Hellobee Boards

We do! My oldest son went on his first “long” car trip (4 hours) at 4 months, as a practice run to see how he’d do sleeping not at home - a few weeks later we took him to England (8 hour flight) for a week. We stayed with family. Before he was 2 my older son went to England twice and Vegas twice. Since we had #2 we’ve been to St Lucia, Mexico, and Disney World - we’ve always stayed in a hotel, once it was a 1 bedroom suite but the other times we were all in one room. They’ve always been very good! I find the toughest thing is keeping them entertained on the flights, because despite the fact that the screen time floodgates are opened, they’re not interested in 5 straight hours of tv.

I find traveling with kids is a lot more stressful in theory than in practice.

We live far from family and fly about 3-4x per year. For that we sometimes stay with family, sometimes suite hotel so they can sleep on the pullout sofa and now with 3 we’ve done Airbnb. The flight is about 3 hours and I find that it’s hardest around age 1 when they won’t watch a screen but don’t want to sit. But I’ve flown several times this year by myself with all 3 kids and it’s doable. Sometimes I think packing is the worst part! It gets a lot easier as they get older and get excited about it. This past weekend my 1 year old seemed to have her ear infection back so it was a long flight for us and the other passengers ...

We currently have taken about 1 driving trip per year - 5-6 hour drive. I don’t mind that one either but it can be hard if one kid hates the car.

My SIL has family in Asia so they have flown there with young kids (from the US) and that does not sound fun to me but clearly you can make it work if you need to.

Uh like rarely, but not so much b/c I have young kids, but more also b/c no PTO, no money, etc, haha.

DD1 is 5 and she has gone on 3 road trips so far, 3 hours & under

DD2 is 3 and she has gone on 2 road of the above road trips

So far I booked another small trip for us after Christmas since I'm due with DS3 early next year and we're probably not going anywhere. Again, not so much b/c they're young but more so b/c I never have PTO left after maternity leave, and also no money with 2 in daycare and 1 needing summer camp!

They have not been on a plane at all!

Mine are 3.5 and 6 years old. We don’t do any extensive travel like out of the country unfortunately but would in a heartbeat. We went to Maine the past 2 years and we break it up in the way out (5 hours day one, 5 hours day two—we camp overnight and the drive to the campsite adds on), and then drive through on the way back (9 hours). We’ve flown to Florida a few times (1.5 hours) and Minnesota (4 hrs?). We also drive to NJ occasionally which is about 6 hours. Depending on who we drive with sometimes on the way out we split it into 2 days on the way out. I used to drive the 6 hours to my parents old house probably 4 times a year when DD1 was a baby up to 2 years old. I don’t count anything under 2 hours as travel. If we had the money we would absolutely travel way more and definitely don’t think the kids are a barrier.

We take approximately 3-4 flying trips and several more road trips per year. We are both from across the country, so there are at least 2 plane trips per year to visit family. But then we also regularly take them to visit friends that are scattered around the US. Our biggest trips were when my oldest was 3 months - from the east coast to Alaska, and when my kids were 5 & 2 to Scandinavia. We generally stay in Airbnbs or with family/friends. But I also like staying at the Residence Inn. If it's just me with one kid, I'll just get a regular hotel room & then read/watch TV after they go to bed.

Yes we have traveled with all our kids from a very young age, both flying and driving trips, including international travel. It is a priority for us in terms of how we spend our money and making sure we visit family. For the logistics it’s really just mind over matter. For the rest it is being frugal with other things so that we can make it happen. Generally we stay in hotel rooms and cosleep. I don’t mind and really dislike having to worry about other people’s stuff in an Airbnb so it works.

Yep! My son is at the worst age for it right now (16 months. Fml) but we’ve done Punta Cana when the oldest two were 3 and 9 months. Prince Edward Island when they were 3.5ish and just over 1. Drove to Vermont when they were 1.5 and almost 4 (long drive. Sucked)
Florida when they were 4 and almost 2. Then no big trips until they were 5, almost 3 and the baby was along and 9 months and we did Turks and Caicos. We want to go this winter some where, pending baby behaviour. He’s a rebel who won’t sit still!

We’ve done a lot of little road trips, just an hour - 3 hours away for a night or two.

Possible doing two weeks in Michigan when we tag along for my husbands work trip in May.

Def a lot of work but worth it. My kids love it.

We fly ~3 hours to visit family 2xs/year. DS just turned 3, and he's only just getting to the point where screen time helps for these plane rides so we bring lots of things to keep him busy and try to take turns entertaining him during the flight. He's actually getting to be more challenging on car rides. Planning the longer car trips (3+hrs) around bed or nap time helps a lot.
The worst part is the sleep. He is great in his own bed, but in a strange place, he usually insists on us staying with him until he's asleep and he wakes at DAWN without proper blackout shades (that's 4:30 or 5am in NY in summer). For this reason alone, hotels are a little easier than staying with family or Air BnB.
I'm contemplating crafting some sort of portable solution to the blackout shade problem.

