choosing toys to pack for a flight or road trip, keep in mind that you don't want anything that will create a mess or get lost easily, such as Legos or slime.

For mess-free coloring, we love Crayola Color Wonder Markers and coloring pages. If you're taking a long flight or road trip, consider suction toys that can stick to a car or airplane window.

Related: 14 mistakes parents make when traveling with kids

Pack hidden toys to reveal during your trip

A surefire way to keep your child content for extended periods of time is to hide some toys until your travel day arrives so they feel new and exciting. You can even wrap them up or dole them out periodically throughout your trip — we recommend packing one toy for each hour of a flight — to add an element of surprise.

Try visiting a dollar store or dollar aisle in a store to dial up the surprise factor. Trust us, the $5 investment will pay off in spades.

Related: Your guide to flying with kids of every age

Consider an inflatable booster seat

If your child has graduated to a booster seat (congrats!), there are inflatable and fold-flat booster seats available that are easier to haul when traveling by car.

While there are several options currently on the market, the BubbleBum inflatable booster seat is a TPG reader favorite.

Use a stroller

Should you find yourself covering lots of miles on your trip, having a stroller can come in handy, even if you don't normally use one at home.

For example, at a large theme park like Disney World , you may find yourself needing a stroller until your kid is 6, 7 or even 8 years old if you are moving quickly and want them to easily keep up (or if you know they will fall asleep before you are ready to call it a night). This may mean renting one when you get there, though you may prefer to have your own if you're doing more than spending time at Disney.

Get stroller straps

Because it isn't socially acceptable to AirTag children (though they do come in handy for finding lost luggage ), we instead suggest getting stroller straps that bigger kids can hold on to while you push younger children in the stroller. We're particularly fond of the Tagalong Stroller Accessory .

Preschedule car service from the airport

If you need car seats or want to be sure you have a ride waiting for you when you land, Uber and Lyft now both have options for prescheduling a ride if you need one.

While the best service depends on where you are going, one option to try is Blacklane . Consider having your driver meet you inside at baggage claim if you're traveling with a lot of gear.

Pack a night light

For kids who are afraid of the dark, night lights may come in handy. This affordable nightlight is small, sleek and easy to pack.

If you are going on a cruise and don't have access to traditional power outlets, TPG senior travel editor Erica Silverstein suggests bringing along battery-operated tea lights instead.

Travel somewhere with a kids club

A magical milestone in travel is when your child turns 3 and is potty trained, as this unlocks access to a variety of kids clubs.

Whether you're on a Disney cruise (like the new Disney Wish cruise ship , pictured below) or at a resort with a kids club (some of which are free to use), children's clubs are great for preschoolers.

By going somewhere that caters to younger children, you'll be able to get a well-deserved break while the kiddos are taken care of.

Plan down days and afternoon rest

Even if your preschooler has dropped daily naps at home, it's still smart to build some downtime into your vacation schedule. This is especially important because it's likely that their sleep schedule will be a little off while you're traveling and that your vacation will be more action-packed than what they're used to at home.

To help your overtired kid adjust, plan a relaxing pool day or take an afternoon break in your hotel room to keep crankiness at bay.

Travel tips for elementary-age kids

As kids get older, they can do more while on vacation with less help, but the tried-and-true tricks for keeping them entertained may no longer work.

Because their brains are developing and becoming more complex, elementary-age kids will need to have access to more activities while they're away from home. As a result, you'll need to adjust your strategy for vacations so they continue to have a good time.

Use packing cubes for the family

This tip applies to all age groups but can be especially helpful when your child starts taking more of an interest in choosing their own clothes. By relying on packing cubes , you can keep clothing for every member of your family organized while saving space.

If you decide to use packing cubes, there are a couple of good methods to choose from.

You can have a packing cube for each day of your trip and put your family's clothing for each day in one cube. This works well if you will be making multiple stops and don't want to pack and unpack everything.

You could also pack each family member's clothing in a separate packing cube, which is helpful when you are encouraging kids to get dressed on their own and choose their own outfits.

Leave 1 day free in the schedule

We've already covered the importance of leaving some flex time in the afternoons, but if you are traveling for more than a long weekend, we highly recommend leaving an entire day unscheduled. That way, the kids can either rest and chill or you have the ability to say yes to something they spot along the way.

Depending on your child's interests, you may want to use your free day for activities like splashing around at a water park, checking out some animals at a zoo, enjoying an epic ice cream-tasting adventure or spending more time at the kids club.

The key is to leave this day flexible so you can cater some activities to what your kid is enjoying the most.

Take advantage of your hotel's club lounge

Club access can be invaluable when traveling with kids.

If you stay in a club-level room at a hotel , you'll often have daily access to breakfast, snacks and drinks. An added bonus is that the club can serve as a gathering spot for enjoying more time (and often gorgeous views) with them.

Related: Can you use a World of Hyatt club lounge access award for someone else?

Plan trips with another family

This is the age where having other kids around really starts to matter.

If at all possible, try planning the trip to at least overlap with time spent with cousins or friends. Doing so will virtually guarantee the kids will have a better time, which means you will, too.

For these types of trips, you may want to look into finding a good vacation home rental .

Related: Why the best big family vacation may be skiing

Travel tips for tweens and teens

Traveling with tweens and teens is completely different than traveling with younger kids — something you probably know all too well if you are currently living with them.

At this age, kids are well on their way toward becoming full-fledged adults. As a result, they deserve a taste of the space, privacy and independence that comes along with adulthood.

Build an activity bag

It's easy to assume the phone will do the trick, but TPG editor Kristy Tolley is a proponent of custom activity bags to keep kids (including older ones) occupied on long trips.

For your activity bag, consider anything from snacks to quiet toys to new games for their Nintendo Switch to art supplies — whatever will keep them entertained while you get to your final destination.

Double-check downloaded content

Wi-Fi on airplanes can be quite finicky. Even if you pay for it, there's never a guarantee it'll work for the entirety of your flight. Because of this, download movies, music, games and more to your device (or your child's) before your trip.

When downloading movies or TV shows, turn to multiple sources like Netflix, Disney+ and Apple. That way, if you run into issues with one provider, you still have content from the others.

Also, remember that messaging others is free on many flights, so be sure your teen has the airline app downloaded if you want them to be able to keep using services such as iMessage while in the air.

Enroll your child in TSA PreCheck

Until they turn 13, kids traveling with a parent or guardian with TSA PreCheck will be allowed to go through the expedited security line even if they themselves don't have TSA PreCheck.

Even after they turn 13, kids 17 and younger can typically use the TSA PreCheck lines with their parent or guardian as long as the teen has the indicator on their boarding pass.

If you have a credit card that reimburses fees for TSA PreCheck , you can recoup the cost of your child's application. Note that Clear continues to work to bring kids through until they turn 18.

Related: Why you should get TSA PreCheck and Clear — and how you can save on both

Consider connecting rooms

The days of squeezing two or three kids into one queen-size bed are probably long gone once they reach their teenage years. Not to mention, trying to have the whole family use one bathroom is an ordeal you likely won't want to go through.

To keep the peace, consider reserving connecting hotel rooms .

With connecting rooms, you'll have double the beds, bathrooms and storage space. Plus, teens and tweens will have the space and privacy they need without you being too far away to keep an eye on them.

Related: Big news for families: Hilton to guarantee adjoining rooms with 'Confirmed Connecting Rooms'

Let kids choose a few activities (or plan the whole day)

At this age, kids are not just along for the ride. Give them some input (and independence) by allowing them to help plan your trip. Odds are they'll be more engaged by being involved in the planning.

Bring a friend

While planning trips with other families is a good strategy with elementary-age kids, by the time kids are teens, just bringing along one of their friends could be sufficient.

To keep the costs down, consider using an airline companion certificate to bring along that friend without spending extra.

Go somewhere with a teens club

If you are visiting a resort or destination where you may be going light on activities, lean into places that have a space just for teens.

Cruise ships are fantastic when it comes to this, as they often have kid-focused spaces divided into pretty distinct age ranges. For example, Disney Cruise Line has a club for kids ages 3 to 12, another for those between 11 and 14 and then one for teens ages 14 to 17.

By taking advantage of clubs that are broken up into designated age groups, your teen can have plenty of fun without the annoyance of hanging out with younger kids.

Related: Child turning 18? Here's everything you need to know before the next time they travel

General family travel tips

Some family travel tips transcend age groups.

Regardless of how old your kids are, where you're traveling or how you're getting to your vacation destination, there are a few tips you'll always want to keep top of mind.

Utilize airport lounges

Airport lounges are becoming more and more kid-friendly, as they offer dedicated family rooms with toys and kids shows on TV, plus food that will please picky eaters. Additionally, if you have a long layover or are dealing with flight delays or cancellations , you'll be much more comfortable waiting in a lounge instead of at your gate.

You can purchase a day pass to many lounges but may be able to get yourself and your family in for free with certain credit cards or airline status. For example, The Platinum Card® from American Express grants the cardmember and one guest complimentary access to Priority Pass lounges and access to Centurion and Escape lounges, though complimentary guest access depends on how much you spend annually.

Related: Best credit cards for airport lounge access

Upgrade to a suite

Similar to springing for connecting rooms, upgrading to a suite will buy you additional space and, sometimes, a pullout sofa that adds another sleeping option.

You'll also have more room for your family's belongings and areas for relaxing and dining so your kids don't spend all their time jumping, eating and lounging on the beds.

Check for reciprocal zoo and museum memberships

If you have a membership to your local zoo or museum, you may be able to use reciprocal benefits for free or discounted entry to other zoos and museums that you can visit on vacation.

This information is usually available on your zoo or museum's website, but you can also check lists on the Association of Zoos & Aquariums' page about reciprocal admissions or on the North American Reciprocal Museum Association website .

Get a travel tracker that doubles as a memento

There are so many unique travel souvenirs you can get that also serve as keepsakes for remembering your child's travel "firsts."

These Junior Frequent Flyer flight logbooks allow you to record your child's flights while teaching them about aviation.

If a national park visit is in your future, order a standard or junior National Parks Passport and collect stamps every time you visit a new park.

Don't forget important medicines

When you are away from home, you have to be prepared for anything. That includes unexpected sicknesses and accidents.

Pack kid-safe and grown-up medicines, as well as Band-Aids, antibiotic ointment and other first-aid necessities in your carry-on bag so you won't be without them if your checked luggage is delayed or lost.

Bring an extra bag

If you are traveling between a cold climate and a hot one, pack a lightweight tote bag that can fold into your carry-on so you can easily gather up everyone's coats once on the plane. By keeping this tote tucked away until you're on board the aircraft, you'll enjoy an extra allowed bag, saving you the headache of trying to determine where to put bulky coats.

Get Global Entry for each family member

Unlike TSA PreCheck, which allows kids to travel with an eligible adult until they turn 18 (in most cases), anyone wishing to use Global Entry to expedite reentry into the U.S. needs to apply for the program.

Global Entry can save valuable time spent waiting in line. However, you'll need to apply well in advance of your trip so you have time to submit your application, complete an in-person interview and await approval.

Similar to TSA PreCheck, you can use a credit card that will reimburse your child's Global Entry application fee.

Try out the games built into many spaces

It's easy to miss, but many resorts, theme parks and cruise ships have a hidden layer of fun that ranges from traditional scavenger hunts to interactive activities you can unlock with an iPhone or similar device.

While the youngest travelers won't benefit from these types of experiences, they can be fun for a variety of age ranges, especially elementary-age kids and tweens.

Related: Disney World rolls out all-new MagicBand+: Here's what this wristband can do for your trip

Bottom line

Family travel has its own built-in challenges, but it also comes with immense rewards.

By knowing all the tips and tricks to traveling with kids, having the right gear with you, mapping out a game plan and having the right attitude and realistic expectations, you can have a memorable vacation every member of the family enjoys.

You may not get to do everything you want or sometimes feel like it's more of a hassle than a vacation. However, if you're willing to be flexible and appreciate when things go according to plan — even if the end result isn't quite what you had hoped for — you'll find yourself eager to book your next family trip before you have the bags unpacked and put away.

Related reading:

• 20 best all-inclusive resorts for families
• The best travel credit cards
• 13 must-have items the TPG team can't travel without
• 8 quirky US theme parks you have to see to believe
• The best Disney World hotels for your next magical stay

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WHAT MAKES FAMILY JOURNEYS UNIQUE?

Thoughtfully crafted itineraries that combine engaging experiences and leisure time designed specifically for families with children ages seven and up

Interactive activities inspired by National Geographic's expertise in photography and storytelling, wildlife, culture, history, and geography

Pre-departure resources and materials from National Geographic to inform and excite every member of the family about their upcoming adventure

Comfortable and convenient accommodations

Two dynamic CEOs (Chief Experience Officers) who are specially trained to engage with young travellers

Kid-friendly meal options throughout the trip

Dedicated customer service consultants, known as Family Trip Specialists, to help families with travel preparation and planning from the moment they book

A group of usually 20 or fewer like-minded family travellers

How will your family see the world?

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• Kids and parents alike can enjoy custom resources from National Geographic built around photography and storytelling that will inspire them to chronicle their on-trip adventures and discoveries in new ways.

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On-Trip Experience Examples:

• A thrilling safari ride in Kruger National Park on Southern Africa Family Journey
• Visit the Alaska SeaLife Center, which collaborates with National Geographic for wildlife initiatives on Alaska Family Journey

3 History & Culture

National Geographic celebrates the history and diversity of human life on Earth. Family Journeys reveal the richness of local cultures in its many forms, whether through language and music, art and architecture, cuisine, clothing, and more.

• Young travellers can try their hand at inventing a machine using tips from Leonardo da Vinci on France Family Journey
• Discover Roman gladiatorial history and authentic artifacts including shields, swords, and armor on Italy Family Journey

4 Exploration

National Geographic has a legendary legacy of exploration. Family Journeys seek to cultivate tomorrow’s explorers—people who are infinitely curious about our planet, committed to understanding it, and passionate about helping make it better

• Each Family Journeys itinerary features activities and experiences that inspire hands-on discovery, and a fun and interactive exploration-themed challenge for the whole family!

Frequently Asked Questions

National Geographic Family Journeys welcomes families travelling with children between the ages of 7 and 17. Your family must include a child in order to book, and anyone under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

All Family Journeys groups must include at least one traveller under the age of 18. If your children are 18 or older, we invite you to explore our extensive collection of National Geographic Journeys with G Adventures trips for adults.

Child rates apply to guests between the ages of 7 and 12. These rates can be found on our website in the Price Options section of the trip overview page. The discount is applied at the time of online booking or on the phone with a Family Trip Specialist.

While the minimum age on all Family Journeys is 7 years old, these trips have been designed to appeal to families of all ages (over 7). Please contact a Family Trip Specialist if you have questions about age recommendations for specific trips.

Please refer to each itinerary page for the inclusions for that particular trip. Included in your Family Journey are accommodations, arrival transfer, transportation for scheduled activities, breakfast daily, some lunches and dinners, snacks, water, and scheduled activities, as well as the services of two CEOs (Chief Experience Officers). Airfare to and from destination, travel insurance, gratuities, and any optional excursions or meals not listed on the itinerary are not included.

Yes, all National Geographic Family Journeys with G Adventures departures are guaranteed to run—even with just 2 travellers! Once you book, you’re going.

No, once you have put down your Lifetime Deposit™ per person, your price is guaranteed.

We believe that smaller groups allow for more spontaneity and bonding. That’s why Family Journeys have no more than 20 guests on each departure. You’ll get to know families from all over the world, connect, and have fun while enjoying the benefits of small group travel.

We welcome parents and kids, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, grandparents and grandkids, and everyone in between. As long as your group includes a traveller between the ages of 7 and 17, you can book a Family Journey.

Each group is led by two Chief Experience Officers (CEOs) who are specially trained to engage with young travelers.

Safe drinking water will be provided on each trip. In certain destinations where is advised to not use tap water for teeth-brushing, your CEOs will be sure to let you know.

Every Family Journeys CEO is trained in First Aid and CPR. We also have on-the-ground teams in each destination who can assist with any issues that may arise while you and your family are traveling.

In addition to the extensive training all our CEOs receive, Family Journeys CEOs have additional children-specific training and support from National Geographic. These dynamic individuals have been selected for their enthusiasm, passion, and desire to show families the world.

Each hotel has been selected to reflect the character of the destination and to be suitable for families. You can expect at least two beds in each room, with options for triple and quad rooms based on availability. We’ve selected hotels with family-friendly amenities like swimming pools wherever possible. Ask your Family Travel Specialist for more details.

All rooms are based on double occupancy. However, we know families come in all shapes and sizes, so other rooming configurations may be available upon request.

We’ve taken great care to ensure that there are meal options for everyone, including opportunities to try the local cuisine as well as familiar favorites for kids.

Yes. Some countries offer more variety than others, but there are options everywhere. It’s best to let your Family Trip Specialist know in advance so they can let your Chief Experience Officers (CEOs) know.

Each itinerary includes suggested amounts to budget for independent meals. On the full trip details page you can see pricing for optional activities, or you can check with your Family Trip Specialist directly.

Please inform your Family Trip Specialist as soon as possible of any allergies any member of your family has. They will let our CEOs on the ground know, and the CEOs will assist your family member in destination.

If you are travelling internationally, a passport is required for each person travelling. Visas are required for certain destinations. Check out the itinerary page or ask your Family Travel Specialist for more details. Please note: there are certain destinations that require notarized documents for children travelling with/without parents internationally.

Yes, travel insurance is mandatory for every traveller.

Vaccination requirements depends on the destination you’re travelling to. Please consult with your family physician or ask your Family Trip Specialist or Travel Agent for more information.

You can find the packing list within the full tour details, on the third tab of the itinerary page.

Although some scheduled free time is included on all Family Journeys, most days are planned with activities for everyone in the family. Please refer to the individual trip itinerary page for more details.

While our CEOs love interacting with kids, they are not responsible for childcare during the trip.

While we encourage everyone to take part in the included activities, we recognize that sometimes you—or your kids—need a break! Your CEOs can provide alternatives and help you meet back up with the group later.

Drive times for each day are listed in the full itinerary. We have designed these trips to incorporate shorter drive times wherever possible with frequent stops.

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16 Essential Tips for Traveling with a Family

‘Not all those who wander are lost.’ ~J.R.R. Tolkien

By Leo Babauta

Traveling with a family is a completely different beast than traveling solo or as a couple — I’ve done both numerous times, and the two experiences don’t even seem related.

Eva and I just got back from a 3-week trip through southern Europe with five of our kids. It was a wild adventure, going through six foreign cities on foot and by train, speaking broken bits of three foreign languages, exploring cities and coastlines all day long, soaking in sun and history and wine.

We loved it. We exhausted the kids, but came back wiser, tanner, and better off for having seen more of the world and its peoples.

This post isn’t meant to give an account of our trip, but to share some of what I’ve learned about traveling with a family, in hopes that it will help other families who travel.

