How to Make Family Travel Work with Kids (Real-Life Tips)

If you’ve ever wondered how to make family travel work—especially with kids, busy schedules, or a tight budget—you are not alone.

I’m a huge believer in family travel, but I also know it doesn’t always come easily. Over the years, we’ve learned a lot (sometimes the hard way!) about what helps make it work. And today I want to share some of those thoughts, along with a few stories that have shaped how we do things.

(Originally published March 2023, updated April 2026 with additional family travel tips.)

A Quick Travel Lesson We Learned the Hard Way

Let’s start out with a public service announcement to check the expiration dates of your passports often.

Because a while back when we booked our flights for spring break to visit my brother in Thailand, we realized Lucy’s had expired.

Yikes!

Thank heavens we have a national passport agency within driving distance, and that we could get an appointment!

So Lu and I spent the day driving and waiting in that office while all the other kids were at home.

We missed being with them, of course. But we were also so grateful it worked out. (And since mine was expiring soon too, we just went ahead and renewed that one as well.)

The family was waiting for us with home-made dinner all prepared, and even a celebration tunnel when we got home:

(Lu joined in after she went through…and even Carson was there on FaceTime on Elle’s phone at the end.)

Totally made that trip worth it I have to say.

All this to say, if you’re traveling internationally some time soon…go check those passports!

And here’s the deal, that’s kind of what family travel is all about—
figuring things out as you go, rolling with the hiccups, and making memories anyway.

How to Make Family Travel Work

Oh we’ve done a lot of this. Those blissful (and often arguing) kids having no clue all the work that has gone into getting them there.

But it is so worth all the hassle.

So many moms have asked me through the years about travel.

Some thinking we are a little bit nutty to do it as much as we do, ha!

But mostly people have asked HOW can they make it happen. So here are some ideas, including how to fund travel in our podcast (linked below).

Practical Tips for Making Family Travel Work

Keep Kids Happy on Flights

• Wrap small gifts (toys or books) they can open throughout the flight
• Download shows or audiobooks ahead of time – we didn’t have this when our kids were young, and some may never want screen-time. But I think if there is one time to allow screens, family travel may be one of them.
• Snacks. Lots and lots of them. The more unique and different from home snacks the better.

Simple Toy & Activity Ideas for Travel

• Sticker books
• Coloring supplies – this reusable “doodle board” is awesome, and painting with water on an airplane seems quite genius to me!
• Origami paper – I saw a family with young kids folding origami at church and they were spellbound
• Magnetic games for travel
• Headphones + music or stories – Murphys personal favorite is the Yoto Box that tells stories and plays her favorite music. Check out this darling carry-case if you get the mini version.

Get Kids Invested Before You Go

Since kids can’t really afford to “buy in” with money, I have loved using this different way of “buying in” before we travel.

• Have teenagers (or older kids) give “reports” before the trip
• Let them research:
  • places you’ll visit
  • food to try
  • history or culture

This builds excitement and ownership—and makes the trip richer for everyone. I’m a big believer that kids can learn even more from each other than from their parents droning on about the history and facts.

Adjust Expectations by Age & Stage

• Travel with toddlers looks very different than with teens. When you travel with both together, just be patient with the process
• Keep plans flexible. I’m sometimes the worst at this, and want to fit everything in. But sometimes the best answer is to give up on something rather than willing it to happen. Other times the sheer willing it to happen makes the memories (like it did for us on our adventure in Dubai, running to the dancing fountains late at night). As the parent, it’s just important to remember to adjust when needed.
• Focus on connection over perfection – to me, this is what travel is all about.

My sisters and I share even more detailed tips in our In the Arena family travel tip podcast:

Family Travel Tips from Our Podcast

Well, the podcast filled with family travel tips we posted last week on In the Arena is for you! (both the ones wondering why we’re so gaga about traveling and also those wishing they could make it happen).

My sister’s and I go through all kinds of tips and tricks we have learned over the years, including:

• How to pack – I have a whole post about the simplicity and beauty of packing light, and we talk about it on the podcast as well
• How to keep kids entertained while traveling
• How to budget for traveling
• How to use credit card points for travel
• The types of accommodations where we like to stay

So go listen to that podcast if that interests you!

Family Travel Looks Different in Every Season of Life

I think it’s also so important to mention that there are different “seasons” when traveling works, and when it doesn’t.

And that’s ok!

If you’re not traveling any time soon, but dying to do so, this may help:

I got this question a few years ago on the blog:

I am a mother of 3 girls, ages 6 1/2, 2 1/2, and 8 months. They bring me joy daily as well as challenging my patience. I am sure most mothers would make the same statement.
I am not trying to get too personal with you…after all, I have never actually met you, and you don’t know me from Eve, but I’ve noticed that you and your family are able to travel quite a bit and I am sure in the process create many memories doing so. Have you and your family always been able to do this, even when you had little ones?