I actually just convinced my BFF to fly down to visit us for their first plan trip with a 1yo. I told her that since it was a 3hr direct flight and we had all the "stuff" she would need, and no pressure to really go and do much, it was an ideal test run. Worked out great!

@BUNBUN: Would this help? https://www.slumberpod.com/

Not as much as I would have liked. My son is 1 and we've flown to TX (6 months, 4 hr flight), FL (9 months, 3 hr flight) and Bermuda (11 months, 2 hr flight). We're going to TX again in Dec when he'll be 15 months. TX was to stay family so he had his own room if he wanted, but we were still cosleeping at that time. In FL, we shared a room in a timeshare so we could put him to bed by himself and sneak in later. There was no way he'd fall asleep in the same room. And in Bermuda, it was a hotel but the closet was big enough for the crib so we used that as his "room" for the same reason. He'e an awful napper and sleeper so going anywhere he didn't have his own space to fall asleep just hasn't been an option. We're hoping it'll get better next year and we can travel a bit more, but we're still going to probably do timeshares so that he has his own space to fall asleep.

We traveled a lot more when it was just our older son. I actually took him to see my family (1 hour flight) multiple times a year. Our 2nd has only been to my parents house twice though He’s 21 months. We’ve been on one family vacation in Feb when the 2nd one turned 1. Literally his bday weekend we went to Florida.
Part of it is anxiety of traveling with two. Part of it is that the older one is in full time school now so the ability to travel has been seriously restricted due to schedule. Add to that that the usual times when school is off are super expensive to travel.

The one trip we took with the 4 of us we got a 2 bedroom suite. Big boy got his own room and baby slept in the Lotus in an alcove in our room. It was an off-peak time to travel so we got an incredible deal. Otherwise I think we will do a 1 bedroom suite and put both boys in there. Or 2 adjoining. We cannot come to terms with sharing one hotel room with one kid let alone two.

“Baby” is coming up on two years old and generally more flexible in schedule so I’m hoping we can start to plan some trips in the next year.

We've been traveling with DD (2.5) since she was 9 months. First "test" trip was a 2 leg flight to California (we are east coast) to see how she does on a plane. She has a VP shunt, so we were concerned about extra effects from altitude/pressure changes.

We've since flown with her to:
1) The Bahamas
2) Florence & ROme, Italy
3) Athems & Crete, Greece
4) Copenhagen, Denmark
5) and a few shorter domestic flights

Worst age: 18 months (Italy) because she was in a squirmy phase but wasn't into the iPad yet.

Tips for flights:
- Board last, the less time on the plane, the better
- Bring the iPad, small toys, books, stuff to do
- Take proactive walks in the aisles
- Bring a change of clothes for all parties
- If you can swing it, lay flat seats are AMAZING for a toddler. Room to spread out and play with toys, good napping... game changer

Hotels/AirBnb:
- We do a combo of airbnb and hotels - we always like to pick unique boutique places.
- Make sure they have a bathtub (not all do, especially in big cities)... keeping our nightly bedtime routine intact is essential, and bath is a big part
- We ask for a crib/pack n play in the room. DD is still willing to sleep in one. We usually have to get out of her line of sight to get her to go down though.
- A sleep sack that lets her not split her legs and climb out of the pack n play is a must for us
- I download familiar music (twinkle twinkle little star) that she usually listens to before going to sleep and play that on my phone

Travel in cars/trains/etc:
-We try to travel by train when possible - more fun for everyone and more room
-Getting to and from the airport is usually the biggest hassle - we set up a car ahead of time (most hotels will help you) and request an appropriate car seat ahead so we don't have to stress that

Activities:
- We build a dedicated kid activity like a park or playground visit into every day that we are out seeing sights

Gear:
- When she was small, I'd wear her through the airport and up until security when they make you unwrap
- Now we take our city mini stroller EVERYWHERE
- We don't mess with taking a car seat (see above)

Wall me and I can send a link to my blog where I give a lot my detail on the above destinations and traveling with a toddler. Good luck - it's rewarding!

Yes. We travel as much as we can. I have three (7,3, and 20 month old). I prefer to fly bc car trips longer than 5 hours makes me go crazy. And we live in the South where getting out of the state is five hours.

We’ve been traveling internationally since my oldest was 8 months We’ve traveled international several times with all three including a trip last year that included a 14 hour plane ride. We’ve been to Mexico twice this year. Just came back from the West coast. Flying up North during Christmas.

Anyways all to say... we don’t sweat the small stuff. They nap when they need too. We prob eat way unhealthy while traveling. We all co-sleep. They prob get way too much screen time, etc. My kids are seasoned travelers bc we pushed through. Yes, there are cranky days but nothing has stopped us so far.

Also, as a family of five, tickets are getting expensive so we started accumulating points and taking advantage of credit card deals to maximize. My husband travels a lot for work and he always stays in one hotel brand to accumulate points to use on our personal vacations. I’m pretty sure we haven’t paid for a hotel since 2012