Here are some random things I’ve learned:

• Pack light as hell . If you’re traveling in multiple cities, that means you’re dragging everything you pack around for miles. We each carried a tiny backpack ( mine was 16 liters ) with just a change of clothes, a book and a few toiletries. My packing list: a t-shirt, shorts, 2 pairs of quick-dry boxers, 2 pairs of socks, a book, deodorant, razor, toothbrush, 11″ Macbook Air. That all takes up very little space and weighs a tiny amount. In addition I was wearing jeans, a t-shirt, underwear, socks and tennis shoes. There was a big contrast between us, with our small backpacks, and others who had roller luggage, big backpacks, suitcases and other heavy things they were lugging around everywhere.
• Stay in central apartments . We avoid hotels, as we’d have to rent several rooms for our large family. It’s cheaper to rent an apartment, which also comes with a kitchen and often a washer/dryer and a living room. It’s much more comfortable. We will rent an apartment in each city we visit, and try to find ones that are central, so we can walk to the best areas from our home base, and come back for naps if necessary.
• Walk everywhere (with some mass transit). The best way to explore a place is by foot, not car or tour bus. You cover less ground on foot, but you only really see a place when you walk it. Bikes would be next best, but not manageable for a large family. We have good walking shoes and are in good walking shape from walking around in our home city. It’s so much fun to walk through winding medieval streets, stop and drink from ancient fountains, grab a croissant or gelato whenever you like, see locals walking around, stop in a little shop if it catches your fancy, see nature up close. And it’s a good workout. We learn to use the local mass transit system a bit, when we’re in a city, so we can easily get to further areas and walk around there.
• Get lost . You don’t really learn a place until you get lost in it. I always get a map of where we are, and try to orient myself, but I also like to put the map away for a bit and get a bit lost, so I can find my way through exploring and wrong turns. You also discover the most unexpected things when you allow yourself to get lost. Wander, explore, discover, be surprised.
• Gelato will keep kids happy . Kids get tired walking, and bored of historical sites and museums. But if you buy them a gelato every afternoon, they perk up, and smiles suddenly appear as if from nowhere. After sampling a bunch of different gelato flavors the first few days in Rome, I discovered I always regretted not getting chocolate gelato. So I came up with a rule for myself: Always get chocolate gelato. I never regretted it for the rest of the trip.
• Use your trip as a language course . Knowing we were going to Italy, France and Spain, we learned a bit of the languages before we left. The kids had fun learning to say hello, thank you, and where’s the bathroom, among other phrases. We never got fluent, but I think we all learned a bit about cultures and languages, and it was a great start. There’s no better way to practice a language than visiting the country.
• Ask locals for recommendations . Guide books and the Internet are great, but the best recommendations come from people who really live there. Before we left, I asked for recommendations from locals (on Google+ ) and made a list. While we were in each city, I would ask locals we met for recommendations as well, and came up with some delightful discoveries.
• Avoid tourist traps . We tried to avoid the most touristy places, though of course you can’t avoid seeing the historical sights like the Colosseum in Rome or the Duomo in Florence. But if you do go to highly touristed places, avoid the shops and restaurants that surround them. They are expensive, bad quality, and aimed at the tastes of tourists instead of locals. Walk 5-10 minutes to find something better.
• Have something to keep kids busy on trains . I don’t mind train rides at all, but the kids get bored. So they each have some kind of device, like an iPod touch or game device, to play games, listen to music and watch movies. Not my favorite thing in the world for them to do, but so much better than complaints of being bored for several hours.
• Naps are good . We tend to leave each morning for exploring, and then come back after a late lunch for a nap. The kids get tired walking around in the sun, and so do we. A nap of an hour (or three if you’re jetlagged) is a good thing, and we usually would head out when the day was cooling down for some evening sightseeing and dinner.
• Buy groceries . We tend to buy cereal and yogurt and fruit for breakfast, along with coffee and maybe some things for dinner or snacks. This allows us to save money, eat something a bit healthier than pastries and pizza at least one or two meals of the day, and relax at home in the mornings and during our afternoon break. It’s one of the good things about having an apartment.
• One or two days isn’t enough to see a place . I found 4-5 days a better number. In one or two days, you’re rushing through the major sites and don’t get to relax, or if you go at a slower pace you don’t get enough of a sample of a city to really know it. Of course, if you don’t have kids, you could spend a week or three in a good destination, but with kids I’d recommend a medium timeframe like 4-5 days.
• Spice up the history lessons . Traveling makes history come alive. I will usually do a little research and then tell the kids stories about the sites we’re visiting. Still, they get bored with that sometimes, so you have to spice up the history with tales of wars, romances, pirates and tragic deaths. I’m not saying you should make stuff up (though I won’t tell if you do), but look for that stuff in the histories and highlight it.
• Have relaxation days . While exploring cities by foot is great, sometimes you need a longer break than an afternoon nap. So we’d have days where we lounged around on the beach or parks most of the day instead of sightseeing, and it was a great way to recharge the batteries.
• Wine makes things more relaxed . Eva and I would often have wine with lunch, and definitely with dinner. It made us more relaxed as we had to manage herding five kids around busy streets that we didn’t know, using languages we couldn’t speak. We smiled more, breathed easier. Also, red wine is like health food.
• It’s a grand adventure . Things will go wrong. You’ll not only get lost, you’ll lose things, miss trains, find the place you’re going to closed. You can make the best of plans, but the truth is, you don’t control things. Life has its own plans. The key is to smile, accept the way things are, and see it all as part of your great adventure. And this is the philosophy you should convey to the kids, even before you travel, to make their experience all the more enjoyable and enlightening.

‘Bizarre travel plans are dancing lessons from God.’ ~Kurt Vonnegut

Posted: 07.20.2012

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How to Plan a Family Vacation Where Everyone Feels Safe During COVID-19

By Megan Spurrell

Every traveler knows the feeling of desperately needing someone to turn to. It's not just on the road—deciding where to go for your first international trip or how to balance solo travel as a new mother can be just as challenging. In our new Women Who Travel advice column, we'll be answering questions from our Facebook group members , readers , podcast listeners , newsletter subscribers , and travelers . Have a question? We'd love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected].

Dear Women Who Travel,

My family plans a big trip together every summer—we usually meet up somewhere and rent a house , with a few generations (adult siblings and their families, plus our parents). This year it's obviously more complicated.

We halted planning our trip when the pandemic hit , but now it seems like some form of summer travel is on the table and the conversation has restarted. The real sticking point, however, is that everyone is on totally different pages. Some family members, all of whom are younger and have no underlying conditions, aren't too fazed about a long car drive and getting together in one house. My mother (who is over 65) doesn't want to miss out and says she'll do whatever we decide—but I can't tell how comfortable she actually is with the whole idea. One of my siblings says they need everyone to quarantine for 2 weeks if we're going to do it—but I'm not sure everyone will seriously commit to doing so.

How are we supposed to find middle ground? And how can we make sure that whatever we do works for everyone's comfort level (and safety)?

—A very cautious traveler

Dear Cautious Traveler,

Your question is basically the song of the summer: everyone is asking the same thing. With cities slowly opening up , the opportunity to take a road trip or rent a house is suddenly an option for some people, but actually putting together a trip—and one that your entire family can feel great about—is much more complex.

I'm still hunkering down in my little apartment, totally intimidated by summer travel planning as well, so I tapped a couple of other women to get us both some answers: Marissa Moore, a family therapist and founder of Therapy Brooklyn in New York's Greenpoint neighborhood, and fellow Condé Nast Traveler editor, Corina Quinn, who was the first person on our team to tackle the multi-generational family trip this summer, and learned quite a bit through the process.

In addition to the obvious baseline advice—to follow all local regulations and always check the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website before making travel plans—they had a ton of tips. First, they both emphatically agreed on one key factor for planning and executing a harmonious family trip right now: communication.

"As we finally venture out, this is what everyone is navigating this coming summer," says Moore. "But it's [still] a highly anxious time. Get orientated toward why this vacation matters to everyone [in your family]. When you ground the conversation in that, you have common ground to start on."

Moore suggests setting up a group video call right as you begin discussing a trip and block off an hour when everyone can hop on and give the conversation their full attention (in other words, don't leave Zoom open while you simultaneously prep dinner ). Having conversations in the family group text, on the other hand, leaves room for misinterpretation, and for side conversations and he-said-she-said dialogues. Rather than creating space for drama and hurt feelings, get everyone in the same "room" to lay the groundwork as a team.

Give everyone time to say what's on their mind: One sibling might say that they need assurance that everyone will quarantine for two weeks; someone else might ask everyone to get a COVID-19 test before embarking. It's important to acknowledge that everyone has different risk tolerance levels right now—and that that's okay.

If you think that a member of the family (like your mom) is having trouble voicing their opinion or speaking up, Moore suggests directing questions their way once everyone has spoken. You can even offer multiple choice answers to draw a response out, like "Is this trip sounding safe to you, would you be interested in discussing more safety measures, or does it feel outside of your comfort zone?"

For Quinn's family, everyone chose to lead by example as a means of asking for what they needed. "We're a group of eight adults and six kids, and everyone has had different situations over the past few months," says Quinn. "The way our family operates is to volunteer our positions." Each began by honestly sharing what life has looked liked during quarantine for them, and what precautions they've been taking. Quinn, for example, has been working from home in New York City for months, while the rest of the family is Northern Virginia, and has only seen one other person. She also volunteered to make an appointment with her primary care doctor to get a professional opinion on the trip.

Harrison Pierce

María Casbas

CNT Editors

"Everyone appreciated that I volunteered to go to my doctor, and then they followed [suit]," says Quinn. "I don't think any of us felt comfortable telling someone else what they needed to do, so we volunteered instead." Ultimately, everyone ended up seeing their doctor for advice, once they agreed that they would all drive to the home they rented in North Carolina's Emerald Isle . Her brother even shared reading material on how to safely expand your bubble that helped put everyone at ease. (They also decided to bring their own groceries, took temperatures the week before the trip, and carefully plotted the rest stops they'd link up at, sanitizer in hand, along the way.)

Once guidelines have been set, both Quinn and Moore emphasize that recurring check-ins leading up to the trip are also essential—as is keeping the lines of communication open once you arrive at your destination. Sharing updates on tests, for example, can help everyone feel like these measures are being taken seriously. It also gives family members a chance to voice concerns as they bubble up.

If you feel like someone isn't holding up their end of the bargain, Moore suggests being mindful in how you address concerns, and check defensiveness when you can. "People might want to be called out in different ways, so establish ways to check in during the trip to set the expectation that you'll keep talking about [how things are going]," says Moore, who suggests touching base nightly as a possible routine. "To compassionately call someone out, lead with your emotional impact, what you're needing, and ask questions." At a time when all of our anxieties are at the forefront, shut down the instinct to make assumptions about why someone is acting the way they are.

Luckily for Quinn's family, the need to confront each other didn't happen on their trip. But she says that having every family member focus on the advice offered by their doctor, helped establish an understanding that everyone was doing what best for them. Ultimately, though, being with family meant that everyone kept each other's best interests in mind. "Nobody wants to be the person who knowingly infects everyone else," says Quinn. "Prioritizing those conversations, and being open, laid a nice foundation that made it possible to do the trip." She says that getting to be together after months in isolation was well worth the prep work, and countless conversations, it took.

If everyone in your family is bought into the idea of being together, then you can certainly make something happen. Maybe it looks like everyone driving to your mom and renting a home near where she lives, so she doesn't have to travel; maybe it looks like renting a few separate apartments in one place, with socially distanced hangs during the day. But it all relies on being open, and ultimately, trusting one another. If those two things are too great of a roadblock right now, maybe focus everyone's energy on planning ahead for a great winter trip , instead. It'll give your family more time to get comfortable with the idea of travel, and to touch base on what will make them feel safe. That light at the end of the tunnel will certainly help you get you through summer.

— Women Who Travel

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Momma Wanderlust - Curating Cultural Travels for Families

Best Family Travel Blogs to Follow Now

Let’s face it… travel can be a challenge. And when you add children to the mix, it can seem nearly impossible. However, family travel blogs are an invaluable resource for those determined to continue adventuring after becoming parents. Family travel bloggers offer an array of helpful information like how to budget for a family trip, find kid-friendly accommodations and activities, navigate travel with babies and toddlers, and make the most of a limited travel schedule.

If you’re looking for family-friendly travel inspiration, cost-saving tips , or a nudge to start planning your next adventure , these family travel blogs contain many family travel resources and a wealth of information.

These websites provide valuable information for families looking to plan their travel adventures and want to learn from the experiences of other families who have already traveled with kids. This group of family travel bloggers provides valuable insights, recommendations, and a sense of community for families with a passion for travel.

Here are our best family travel blogs to follow (in no particular order):

The Mom Trotter

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kay – RV, Travel, Homeschool (@themomtrotter)

This RV, homeschooling family is living the life of my nomadic dreams. I love to follow this account for travel savings insight, tips on downsizing, and teaching our children financial literacy. This blog provides tips not only on travel but gives readers great resources to help teach little ones about financial literacy and planning.

The Traveling Child

View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Hambrick Family | Travel (@thetravelingchild)

The Traveling Child provides detailed family-friendly destination guides and itineraries. The family shares their travel experiences with their two children, offering tips and advice for traveling with kids and recommendations for family-friendly destinations and accommodations.

Travel Babbo

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Eric Stoen (@travelbabbo)

This family travel site is run by dad Eric, who has taken his kids to over 80 countries; this blog provides valuable tips for family travel, including how to travel on a budget and keep kids entertained on long flights. I particularly love Eric’s travel photography content.

The Wandering Daughter

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Traveling Mom ✈️ Astrid (@wanderdaughter)

The Wandering Daughter blog follows the around-the-world adventure of a full-time travel family. On this blog, mom Astrid provides helpful tips for traveling with kids, ways to travel more responsibly through slow travel, and how to plan to take a gap year as a family.

The FUNemployed Family

View this post on Instagram A post shared by The FUNemployed Family | Digital Nomad Family (@thefunemployedfamily)

This family of four sold their home to travel the world. After visiting 30 countries as a family, they share their experiences by recommending family-friendly destinations, hotels, and helpful travel products.  

The Jetsetting Family

View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Jetsetting Family (@thejetsettingfamily)

This family of four sold everything they owned to have the freedom to travel more as a family. On their blog, you’ll find road trip tips, lists of fun things to do with kids in family-friendly destinations, cool staycation ideas, and more.

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The Spring Break Family

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Monty | Travel + Parenting (@thespringbreakfamily)

This travel blog by working parents highlights the need to take advantage of all the school breaks we get with our children. The site has educational travel tips, destination guides, and budget-friendly hacks.

The Family Voyage

View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Family Voyage (@thefamilyvoyage)

This blog provides advice for family travel, including how to plan a trip with multiple generations, travel with young children, and make the most of a limited travel budget. The site also features several travel guidebooks for families.

We Chose Adventures

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jessica | Outdoor Adventure Family (@wechoseadventures)

We Chose Adventures is a family travel website dedicated to helping families find adventures in the great outdoors. The site offers tips that range from which RV is the best fit for your family to top destinations for adventurous families.

Local Passport Family

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Preethi B. Harbuck (@localpassportfamily)

Preethi, a mom of six, shares destination guides, packing tips, and family travel product recommendations on this blog. This blog also has parenting and teaching tips and snippets of their home life.

La Jolla Mom

View this post on Instagram A post shared by La Jolla Mom (@lajollamom)

La Jolla Mom is a San Diego-based luxury family travel blog. On this site, you’ll find vacation guides, luxury hotel reviews, and tips on how to get the most out of theme park visits.

The Bucket List Family

View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Bucket List Family (@thebucketlistfamily)

This family of five has been traveling the world since 2015 and sharing their adventures on social media. Their blog offers practical advice for family travel and inspiration for unique destinations.

Globetrotting Mama

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Heather Greenwood Davis | Family Travel Storyteller (@byheathergd)

This blog is run by a mom, Heather, who has traveled to over 30 countries with her family. On her blog, she shares travel and lifestyle tips, as well as advice on how to balance work and travel.

Wandering Wagars

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kevin Wagar | Wandering Wagars (@wanderingwagars)

This family travel blog is run by a Canadian family who has traveled to over 50 countries with their two kids. They offer destination guides and advice on family travel, including how to plan a long-term trip and how to make the most of a short vacation.

Full Suitcase

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jurga | Founder Full Suitcase travel blog (@fullsuitcase)

This blog provides detailed guides for family travel destinations worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and the Americas. It also offers tips for traveling with kids, such as dealing with jet lag and finding family-friendly accommodations.

Momma Wanderlust

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tykesha | Family Travel, Freelance Writer (@thewanderlustmomma)

Lastly, I had to add myself to this excellent list of family travel bloggers. I know it’s a shameless plug, but we’re proud of our family travel offerings. Momma Wanderlust focuses on the intersection of family travel, history, and culture. On my blog, you’ll find history-focused destination itineraries, guides, and practical tips on planning family vacations that everyone will enjoy.

Now, that’s a fantastic list of family travel blogs to bookmark as you prepare to plan your next family adventure. I hope you can use this best family travel blog list for inspiration, practical tips, recommendations, and community. Happy Trails!

Do you have a family travel blog that you love? Please share it in the comments below!

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40 amazing family travel blogs to follow in 2024

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Table of Contents

The complete list of best family travel blogs and bloggers in 2024

Our family loves to travel! Whenever we need inspiration or information on planning our next trip, we love to check other family travel blogs. Over the years, we follow some amazing blogs that have given us tons of tips on family travel and usually just make our family travel bucket list ideas longer.

If you’re planning your next family vacation or just want to be inspired by other traveling families, we have made a list of our favorite family travel bloggers to follow! Did we miss one of your favorites? Let us know in the comments!

Read more: The best gifts for kids who love to travel

We want to point out that the order in which the family travel blogs are ranked, is completely random. We love the last blog as much as the first one listed! Text and pictures are provided by the blogs themselves.

If you want more travel inspiration , also check our 50 favorite travel families on Instagram ,   families you should follow on Youtube and the best family travel podcasts .

Blogs about adventurous family travel

The global wizards.

We write the article, so I guess we can be on the list as well ;-)? We are Jurgen, Heleen, Yuna (2010), and Hanne (2011), also known as The Global Wizards Family.

As a full-time travel family, we are passionate about photography and creating content to inspire all of you with our Instagram and this blog.

Our home country is Belgium, which we love. But traveling has been part of our lives since the beginning of our relationship and we didn’t stop when we got kids. Our girls have been traveling since they were babies.

Over the past years, we have been all over the world, partly living the van life with our old VW bus. While traveling, we also work online and homeschool the kids.

Our blog is all about sharing our experiences, tips, and passions. We’re experts in adventurous family travel and photography. We write about the destinations we visit, give you advice on travel in general, photography, working while traveling, traveling on a budget and so much more.

Read more on The Global Wizards .

5 lost together

We are a Canadian family of 5 that blogs about our travels at 5 Lost Together.  Making travel a priority in our lives, we believe there is no one right way to travel with kids.

We specialize in independent, budget adventure travel around the world .   We have taken our kids to go trekking in Nepal, chasing Komodo dragons in Indonesia, road-tripping across the Australian Outback, riding camels through India, lived on a sailboat in the Bahamas for 4-months, and more. 

Read more on 5 Lost Together .

Travel Babbo

I’m Eric and have been blogging for eight years about  adventurous family travel . I’ve taken my kids to 62 countries and all 7 continents and am always searching for the coolest, most unique kid-friendly activities around the world. Every year each of my three kids (12, 14, and 16) gets to choose any destination in the world for a one-on-one trip with me.

Read more on Travel Babbo .

(Photo credit: Flytographer)

World Travel Family

My name is Alyson and I was the original creator of the world travel family website but these days my husband and son work for me and help with some writing and videography too. The tech stuff is still all me but I’m training them up.

Our site was born 8 years ago when we decided to take the kids traveling as a vital part of their education. We were on the road for 6 full years then hit a wall and had to go back to sort out house problems. My advice to anyone doing this is to get rid of your house and all your stuff, it’s a milestone you don’t need. 

Our site is a travel resource covering 50 or so countries , it continues to expand. Where have we been, well, everywhere? We’ve crossed Europe many times, lived in Vietnam, Romania, London, and Australia, and have taken the kids to Everest Base Camp, Tibet, and Bhutan.

Our family loves cultures, food, wildlife, and people, not so much hotels and beaches. We cover the travel we love and we don’t travel on sponsorship, so we can keep it real and tell you honestly what we liked and disliked. Our website is our business and our freedom. It has changed our lives and given us so much. We hope you find it useful.

Read more on World Travel Family .

Travelynn Family

This family of four from the UK pushes the boundaries of family travel and believes that adventure should not wait until the kids are older. They have trekked the Himalayas, lived in India, traversed Africa in a Land Rover with roof tents, and are spending 4 months of 2022 slow-traveling through Morocco after deregistering their boys (age 7 and 8) from school. They also take on some pretty fun European road trips in their Mazda Bongo camper at every available opportunity. 

Jenny and her husband both work remotely, which enables the family the freedom to travel when they want. However, they strive for a balance between long-term travels and basing themselves in the UK, as their boys love school. So when they’re not adventuring off the beaten track, you’ll find them hiking in the hills of the Peak District National Park where they live.

If you want to take your kids to Africa or Asia or love an epic road trip, TraveLynn Family is definitely one to follow.

Read more on TraveLynn Family .

Our Overseas Adventures

We’re a Canadian family of four who loves to travel. Our favorite adventures are the ones that take us to  off-the-beaten-path locations.  We love it when family and friends have to pull out a map to know where we’re going.

We’ve traveled to over 50 countries together, including Togo, Benin, and Burkina Faso in West Africa and the Guyanas in South America. Our long-standing favorite country though is Vietnam (we really love SE Asia!).

Our most recent adventure has been converting our Land Rover Defender into an overland vehicle. We plan to spend the next decade driving around the world.

Our family blogs about our adventures and is packed  full of practical advice, budget information, and real-life tips  for visiting the places we’ve traveled to. 

Read more on Our Overseas Adventures .

Where is the world

We’re a Canadian family of four who loves to travel. Our favorite adventures are the ones that take us to off-the-beaten-path locations , and we love it, even more, when family and friends have to pull out a map to know where we’re going.

We’ve traveled to nearly 50 countries together, including Togo, Benin, and Burkina Faso in West Africa and the Guyanas in South America. Our long-standing favorite country though is Vietnam (we really love SE Asia!).

Our family blog’s a bit about our adventures and is packed full of practical advice, budget information, and real-life, tested by our tips for visiting the places we’ve traveled to.

Read more on Where is the world .

An epic education

The website An Epic Education is designed to provide all the resources you need to plan an incredible family trip. Living abroad since 1997, blogger Jason Andrew Jenkins has been traveling with his kids since they were babies.

In 2013, he and his wife Keiko left their desk jobs in Tokyo, pulled the kids out of school, and started traveling full-time as a family. For the following six years, they lived in Taiwan, Malaysia, Spain, and Mexico, experimenting with homeschooling and local schools along the way.

In August 2019 they returned to Japan so their kids could reconnect with the country of their birth. They still travel as often as possible and are constantly planning the next trip.

Read more on An Epic Education .

Adventure and sunshine

Adventure and Sunshine are a family of 4 exploring the world together. Collectively we have traveled to 56 countries on 6 continents, 31 of these with our children. We are passionate about independent adventure travel, slightly obsessed with getting outdoors and love sharing practical advice on how to travel the world with kids .

