Seven reasons travelling with kids isn’t a nightmare, it’s better (2024)

Travelling with kids in tow is alarmingly different to travelling when you’re young and child-free. Want to pack light, crawl the bars on a city break and take a historical walking tour? Well, forget it. That’s not happening until the kids have left home. But if you look at the opportunities rather than the constraints, travelling with kids can be better. Here are seven reasons why.

Bye-bye, jadedness

Well-travelled adults become increasingly hard to impress. Museums, waterfalls and scenic lookouts blur into one. When you’re with little people who haven’t succumbed to disease of “been there, done that”, the enthusiasm courses through the group. Watching children be enthralled by a mediocre aquarium, or having their minds blown by a beauty spot overlooking a valley is thoroughly re-energising.

You swap cool stuff for fun stuff

You know that art museum everyone raves about that you feel you ought to try to enjoy? Congratulations. You no longer have to pretend, and you can reinvest that time in rollercoasters, mini-golf and hand-feeding kangaroos at wildlife parks. It’s like when you turn 30 and don’t have to pretend to like nightclubs any more, and it feels like throwing the shackles off.

You have to slow down

Kids aren’t going to cope with four intense attractions a day, and it’ll make you realise that you shouldn’t try to either. Forget those absurd “48 hours in ...” itineraries – it’s time to rediscover the joys of just hanging out in a park or playing on a beach. It’s supposed to be a holiday, and kids help you steer away from the temptation to treat it as a marathon of experiences.

Early starts are attractive again

Let’s face it: your evenings on holiday are ruined. Early bed times and the need to eat at family-friendly (often code for “bad”) restaurants mean you’re not going to be living the good life beyond 8pm. But you can turn that curse into a blessing and embrace becoming a morning person.

That means getting up with the sun, going for a walk before the attractions open and spotting wildlife when it’s most active. This is, of course, a sickeningly wholesome way of doing things. But eventually, you begrudgingly admit it’s better than getting up after the hotel breakfast has stopped serving then trudging around the Very Sad Museum of Horrific Atrocities with a nagging hangover.

Hello, apartments

Forget those wildly overpriced boutique hotels with tiny-but-designer rooms and infuriatingly complicated lighting systems. You’re now staying in functional holiday rentals and apartments. All that extra space and those additional facilities are marvellous. How did you ever travel without an in-room kitchen and washing machine before? How nice is it to have a separate living room rather than perching on your bed? Isn’t it a relief to have a big fridge to put your own stuff in rather than a tiny one crammed with horrendously overpriced miniatures?

Cars are great

Kids tend to enjoy the great outdoors more than traipsing around a city, and suddenly hiring a car is going to make more sense. Having your own wheels allows you to get to a lot more places with a lot less hassle. The little out-of-the-way beach and the forest reserve with the waterfall become viable prospects.

You also don’t have to worry as much about packing light – just shove everything in the boot and sort it as you need it.

Shared memories are created

Loading

It’s not so much what you do and see as who you see and do it with. The shared experiences you have on those early family holidays will be the ones you’re talking about for decades to come. The time you spotted a whale from the headland, the time daddy tripped over and smashed the sandcastle, the day the emu went after the ice-cream. That sort of thing. Over time, these become an integral part of family lore. Travelling with kids builds a tapestry of anecdotes you’ll call back on for the rest of your life.

Sign up for the Traveller newsletter

The latest travel news, tips and inspiration delivered to your inbox. Sign up now.