It will be a while before our young family can afford to travel, even little trips, because of financial goals (which I am logically happy about, but emotionally annoyed with ) we have made. It is difficult to travel with little ones, as well as not financially feasible, but I am wondering what we do in the meantime to help create memories as a family and what I can do to not go stir crazy while spending 98% of my time at home.

When Travel Doesn’t Feel Possible (The Early Years)

My answer:

Back in the early years, I pined away to travel. I had grown up traveling and became hopelessly addicted to how the world opened up to me as we soaked in the cultures of different countries. I figured that is what every family should do.

And then I got married.

And Dave and I got real jobs we couldn’t leave to travel the world on a whim.

Plus, those jobs didn’t pay us much money.

And then I got pregnant.

It was around then that my family decided to go on a service “expedition” to Africa.

And then they went to Bolivia.

They saw and hiked Machu Picchu.

There was need for water-wells in small African villages so they went ahead and traveled there to build some.

They went on an African safari.

Oh they even hiked Mount Kilimanjaro together for crying out loud.

My sister packed up and headed to India to do service which had always been my dream.

And then I think everyone took off for Africa again.

Where was I all this time?

Well, it was about this time that I was confined to a small apartment with these two toddlers only fourteen months apart hanging on my legs and making messes.

Traveling to a foreign country with my family was about as far from my world as going to the moon.

I was in the midst of trying to get my babies to actually sleep at night without waking each other up let alone help fight world hunger.

That’s when this became Elle’s first bedroom:

How to Be Patient When You Can’t Travel Yet

As I slid that pack-n-play in and out of Elle’s “closet” to do laundry and cleaned up small disasters everywhere I went, I daydreamed about service expeditions and hiking far-away hilltops, my mind engrossed in a new culture.

It was around then that my sweet mother started reminding me of something she’d remind me of forever after: “life is long.”

And you know what? She was right.

I hunkered down and did what I knew deep-down was much more grand (although not nearly as glamorous) as travel.

I was a Mother. And that was a new culture all on it’s own.

Dave and I stuck to our 10-20-70 deal. We always scrimped by so I could siphon out some spending money here and there to build up a travel fund. When I had my family photography business, every cent of the money I made went directly toward that.

You see, everyone has their “thing.” Not everyone goes hog-wild over traveling. I know you can live never leaving “home” and have a wonderful life.

But Dave understood (and still does) that traveling is my “thing”…my “love language” if you want to call it that. He knows that I’d take a donation to the “travel fund” over pretty much anything else.

I don’t want to make it sound like we never traveled in those early years. My family still took us under their wing and we got to do some fun things. We got to go home and see family at Christmas and we lived in D.C. so there was really no lack of culture there.

Plus we were driving distance from New York and Boston so we made trips there when we could.

Money is not as tight as it used to be for us.

But I remember worrying so much about even paying a babysitter so Dave and I could go out on a date, let alone going on a trip.

Now here we are, all these years later and we did get to go to several countries in Africa. We went to Machu Picchu too.

What my mom told me all those years ago was right:

Life Is Long.

I have never once regretted “being there” for those kids of mine.

So if you are reading this rocking a baby and a toddler is close-by spilling juice on the floor, never fear.

Life just keeps changing and morphing and meandering.

If you REALLY want to travel, there are ways you can make it happen! (listen to the podcast for tips on that!)

Ways to Create Family Memories Without Traveling

This mom who asked this question above was right:

You can create wonderful family memories without any travel at all.

Establish Family Traditions

You just have to get creative. I’m all about creating family traditions, even if it’s just taking walks every Sunday together or FaceTiming with family every Thursday or having “late nights” every once in a while with just one child at a time.

(See “7 Motherhood Ideas I love” for more ideas on soaking up those smaller kids while you can!)

Talk About the World with Your Children

Since we were not in a stage of life where we could travel the world, I figured out a couple ways we could learn about the world without traveling there.

• We plastered a big world map on the wall by our kitchen table. Since we couldn’t travel to all those exotic countries I pined away to visit, at least we could talk about them over dinner:). Eventually we filled that big map up with little colored stickers of all the places we had visited.
• I introduced “International Nights” where we ate food from a different country. I often had the kids give reports on some aspect of the country for that night.

Quick Tips for Making Family Travel Work

• Start small (weekend trips count!)
• Plan around your season of life and be patient
• Save intentionally for travel
• Focus on connection, not perfection – because connection is what it’s really all about!

Sending love and encouragement to all you travel-hungry moms out there!

And extra love to everyone “in the trenches.”

Those trenches are filled with their own kind of beauty, especially when you are looking back at them from my vantage point! And they’ll be gone before you know it.

XOXO