On our family travel blog, we talk about how to plan a family gap year, the best road trips, RV travel, and the best travel destinations with kids. Because having kids doesn’t have to mean the end of adventure travel.

Read more on Adventure and Sunshine .

Mum on the move

Mum on the Move is a family travel blog, featuring family-friendly travel tips, reviews, inspiration, and destination information from around the world , with a strong focus on Asia and Australia.

At Mum on the Move, we feel strongly that having kids doesn’t have to stop you from engaging in adventurous and culturally interesting activities. Our kids have been bamboo rafting in China, snorkeling in Indonesia, kayaking with fireflies in the Philippines, climbing temples in Myanmar, and walking the canopy walkways in Borneo, on top of many more fun family adventures.

Read more on Mum On The Move .

The Wandering Daughter

Astrid and her family have been travelling full-time since 2018. So far, their travels have taken them to the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Italy, France, and Indonesia.

Focusing on world schooling and responsible travel , Astrid shares her family’s travel experiences on her blog, The Wandering Daughter. Astrid loves showcasing unique destinations and encouraging families to go off the beaten path.

Read more on The Wandering Daughter .

The Jetsetting Family

The Jetsetting Family blog provides travel tips from Rodrigo, Jessica, Santiago, and Nora who have been traveling the world full time for almost 2 years. Their travels have taken them to Southeast Asia, North America, South America, Europe, and the Middle East.

While traveling with young kids can seem difficult, they give fun tips to make traveling with kids much easier. Their blog also contains all 34 episodes of The Jetsetting Family Travel Podcast, which consists of travel tips, interviews with other traveling families, and ways to make travel more of a priority in life. Each episode is jam-packed with info and a great way to get family travel content on the go!

Read more on The Jetsetting Family .

Ytravelblog

Caz (Caroline), Craig, and their two lovely daughters Kalyra and Savannah are originally from Australia but live in North Carolina now. Although they call the world their home. 

They’ve been traveling full-time for years, a big part of that in the US during their American Unplugged road trip. Now they live in Raleigh.

Their family travel blog is full of advice on why you should travel with kids, destination tips, how to plan everything and so much more.

Read more one Ytravelblog .

Full Suitcase

Jurga Rubinovaite is a mom of three and the founder of one of the world’s leading family travel blogs, Full Suitcase. Originally from Lithuania, she now lives in Belgium and takes every opportunity to escape the daily routine and travel with her family.

Full Suitcase is a travel blog for families who want to show their kids the world beyond beaches and theme parks . We travel to some of the world’s most exciting destinations with our three boys and share our first-hand experiences and practical tips with our readers.

Our kids have traveled ever since they were little and have been all over the world – from South Africa and Namibia in the South to Iceland and Greenland in the North, and from Australia in the East to the United States in the West….

We love seeing the world through their eyes and creating amazing memories together with them.

Read more on Full Suitcase .

Small kids’ family travel blogs

Baby can travel – family can travel.

We are a family of 4 from Western Canada. We took our first trip with our firstborn when she was 3 months old from Canada to Barcelona. At the time there was very little information online about traveling with babies, aside from general tips on flying.

Traveling with a baby for the first time, and making plenty of mistakes along the way, was the inspiration for Baby Can Travel. Through our Baby Can Travel blog we hope to inspire other parents to keep traveling with babies and toddlers, plus provide information and advice on where to travel and all the best baby/toddler travel gear .

Since that first trip with our daughter, we’ve continued to travel with both our kids multiple times a year. We’ve experienced so many incredible things with them, from chasing waterfalls in Iceland to eating all the mango sticky rice we could get our hands on in Thailand. Our kids have hiked in some of the most beautiful places on earth.  We continue to share all our travel adventures on our second blog Family Can Travel .

Read more on Baby Can Travel and Family Can Travel .

Our next adventure

Hi, we’re the Ishmaels! Matt, Laura, Evelyn, and Sophie. We’re a pretty typical American family, living in Omaha, Nebraska; that is, aside from our serious case of wanderlust. After realizing most of our best family moments have come while traveling, we’ve committed to a life of experiences over things, traveling in any spare moment we can find!

We like to travel slowly, really taking in one city at a time, so we still have a lot to conquer on our bucket list! So far our favorites have been Lisbon, Tulum, Florence, and Charleston (quite the eclectic bunch!).

We’ve traveled with babies, toddlers, and now two kids in tow, and through the entire process have learned how to stretch our dollars further, traveling more and spending less than ever before.

We love to share it all on our family travel blog, Our Next Adventure, where you’ll find family-friendly itineraries, packing lists, tips for traveling with babies and toddlers, plus tons of free printable travel planning resources to help keep you organized!

Our goal is to show other families that traveling with kids is not so hard. Or, at the very least, it’s worth the extra effort for the rewards on the other side!

Read more on Our Next Adventure .

Flip Flop Globetrotters

We started our family travel blog Flip Flop Globetrotters in 2015 to document our travels, share our travel experiences and inspire other families to travel with their young kids .

After 10 months of traveling around South East Asia when our son was a toddler, we now have a home base in the Netherlands.

We love to travel with our son and we love to write about it! Our dream is to travel full-time again, but for now, we travel whenever we can. Our most recent trips brought us to Mexico and Egypt.

Read more on Flip Flop Globetrotters .

The Funemployed Family

We’re Ben, Kelly, Liesel, and Mason!  We call ourselves The FUNemployed Family. Here’s how it started!

In 2018, we realized the “American Dream” wasn’t for us. We had successful careers but we weren’t fulfilled by working our life away to be able to afford the things we THOUGHT we needed as a family. Due to the stress and work burnout we didn’t end up spending much quality time together as a family. It was neither healthy nor sustainable.  We decided to sell our home and most of our belongings and  hit the “reset button” on life.

Over the next two years, we full-time traveled around the world to 28 countries taking back all the lost time, bonding with our daughter, and planning our future. We welcomed Mason to the travel crew in 2020 and since then have moved into remote careers in financial consulting and brand content creation. We also own/operate two Airbnbs in addition to managing our family, lifestyle, and travel blog, Instagram, and TikTok channels.

We hope that we can  inspire other families to think outside the box, push back on society’s “norms” and truly live the life you want . We’ve grown so much as a family and experienced more than we ever thought possible, and it’s all thanks to making that 1st decision to change our lives.

Read more on The Funemployed Family .

Big family travel blogs

Our globetrotters.

The Globetrotters are a British/Australian family of 5 living in the United Arab Emirates. Being long-term expats, they have used their Middle East posting to explore extensively the region, and their UAE airport hub for traveling around the world . 

Their favorite holiday spots have included Cambodia, Oman, and Jordan, though Thailand and Bali are also family favorites for relaxing beach breaks.

Read more on Our Globetrotters .

Also, check the local travel blog Family Travel in the Middle East .

Globetotting

Globetotting is a blog for families that love to travel run by Katja with lots of support from her husband Nick and three kids Alfie, Tess, and Sam. Katja started Globetotting when she was living in New Delhi and quickly realized there was a lack of information available for parents like her who wanted to explore India as a family. 

What started as a family travel blog focused on India and south-east Asia has quickly grown to cover everywhere from Mongolia and Mexico to Guatemala, Finland, the UK, and more. A travel writer by trade, Katja brings her years of travel experience to her blog – and her travels – and is constantly searching for that next family adventure.

Read more on Globetotting .

Wanderlust Storytellers

Wanderlust Storytellers family travel blog follows the adventures of the five enthusiastic travelers in the Ejmont family. The blog focuses on family travel destinations, tips for traveling with kids of all ages as well as all-important kids travel gear .

Their family travel adventures take them all over the world. They venture out from the kangaroo country of Australia, South Africa’s national parks, and Namibia’s deserts to Italian, French, and Polish old towns, and from bustling cities of Japan to remote tropical islands of Fiji, Vanuatu, and Thailand. 

If you are after unique experiences that the whole family can enjoy then these guys are certainly the ones to follow.

Read more on Wanderlust Storytellers .

Our 3 kids v the world

I’m Sally, the founder of our3kidsvtheworld, a family travel blog focusing on travel for larger families with a splash of luxury thrown in for good measure , who doesn’t love a bit of luxury!

We are Australian based and we travel during school holidays. We have traveled extensively in Asia but have also explored New Zealand, the USA, and the Caribbean. Our heart definitely lies in South East Asia.

We run two Facebook Groups for people interested in traveling in Asia, these are South East Asia Travel Planning and Hong Kong and China Travel Planning, we talk about everything related to travel in these areas, and of course, I love it when members share their photos.

Traveling with a larger family can be challenging as most hotels really only focus on the nuclear family of mum, dad and 2 kids. This is hardly the standard anymore and families come in all shapes and sizes and we’re here to show you that travel can be for all family sizes.

Read more on Our 3 kids v the world .

Go Live Young

Go Live Young is a family of five, with three boys aged 10, 12, and 14, who have a passion for travel and adventure. They’ve recently returned from a nine-month round the world trip, an adventure of a lifetime. Now living back in South Wales in the UK, and traveling as much as the school holidays will allow.

Their adventures include trekking with Komodo Dragons, road tripping around New Zealand, swimming with sharks in South Africa, and hiking 4444 steps in Norway!

Travel for Go Live Young is all about having an adventure as a family, creating lifelong memories by doing unforgettable things, and seeing the world .

Read more on Go Live Young .

World of travels with kids

World of Travels with Kids is a family travel blog that shares our love for this amazing planet and its people . We’re a multi-cultural family, the kids are half Nicaraguan, half Australian; with one born in Peru when we lived there.

We share honestly about places we’ve been and know well; especially Western Australia where we live, and Peru where we spend a lot of time.

Having recently lost our partner/father we’re learning to live again and to solo parent as well. In short, we share stories of love, connection, and adventures, as we travel the world to our own, unique rhythm.

Read more on World of travels with kids .

Solo moms’ family travel blogs

Mumpacktravel.

Solo mum Evie and her 12-year-old daughter Emmie spent years backpacking Asia full-time, and since covid, they’ve returned to Sydney where Emmie has started high school, and as well as continuing their trips together, Evie is now doing trips alone. 

So far this year they’ve explored Malaysia and Fiji, and Evie has traveled alone to Dubai, Hawaii, and cruised the Greek Islands with Royal Caribbean.

Evie and Emmie share their journey with  practical tips about where to stay and what to do, how to pack up your life and start the best adventure you’ll ever have with your family, and now how to travel without kids (also super fun!) .

Read more on Mumpacktravel .

Also check out their book about their travels called Backyard to Backpack: a solo mum, a six-year-old , and a life-changing adventure.

Lizzie Lau Travels

Our mission at Lizzie Lau Travels is to provide a family travel resource with stories, city guides, road trip routes, tips, and hacks to help parents and their kids make the most of their travels.

Though our focus is on traveling with kids, I spent my adult life before kids traveling the world and working as a chef on private yachts, so I have a lot of insight into solo travel, luxury travel, budget travel, and in between.

I caught the travel bug at an early age living a nomadic life with my parents.  We moved 20 times before settling down in BC when I was 10. At 22 I left to work on a dive boat in The Bahamas and finally returned home at age 45.  

My 9-year-old daughter was conceived in Guatemala, born in California, and has already been on over 50 flights. It’s safe to say she’s following in her mama’s footsteps and developing a passion for travel.

Read more on Lizzie Lau .

Learning to breathe abroad

A South African Mom and Son team traveling , homeschooling, and working our way around the world .

We spent 12 months backpacking around South East Asia, then bought a campervan in the Netherlands and spent 9 months traveling extensively through all the Eastern European countries, a few Western European countries, and spent 2 months in Morocco.

We’re just starting out on our next big adventure – a year traveling through South America.  Join us as we explore new places, eat exotic food, dance in the rain and look for high adventure wherever we go!

Read more on Learning to Breathe .

RV family travel blogs

Let’s travel family.

We are a full-time traveling family of 6 who started out by RV living and traveling around North America in 2017. Then, 2 years later, we put our RV into storage so that we could venture out into world traveling.

Our family travel blog, Let’s Travel Family, provides tips and suggestions for great places to visit, advice about RV living can camping, and encouragement to go ahead and travel with your kids ! Make those lasting memories now, don’t wait for one day down the road.

Read more on Let’s Travel Family .

Otis and us

Katy and her husband have three young children and love the great outdoors. Having spent the last 5 years converting their beloved campervan, Katy and her family love nothing more than to travel, explore, and create wonderful memories along the way.

Otis and Us is a family travel blog; sharing travel tips, family days out, family travel, glamping, and campervan adventures with an aim to inspire others to travel with young kids and embrace the belief that life is an adventure.

Read more on Otis and Us .

Crazy Family Adventure

We sold our house in 2014, bought an RV, and have been traveling full-time around North America ever since.

On Crazy Family Adventure we share different things you can do with kids when you visit a destination with a focus on outdoor adventure and National Parks . We love encouraging other families to get out and travel more and live life the way they want to.

Read more on Crazy Family Adventure .

General family travel blogs

Four around the world.

Four Around the World are an Aussie family of four who fit in travel as often as they can. Holly and Simon have traveled to almost 30 countries and their daughters are quickly catching up, having visited 5 continents so far, with Europe being a favorite.

They love sharing family-focused travel tips, comprehensive kid-friendly itineraries, and destination guides with the goal of helping to make family travel easier for other families who want to do the same. 

Read more on Four Around The World .

Thrifty Family Travels

We are Melissa, Andy, and Myla and together we run the blog Thrifty Family Travels. We have always had a passion for traveling, exploring new destinations, and making friends across the world. Between us, we have traveled to 38 different countries and don’t plan on stopping anytime soon!

We’ve had our blog for almost 6 years now which  focuses on good value family travel; not necessarily the cheapest travel but rather we show families how to spend their travel dollar wisely, without ever compromising on experience .

We advise families on what components of travel they should go budget and where they should splurge a bit as well as how to pick up bargains along the way.

Unlike other family travel bloggers, we are not nomadic. We live in Brisbane, Australia but like to get out and travel as much as we can. While we prefer to get off the beaten track and explore the more adventurous destinations, we’re also just as happy to visit the typical family-friendly tourist destinations.

Most of our travels tend to be in Australia, South East Asia, and the South Pacific, but we have also traveled throughout Europe as a family as well as North and South America individually. 

Read more on Thrifty Family Travels .

Pack More Into Life

Hi! My name is Chelsea and I am the writer and traveler behind Pack More Into Life along with my husband and young son. We are a military family traveling the US and Europe as we move around the world with my husband’s career.

We put an emphasis on spending quality time together as a family by traveling to new places, taking weekend trips, and exploring the areas where we live. 

In my blog, I cover over 20 countries with ideas on where to visit, which restaurants have the best food, and family-friendly activities . We hope to inspire you to wander through the beauty of Plitvice Park in Croatia, relax on a cheese farm in the Netherlands or go on a 2-night river rafting trip in California!

Read more on Pack More Into Life .

Our Family Passport

Hello, I am Kam from @ourfamilypassport! Ourfamilypassport is an award-winning travel blog that focuses on showing how Insta-worthy family travel can be doable, affordable, and accessible to nearly everyone! 

I am a mom to a blended family of six and an art history professor by day and a travel blogger and creator by night. We are a crazy circus with normal jobs, school schedules, and day-to-day responsibilities, but we make sure to carve out time to explore the world together and we love showing how you can too!

We have learned from experience that family travel is one of the greatest ways to grow together as a family and to help you and your children become global citizens! We show you how to have the freedom and ability to cultivate a life of discovery and fulfillment through family travel. We are all about experiences over things!! The memories and moments together are everything and they are possible!

If you are looking for practical and relatable ways to plan, book, and pay for those Insta-worthy vacations that you have always dreamed of then pop on over and say hi! We love new friends and would be so happy to have you part of our crew! 

Read more on Our Family Passport.

The learning escapes family

We are an international family of 4: Marta (mum), from Italy, Philip (dad) from Ireland, and two children, Mr. M and Little Ms. E. Living in Ireland, we love to travel and go on family holidays any time we can

Sometimes it is a short hop, like a weekend in Europe, and other times it is longer trips, up to about 3 weeks at a time. We need to follow school breaks but we always make the absolute most of them!

When we go for long, we usually do it via home swaps. We leave our home to a foreign family and, in exchange, stay in their place. It is a wonderful way to experience places like locals and we have also made great friends all over the world this way! 

We have loved all our trips but we do have some favorite destinations: in Europe, we adore Rome (my hometown), Amsterdam, and Lisbon and in the US we are obsessed with National Parks and California, one of our favorite places on earth (the photo is from Joshua Tree).

We talk about all our trips on our website Learning Escapes: there, you find all our itineraries and tips for traveling as a family, based on personal trips and experiences near and far . Traveling and writing are our great passions and we show them both on the blog: we hope you enjoy it! 

Read more on Learning Escapes .

No back home

Karilyn is a writer, photographer, and social influencer providing detailed information for family travelers to inspire them to get out and explore the world, even if it’s only in their own city.

Karilyn and her nature-obsessed family members focus on outdoor adventures that the entire family can enjoy . 

Since 2000, Karilyn has traveled to 49 countries on her own and to 32 with her son.  The duo travel can be found anywhere off the beaten path like the Amazon River or closer to home in one of the US’s many amazing National Parks.

Read more on No Back Home .

Flashpacking Family

Behind the scenes of the Flashpacking Family are Jacs (Mum and content creator), Ed (Dad and digital marketing expert), Ernie (wildlife enthusiast), and George (fearless explorer).

We have more than 20 years of travel experience pre-kids and have been traveling as a family since our children were babies. The boys have visited 15 countries so far and have started putting together their own bucket lists, including Australia and all its deadly animals.  

Our family favorites so far are South Africa, Jordan, Iceland, and Sri Lanka but the list keeps on growing as we explore the world together. Above all, we have learned that it’s important to spend quality time together, making memories as opposed to collecting things. We live a minimal life, traveling as often as time and budget allow. 

Since having kids, we’ve also developed a better awareness of the importance of traveling sustainably and are always thinking about the boys’ future when we book our travels. Through our blog, we aim to promote the benefits of family travel and inspire others to step out of their comfort zone and try something new .

Read more on Flashpacking Family .

Together we roam

Rene Young best describes herself as nobody special, together with her husband she wrangles two primary school kids aged 8 and 10 poorly and is fully entrenched in the hum-drum of mum life.

By night she’s scheming of new places for the family to go and uses her inarticulate words to escape to a world where she prefers to be; hunting down secluded beaches, getting lost in a city’s back alleys, and experiencing new places and faces through the eyes of my children. 

Her award-winning blog is a small space on the internet that combines family and travel, her two greatest passions in hopes that it may inspire or help families to go and get out there .

Read more on Together We Roam .

Parenthood and passports

Damon and Melissa have been traveling the world with their daughter since right after she was born. From the charming streets of Europe to the dirt roads in Central America, their goal is to visit all seven continents as a family by the time their daughter turns ten years old. (Yes, even Antarctica is on their travel list!) Some of their favorite places to visit with kids include Japan, Colombia, and Scandinavia. 

Founded by two award-winning journalists, Parenthood and Passports is a resource to help parents travel safely and easily with kids. They provide detailed reviews, well-researched itineraries, and tips learned through their own experience traveling the world as a family .

Although travel is their passion, Damon and Melissa haven’t quit their day jobs. Instead, they love showing other ordinary, working parents how to prioritize travel, budget, save, and see the world — one or two weeks off at a time.

Read more on Parenthood and Passports .

Detail Oriented Traveler

My blog, Detail Oriented Traveler, is for busy moms who want to travel more with their kids before they move out . We feature authentic vacation ideas and practical travel planning advice.

Tonya Denmark, owner, coffee drinker, beer lover, and mom extraordinaire, and her family are based out of central Florida and are on a mission to visit all 50 states. Follow along as she shares authentic Florida destinations and unique US destinations that her teenagers love.

Read more on Detail Oriented Traveler .

That’s a wrap! We hope you gained some inspiration from our list of the 40 best family travel blogs! Want to add something? Let us know in the comments.

Other articles that might interest you

• The best travel gifts for kids
• A road trip packing list with kids
• How to take better family pictures on your next family holiday

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40 amazing family travel blogs to follow in 2022

Related posts.

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10 Best Travel Apps for 2021

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Our Favourite Travel Families On Youtube in 2019

39 thoughts on “40 amazing family travel blogs to follow in 2024”.

So grateful and honored to be included on this list! Thanks Heleen for putting this together!

You are absolutely welcome! Love your blog and posts! Happy travels!

Wow! It’s no mean feat putting this together and I’m chuffed to be part of this esteemed list. Thank you Heleen. Xx Rene

Hi Rene, thank you so much for your kind words. Love your blog! Happy travels!

Thanks so much for including us. What a great list. Can’t wait to get more inspiration from everyone!

You’re absolutely welcome! You have a great blog. Happy travels!

Thanks for including me in this list! I love following you guys on Instagram!

You definitely belong in the list! Thanks for following along!

Great list, I wish to I can be on the list one day.

Travel Babbo is my favourite, thanks for others too. Will follow them.

We love to follow Travel Babbo as well!

That’s quite a detailed list! When it comes to planning a family vacation, I am completely overwhelmed. Hopefully, these blogs will provide me with some useful tips for planning a fantastic holiday after Covid-19. I would absolutely have a look at these.

Thank you so much for your comment! Glad you liked our list and happy planning!

great blogs to follow specially if you are planning a family vacation.

It’s very touching to know about these family travel blogs. Reading this post has made me exclaim this thing ‘Family that travels together, stays together.’

Travel can be an enlightening and eye-opening experience for children of all ages: there are new foods, experiences, and sights, not to mention quality family time. But traveling with children can also be an overwhelming proposition — unpredictable schedules, long packing lists, and cranky kids are just a few of the challenges you may encounter along the way. But here we’ll help you make traveling with kids a breeze. After all, you and your children should enjoy every moment of seeing the world and create a lifetime of memories along the way. Isn’t that the point of travel in the first place?

I’m a big fan of EscapingThe Bubble Travel Family. The husband is an airline pilot and he gives the inside scoop on where airline pilots travel with their kiddos and family. They are entertaining to watch but they are definitely more of a travel vlog as opposed to a family life vlog.

thanks so much for bringing them to our attention. I will definitely check them out!

Have a great day, Heleen

Amazing blog, I really enjoyed reading your blog, it feels good to read something amazing after a long time, please keep on writing blogs like this.

Amazing blog, these blogs are so well written and interesting also they are engaging. Please keep on writing blogs like this.

Thanks so much for your kind words!

Sounds Good..!

Travelling with kids is important, to create a stronger bond, family togetherness and memories. It also helps kids’ education to foster a worldview beyond their own backyards. Traveling together creates great memories and moments that will last a lifetime.

Couldn’t agree more!

Thanks for sharing great information

You’re welcome!

Hello . thank you so Much for providing this amazing traveling blog love to read it the content written in this is amazing which made me crazy while reading.

Nice post! Thanks for sharing such a beautiful informative information on the blog. Thanks

Heleen, you did a fantastic job on this blog article. A mini-book, really. Loved it.

Thanks for sharing this list of family travel blogs. I’m always looking for new favorite families to follow.

Amazing blog, really informative blog.

Great blog and useful info regarding traveling with family! By the way, if any of you guys would need an airport transfer service that provides pre-installed car seats, Kidmoto is the way to go! You can learn more at kidmoto.taxi

Fantastic list – so much experience and so many great suggestions! Added several to our follow list.

Awesome list, love to see all those families out there creating their own adventures. Now I’ve got some browsing to do.

Very nice photos, and family travel….

Hello, Thank you for your valuable information..

Thanks for the nice content. Its so usufull.

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We are a Full-Time Travel Family. How?

This post may contain affiliate links.

This is the post that has to be written, how we, the owners of World Travel Family travel blog, get to travel full-time or even permanently, as a family. We’re not unique, there are plenty of other globe-trotting, full-time travelling families on the world circuit, but to the vast majority of people what we do sounds far from possible. But we do it, and we’ve been a travelling family for over 5 years. Our family travel blog has been the key to our freedom.

It’s time to explain how we went from family gap year travellers to nomadic. But is this nomadic travel lifestyle really so great?

What are the pros and cons of a travel lifestyle, and is it as much fun as it looks?

What’s hard, what’s easy, and of course the big one. How do we pay for it? You may like to follow along on Facebook , Pinterest , or Instagram

How We Became a Full-Time Travel Family

We never set out to be full-time family travellers.

This family travel blog was just a hobby that became a business, a huge resource for travel tips, information, and know-how.

It is designed to help other families travel the world.

We headed off on a family gap year (or 2) and decided it was too good to stop so we made it happen through hard work and determination.

Family travel times are the best of times, we never wanted it to end.

About one year in I read this book, it opened my eyes and gave me that extra push to make it happen, efficiently and calmly.

I realised we were already part of “the new rich” and that far bigger things were possible.

If you’re interested in planning and executing your own Family Gap Year, we’ve got your back. See our Family Gap Year instructions, destinations, tips and ideas here. If you think there’s any information we should add to that, let me know.

We are from the UK and Australia , we have also been based in Romania and Vietnam .

You’ll find that it’s very common for families that travel full-time or for extended periods to be of mixed nationalities.

There is so much to explain about our globetrotting lifestyle. I’ll keep it brief, links in this post will take you to more in-depth information to maybe help you on your way to travelling the world with your family.

How to Afford Full-Time Family Travel?

A short family round the world (RTW) trip can be funded on savings.

A lot of travelling families simply take a gap year, not so many of us continue travelling for years and are able to make a living as they travel.

This is how we got started and year 1 cost us $30,000 back in 2013. $ US and $Au were pretty much equivalent back then.

Now, I honestly don’t think it would cost much more as prices seem to have dropped as travel slumps.

In 2023 I’m seeing price drops travel is very much back on, this year we will be a part-time travelling family as the world eases back to normal.

Of course, if you’re packing a deflated currency like the UK pound, it would be much harder for you now.

You need to cut all expenses back home, you can’t continue to pay a mortgage or big bills while you’re on the road full-time or permanently.

We rented our house out, others sell if homeownership looks like too great a financial burden.

Our rental income covered our mortgage, but home ownership from overseas is quite a headache and there can be unexpected bills to pay.

How did we raise that $30,00 0 If you click through here we’ll tell you. Alternatively, in the next link we give you a break down on spending for our first year on the road

After that one year lump sum ran out we had to start earning.

We started our first travel blog in 2012. That website was bringing in a useful amount of money within 6 months.

Today our blogs fund our lifestyle.

On our website we don’t just cover travel, we have information on how to start a blog that generates an income too. We don’t sell courses, it’s all free, we don’t think you should have to pay for know-how. Take a look at these posts maybe, or you can find our blogging section in the top menu. 1. How to start a blog easily 2. How to earn with affiliate sales. 3. Tools to help grow your blog

We are also lucky in that we have 2 passports, my husband has been able to work in London from time to time to get us through financially.

He’s a hard worker with a great work ethic. He found jobs easily.

London is possibly our favourite city in the world and our closest thing to “home”.

Spending months on end in London with kids has been great for them in every way.

The Kids’ Education in Extended Travel

Homeschooling is very popular and growing around the world.

Partly this is because of dissatisfaction with an outdated school system, partly because homeschooled kids have such great outcomes and partly because more and more parents are working remotely and staying home to be with their kids.

Of course, the internet is better than any classroom, anyone can learn anything online.

When homeschooled kids travel, the buzzword is worldschooling, learning from the world and what is around them.

It’s so much better to take your kids to the learning that have them learn from books.

There is room for traditional schools and learning methods, of course. But in our experience learning by seeing, living, and experiencing has been so much better for the kids.

If that word “worldschooling” is new to you we can tell you all about that too. This post on Homeschool and travel explains more and gives you some great resources. The next one, What is Worldschooling? explains what worldschooling is by definition. This one talks about destinations to include, Ultimate Worldschooling Guide and resources . Finally this one. The global crisis saw a sharp change of tack. Why we Eventually Put Our Kids in School . The kids are now sitting their exams and doing very well in school. Once the world gets back to normal we will travel again.

I should add that in order to pass exams at the end of high school, a few terms of working with teachers or tutors to pick up exam skills was pretty much essential for my kids.

Exams have some odd requirements and real-world learning doesn’t equip kids for exam day.

Practicalities of Finding Accommodation For Full-Time Travel Families

Some families “slow travel” they go from town to town renting apartments for extended periods.

That’s not how we do it because we’ve found it’s not what we enjoy.

Other full-time family travellers prefer to house sit their way around the world, looking after other people’s pets and gardens and living in their homes.

Again, we very rarely do this.

We are more traditional backpackers, travellers or holidaymakers, we move fairly fast when we’re actively travelling, staying in guest houses and hotels.

We also have a base in London and in a village in rural Romania that we return to for “down time” to catch up with work and school work.

After the first couple of years, we needed somewhere to stash the Lego collection and we ski in Romania , our ski gear is there.

We rented a beautiful old farmhouse with zero mod-cons in a picture-perfect village there. Living in this village was certainly an example of slow travel and suited our needs at the time.

Don’t be afraid to mix up your travel styles. Do what you need or want to do.

Because we own such a large travel blog, we sometimes have free hotel stays in exchange for promotion, so our luxury stays don’t need to be self-funded always.

Resources we use include always Agoda for Asia, Booking.com and Hotels Combined for Europe and Australia. In the USA we swear by Priceline. Sometimes we book in advance, sometimes we wing it. We have a post here on finding accommodation for families . We also recommend various accommodations, hostels, hotels, and guest houses we’ve used and loved around the world. If you find a destination-specific post on our site, accommodation recommendations will be there. Or just ask in the comments. To book tours, transfers, and activities we use GetYourGuide and we explain why in our GetYourGuide review. I should probably also mention this post on why housesitting doesn’t work for our family. We really don’t like housesitting.

Traveling as a Family, Health and Sickness on the Road

There are doctors and dentists everywhere in the world, finding health care has really never been an issue.

We’ve tested out hospital care in Thailand, my husband had emergency surgery and the service was fantastic.

Obviously, you need good travel insurance to cover any big emergencies like this but mostly health care is very affordable outside the US.

Look into travel vaccinations but don’t feel you need every one the travel clinics offer you. They’re out to make money, do your research well.

It’s often a lot cheaper to get your vaccinations in Asia, we got some in Kaula Lumpur, but Bangkok is supposedly superb for this.

Finally, we got our rabies shots in London for a very remote destination.

As the years went on and the kids grew we visited more and more extreme and challenging destinations and we thought it was sensible to finally get those rabies shots.

We’ve visited dentists in London, Australia, Romania and Guatemala, doctors in UK, Australia, Guatemala, Malaysia, Thailand and Laos.

Medical care has never been a problem and we get sick rarely.

This is useful for you. What Travel Insurance do We Use? It turned out that for long term, extended, random travel there was only one company we could use and this one was it. We also talk about our ongoing travel vaccination issues, there are 3 posts, start with this one. The Travel Vaccination Drama .

Living Without Possessions

Everything we own fits into 2 large backpacks (mum and dad) and 4 carry-on sized backpacks (one each).

We have enough “stuff” for multi-climate travel, anywhere in the world.

We carry toys, school books, laptops, kindles, phones and specialist travel gear.

When we need something we buy it, so for our treks in Nepal we stocked up in Kathmandu, for our cruise ship Atlantic crossings, we hit the sales in London.

The trick is to “let it go” if something has been used for its purpose, leave it behind. There’s no point carrying stuff you don’t need.

If you’re wondering about what gear we carry with us or what you need to buy to travel comfortably, we have endless posts on that! Family and Kids Travel Gear is here. Why we Don’t Travel Light is an interesting one. When we were on the road full time for years, it was impossible but then as we made bases where we could ditch stuff we started Flying Carry-On Only . We do that a lot now and we’re good at it. I can easily pack for a month in my carry on. The amount of tech gear we have to carry for work is a problem though. Gear for Nepal and Trekking is a separate post because that’s specialist stuff. Please don’t slavishly follow marketers packing lists, read our post first and save yourself some money. Travel Essentials is another post people like. Also power pack recommendations , people love power packs!

Our major possessions from our home in Australia, we sold.

A few things we stashed in the attic, but I can honestly say we’ve never missed any of the “stuff” and living a more minimalistic lifestyle is cheaper, lighter, and less stressful. 

By way of update, we did eventually have to go back home for various reasons and at the time I was very glad we kept some things, cross with myself for keeping some others. We hit the road again as soon as we could. My advice to anyone would be to sell up, get rid of everything. Houses are a millstone and a money pit. I’ve changed this opinion over the years, through experience.

Missing Friends and Family While Travelling Permanently

We honestly don’t miss people much.

We have a few friends around the world that we make a point of visiting from time to time and others that we bump into on the road intermittently.

We find that old friends and family can’t adjust to a life shift like this and fall by the wayside, you make new ones with more similar outlooks.

These days, with Skype or Zoom, it’s super easy to stay in touch and talk face to face if you want to.

Who Makes Up Our Travelling Family?

Our travelling family members are Alyson, Chef, D, and Boo.

We have never used real names in public other than mine, because I’m the author of several books, mine is out there.

Alyson, mum, is in her 50s now, Chef is in his 40s.

Alyson was a chief medical scientist before becoming a travel blogger.

Chef is a fully qualified Chef, he was an executive chef before leaving to travel.

The day our travelling family walked out the door, D and Boo were 6 and 8 years old, they grew up on the road.

We returned to our bricks and mortar when they were older teens, around 14 and 15 years old.

What was to be a temporary pause turned into the lockdown years.

The kids are still travelling with us now at 16 and 18 years old in 2023, our most recent trip was to Jordan.

During our years travelling full-time, we visited around 50 countries, we don’t count countries and our aim isn’t to visit every country, we just spend time in the ones we like best.

We were not a particularly wealthy family, neither were we poor.

I had zero skills in travel blogging, I’ve educated myself along the way and now Chef and the kids help out with this travel website, and a few others.

The kids, when we were unable to travel because of lockdown, were sitting exams, keeping busy with volunteer work and part-time jobs, and building their own online income streams.

They’re very happy that we are able to travel again.

Travelling Families and The Pandemic

By total chance, we were caught at our bricks and mortar when borders closed in 2020.

Today we’re able to travel again, part-time.

In the last few years, our lives had started to look different, we were splitting up to travel more and our trips had become a few months long, from a home base, rather than full-time as a whole family.

This will be our future travel model. Splitting up allows us to visit destinations that are most interesting to particular family members.

For instance, D and I went to Bhutan , Chef took off blue-water scuba diving with minke whales , Boo got a domestic trip that interested him.

It’s a good way to travel while maintaining pets and a garden.

Other travelling families were on the road when the pandemic hit. I know travel families riding this out in many countries, but I don’t know any who “went home” because of that current situation.

I know of quite a few who started long trips after the lockdown began. Travel is different today, but it is still happening.

Please could you save this to Pinterest? We want people to share this know-how.

We hope this goes some way towards explaining how we do and did what we do.

If you have any questions on this full-time family travel lifestyle, please put them in the comments below.

We have a free Facebook support and advice group for families aspiring to change their lives or to travel as we have. You will receive an invitation when you sign up to follow our website.

What posts do I want you to read? What are my favourites? Well, I love destinations that are steeped in culture, so read about Bhutan . D and I went solo on that one. Another one I love is our Manta Ray Snorkelling one, because my son wrote it when he was maybe 13. And of course, Everest Base Camp. That was a 3-week trek and the kids got there at, I think 11 and 13. Want to know where we used to live in Australia, Port Douglas , take a look. You’ll be mystified as to why we left. Of course, you must see our village in Romania too, it’s called Breb and it’s pure magic.

From Full Time Travelling Family to Part Time Travelling Family

2023 won’t see us return to full-time family travel, instead, we’ll be taking extended trips from our new home base in Australia .(Sign up to follow this new website if homestead life is your thing.)

This year we’re visiting Thailand, Indonesia ( Southeast Asia and Asia are our favourite destinations in the Universe!) London, Wales, Jordan and the US.

We will split up and take trips in 2s and 3s because either somebody has to stay home to take care of the animals and pets, or we’ll need to get house sitters.

We still have the financial freedom and work freedom (working online means we get paid as we travel) to travel at least part-time, but now we’re grounded, with roots in ground we own.

Life is good, we own land, a dog, cats, sheep, chickens, a goat and a horse. We enjoy country life, but travel is so important to us that we will never stop.

We’re looking forward to sharing our part-time travelling family adventures with you here!

Our kids are grown now, they’re not minors, they’re older teens and family travel looks a whole lot different with teenagers! Visit our post on travel with teens.

The old quote is true, a family that travels together stays together.

There are many more family travellers out there, long-term, full-time, extended and permanent and we all travel, work, parent , and educate in different ways, this is our way and we hope you find yours. We have hundreds of blog posts on this website that will tell you everything you need to know. Scroll back up and take a look at the links in the blue boxes or use the search box on our website, it’s up top. Thanks for reading.

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If you'd like to hire a car during your stay, use this car rental comparison tool to find the best deal! We also suggest you take a look at this company to get a quote for all kinds of the more tricky adventure or extended travel insurance. Try Stayz / VRBO for an alternative way to find rentals on homes/apartments/condos in any country!

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Alyson Long

Port douglas with kids (& things to do in port douglas with kids), wales with kids, 42 thoughts on “we are a full-time travel family. how”.

Such great info! We’re hoping to hit the road for a few months/weeks at a time starting in a year or two (kiddo will be age 7) and I’m starting to think through where we’ll want to go, logistics of finding an expat community and playmates for the little guy, etc. Would love any resources, including facebook groups to connect with other families!

The big hubs like Chiang Mai and Hoi An are where you’ll find the travelling families Erin. It wasn’t really something we did much, we were too busy travelling to need other people. But sometimes if we stopped somewhere for a month+ it was long enough to form connections. Good luck with your trip! A lot of FB groups are a bit toxic, so tread with caution.

Your blog and services have exceeded my expectations, leaving me quite impressed. I have one of the most reliable restaurant suppliers in the UAE. A to Z World is supporting the dreams of full-time traveling families with our exceptional hospitality supplies, available in Dubai and beyond. Let us help you make your travel dreams a reality.

My Husband and I have been traveling together for the past 10 years and when our son & daughter were born (3 years and 5mo) we never stopped!!

Wow, I’ve never even stopped to search the web for other “traveling family’s” but I’m so glad I did. I love our nomadic lifestyle even though it is hard work.. especially with a toddler and infant.

Just spent 6 weeks in the UK, now in the Caribbean, then Chicago, the Mediterranean, and then west coast of the USA for the prime camping season.

I would LOVE to visit SE Asia, hope to do so soon. Thanks for all the info; I’m very excited to read more about your family’s travels.

I’ve been toying w the idea of homeschooling too. I always wanted to do a travel blog but seems like a lot of work which I’m just not ready for yet. Maybe when the kids are older.

Are you and your family multi lingual? What portable Wi-Fi do you think is best? Do you meet a lot of other traveling families? Thank you for such informative and interesting content.

How cool! Pleased to meet you. We usually meet a lot of other travelling families in the big hubs, like Chiang Mai or Hoi An, otherwise, no, not really, too busy! You’ll find them hanging out in places like that for months. Bulgaria is popular now too because it’s so cheap. We’re not multi- lingual no, we’re not very into learning languages, but we pick up some. I know quite a bit of Romanian after living there, it was one of the few places where there is a language barrier. I did French and German and Latin in school and remember a bit, none of those have been useful. We buy local SIM cards for wifi. The travel blog is my income and my hobby, yes, it’s a huge amount of work and know-how, but I still love it. We just arrived in Australia (home base) from the UK and Jordan.

Any advice for full time travel with large families? We have 6 children.

Honestly – no. I have never seen family rooms for families that big, 3 children, yes, sometimes. I can only say – have plenty of money and know each child’s likes and dislikes and cater to them. Don’t force anything. And good luck!

This is INCREDIBLE. Very resourceful, indeed. Good job

Traveling with family, especially with kids is fun reloaded… Thank you for sharing your valuable experiences…

One thing that always pops up in conversation with my wife and I is security (staying safe). Is it just a case of researching the best practices for places or do you just avoid when you don’t think it will be a safe place? I’ve read of many dangers and scams in Italy for example? Do you have any practices you follow or have developed over time? Also, like so many have said, brilliant blog and info. Loving it 😍

Hi Kerri, we’ve never had any problems as you describe that were significant. We may have paid a bit more than we should from time to time, but most scams are easy to avoid if you have a few smarts and do your best not to appear like a gullible tourist. We fell for one in Vietnam for instance. We got chatting to a guy on the street and he let us hold a thing and take a picture. Then he asked for money. We said no, too easy. I know of a family who paid $100 for a photo on a camel in Egypt because they didn’t ask the price before getting on – totally their own fault and they laughed about it. Security in terms of theft, we had a bag stolen in Australia, an attempted robbery on a sleeper train in India, our theft-proof bag stopped them getting in, and a pickpocket incident in Malaysia, plus a T shirt stolen in a hostel there. That’s it, I believe, in a lifetime of travel. I’ve been to Italy many times and wouldn’t consider any of Europe even slightly risky. Hope that helps. If you’re scared to go out the door, you’ll have a poor quality life, there’s really very little to fear.

You have a very informative blog, thank you for your efforts and sharing the knowledge

Thank you guys for your lovely blog!

The flight details changing facility provided by United Airlines are very easy and understandable. If you’re willing to change your flights then you need to change them within 24 hours of booking the flight so that you do not have to face any additional charges. But if you in case fail to change it within 24 hours of time then you might have to pay some additional charges as per the policy. The services provided are nice

This is an amazing post! Thank you so much for making it! I have been thinking about traveling with my family full time, but so I could plan, when do you believe is the best time to start? At what age should the kids be when starting? My wife and I have a 4 and 2 year old and we have another baby on the way on several months. I was thinking around when the kids are around 7 or so but I don’t have an idea at this point. Thanks again for the awesome post!

We have a post about the best age to travel with kids, and yes, around then is good. Best of luck, hopefully the world will be back to normal by then.

Really great informative post. I love how you have gone so far as to fund your family lifestyle by making modest sums through your blog. It is truly inspiring

The sums ain’t modest LOL.

@Alyson for World Travel Family 🤣🤣🤣

Your family is such an inspiration! I just found your blog and am living vicariously through your posts. I was lucky enough to travel extensively as a child and you’re right- travel is the best teacher. While I homeschool my kids, we don’t do much traveling. One day I hope!

Hi Julie, and thanks. Unfortunately, it’s one-day for us now too. We can’t leave the country. Maybe not even this year. I’m very glad that we did all we did when we did because kids don’t stay kids forever. The clock is ticking for me too. I’m pushing 55, and it takes its toll. Best of luck!

Great piece. The chance to travel full time is essentially why I started blogging.

We aren’t full time but you guys are the inspiration for us to keep pushing and expanding our horizons!

Hi David. Well, we’re not full-time. We’re not even at-all currently. We couldn’t afford it right now even if the borders were open. But it will come back, one day. So don’t beat yourself up if it’s not working right now. I’m on about 30% of my normal income. Just waiting it out.

Hi, I think your blogs are great. We’re an aspiring travel family. Can you please sign me up to your Facebook please

This is so much inspiring guys. I really enjoyed this blog. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Your blog is fantastic, I read it with enjoyment. When are you planning to write about South Africa and the wildlife of South Africa?

We already did, just use the search function.

I love your blog, plus all the great resources on how to be a blogger. We want to visit Egypt (we’re from Australia). My concern is the safety aspect, terrorism seems to dominate the news lately. What are your thoughts about safety in Egypt? We’re planning on getting a small group tour to see the main tourist sites. Thanks

Hi, Unfortunately, the news loves doom and gloom. We’ve been and besides taking normal precautions it wasn’t any more or less dangerous than any other place. If you’re taking a small group it will be even easier. Enjoy your trip. Cheers James

Thanks, James, for your reply. I’ve also seen Alert Warnings on U.S. and U.K. government consular sites, so I’ve also been taking that into consideration. When did you go to Egypt? We are thinking of going in late November or early December this year. Thanks.

Good Morning, Yes both countries have a few warnings up. I don’t follow the US one much though. The UK foreign office does state that ( at time of writing) the whole of the Nile Valley is fine to travel to. Western desert and parts of Sinai are advised against but personally all the history worth seeing is in the Nile Valley. Just make sure that any travel insurance covers you. Depending on where you’re from and what insurer that is the biggest issue. We travelled early to mid 2017. This was just after the attacks on the Coptic Church and we felt safe enough. After the Paris attacks no governments said to avoid France but just use caution and do your research well. Enjoy.

Thanks James, very helpful information.

I wish we could travel like you. I wish we could do it, but I am the mum who just reads and dreams. Because there are a lot of reasons why we can’t travell full time. We can’ t even take vacations anymore. But I still dream about it. We are in Romania, I wish we could at least see our own country, we live sort of at the opposite of Maramureș, and have never even been there. I just wonder how diferent people and their lifes are…

I hear you Ana. I hear you and I feel you. The world is so totally messy, we all need to step back in time.

Love this! My family and I also travel fulltime in our RV (kids are 2 and 4). We absolutely love this lifestyle and seeing other families enjoying the journey as much as we do!

Oooh, I’d love an RV. Europe or Asia, it looks so free and fun. I don’t think the kids would be too happy with not having wifi though. Maybe they’ll just have to suck it up. Keep on enjoying!

You have been an incredible source of inspiration to us as we figure out how to fund our full-time travel and work less while traveling. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

It’s been an absolute pleasure getting to know you and the family too.

I actually laughed-out-loud at “we honestly don’t miss people much” because we often feel the same way. Our family is more of the slow-travel sort, and while we don’t aspire to be constantly traveling like you guys, there are some great tips here for my family of semi-frequent travelers.

I think I could actually say that we don’t miss people at all. That doesn’t mean we don’t love a few friends and family, just, we don’t. I don’t even know what that feels like.

A really great informative post. I love how you have gone from making modest amounts through your blogs to now making enough to fund your families lifestyle. It is truly inspiring. Keep doing what you do, so that we can continue to follow and learn from you, as we muddle our way through a journey of our own!

Best of luck to you. I just have this weird brain that’s like a dog with a bone and totally obsessed by data, I was determined to make it work. I even wake up at 1am and start work sometimes. This brain won’t rest.

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37 fun family travel influencers to follow on Instagram

It’s estimated that there are some 1.074 billion (yes,  billion ) Instagram users worldwide, with new accounts signing up daily. With so many Instagram accounts out there, how do you choose which ones to follow?

I love Instagram for travel inspiration, in particular for finding new destinations to discover with my own kids. So, putting together a list of some of my favourite family travel influencers on Instagram was an easy task. There are lots of travelling families out there who inspire, inform and uncover some of the coolest spots around the world. Some travel full time, others make the most of school holidays and there are a handful of families who have chosen to up sticks and live overseas.

The best family travel bloggers on Instagram 

Table of Contents

The following list of family travel bloggers on Instagram haven’t been chosen for the size of their following or because their particularly famous. Rather I’ve chosen them for their beautiful photography, for sharing their stories and for being inspiring. I like to follow family travel influencers who travel responsibly, who visit interesting destinations, who have a cohesive feed (so no random photos of lunch if they don’t typically post food shots), and who post regularly.

The following list of travelling families on Instagram is by no means exhaustive; if you have any recommendations or if you would like to be feature then please get in touch!

Mum Pack Travel

This mother daughter duo, Evie and Emmie, are one of my favourite accounts to follow. They’ve had some incredible adventures all around the world and their captions are always honest and often hilarious. Follow them on Instagram 

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Evie & Emmie ✨Family ✨Travel (@mumpacktravel)

Macs Explore

I love following the McEvoy family. They’ve been exploring South American for the last two years and post wonderful photos as well as great Instagram and photography tips. Follow them on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by MCEVOYS | ADVENTURE TRAVEL (@macs_explore)

The Little Adventurer 

Jenny is the mum behind this fun account that covers books, places and things for families. Make sure you read her captions, they are brilliant. Follow them on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by The Little Adventurer (@the_littleadventurer)

Twins and Travels 

Anna shares life at home with her five-year-old twins and a toddler as well as their family adventures, such as an epic trip to Kenya. Follow them on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Twins and Travels – Anna (@twins.and.travels)

Petit Bivouac 

A wonderful look at family life in the beautiful French Alps. Follow them on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by p e t i t ↟ b i v o u a c ???????? (@petitbivouac)

Travel Babbo

Eric and his kids have had some epic adventures. He goes on a solo trip every year with each child – and they get to choose the destination. Follow him on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Eric Stoen | Family Travel (@travelbabbo)

Pint Size Pilot

Tara and her family have been everywhere from Peru and The Galapagos Islands to Norway, Iceland and much more. They also post a lot of great skiing photos and information. Follow them on Instagram

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Pint Size Pilot ???????? Tara Cannon (@pintsizepilot)

Kids Are a Trip

Beautiful photography, amazing destinations and fun family travels are just three reasons you should follow Kirsten and her family on Instagram. Follow them on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Kirsten Maxwell (@kidsareatrip)

Here We Go Again 

Ula and Ollie take wonderful photos of the trips they take in their van with their two girls. They started the UK county challenge and are trying to visit them all! Follow them on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Family Travel Blog | Vanlife (@herewegoagain.blog)

Walking on Travels 

You won’t find your typical Instagram poses on this fun feed. Rather, Keryn imbues colour, fun and energy into all of her photos! Follow her on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Keryn Means (@walkingontravels)

We 3 Travel

Tamara is the go-to person for teen travel. She takes an annual mother-daughter trip with her teenager and shares fun and educational things to do. Follow her on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Tamara ✈️ Blogger & Podcaster (@we3travel)

Stuffed Suitcase

Kim always takes great photos and always documents the best things to do with kids wherever she goes. Follow her on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Kim • Seattle Travel Blogger (@stuffedsuitcase)

2 Travel Dads

If you’re not already following this traveling family on Instagram then you really should. Expect lots of family fun and plenty of blue seas and sunshine from their base in Florida. Follow them on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Rob Taylor (@2traveldads)

Family Trips from London

Natalia and her two girls are great fun to follow. They’re always discovering new places to visit in London and the UK and Natalia’s captions are great fun. Follow them on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Natalia – ????????London, England (@familytripsfromlondon)

Woolfpack Travels

This awesome family spend six months working and six months travelling – completely living the dream travel life! Follow them on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Woolf Family Travel (@woolfpack_travels)

Travel Mad Mum

Karen used her maternity leave with both her two children to travel the world, accompanied by Travel Mad Dad. They have been to some amazing places and documented their trips with stunning photos. Follow them on Instagram

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by TRAVEL MAD MUM ???? (@travelmadmum)

Wild Blue Family 

This family enjoys the kind of travels that we do – skiing, hiking, swimming and time in the Great Outdoors. Plus, their photos are beautiful. Follow them on Instagram

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Bryan Megan Stella Kai Aria (@wildbluefamily)

Wandering Wagars 

Adventures at home in Canada and overseas, this is a fun travelling family to follow. Follow them on Instagram

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Kevin Wagar | Wandering Wagars (@wanderingwagars)

It’s Claudia Travels 

Her boys are grown now but Claudia still covers family adventures as well as solo and couples travel. Plus, she’s lovely and her photos are so inspirational. Follow her on Instagram

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Claudia Laroye ???? Travel Writer (@itsclaudiatravels)

Traveling Mel 

I’m a big fan of this account that focuses on adventuring in Montana, Yellowstone, and the west. Follow them on Instagram

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Travel Writer????Melynda Harrison (@travelingmelmt)

Boy Eats World 

I’ve been following Aleney and her gorgeous kids for years now. I love her travel philosophy and her colourful travel tales. Follow them on Instagram

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Aleney, Raff & Sugarpuff (@boyeatsworld)

Wanderlust Crew

Another family travel blog that I’ve been following for a long time. Vanessa and her family of six showcase their travels with fun, colourful photography. Follow them on Instagram

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Vanessa Hunt | Wanderlust Crew (@wanderlust.crew)

Where the Kids Roam 

Fantastic photos and an even better sense of humour. Follow them on Instagram

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by B + C + B + R + R (@wherethekidsroam)

Pod Travels 

Charly shares her overseas travels and UK adventures with her 10-year-old daughter and husband. Always with a camera in hand, her feed focuses on places and people with discovery, exploration and adventure at the heart. Follow Charly on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Charly Dove | POD Travels (@charly_dove)

One Tiny Leap 

Maria wants to dispel the myth that having children makes traveling impossible, and wants to inspire families to get out of the comfort zone and go explore the world around them, even if it’s the woods/beach/mountain near where they live. Follow Maria on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Maria (@onetinyleap)

Zena’s Suitcase

Great photos and an honest look at family – and travel – life. Follow them on Instagram

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Zena ???? Family & Adventure (@zenassuitcase)

Picture Taker Memory Maker

Chloe is passionate about showing her three girls (11, 10 and 8) the world and loves documenting their adventures on camera as they travel as a family – the chaos, the calm and all the moments in between. Follow Chloe on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Chloe (@picturetakermemorymaker)

Mini Travellers 

Karen shares her adventures on the grid which range from days out in the uk, to camping, to 5 * luxury villas to African family travel. Follow Karen on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Karen Beddow (@mini_travellers)

Flying with a Baby

Carrie shares family days out and travel inspiration both at home and worldwide. She shares plenty of tips to help you plan your trip away. Follow Carrie on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Carrie Bradley • Family Travel (@flyingwithababy)

Monkey & Mouse 

Jenny loves to show her followers the best of Scotland with her two home educated, curly haired, 7 and 5 year olds. Aside from Scotland they spend time every year choosing several different countries to visit around the world. Follow Jenny on Instagram .

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jenny Eaves ✨ (@jennyseaves)

My Travel Monkey 

Follow Ting and her travel monkeys on their adventures at home and abroad. You’ll find a mix of scenery and family shots which are bright and engaging. If you’re looking for family travel inspiration then there’s plenty here. Follow Ting on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Ting Dalton | My Travel Monkey (@mytravelmonkey)

Like, Love, Do

Donna loves a bright coloured photo and has an eye for seeing something different. You will be sure to find snaps from all over the world as well as plenty of London historic sights, bars and restaurants. Follow Donna on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Donna vallance (@likelovedo_london)

Tin Box Traveller 

Claire fills her grid with moments captured during her travels and family adventures in the UK and Europe. There’s also a good helping of fun at home in goregous Devon in the South West of England. The cheeky smiles of her two daughters, aged five and three feature a lot, but Claire is also partial to an epic view. Follow Claire on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Claire – Tin Box Traveller (@tinboxtraveller)

Otis and Us

Katy loves to travel and share her family adventures. Her IG grid is all about life outdoors, camping, glamping, adventures and family travel, oh and maybe a beach and a pretty door thrown in for good measure. Follow Katy on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Vanlife • Camper Family • VWT5 (@otisandus_)

Travelynn Family 

Jenny and her family aim to push the boundaires of family travel and dispel the myth that adventure needs to wait until the kids are older (her boys are aged 3 and 4). On her grid find inspiration from their epic African roadtrip, adventures through Asia (particuarly India), with a bit of Peak District (their new home) for good measure. Follow Jenny on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by JENNY LYNN • FAMILY TRAVEL (@travelynnfamily)

Mummy Travels 

Beaches worldwide are a favourite but Cathy and her daughter love to chase blue skies around the world. From cities to countryside to coast, her feed is full of bright colours and travel inspiration. Follow Cathy on Instagram .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Cathy Winston | Family Travel (@mummytravels)

globetotting

Our Instagram feed is filled with travels everywhere from Mexico and Finland to days out in London, which we’re rediscovering after nearly 12 years living abroad. I’m a firm believer that you can – and should! – take your kids everywhere. Come and follow us on Instagram

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Katja | Travel Writer & Author (@globetotting)

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About the author.

Katja Gaskell

7 thoughts on “37 fun family travel influencers to follow on instagram”.

Really lovely bunch of ladies, thanks for including me too

What a fab list! Thank you for including me ?

Thank you so much for including me Katja! I feel very honoured to be included on a list alongside all these other fab family travel bloggers. So many sources of inspiration in one place!

Thanks for including me! x

Thank you for including me! So much inspiration 🙂 Amanda – We Blog Travel x

Great list! What can I do to get Travel Mamas IG account added? ????

Good point! I need to update this list 😉

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Meet 5 families who travelled the world full time with kids

Families who travelled the globe FT for years. Many of these families no longer travel, but their stories are still interesting to read.

This is a collection of families who travelled the globe long-term for years. Many of these families no longer travel, but their stories are still interesting to read about. Not only did they make their dream of extended and long-term travel a reality, but they also did it despite having children and not being rich.

Meet five amazing couples and families who travel full time.

1- the dennings of discover share inspire (website closed).

• Number of kids:   5 kids ( Under ten years old)
• Type of travel: Road Trip In a Veggie powered truck and slow travel.
• Where: Alaska to Argentina
• Length of travel: 10+ years
• Challenges: Internet connectivity. Balancing work time, education time etc…
• Finances: Currently use their savings, but their long-term plan is to grow their online business.

I think you’ll be in total awe of this amazing family and what they have done so far. The Dennings don’t just want to live abroad. They want to explore the world. Since 2007, they have been determined to create a location-independent lifestyle to live the way they want to. Who doesn’t? But they have gone to great lengths to make this happen and in an exciting way.

They’ve simplified their lives to the bare essentials. No mortgage, no utilities, nothing except their truck and what they can put in it. To fund their lifestyle initially, they were living off of an income, but they lost that in 2008. Now they live off of their savings and have all they need to continue to live simply – which they are more than pleased with. However, their long-term strategy is to grow their online business which is already generating some money. They even have a few products teaching other people how to design their lifestyle as they have.

The Denning family are a special case, and it looks like there is no end in sight for their adventure. Their latest adventure is taking them across North and South American. They ‘live’ in their truck when they are travelling in-between places, but whenever they get a chance, they stop and rent a place so they can stay longer. The last time I spoke to them, they rented a house in Panajachel, Guatemala, and were there for almost two months. Before that, they spent seven weeks in Bacalar, Mexico.

2- The Burns Family 

(No longer travelling)

• Number of kids : 2 (Under 8 years old)
• Type of travel: Slow travel 6 months travel and six at home base in Malaysia
• Where : Goal is to travel the world
• Length of travel: 1+ years
• Challenges :
• Finances : They started a web programming company that run entirely online.

The burns family says that they are a pretty average family of four who decided they weren’t happy with their lives in suburban Australia. They were trying to juggle careers, maintain a house, pay the bills, have a social life on the weekends and most importantly, still find time to be with their children. They decided they needed to do something different with their lives.

They considered a bunch of options, including career changes, selling the house and moving from the suburbs to a smaller town and even considered finding work overseas. But none of that seemed like the right answer. in late 2009 the Burns decided to take ACTION and act on a long-term fantasy of long-term with their two young children.

The Burns didn’t have a huge savings, so they opted to use their web programming skills to set up a business online. Exactly two years after they decided to take action and pursue their dream of long-term travel, they set up a house in Penang, Malaysia, to use as a base to travel the world from. They aim to spend six months in Malaysia and six months of the year travelling. They also have a great site for other travelling families and couples to meet called Vagabond Family.   I joined it myself and loved connecting and reading about other families. 

3- 1 Dad, 1 Kid, 1 Crazy Adventure  

Has settled down on the west coast of the US after years of travelling. 

• Number of kids: 1 (Under 10 Years old.)
• Type of travel: Slow travel
• Where: South America, Asia, and who knows where else
• Length of time: 6+ years
• Challenges: Single Dad with a special needs son
• Finances: Started teaching Scuba Diving, various jobs writing, photography and medical transcription

Let me first tell you how their journey began. Everyone has their reasons for wanting to travel or live abroad, and their story is great.   In May 2011, after years of working in intensive care, trauma, and dying, Talon left his traditional work-life to embark on a round-the-world trip.

Talon and Tigger began their journey with $900 in the bank. Talon has been very creative in supporting him and his son, from medical transcription and writing to photography.  He even became a scuba instructor in Honduras, which has helped them bring in some decent money. Talon says their expenses usually average about USD 1,000 a month and says he could even cut it down further if he wanted but doesn’t because they enjoy eating out.

His son Tigger has done so well that he is now off all his meds. Talon attributes the marked improvement in his son’s anxiety and sensory issues to the amount of time he spends with his son and “world schooling.” His son’s progression has reaffirmed and eliminated all the doubts he used to have, and he is now 100 percent positive that his decision to live abroad, travel and home-school his son was the best decision he could have made for his two-person family.

4-  International Cravings

No longer travelling! has settled down after many years of travelling. 

• Number of kids : 2 ( Under 5 years old)
• Type of travel: Expats living in one place.
• Where : Guangzhou China
• Length of time: 1+ years
• Finances : Dad works remotely as a web designer. Mom teaches English. Created a product online, teach and run a web-based business.

Their story is similar to the Burns in terms of why they chose to live abroad. They were a family that was tired of waiting for the right time to travel, the right time to experience things, enough money to do it all, and tired of waiting for the pieces to fall together, so they took action to make it happen.

In Feb. 2011, they moved their family of four to Guangzhou, China. With two small children (1 & 3 at the time), there were many things that they were unsure of, but they knew one thing for sure: they wanted to go on adventures with their children and experience the world as a family. They have made some amazing friends and have had some unforgettable experiences together.

Mom says the ability to give her older child the opportunity to learn Mandarin and experience a culture at such a young age has been fun and exciting. Now both of their children speak Mandarin, and their almost five-year-old is fluent.  Mom told me a funny story; Their 2 yr old son has learned potty training “split pant” style, and she thinks it’s hilarious watching him flip back and forth.

Dad of the family is a web designer and asked his U.S. company if he could work remotely. Something that before they would never have dreamed of asking. The Mom of the family completed an online TESOL certificate before moving to China to teach English while living abroad. While living in China, they lived on $16 a day per person….much cheaper than their U.S. cost of living.   They have also spent a month in Thailand and hope to experience more of Southeast Asia while we can. 

5- Man vs. Debt , The Bakers

• Number of kids: 1
• Where: Australia, Thailand, New Zealand, Thailand
• Length of time: 1 + years
• Challenges: Had over 18,000 us dollars in consumer debt that they paid off.
• F inance : Sold his crap on eBay and got out of debt. Now makes a living online and can work anywhere he wants to when he wants to.

In 2008 after the birth of their daughter, Adam Baker and his wife Courtenay spent a year selling all their crap and paid off over 18,000 dollars in consumer debt. Then In June 2009, they left for what was to be a year in Australia, but quickly turned into more mobile travels through Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and finally back to Indiana.

Now Adam and his wife are running several businesses online and have several products that help others do the same thing they did, and he’s not done yet. That’s it for now. Stay tuned as I add to this growing list of unique and inspirational families and couples who left it all behind to travel or live abroad.

Disclosure : This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a 'petite commission' at no extra cost to you if you make a purchase through my links. It helps me buy more wine and cheese. Please read my disclosure for more info.

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Annie André

About the author

I'm Annie André, a bilingual North American with Thai and French Canadian roots. I've lived in France since 2011. When I'm not eating cheese, drinking wine or hanging out with my husband and children, I write articles on my personal blog annieandre.com for intellectually curious people interested in all things France: Life in France, travel to France, French culture, French language, travel and more.

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An Exciting Peru Family Vacation Itinerary: 7-10 Days For Your Entire Family

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Planning a Peru family vacation itinerary can seem like a daunting task. Whether you’re spending one week in Peru or ten days, you may find there’s just too much to do with kids. Luckily, we’ve here to help you narrow down what to do, from the foodie scene in Lima to the ruins around Cusco. Assuming you’re flying in from a low-elevation destination, we’ve started and ended this Peru family vacation itinerary in Lima so everyone can get acclimated. Of course, this is just a guide to planning your own Peru family vacation. Feel free to mix and match our suggestions or even include some optional excursions. Keep reading for our Peru Family Vacation Itinerary! 

Day 1: A Brief Stop in Lima

Travelers planning a Peru family vacation itinerary usually choose to fly into Lima. Then, spend a day relaxing or exploring the city. We suggest this if you’re vacationing in Peru with kids . It may take your family time to acclimate to the elevation. Lima is just above sea level. So, it’s the perfect starting point before visiting destinations with a higher elevation, like Cusco or the Sacred Valley. Whether you’re into history, art, or culture, there are plenty of things to do in Lima with kids. If you’re not planning to fit it into your itinerary later, you can see what Lima has to offer. Visit Plaza De Armas De Lima, then explore the historic city center. 

Where to Stay in Lima with Kids

Lima has a variety of upscale and affordable accommodations for families planning a Peru family vacation itinerary. While planning your Peru travel itinerary , there are three main neighborhoods in Lima that most visitors consider: Miraflores , San Isidro , and Barranco . Each one appeals to different tastes. 

Best Neighborhoods in Lima for Families

Miraflores is the most popular neighborhood for visitors. It’s filled with restaurants, bars, shopping, and every amenity you could want. The famous Kennedy Park , Malecon (the cliffside promenade overlooking the Pacific), and stunning Larcomar shopping mall are all based here.

San Isidro is one of Lima’s most exclusive neighborhoods and has many luxury properties. It has great restaurants like celebrity chef Gaston Acurio’s internationally famous “Astrid y Gaston”, leafy squares, and high-end accommodation. It is one of Lima’s financial districts, so has fewer obvious tourist sites to visit. However, it is an urban oasis away from the hustle and bustle of the historical center and more commercial Miraflores. 

Barranco is a great option for people interested in museums, art, and something a bit more bohemian. It’s just one neighborhood over and a short 10-15 minute ride to Miraflores, but offers a very different atmosphere. Accommodation options are typically smaller, boutique hotels and guesthouses with an intimate vibe.

Best Hotels in Lima for Families

For a higher-end experience, stay at the JW Marriott Hotel Lima , the Hyatt Centric San Isidro Lima , or the Courtyard by Marriott Lima Miraflores . If you’re only spending a short amount of time in Lima, a lot of families opt to stay in a cheaper hotel or Vrbo near the airport. This will make your trip to Peru with kids so much easier! If staying near the airport, do be aware that the area, Callao , is not a tourist district and does have a reputation as a fairly unsafe area, especially when walking at nighttime. That said, if you’ll just be going to your hotel for a night’s sleep and then returning to the airport in the morning, there is little reason to worry.

Day 2: Fly to Cusco, Explore the Historic City Center

Cusco is a must when planning a trip to Peru with kids , even if you’re only spending one week in Peru. Though many families choose to spend two, three, or even four days here, you could fit in the city’s most important attractions in a day.

Start with the Plaza de Armas de Cusco , the city’s main square in the historic center. Nearby, families can walk the cobblestone streets and see Cusco’s 16th-century cathedral. Be sure to go inside and have a look at artist Marco Zapata’s painting of The Last Supper. Pay special attention to the food being served. Next, head to the colorful San Pedro Market . Here, you’ll find everything from medicinal plants and local food to trinkets and Peruvian fruit that vendors will blend up for a refreshing juice.

Or, visit the Traditional Textile Center Of Cusco to learn more about Peru’s rich artistic traditions. Kids will also love the Bean2Bar class at ChocoMuseo. Explore the museum, learn about the chocolate-making process, then take your creations home! You can book a Bean-to-Bar Chocolate Workshop at the ChocoMuseo Cusco through Viator with a free cancellation policy.

Looking for other fun ideas for things to do in Cusco with kids ? Take a Peruvian Cooking Class and Local Market in Cusco , suitable for families with kids over 10 years old. Or, try this Fully hands-on High-End Peruvian Cooking Class & San Pedro Market Guided Visit . It’s offered to all age groups.

Optional: More Days in Cusco

If you have a few extra days, there are plenty of other activities to add to your Cusco itinerary. Spend the morning wandering the gorgeous colonial San Blas neighborhood , which sits up the hillside from the Plaza de Armas . It’s a neighborhood filled with local craft stores, little galleries, and great restaurants. Not to mention, lots of charming cafes offering stunning views over the city. If you have the energy to climb up quite a few stairs, Limbus Restobar offers good food and drinks and a jaw-dropping view from their terrace.

Families can also combine a trip to multiple Incan ruins around Cusco by taking a horseback riding tour with companies such as Horseback Riding Cusco or Viator . That way, you’ll enjoy an exciting activity while visiting sites like Sacsayhuaman , Puca Pucara , etc. Lunch is also included with certain tours, which is very helpful when planning a Peru travel itinerary .

Sacsayhuaman

To experience up close some of the Inca’s incredible handiwork, venture to Sacsayhuaman . Kids will love this ancient Inca site, featuring huge stone walls. It’s accessible by foot or taxi, so you can visit without a tour. Here, you can appreciate the mystery of how the Incans both carved and carried so many gargantuan stones without modern machinery or tools. To learn more about the history behind the site, book a tour through local companies or Viator .

Awana Kancha Camelids Center

If you have an extra day on your Peru family vacation itinerary , add visiting the Awana Kancha Camelids Center to see llamas and shop for very high-quality alpaca and vicuña clothing and accessories, or the Pisac Market . In Pisac Market be prepared to bargain and do be aware that much of what is labeled as “Baby Alpaca” fabric is either synthetic or just regular alpaca. Both Awana Kancha and the market are located in Pisac, an hour outside of Cusco.

Where to Eat in Cusco with Kids

For a great meal while in Cusco, don’t miss the delicious and creative takes on classic Peruvian dishes at Morena right off of the Plaza de Armas. If you want to try guinea pig, Pachapapa is always a good, albeit rather expensive, option. And for vegans and vegetarians, Organika is perpetually a good choice. Certainly, when planning your Peru travel itinerary , there are many great places to eat in Cusco! 

Where to Stay in Cusco with Kids

Need somewhere to stay in Cusco with kids during your Peru travel itinerary? Families can book a room at Inkaterra La Casona , a boutique hotel located in a historic 16th-century manor in lovely Plaza Nazarenas square. It’s also a few minutes away from Plaza de Armas and the historic city center. Located in central Cusco in front of the Koricancha, Palacio del Inka Hotel Cusco – Luxury Collection is another fabulous option for families. Art lovers will adore the world-class collection on-site! Families also like the Abittare Hôtel , among other options. 

Ready to plan your trip to Peru? Check out All About Adventures by Disney which offers tours to Peru! 

Day 3: River Rafting in the Sacred Valley

The Sacred Valley is a must-visit during a Peru family vacation itinerary , whether you’re spending one week in Peru or ten days. Located at the base of the Andes Mountains, it’s home to multiple Inca ruins and some stunning landscapes. Plus, it provides a getaway to Machu Picchu for a day or weekend trip. Before you continue, however, spend some time in the Sacred Valley and its hidden treasures. Outdoorsy families can go river rafting down the Urubamba River on a half or full-day tour through companies like Peru Adventures Tours or River Explorers , available for kids ten and up. Or, real adrenaline seekers can see the Sacred Valley from above on the epic Sacred Valley Zip Line!

Viator offers a full-day River Rafting In the Sacred Valley for kids 9 and above and a Full Day Urubamba River Rafting Adventure for kids 8 and above with a free cancellation policy. Get Your Guide also offers a Cusco: Urubamba River Rafting Adventure tour. You’ll be able to ride class II and III rapids, including pick up from the Cusco City Center.

Optional: Ollantaytambo

Depending on your interests and what you want to see in Peru, you may want to spend extra time in the Sacred Valley with kids on your Peru family vacation itinerary for eight, nine, or ten days. For a dose of history, visit Ollantaytambo, a quaint mountain village known for its cobblestone streets, ancient ruins, and friendly locals. You’ll find the entrance to the ruins right in town. Though it’ll be a workout to climb up the steps all the way, it’s worth it for the view! Afterward, you can explore the town, shop at the market, and grab dinner. 

If you want to explore with a guide, you’ll find many right at the entrance to the site. No need to book in advance. Most tours to Ollantaytambo , colloquially known as Ollanta , are combined with a visit to Pisac . As such, tours typically visit Pisac first in the morning, stop for lunch, and then arrive in Ollantaytambo in the afternoon. If you want to have the site all to yourself, it’s best to arrive in the morning when you’re not competing with dozens of tour buses. The experience is much better.

Optional: Moray and Maras

If you have more time to spend in the Sacred Valley , we also recommend visiting the Moray Ruins. Resembling a deep amphitheater, it’s still a mystery what the Incas used these three circular terraces for, but it’s still a fascinating sight. Many scholars and archeologists think that the site was used as a sort of testing ground for crops; each terraced level of elevation imitating different altitudes, climate conditions, and soil compositions of separate realms of the Inca empire. Whether or not this is accurate is up for debate, but it’s certainly an interesting theory either way.

This area is a bit of a hike from Cusco, so if you do visit, we recommend combining it with a trip to the Maras Salt Pans. Maras , a small town near Moray , is known for its small salt evaporation ponds dating back to the Incas. Families can visit the town with a tour guide, explore on their own, or book one of many organized tours departing from Cusco and other towns around the Sacred Valley. For anyone looking for something a bit more active, a few tour operators also offer ATV tours in the Sacred Valley that combine with a visit to both Moray and Maras.

Many local companies offer tours, but we recommend Sacred Valley of the Incas Tour with Moray & the Salt Mines via Viator because of its free cancellation policy.

Where to Stay in the Sacred Valley with Kids

Many travelers also choose to spend a few days in the Sacred Valley because the altitude is significantly lower than that of Cusco and it gives you more time to acclimate at less extreme of a change from Lima. Another bonus is that many of the hotels and guesthouses here can arrange all sorts of great family-friendly activities, like cooking classes, traditional arts and crafts sessions with local artisans, outdoor activities, bike rides, etc.

As you are planning a trip to Peru with kids and researching somewhere to stay in the Sacred Valley with kids, here are a few places we recommend. Depending on which towns you plan to visit, you can stay at Inkaterra Hacienda Urubamba , a hacienda-style hotel located between Cusco and Machu Picchu. Sol Y Luna is another popular option for families who want to stay in charming, bungalow-style casitas.

Located in a rural area of Urubamba, the Tambo del Inka, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa offers a spa for parents, a pool for kids, and a game room. Regardless of which you choose, all of these Sacred Valley hotels provide a home base when taking a day trip to Machu Picchu, a must on any Peru family vacation itinerary! 

Day 4: A Day Trip to Machu Picchu

Staying in the Sacred Valley gives families the perfect opportunity to visit Machu Picchu on their vacation to Peru. From Urubamba, reach Machu Picchu – also known as the “lost city of the Incas” – by taking a three-hour train ride with PeruRail . On the Hiram Bingham Train, families can ride through the lush, scenic landscapes on a 1920s-style Pullman train accompanied by cocktails and live Peruvian music. Your ticket also includes a bus ticket from the station, located in Aguas Calientes town, up to the actual archeological site of Machu Picchu. Plus, a ticket to enter with a tour guide. Explore the fascinating ruins, see llamas roaming, and climb the Huayna Picchu Mountain. For a break, enjoy lunch and afternoon tea at the Sanctuary Lodge , also included in your ticket. 

Where to Stay in Machu Picchu with Kids

Many families staying in the Sacred Valley choose to take a day trip to Machu Picchu. Then, they return to their accommodations later, since there are more options in the Sacred Valley for families. However, if you want to stay overnight, we suggest the Sanctuary Lodge . It’s the only accommodation located directly next to the ruins. A bonus to staying at the Sanctuary Lodge is that you can opt for an inimitable sunrise breakfast overlooking Machu Picchu. As you’re right onsite, you can also visit before other tourists have started to arrive.

Located in the nearby town of Aguas Calientes, families can also stay at ​​ Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel , a village-style hotel that’s only 5 minutes away from the train station. While visiting Machu Picchu is doable in one day, families like staying in Aguas Calientes. You can explore at your own pace, enjoy the town, and soak in the hot springs.

Day 5: Trek Up Rainbow Mountain

Assuming you’ve settled back near Cusco after visiting Machu Picchu, take the opportunity to see the mythic Rainbow Mountain. Famous for its beautiful color-changing effect, this scenic destination in Peru is also known as Vinicunca. It’s a bit difficult to visit solo, so we recommend a tour from one of many local operators. Killa Expeditions offers various one or even multiple-day packages. To fit everything into one day, you can book an itinerary through Rainbow Mountain Travels . It departs Cusco at 4 AM for a scenic drive to Qollasuyo. You’ll start your hour-long ascent at the foot of the Ausangate mountain range before reaching the highest point on Rainbow Mountain. Then, continue down for another hour. 

Though this may be a long day for young kids, it’s a good option for families who are short on time and want to fit everything into one day. The tour includes breakfast, lunch, transportation to and from your hotel, etc. We definitely recommend adding it to your Peru family vacation itinerary . Kids will love the chance to spot wildlife, like rare camel species, and see the gorgeous red hills! 

Viator offers a Rainbow mountain tour from Cusco with a free cancellation 24 hours in advance and a book now, pay later option. Get your guide also offers a Cusco: Full-Day Rainbow Mountain & Red Valley Trekking Tour from Cusco with a similar cancellation policy.

Day 6: Explore the Amazon Rainforest in Manu National Park

July and August are popular months to visit the Peruvian Amazon. This biodiverse region is filled with breathtaking flora, fauna, and wildlife. From Cusco, reach one of the closest access points, Manu National Park , a beautiful confluence between the Tropical Andes and the Amazon. At around 3 hours away, it’s best to visit this destination when you’re in the general area of Cusco. Certainly, if you’re planning a trip to Peru with kids , this is a great experience!

Whether you book a tour through Viator or local operators like Manu Adventures and Manu Wildlife Peru , you’ll likely be staying multiple days with lodging included. There’s so much to see throughout three unique zones ! A few exciting activities for kids include macaw tours, jaguar walks, river rafting, zip-lining, and much more! 

If you’re looking to spend more time exploring the Amazon Rainforest In Manu National Park, Viator offers a Manu National Park Tour for 4days/3night s .

Optional: Puerto Maldonado

Puerto Maldonado, a bustling town known for its excellent jungle eco-lodges, oxbow lakes, and giant river otters, is another popular southern getaway to the Peruvian Amazon. Accessible by a short flight from Lima or a bus ride/flight from Cusco, families who choose to visit here often use the town as an access point to the Tambopata National Reserve . This diverse area crosses three lakes, including a lowland Amazon rainforest. Families can take boat rides along the oxbow lakes, see macaw clay licks, and walk on top of canopies. Don’t want to worry about the logistics of planning your trip? Various tours will take you to see the most important sights. 

Note : If you’re going to Puerto Maldonado , it likely makes more sense to start with Lima, then fly to Puerto, then fly to Cusco (putting this ahead in the itinerary). This is not exactly an eco-friendly way to visit, given all the flights, but the flights tend to be cheap and it results in less backtracking, which is helpful when traveling with kids.

Where to Stay Near Puerto Maldonado with Kids

There are plenty of family-friendly accommodations near Puerto Maldonado to choose from. If you want a comfortable, but affordable luxury lodge experience, we recommend the EcoAmazonia Lodge, where all meals are included in your stay, and the lodge can organize a host of tours, jungle walks, and experiences with friendly local guides. The “cabins” are simple, but comfortable and impeccably maintained. Hammocks and lounging areas right by the river are a great way to unwind and enjoy the peace and tranquility of the Peruvian Amazon.

Another good option is the Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica , an eco-lodge located right in front of the Madre De Dios River. Hotel Enai is another popular option for families. However, it’s more of a typical hotel with an on-site pool and restaurant. For a budget-friendly hotel option, try Hotel Cabaña Quinta or Hotel Wasai.

Day 7: See Puno & Lake Titicaca

Planning a Peru family vacation itinerary for ten or eleven days? Try to fit in a trip to Puno, a city in southern Peru located on Lake Titicaca. This beautiful, tranquil lake is located around 8 hours from Cusco and accessible by bus or train (more if strikes or high traffic are present). A double-decker coach bus is the most economical option for families. However, if you want to ride in style, we suggest taking the PeruRail.

Lasting around ten and a half hours, this journey isn’t for finicky kids, but you’ll be rewarded with breathtaking views of the Peruvian Andes as you cross-part of the sweeping Andean altiplano (high plateau). This geographic area includes large sections of Peru and Bolivia and the environment and scenery are starkly different from that of Cusco and its surrounding area; as you journey, you’ll see the tightly packed mountains and green vegetation slowly give way to expansive open spaces and a stark, unforgiving landscape. A gourmet lunch, afternoon tea, and live music performances are included in your train ticket, and guests can roam between cars for the best views. 

Lake Titicaca with Kids

Once you reach Puno, book a tour to Lake Titicaca through Viator or Lake Titicaca Tours . Tours are plentiful and your hotel can certainly help arrange one or you can just show up at the port and pick a boat! Home to many different types of animals and plants, many of which can only be found there, this fascinating lake is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s also a haven for migratory birds, making it the perfect family activity.

What to Do in Puno with Kids

Then, head back to Puno to eat at a local restaurant and explore the town. Some other things to do with kids include visiting Parque Pino, Plaza de Armas, and seeing the historic cathedral. Puno is one of the major urban centers of the altiplano and is a center for folkloric traditions. Many evenings of the year, universities, workers’ clubs, athletic teams, and all sorts of other groups will take to the main street in fabulous colorful outfits for music and dancing-filled parades. 

Day 8: Fly Back to Lima & Experience its Foodie Scene

Since Lima is where most travelers fly to and from the United States, we suggest starting and ending your trip here. If you didn’t have enough time at the beginning of your Peru family vacation itinerary, this is the perfect time to explore Lima. Explore the historic city center and visit Lima’s many museums, from the Larco Museum (filled with pre-Colombian artifacts) to the Lima Art Museum , and the National Museum of Archaeology of Peru . Kids who are into spooky adventures will love exploring the catacombs at Basílica y Convento de San Francisco de Lima.

Outside of the historic city center, families also like to visit Miraflores Central Park , a sprawling park filled with funky sculptures, and enjoy the great views on the Malecon boardwalk spanning the cliffs. Around dusk, be sure to head over to Barranco’s famous Puente de Los suspiros (the bridge of sighs), for a lovely view and an atmospheric wander in this very cool, lantern-lit neighborhood. 

Best Restaurants in Lima with Kids

Lima is also a fantastic city for foodies. If you’re looking for kid-friendly restaurants, it won’t be hard to find delicious dishes across the city – even if your kids are picky eaters! If you’re staying in Miraflores, families who love seafood can visit Astrid y Gastón. (It’s also great for a parent date night!) Or, try some of the best ceviches in Peru at La Mar, which has a laidback atmosphere perfect for kids. For a unique experience in the historic city center, families can also visit L’Eau Vive , a French restaurant run by a Catholic congregation of sisters. The sisters cook a delicious meal, sing to you, and are really friendly with kids! 

Isolina Taberna Peruana , a favorite in Barranco serves comida criolla, food typical of the coast, along with really well-done stranger things like offals, organs, and anticuchos (beef heart). It’s a “safe” way to try lots of these interesting dishes. Then, in Miraflores, all along Avenida Mariscal La Mar you will terrific eateries at midrange to higher-end prices, mostly specializing in ceviche and seafood. El Mercado is one excellent option. For anyone looking for a coffee, a sweet treat, or fabulous salads and sandwiches, El Pan de la Chola is a can’t miss. Panchita is another great family-friendly option with English-speaking staff where you can try a whole host of Peruvian cuisine. For a typical Peruvian lunch, Al Toke Pez was a little-known hole-in-the-wall in the Surquillo neighborhood (just across from Miraflores) before it got featured in Netflix’s “Street Food” documentary.

Optional: Paracas

Paracas is a coastal city around 4 hours south of Lima, known for its getaway to the Ballestas Islands and the Paracas National Reserve. With a two-day tour from PeruHop, families can fit both into an easy trip. Plus, pass other historic sites on the way, like El Candelabro , a large prehistoric petroglyph. Then, venture through Peru’s secret slave tunnels to learn more about the people who lived there. Also known as the “Galapagos of Peru,” the Ballestas Islands present endless chances to see penguins, sea lions, starfish, birds, and other exotic wildlife. After, head to The Paracas National Reserve to see more wildlife. Play on the beach and see where Earth’s driest desert meets the Pacific Ocean!

Day 9: Visit Nazca Lines, A UNESCO World Heritage Site

Families with an extra day or two to spend near Lima should save time exploring the Nazca Lines , one of the largest examples of ancient geoglyphs on Earth. Though it’s not a necessary addition to a Peru family vacation itinerary for 7 days , it’s only five hours away from Lima and accessible by bus. Made using a technique called “ground drawing,” archeologists believe Nazca people used the lines to communicate with their gods and keep away bad spirits. One popular way to see the lines is through a short flight. However, a lot of families prefer the more budget-friendly option of either on foot or by bike. There’s also an observation tower to climb for a better view. 

Visitors usually hop straight on a bus back to Lima after seeing the lines. But you could also explore nearby Nazca. Wondering about the altitude of Nazca, Peru? It’s only around 1,000 feet above sea level, so if you’re already acclimated to Lima, you’ll have no issues exploring. There are multiple museums to learn more about the history of the area and its pre-Inca peoples. For example, Museo Maria Reiche and Museo Arqueológico Antonini. 

Day 10: Departure Day

On the last day of your Peru family vacation itinerary , it’s time to say goodbye. Unfortunately, whether you’ve spent one week in Peru or have taken a short vacation to Peru with kids, leaving is never easy. One way to make it less stressful is by bringing one of your child’s favorite stuffed animals. Or, a toy that reminds them of home. You can also pack your suitcase with snacks and a portable DVD player to watch a movie together on the way back. Hopefully, your memories of your Peru trip will stay with you long after you’ve returned home! 

Happy Travels!

We hope you liked this Peru Family Vacation Itinerary: 7-10 Days For Your Entire Family ! From thrilling adventures in the water to exciting excursions through the jungle, there’s so much to explore in this scenic South American destination. Those planning a trip to Peru with kids will certainly have learned a lot about visiting. Enjoy Peru with your kids! 

*This post may contain affiliate links that may earn us a small commission, at no additional cost to you. Affiliate links in no way inform the hotels, sights, products, or other recommendations included in our articles. All opinions and recommendations expressed here are compiled from submissions submitted by the generous members of our Families Who Love To Travel community.

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Last Updated on 3 months by Kasumi

21 Inspiring Black Family Travel Bloggers You Need To Follow Now

• Published on March 1, 2023
• by The Mom Trotter
• in Tips & Tricks , Travel , Travel With Kids

This post may contain affiliate links. By clicking on any of the links below, I may get a commission if you make a purchase at absolutely no additional charge to you. This helps offset the costs of running this blog & I appreciate your support. Please see my  privacy & disclosure policy  for more.

Table of Contents

Family travel is something that seems to intimidate a lot of families. Truthfully, traveling without kids is much less stressful than traveling with kids. However, one you become a parent, you have that itch in you to show your child/ren the world. I know that I had that itch for sure to show my son Aiden the world. Fun fact –  I actually have traveled more since I gave birth to my son than I did before I had him!

Black Family Travel Bloggers

As we celebrate Black History Month this February, I can’t help it but highlight Black Family Travel Bloggers who are killing it in the travel space. As we all know, black families just don’t travel as much, or maybe they do, but they aren’t celebrated at much. These black families are smashing all sorts of stereotypes and sharing with the world that family travel is possible to achieve after kids. Sometimes all it takes is seeing someone who looks like you traveling somewhere in order for you to feel comfortable enough to travel there.

In no particular order, here is a list of my favorite Black Family Travel Bloggers !!! Make sure to check out their blogs and follow them on Instagram for family travel inspiration.

Black Family Travel Bloggers 1 – 5

Travel With Meko

Kameko is a lifestyle blogger and social influencer. Being a native New Yorker gives her the ability to transition from the fast-paced city life to balancing a family. She has a passion for trying new foods, discovering underwater life, learning new cultures, and also exploring different countries. Travel with Meko shares insight and gives inspiration to young families and mothers.

  A post shared by Jessica Kameko ?‍?‍??? (@travelwithmeko) on Nov 8, 2018 at 12:55pm PST

The Mom Trotter

Karen is a mom, wife, and writer at  The MOM Trotter  where she inspires and encourages families to travel the world. She is also the founder of  Black Kids Do Travel , which is an organization created to bring about diversity in travel and bridge the gap. On her blog, she writes about her mission to raise global citizens as well as travel tips, and tips on homeschooling, world-schooling, and budget travel.

  A post shared by The Akpan’s | Family Travel (@themomtrotter) on Oct 16, 2018 at 2:16pm PDT

The Traveling Child

Monet is a full time working woman, wife and also a mama of two. She uses every last one of her vacation days traveling with kids, hubby, friends or solo. Join her as she shares her travel experiences, bucket list adventures, and tips to make travel affordable and easier with the little ones.

  A post shared by The Hambricks (@thetravelingchild) on Jan 15, 2019 at 5:05pm PST

World In Four Days

Courtney is a single mom, black travel blogger and foodie from Los Angeles. Her blog is a U.S. Based travel + lifestyle blog focused on domestic & international four day long mini travel vacations and all things lifestyle & parenting!

  A post shared by Creator | World In Four Days (@courtneyblacher) on Dec 20, 2017 at 10:30am PST

African Boheme

Sunshine is the writer at African Boheme, a black family travel blog, standing at the intersection of the black travel movement and millennial motherhood. Her blog documents the lives of mother & daughter. She is a Caribbean Brooklynite with nearly 30 years of travel under her belt. Realizing that not all black women had the confidence to travel with their children, her blog was born.

  A post shared by Sustainable Family Travel (@africanboheme) on Feb 4, 2019 at 6:29am PST

Barcelona With Kids Guide: Where To Stay & Eat + What To Do

Black Family Travel Bloggers 6 – 10

Tribe On A Quest

Tribe On A Quest shares information on homeschooling/unschooling, the challenges and triumphs of raising a child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder and co-existing disorders, and life as a Queer Black family! Our mission over the past 5 years has been to show families that adventure doesn’t end when parenthood begins!

  A post shared by Tribe on a Quest™ (@tribeonaquest) on Jan 17, 2019 at 1:16pm PST

The Spring Break Family

Montoya is the writer at The Spring Break Family. They are a normal, busy, working family of four that happens to be wonderfully blended and also happens to love travel. They apply the philosophy of 18 Summers to 18 Spring Breaks and take their kids on a week long trip where they learn, grow, and experience new things together.

  A post shared by Monty | Fun Family TRAVEL (@thespringbreakfamily) on Jan 4, 2018 at 6:14am PST

Boundless Brookshires

Alana and her family are just a regular ordinary family who have a love for traveling. They want to teach, and inspire families to Travel Smarter. Also, they believe that if you Travel Smarter you will Strengthen your marriage, Grow closer as a family, Refocus on values, Dismantle stereotypes, and Create a happier home life. They created their blog to show people that you can travel with kids frequently, how to find deals and tips for traveling the world.

  A post shared by Travel $marter| (@boundlessbrookshires) on Feb 18, 2019 at 9:12am PST

My Epiphany

Nyja is a millenial mom who travels the world with her toddler, Nolyn and documents their adventures.

  A post shared by Ny (@myepiphany) on Nov 16, 2018 at 7:38pm PST

Precious Mommy

Jeuelle is the Precious Mommy. Since childhood she has had a definite spirit of wanderlust, constantly dreaming of far escapes and seeing the world. Blessed with road tripping parents who enjoyed family adventures, her desire to see new places and experience new things grew and followed her into adulthood. A physician assistant  by  training and a  homeschooler  by   choice, her blog shares tips and tricks for family travel.

  A post shared by Jeuelle S (@thepreciousmommy) on Jan 22, 2018 at 4:25am PST

Black Family Travel Bloggers 11 – 15

Black Kids Do Travel

This organization was founded by Karen Akpan ; Mom, Wife & Family Travel Blogger at  The MOM Trotter   & her son Aiden Akpan . This organization was created to bridge the travel gap and also to encourage black families to drop their fears and travel the world. This blog highlights black traveling families all over the world and also runs as a group – Black Kids Do Travel Facebook Group connecting families around the world.

  A post shared by BKDT – Black Family Travel (@blackkidsdotravel) on Aug 22, 2017 at 10:04am PDT

My Mommy Flies

Katrina is a flight attendant, wife and homeschooling mother of 3. Along with her husband and children, Katrina has traveled to some amazing destinations including France, Jamaica, Morocco and more. As a way to inspire other families, she shares her experience and tips on how to balance travel and family.

  A post shared by Katrina M. (@mymommyflies) on Nov 18, 2017 at 6:41pm PST

Exploring Legacy

Family of Five expedition around the globe, experiencing 16 countries in 13 months while connecting to their ancestral Lineage. They are trying to give their  kids a ‘world class’ education by making the world their classroom and also showing other families their adventures around the world.

  A post shared by Anderson Fam Exploring Legacy (@exploringlegacy) on Nov 14, 2018 at 4:05pm PST

Negra Bohemian

Iliah is a mother and wife, feminist, social activist and follower of Christ. Learning, teaching and traveling has been part of her life for years and she loves being able to share it with her three children, all of whom got their first passports as infants. In addition, she is raising bilingual, multicultural and multi-ethnic children, and promotes self love, global understanding, social activism, adventure and creative expression through decolonized Christian faith.

  A post shared by Iliah Grant Altoro (@negrabohemian) on Jun 1, 2017 at 8:13pm PDT

Griggs Gone Global

The Griggs are a family of world travelers who took a year off to travel the world. On their voyage around the globe, they’ve created amazing memories, been to unbelievable places, and have met remarkable people along the way; and are sharing their journey so that other families can be inspired.

  A post shared by Griggs Gone Global ? Travelers (@griggsgoneglobal) on Dec 3, 2018 at 8:43pm PST

A Comprehensive Resource Guide For Black Homeschooling Families

Black Family Travel Bloggers 16-21

Trippin Momma

Amoya is a simple-living-wannabe, emotional abuse survivor, an extended breastfeeding advocate, co-sleeping momma, veteran, minimalist, unschooling momma, and full-time traveler. As a single mother of three, you can often find Amoya with a glass of wine losing her mind. Other times you will find her seeking out new adventures around the world, engrossed in a darn good book, chasing after a toddler and also sharing her world-schooling adventures.

  A post shared by Amoya Knudson(Duncan) (@trippinmomma) on Nov 12, 2018 at 11:13am PST

Have Kiddos Will Travel

Ruth is a wife and mami of 4 active and globe-trotting kiddos. She has always loved a good adventure and truly believe that it’s possible to not only travel with, but actually enjoy traveling with children. So she shares her family’s adventures and inspires families to get out of the house. Whether you’re planning a family vacation, road trip or the trip of a lifetime to an exotic destination, Ruth shares insights, product reviews, recommendations, trip reports and information that will inspire you.

  A post shared by Ruth – 4kidstravel (@havekiddoswilltravel) on Nov 23, 2018 at 7:35am PST

Top Flight Family

Carmen is a wife, mom and writer at Top Flight Family. She lives in New York City with my multiracial and multicultural family of four. Traveling the world with our children is their passion, and they like to do it in comfort and style. From five-star hotels and resorts to first-class airport lounges, they share the best of luxury travel with their readers.

  A post shared by Luxury Family Travel & Beyond (@topflightfamily) on Jan 9, 2019 at 8:00am PST

Wanderlust Family Life

This family sold everything to travel the world. They were not only in search of amazing places to visit but also life-altering experiences that would set them on a new path. They knew that they needed to unlearn the things they had been taught and find what truly makes them happy and also share that with the world.

  A post shared by Wanderlust Family Life (@wanderlustfamilylife) on Apr 20, 2018 at 12:32pm PDT

Ann Marie John

AnnMarie is a mom of 4, retired army veteran and also a huge Disney lover. She resides in Colorado and makes travel a priority for her family. In addition, she shares her family’s adventures on her blog and on her Instagram page as well.

  A post shared by AnnMarie ?? (@theannmariejohn) on Dec 31, 2018 at 9:28pm PST

All We Do Is Wonder

This is a nomadic family of 6 who are currently traveling the world and worldschooling their children as they go.

  A post shared by All We Do Is Wander (@allwedoiswander) on Feb 6, 2019 at 10:33am PST

Black Travel Groups

Interested in joining a travel group with other black people? If you’re on the hunt for some black travel groups to plan some fun group trips, here are some of the most popular!

• 1.  Nomadness Travel Tribe
• 2.  Urban Events Global
• 3.  Travel Noire
• 4.  Tastemakers Africa
• 5.  Black Adventuristas
• 6.   Black Girls Travel Too

Booking Your Trip – Tips & Tricks

How To Book Cheap Flights When You Travel

If you are looking to book the cheapest flights you can possibly find on the internet, then make sure to use  Skyscanner when searching for flights. Don’t forget to download the  Free Skyscanner App  also which is very handy. This is how I was able to get $12.40 airfare from Los Angeles to London, as well as $9.40 airfare from London to Italy.

How To Book Affordable Accommodation When You Travel

When booking accommodation,  TripAdvisor  is the way to go because you can read reviews and see photos from other travelers to get a feel of where you will be staying. Other great sites to book hotels are HotelsCombined , Booking .com and Hotels.com . Don’t forget to check HomeAway and VRBO for house and villa rentals too. Perfect for when you travel with a large family, and also to save money when hotels are expensive. Another favorite of mine is BookVIP – they offer huge resort savings.

How To Book Activities When You Travel

My favorite website to search for activities, tours and especially skip the line tickets is  Viator and Get Your Guide . This makes trip planning so much easier because you don’t have to search several sites as both websites have several options to choose from. Same also goes with TripAdvisor Attractions – you can search and book activities as well as read reviews.

How To Book Rental Cars When You Travel

Instead of checking every single website, I use RentalCars.com , Car Rental 8 and Skyscanner Car Rentals to find car rentals all over the world with just one click. If you plan to park at the airport, visit Airport Parking and make a reservation.

Why Travel Insurance Is a Must When You Travel

People book trips and forget the most important part, purchasing  travel insurance . Because we travel often, I  purchase our travel insurance through Allianz  for a year at a time which means that we are covered for all trips within that year. Travel insurance will protect you and your family against theft, injury illness, flight cancellations and so much more. It is a MUST!

Looking to save even more money when you travel?

Visit my  Travel Resources  page to see all the reliable and trustworthy brands that I use to book my travel with. I only recommend brands that I’ve used and can vouch for, so you’re in good hands! ? Also check out these posts below:

• How To Save Money On Flights
• Best Websites To Find Cheap Flights & Error Fares
• Tips On How To Make Travel Affordable For Families

Top Travel With Kids Tips

Traveling with kids and have a few questions you need answers too, these posts below will help your trip run smooth.

• Best Travel Gear For Kids
• How To Travel With Kids Internationally Alone
• Top Must Have Items When Traveling With Kids
• Everything You Need To Know About Traveling With A Car Seat

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Hey Fam, I’m so glad you’re here! I am an entrepreneur and travel enthusiast who is passionate about sharing an alternate way of living surrounding travel, homeschooling, parenting and financial independence, with a mission to inspire other families.

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Tips for traveling internationally with family

By AAA staff

April 25, 2024

Traveling abroad can be the best bonding experience and one of the most rewarding things you can do together as a family, but without the proper planning, it can also be a logistical headache.

Whether it’s a multi-generational family trip to a tropical location or a European summer vacation with your kids, you can take much of the stress out of family travel by keeping a few things in mind when planning your international trip. 

Research your destination & set a budget

Once you’ve figured out what you want to gain from your vacation and picked where you want to go, learning more about that destination can be the most fun part of travel planning. Research what the weather is like throughout the year, talk with family and friends who have traveled there, start to identify things you want to see or do, find out what kind of transportation is available once you get there, and familiarize yourself with the customs and culture.

Your budget is another important consideration when traveling internationally. Some destinations may be tourist hotspots, which means everything from airfare to accommodations can be more expensive. You can save some money by traveling during the offseason or shoulder season , searching for flights to different airports, being flexible with your dates if schedules allow it, booking your cruise or flight during “wave season,” or looking for family-friendly all-inclusive resorts.

AAA Travel Advisors

AAA Travel Advisors can take the stress out of planning a family vacation abroad by helping you find the perfect destination, arranging everything from accommodations to transportation, providing insight into your destination, and helping you save money by finding the best time to book and member deals throughout the year. 

Learn more about AAA Travel Advisors and schedule an appointment with one

Check passport & visa requirements

Did you know that if your passport is set to expire in 6 months or less, you may not be able to fly to or from certain countries? Passport and visa requirements are different for every country, so it’s essential to check your passport expiration dates and the specific rules for your destination before you fly or set off on your cruise.

Like adults, all children—regardless of age—must have a passport to travel internationally. Renewing or getting a new passport for a child under 16 requires that both parents or guardians approve and go with the child to apply in person at a passport acceptance facility, or a passport agency or center. If one or both parents are unavailable, you must bring more documentation . Passports for children under the age of 16 are only valid for 5 years.

According to the U.S. Department of State, the current routine service for passports can take up to 12 weeks, with a 6- to 8-week processing time and up to an additional 4 weeks for mailing. Anyone in your family who needs to apply for or renew a passport should do so far in advance of your travel dates to ensure the passport arrives in time. AAA members can also make sure their passport photos meet the strict guidelines and get a discount on a set of 2 at AAA branches.

RushMyPassport

If you need a passport or visa quickly, your AAA membership can save you 10% on expedited passport and visa services with RushMyPassport. 

Learn more about RushMyPassport and start your application today

Create an itinerary

A big part of planning a successful family vacation is considering everyone’s needs, and finding activities that can be fulfilling and fun for each person is as important as finding the right destination. Depending on how long your vacation is and how many people are in your group, there may be some compromise on what you see and do each day, but creating an itinerary can help ensure that everyone gets to do things that are important to them.

If you’re traveling with young children, finding things to do that will appeal to them will keep them engaged and greatly reduce the risk of any meltdowns. With an itinerary planned, it’ll be easier to let your kids in on what you’ll be doing each day, as well as block off time for rest and meals. Not every activity has to be kid-friendly, but an itinerary can also help you plan for days when an adult can stay with the children. If you're staying at a resort or taking a cruise, check to see if there are babysitting or childcare services available, like kid's clubs, which will also allow free time for parents and grandparents.

While being prepared is great, remember to also stay flexible because not everything will go exactly according to plan. If your schedule is interrupted by bad weather or something unexpected, find a workable alternative and stay open to a new activity or experience. 

Make sure everyone is healthy enough to travel

One of the worst feelings is investing time and money in planning a vacation and then being sick on your trip. A way to help you stay healthy is to make sure everyone is up-to-date on routine vaccines and check the recommended immunizations for your destination from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .

Most U.S. health insurance policies won't cover you in another country, so if you get sick or injured while on an international vacation, travel insurance can reimburse you for care after a covered medical emergency.

Allianz Travel Insurance

In addition to covered medical emergencies, Allianz Travel Insurance plans from AAA can also help you protect your trip against other unforeseen events like trip cancellation or interruption, lost baggage, travel delays, and more. 

Learn more and get a travel insurance quote from Allianz

Packing  for an international vacation for the entire family can become unwieldy and expensive. Even if you’re not concerned with bag fees, checking a piece of luggage for each person in the family can significantly slow you down at the airport. While it may be tempting to load up on toys to keep your kids occupied or overpack to prepare for any situation, remember that your family may also be lugging around their suitcases on cars, trains, and buses while traveling around the destination.

Prepare for your long trip

Getting through airport checkpoint screenings can take hours for a single traveler, but with a whole family, you’re guaranteed some waiting before everyone in your group can make it through security.

Enrolling in  TSA PreCheck may provide a smoother airport experience for your entire family with dedicated screening lines at more than 200 airports and no need to remove your laptop, shoes, 3-1-1 liquids, belts, or light jackets. TSA Precheck is also ideal for families traveling with young children as kids 17 and younger can access the same expedited lanes for free as long as they're accompanied by a parent or guardian who is enrolled.

Global Entry  is a program that lets eligible travelers access expedited entry lines upon their return which can greatly reduce wait times. If you’re flying internationally more than 4 times a year, Global Entry may be a better option as TSA PreCheck benefits are also included with enrollment.

Get your kids ready for the long flight with things that can keep them occupied for long periods like books, snacks, sticker books, and a tablet or phone loaded with games and content. You may also be able to  stream your favorite TV shows and movies with DIRECTV  if Wi-Fi is available on your flight. 

RELATED:  5 ways to save time at the airport gate

DIRECTV is journey-ready—watch on streaming devices while on Wi-Fi via the DIRECTV app. 1  

Learn more about AAA's DIRECTV offer

Figure out how you’ll get around your destination

Understanding the transportation options at your destination before you leave is essential to reducing your stress while you’re on vacation. Researching how you’ll get around will help you figure out what type of transportation will be the most efficient for your family. For example, while it may make sense for a couple on vacation to walk and take public transportation, if you’re a family traveling with young children and grandparents, renting a vehicle may be the best option.

If you plan to drive while you’re overseas, you should get an International Driving Permit (IDP) since some countries may not recognize your U.S. driver’s license and an IDP may be required to rent a vehicle.

Stay connected

Being able to reach everyone in your group while abroad is important, especially if family members plan to break off for separate activities or if you have scheduled alone time in your itinerary. Having a smartphone that works internationally is also key for staying in touch with people back home, capturing memories , navigation, and even translation.

If you want to use the smartphone you carry every day while you’re abroad, make sure it can still get voice, text, and data internationally  and then sign up for an international roaming plan. For example,  T-Mobile  offers up to 5GB of high-speed data 2  in more than 215 countries and destinations on a Go5G Plus or Go5G Next plan.

Switch to T-Mobile to take advantage of select plans that include international data, plus the option to easily add more high-speed data with an International Pass. Members get up to $200 3 when they switch to T-Mobile and bring existing phone numbers to a new account.  

Learn more about AAA's T-Mobile offer

Let a AAA Travel Advisor help you plan your international family vacation

Whether your next vacation abroad includes multiple generations or just your immediate family, a knowledgeable AAA Travel Advisor can help with everything from creating a family itinerary, researching transportation options, and finding member deals to help save you money.

Travel offers & deals

Hot travel deals

Get the latest offers from AAA Travel’s preferred partners.

Travel with AAA

See how we can help you plan, book, and save on your next vacation.

Entertainment savings

Save big with AAA discounts on tickets to your next adventure.

Travel with confidence

Purchase travel insurance with Allianz Global Assistance.

1 Available only in the U.S. (excl. Puerto Rico and U.S.V.I.). Req’s compatible device and data connection; data charges may apply. Not all channels available to stream. Limited to up to 3 concurrent streams. Restr’s apply. Visit directv.com/app for more information.

2 Up to 5GB high-speed data, then unlimited at up to 256 Kbps. Not for extended international use; you must reside in the US and primary usage must occur on our network. Device must register on our network before international use. Service may be terminated or restricted for excessive roaming. Coverage not available in some areas.

3 Via $50/line rebate via virtual prepaid card, max 4. Registration & validation required.  

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Entertainment, 5 family friendly travel destinations in texas to visit this spring, a mom’s guide to exploring the outdoors in the lone star state.

Krisna Menier , Membership Director

HOUSTON – Hey there, fellow adventurers! As winter fades away and the flowers begin to bloom, spring in Texas is the perfect time for families to venture out and explore. As a mom on a mission to ensure maximum fun during our travels, here’s my round-up of the coolest spring nature destinations in the Lone Star State.

Santa Ana National Refuge

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Lush trails, chasing after colorful birds, and crossing a tree bridge for the ultimate bird’s eye view awaits you at the Santa Ana National Refuge ! It’s like stepping into a real-life nature documentary, and trust me, your little adventurers will be buzzing with excitement.

• Distance from Houston: 5 hours
• Admission: Daily passes are $5 per vehicle and yearly passes are $10 per vehicle. The first Sunday of every month is FREE!

Llano River State Park

Who’s up for a splash-tastic adventure? Head on over to the Llano River , where the water’s cool and the vibes are even cooler! Head to the visitor center and pick your kids up a FREE junior ranger explorer pack, packed with goodies to conquer the great outdoors. From floating down the river to casting a line for the catch of the day, there’s no shortage of fun to be had.

• Admission: Adults are $5 daily. Children 12 years and under are free. Camping is between $10 - $20.

Rockport Beach

Rockport Beach is your ticket to sun-soaked bliss and sandy shenanigans. Managed by Blue Wave Beaches, this slice of paradise boasts squeaky-clean sands and low tide waters for every swimmer to enjoy.

• Distance from Houston: 3 hours
• Admission: $10 daily or $40 annual vehicle parking fee.

Comal River

Grab your tubes , slap on some sunscreen, and prepare for a tubing adventure like no other. With gentle currents and heart-pounding tube chutes, it’s the perfect blend of chill vibes and adrenaline rushes. The Comal River is known for its shorter float and calmer waters making it perfect for families.

• Admission: Expect to spend $15-22 per person, including shuttle, tube rental, and parking fees.

RELATED: Play in New Braunfels: Grab your inner tube, sunblock and beach towels!

Westcave Outdoor Discovery Center

Westcave Outdoor Discovery Center is a haven of adventure and tranquility. Surrounded by towering cliffs and lush greenery, you are transported to a world where time slows down and nature takes center stage. Through hands-on activities like nature walks, guided photography grotto hikes and star gazing , there is something for everyone to relax and enjoy the serenity of the environment.

• Admission: Varies based on tours between $5 - $50.

So, grab your crew, pack your sense of adventure (and some sunscreen), and get ready to make memories that’ll last a lifetime. When it comes to family fun in Texas, the sky’s the limit!

Have other spots your family loves to visit in the spring in Texas? Share your favorites in the comments section below!

Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston - All rights reserved.

About the Author

Krisna menier.

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Americans who have traveled internationally stand out in their views and knowledge of foreign affairs

Do people who travel think differently about the world? A new Pew Research Center survey suggests they do.

Americans who have traveled internationally are more interested in and knowledgeable about foreign affairs, feel closer to others around the world, and favor a more active foreign policy, according to the survey of 3,576 U.S. adults conducted in spring 2023. We also surveyed people in 23 other countries about their international travel habits.

This analysis examines international travel with a focus on Americans’ travel, including which Americans travel abroad and how their interest in the world and views of international affairs differ from others.

For this analysis, we surveyed 3,576 U.S. adults from March 20 to March 26, 2023; 3,581 U.S. adults from March 21 to March 27, 2022; and 10,606 U.S. adults from June 14 to June 27, 2021. Everyone who took part in these surveys is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

For non-U.S. data, this report draws on nationally representative surveys of 27,285 adults conducted from Feb. 20 to May 22, 2023. All surveys were conducted over the phone with adults in Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Surveys were conducted face-to-face in Hungary, Poland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. In Australia, we used a mixed-mode probability-based online panel.

Here are the June 2021 survey questions and responses used in this analysis. Those for the March 2022 survey may be found here , as well as those for the March 2023 survey .

How many Americans have traveled internationally?

Roughly three-quarters of Americans (76%) have visited at least one other country, including 26% who have been to five or more. About a quarter (23%) have not traveled internationally, though most in this group say they would if they had the opportunity.

Related:  How experience with international travel varies across 24 countries

To analyze how Americans’ travel experiences relate to their attitudes on other questions, we placed people into three categories:

• Globe-trotters have traveled to at least five other countries. About a quarter of the U.S. public (26%) falls into this category.
• Casual travelers have traveled to between one and four other countries. Half of Americans fall into this category.
• Nontravelers have never left the United States. This category includes 23% of Americans.

Compared with Americans, people in many European nations are more likely to have traveled to five or more other countries. For instance, 88% of Swedes have done so.

However, international travel is much less common in many middle-income nations. It is strongly correlated with a nation’s gross domestic product per capita. (For more on international travel and views about global engagement, read “Attitudes on an Interconnected World.” )

Who travels internationally?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, older people are more likely than younger people to have traveled internationally. Americans ages 65 and older are more than twice as likely as adults under 30 to fall into our globe-trotter category (37% vs. 17%).

Income is even more strongly related to travel than age. Two-thirds of upper-income Americans have traveled to at least five countries, compared with 9% of Americans with lower incomes.

Similarly, Americans with a postgraduate degree are far more likely to be globe-trotters than those with a high school education or less (59% vs. 10%).

Residents of suburban and urban areas generally have more international travel experience than people who live in rural areas.

There are no significant partisan differences when it comes to international travel: 26% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents qualify as globe-trotters, as do 28% of Republicans and GOP leaners.

Do travelers know more about the world?

Globe-trotters are especially likely to say they are interested in foreign affairs and follow international news. Casual travelers, in turn, are more likely than nontravelers to do so.

Globe-trotters are also the most knowledgeable about international affairs. In 2022, we conducted an international affairs quiz , asking Americans 12 questions related to international news. On average, globe-trotters got 8.2 of the 12 questions correct, compared with 6.4 for casual travelers and 4.2 for nontravelers.

Is international travel related to views of global engagement?

International travel experience is also linked to Americans’ views about international affairs and their feelings of connection to other people around the world.

When asked which comes closest to their view, 57% of globe-trotters say the U.S. should be active in world affairs, while 43% say the U.S. should pay less attention to problems in other countries and concentrate on problems at home. In contrast, most casual travelers and nontravelers say the U.S. should focus on problems at home.

In all three groups, at least half of respondents say that when the U.S. is making foreign policy, it should take other countries’ interests into account – even if that means making compromises. But globe-trotters are especially likely to hold that view.

Globe-trotters are also particularly likely to say they feel close to people around the world, with 42% saying so. By comparison, 34% of casual travelers and 30% of nontravelers say this.

• International Affairs

Richard Wike is director of global attitudes research at Pew Research Center

Janell Fetterolf is a senior researcher focusing on global attitudes at Pew Research Center

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Ask Amy: Should we take a flight with our 1-year-old or miss a family function to avoid the travel headache?

• Published: Apr. 24, 2024, 2:00 p.m.

Amy Dickinson TNS

• Amy Dickinson

DEAR AMY: My sister will earn her Ph.D. out-of-state this summer.

My wife and I have a one-year-old and a three-year-old.

Bringing the whole family would be too much for the one-year-old to handle.

I’d like to bring our older child, who is close with the graduating aunt.

My wife doesn’t support the older child going with me because she wants to be there for that child’s first airplane flight.

She acknowledges that this is a selfish desire.

Should we go as a family, despite the headaches that will come from flying with a baby, or should I go solo?

– Harried Husband

DEAR HARRIED: I have to admit that as someone who has flown – a lot – with my daughter when she was a baby and a toddler, and subsequently with many other children of varying ages, I don’t see flying with a three-year-old as being the important and unmissable milestone your wife seems to perceive it to be.

(I still have flashbacks of running from one end of the Dallas airport to the other with my daughter, repeatedly dropping our carry-on luggage and assorted backpacks as we went.)

If the trip to your sister’s graduation is a direct flight of three hours or less, I would take the whole gang. If the trip requires a complicated connection, I would suggest you go solo.

(You can email Amy Dickinson at [email protected] or send a letter to Ask Amy, P.O. Box 194, Freeville, NY 13068. You can also follow her on Twitter @askingamy or Facebook .)

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This Luxury Hotel in Rome Was Named One of the Best Hotels in the World by T+L Readers — and Has the Most Beautiful Courtyard I've Ever Seen

Here's what makes Hotel de Russie Travel + Leisure readers' favorite hotel in Rome.

Food and Drink

Amenities and experiences, family-friendly offerings, accessibility and sustainability, how to get the most value out of your stay.

Courtesy of Hotel de Russie, a Rocco Forte Hotel

Walking through Rome’s Villa Borghese gardens, my husband and I came to a lookout point with a view of Piazza del Popolo. I, however, paid little attention to the neoclassical elliptical square, even with a 79-foot obelisk in the center. I was too busy photographing the most enticing courtyard I’d ever seen. It had three rows of bright-white umbrellas abutting a pale-pink building with turquoise shutters — the kind of scene that made me crave a Spritz and castelvetrano olives because I couldn't help but picture the chic, linen-clad folk enjoying aperitivo on that patio.

About three hours later, I checked into Hotel de Russie , which I picked because it was named T+L readers’ favorite hotel in Rome in 2023 and among the best city hotels in Europe . These 2023 World’s Best Awards landed the Rocco Forte hotel — one of two in Rome — a coveted spot on this year’s T+L 500. 

Hotel de Russie, Rome

• The location: it's a minute's walk to Piazza del Popolo and the Spanish Steps and five to 10 minutes on foot to the Villa Borghese gardens and the Trevi Fountain.
• The idyllic courtyard is one of the most iconic in Europe and the perfect place for aperitivo .
• The luxurious rooms — with turquoise-trimmed shutters on the windows — made me feel like I was staying at my own chic apartment in Rome, with all the amenities of a Rocco Forte hotel.
• The spa has a hammam, a sauna, Irene Forte facials, and a gym.

And yet somehow, even knowing the details of Hotel de Russie’s accolades, I was shocked when, after check-in, I walked across the lobby, through the open doors, to the exact venue I’d painstakingly photographed a few hours before. I didn’t even make it up to my room. I asked the concierge if he could hold our bags while we had a drink on the patio, and a few minutes later, I was seated beneath a bright-white umbrella as a server put down a Negroni for me, a gin martini with a twist for my husband, and a trio of snacks — potato chips, almonds, and olives. I couldn’t believe my luck. I was a pair of really short bangs, a striped silk scarf, and a vintage Vespa away from living out Audrey Hepburn’s "Roman Holiday" life.

Maya Kachroo-Levine/Travel + Leisure

We lingered for a few hours, leisurely succumbing to the snack menu — tissue paper–thin prosciutto on crusty bread, the perfect complement to a second Negroni. I checked my Google Map of Rome recommendations and found we were stumbling distance from my cousin's go-to Roman wine bar, Buccone Vini e Olii , and a cozy restaurant favored by one of my colleagues, Hostaria Da Pietro . Evening plans? Check. The problem? I had no interest in ever leaving this courtyard.

Here, my review of the iconic Hotel de Russie — a Rocco Forte hotel and longtime T+L reader favorite.

Once we wrapped up our prolonged patio stint, we ascended to our spacious Deluxe Room. It was nearly 450 square feet, which is impressive for a standard hotel room in a major European city (the entry-level rooms are just a touch smaller, at about 375 square feet; the junior suites start at 540 square feet; and the Superior Suites start at 650 square feet). For a true taste of Roman luxury, the special suites and Forte suites have terraces or French balconies, with heavenly views of the hotel's courtyard or the surrounding historic buildings.

When I got to our room, I twisted the gold knob on one of three dual-paned windows. I poked my head out the window — no screens, this is Europe — taking in the light yellow, beige, and bright coral facades of the apartment buildings across the street, all with bright blue and green shutters. Across the street, I could see friends gathering on a balcony for sunset and laundry swinging in the breeze on an adjacent rooftop. It felt like I had my own little Roman apartment — with a marble bathroom and Rocco Forte hotel amenities.

Hotel de Russie has two restaurants; the Stravinskij Bar is a magical, umbrella-shaded terrace with a small indoor operation as well. The main restaurant is Le Jardin de Russie, which inhabits the upper terrace (up a set of alfresco stone stairs from Stravinskij Bar) and an adjacent dining room. Le Jardin serves a fantastic breakfast buffet and elevated classics — like grilled whole branzino. For something a little less formal, Stravinskij Bar serves dinner, too, and makes a lovely pasta all'Amatriciana, which is admittedly plentiful in Rome, but can you ever really have too much crispy guanciale?

The concierge team at Hotel de Russie can help you set up tours or book tickets to museums or attractions. We visited in the summer when advance ticketing was crucial, but the concierge could easily book us same-day entry to the Colosseum. The hotel also offers tours that are exclusively available to de Russie guests; one of the newest experiences, called a Journey Through Time at the Roman Forum, visits sites such as the Basilica Ulpia with an art historian, with the option to add on an extravagant tasting menu at Rimessa Roscioli afterward.

My husband and I spent a fantastic morning in the spa, starting with a seven-mile run in the gym, an ill-conceived attempt to work off all the amatriciana. From there, we went to the hammam, slipping into the massive blue-tiled warm pool. After a long soak, he hit the sauna while I read my book on a poolside lounge chair, enjoying the calming effect of the silver- and blue-tiled walls that seemed to glow as if the room were encrusted with precious gems. The spa also offers facials using Irene Forte skin care products and massages, and the hotel is expanding the space.

Hotel de Russie can make a family room by connecting two Deluxe Rooms. While I didn't encounter a lot of children during my stay, I love to see families bring children of any age to a European city — There's so much to experience! The food and culture more than make up for the transatlantic flight! — and would definitely return to the hotel with a kid in tow. The concierge can assist parents in coordinating family-friendly activities, and there is a Rocco Forte kids program for children aged 0 to 16, where each young visitor gets a Rocco Forte passport.

Six of the hotel's 120 rooms are accessible, and wheelchairs are available upon request. The hotel's ground-floor common areas are accessible, though there are "some limitations in the upper side of the historical garden," according to a hotel spokesperson. As a brand, Rocco Forte is keen to reduce its carbon footprint, and at de Russie, there is an electric e-tuk for guest rides and charging available for electric cars. To reduce energy use, all Rocco Forte hotels (including de Russie) hosted candlelit evenings once a week during the winter months, where the restaurants and bars were illuminated only by flickering candles. The hotel also prioritizes digital check-in to eliminate paper waste and frequently donates furniture and amenities to local charities (recently, while refreshing the de Russie gym, all the old equipment was donated to the Blind Association on nearby Via Margutta).

Check the hotel website for deals because Rocco Forte offers generous ones. The occasionally offered Forte Escapes discount, for example, gets guests up to 25 percent off a stay of two nights or more. I'm a traveler who swears by her American Express Platinum card, and card members will be glad to know that Hotel de Russie is indeed part of Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts. Those booking their stay with an American Express will get a 12 p.m. check-in, 4 p.m. check-out, room upgrade if available, daily breakfast for two, and $100 credit for food and drink.

Oklahoma man facing 12 years in Turks & Caicos prison released on bond, banned from travel

Ryan watson made bail a couple weeks after he was detained and arrested for ammo possession in turks & caicos. but he's not allowed to leave..

An American man facing 12 years in prison in Turks & Caicos after airport security found ammunition in his duffel bag won’t have to spend one more night in jail . For now.

Ryan Watson, 40, appeared before a court on Wednesday, agreeing to pay $15,000 to secure his release, according to a news alert from The Royal Turks & Caicos Islands Police Force. 

The court granted Watson's release about two weeks after he was initially detained and arrested. He's being released with a slew of stipulations, including being prohibited from leaving the archipelago nation. He also had to surrender his passport and travel documents to the court, and needs to report to police twice a week as his case moves through the system.

His next court hearing is set for June 7.

Here’s what we know.

Why were Ryan and Valerie Watson detained in the Turks and Caicos?

Ryan and Valerie Watson were in Turks & Caicos to celebrate the 40th birthdays of several friends in early April, USA TODAY reported.

The couple was trying to catch a flight back home on April 12, when airport security found four rounds of ammunition “unknowingly left in a duffel bag from a deer hunting trip,” according to a GoFundMe post made on behalf of the family. 

They were both questioned and subsequently charged with possession of ammunition, a charge that carries a minimum of 12 years in prison in Turks & Caicos.

The couple was stuck on the island without passports, unable to get back to their two young children, which left Valerie Watson “terrified.” 

“We can't both be in prison for 12 years. We have kids at home," she told WBTS-TV in Boston  "And this is such an innocent mistake that we ... didn't even know it was there. So yeah, my immediate thought was our kids and them being parentless for that long."

Ryan Watson maintains that it was a “bonehead mistake” on his part, not knowing that the ammunition rounds he typically uses to hunt whitetail deer were in his bag, the outlet reported.

Ultimately, the charges were dropped against Valerie Watson, who has returned to Oklahoma.

Oklahoma governor vouches for family: ‘Outstanding members of the community’ 

Days after the Watson family was detained, Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt sent a letter to the Turks & Caicos Islands government in an attempt to get the home sooner.

“The Watsons are upstanding members of their community and the State of Oklahoma, and I can assure you countless others stand willing to confirm their high moral characters,” Stitt said.

He continued to say that the couple would never “intentionally break the law,” emphasizing the importance of having them return to Oklahoma so they can continue to serve the community, Valerie as a school teacher and Ryan as a medical product salesman.

 And so that their children, Van and Ellie, don’t have to face another day without both parents, he said.

Family creates GoFundMe to bring Ryan Watson home 

Close friends have created a GoFundMe on behalf of the Watson family to cover the costs of “mounting legal fees, living expenses, and the overwhelming stress of their situation.” 

Valerie Watson said that the strain her family is under is tremendous, telling WBTS-TV that it could “ruin them.” 

“We've already talked, and we're like, what if we lose our house? Which, when we moved to Oklahoma, we built a home that we thought was our forever home,” she said. 

The sentiment was echoed by Ryan Watson, who says “this is something that we may never recover from.” 

“The emotional and financial toll is immense, and they are at risk of losing everything,” the fundraiser description reads. 

The GoFundMe had raised about $196,000 of the $250,000 goal by Friday night. 

What happens next?

Valerie Watson and her children are awaiting her husband’s next court appearance, set for June 7.

Even though Ryan Watson “forgot” about the ammunition in his bag, he may not be able to leave the Turks & Caicos Islands without serving time. The government prohibits anyone, of status or origin, to possess a firearm, ammunition, or any other weapon.

There are exceptions to this, of course, but the court is still required to issue “both a sentence of imprisonment and a fine” that are in line with what the court would consider an “exceptional circumstance,” USA TODAY reported. 

The Turks & Caicos government stiffened the penalties for firearm possession in February, noting that there were a handful of cases involving "exceptional circumstances" that allowed accused people to get away with paying a fine. “exceptional circumstances."