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#1
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Traveling with kids...
Some of you may know how much I love to travel. But so far we've only taken
our daughter on domestic trips. How old were your kids when you felt comfortable taking them internationally? I take a lot of cruises (5th 6th and 7th this year in December. 17 overall) but I've not felt ready to take her with me. Jarrod travels with me some of the time, but usually I travel alone or with friends. I realize cruises are a far cry from true international travel but I've not been ready to take her yet. Nickelodeon did a Summer cruise this year and have 2 planned for next Summer. I personally prefer to not travel the Caribbean during hurricane season (because of heat, not fear of hurricanes), but one of the sailings is to the Mexican Riviera. So we're thinking about taking her on that one next year. She'll have just turned 6 then and with it being aimed at children, I think I'd feel safe enough taking her. When did you first take "big trips" with your kids? LES! |
#2
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Traveling with kids...
We don't travel that much, so having kids hasn't interrupted it, though
with international moves we've done more than we expected. We took DS to Cyprus (from the UK) aged 10 months, it was no more difficult than a domestic holiday, though in the UK a domestic holiday doesn't involve flying and UK to Cyprus is closer than East to West coast of the US! We then took him to Korea aged 18 months, which was a short term move rather than a holiday, from there we took a holiday to Guam, again, a non issue. Had another baby and left DS with grandparents and took a week long trip from the UK to Seattle with her, hard work, but again not a biggie. We then moved to Seattle and have only travelled within the US, though my parents did take DS to Whistler, again, they found it more tiring than travelling alone, but really enjoyed it, they put him in kids club two out of the three days they were there and enjoyed spending a day with him and I think he enjoyed it too. You obviously know cruises, I've never been on one. I do remember going on long ferry journey's as a kid and finding them boring, but then a 24 hour ferry journey with nothing organised is a different ball game to a cruise, where it's supposed to be for pleasure itself rather than a means to an end. I think the main thing is the type of accomodation you have, some kids are ok with sleeping in the same room as the parents and will fall asleep no problem and sleep well, others won't. DS is fine, DD isn't, the price can be a lot different on a cruise depending on which option you need, so if you don't know which your DD is like, a test one night trip to a motel might be a good idea! Cheers Anne |
#3
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Traveling with kids...
On Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:34:17 -0600, "Babie"
wrote: I realize cruises are a far cry from true international travel but I've not been ready to take her yet. My grandson went on a cruise when he was still an infant in arms. My granddaughter was in Vienna as an infant. She went to Australia with her mom and dad this summer. She's 6. She loved Australia and learned a lot. Both kids will be going on a cruise in Hawaii over Winter Break. Dgs is 4 and dgd is 6. -- Dorothy There is no sound, no cry in all the world that can be heard unless someone listens .. The Outer Limits |
#4
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Traveling with kids...
"Babie" wrote:
Some of you may know how much I love to travel. But so far we've only taken our daughter on domestic trips. I don't know that international trips are really any different from domestic trips when you come right down to it. My mother traveled with us from the time we were babies, but our first international trip was by ship to Europe when I was 12 and my sister was just 10. The reason it was so late was because my parents didn't have the money to travel international - in those days (1950) there wasn't a lot of international travel being done. Traveling with children means that you have to slow down and not try to pack the maximum into each day. Schedule time in beaches or parks How old were your kids when you felt comfortable taking them internationally? As I've said, I don't think it matters really, especially on a cruise. My children saw a lot of the US due to DH being in the Navy and moving around. DD#1 had been in seven different schools by the time she was in 7th grade. We stopped moving at that point, and DH just went without us until he retired. I didn't take any of my children international but while my sister's husband was stationed in Germany and my husband was on a Med cruise (courtesy of the US Navy) she and I met up in Spain with my niece who was then a year old, and we traveled from Madrid to Lisbon and back on the train. My MOM took my children with her when they were between 6th and 8th grade. She wanted them to be capable of dressing and otherwise taking care of themselves when she took them. She took my oldest dd to Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti when dd was 13 and my mom was 63, the next dd to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, England, and Scotland when dd#2 was 13 and mom was 65. This was an extremely long trip -6 weeks - way way too long for both of them. Then she took dd#3 to China, Taiwan, Japan, Hawaii and Hong Kong (not in that order), when dd#3 was 11 and my mom was 70. I think dd#3 was a little too young for this kind of trip. When she was 75, she took my niece (age 14) to Italy and then the next month she took ds to London and Kenya when he was 13. She broke her ribs on that trip when she was standing up in the hatch of a safari vehicle to take pictures and the vehicle started off suddenly and she fell onto the hatch opening. She tried traveling with her great grandson (dd#1's son), but she was a bit too old to be dealing with a teenager by that time. She continued traveling internationally until she was 93 but with friends. DD#1 had a job exchange to England when her youngest DS was only 6. They lived over there for three years and visited Scotland, Wales, France, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Austria, Germany, and Ireland from the time he was six until they moved back here when he was 9. DD#2 was taking her DS to the Bahamas in her husband's boat from the time he was a baby, and she visited her sister in England when her ds was 7 and her dd was 2. She also took a short cruise to the Bahamas (also when her dd was 2 or 3), and just recently they had a vacation in Cozumel. They didn't care for the kids program on the cruise they took, but I don't know what cruise line it was. DD#3 also went to visit her sister in England when her son was age 6.5 and her daughter was age 2. I take a lot of cruises (5th 6th and 7th this year in December. 17 overall) but I've not felt ready to take her with me. Jarrod travels with me some of the time, but usually I travel alone or with friends. I realize cruises are a far cry from true international travel but I've not been ready to take her yet. Nickelodeon did a Summer cruise this year and have 2 planned for next Summer. I personally prefer to not travel the Caribbean during hurricane season (because of heat, not fear of hurricanes), but one of the sailings is to the Mexican Riviera. So we're thinking about taking her on that one next year. She'll have just turned 6 then and with it being aimed at children, I think I'd feel safe enough taking her. When did you first take "big trips" with your kids? LES! I have started taking my grandchildren on trips like my mom did, but a trip with a grandmother is not really the same as a trip with parents. It's more like a long sleepover. They have to be mature enough to take care of their own packing, clothing and hygiene and also strong enough to carry their luggage and some of mine. I took my grandson to Ireland and London last June ('07) and he turned 14 right after he got back. I took a second grandson on a cruise during spring break this year. He turned 14 after he got back. For a cruise, you need to figure out what kind of children's program there is and how you want to deal with it. My dd didn't like the program on the Bahamas cruise because her dd was too young for the program even though her birthday was during the cruise which would have made her old enough, and she (the granddaughter) is also unfazed by almost anything. My grandson didn't like it because he wasn't allowed to leave the program unless his parents came to get him. So when I took him on a cruise (which I did because the biggest problem with the first grandson was that there were no people his age on the trip), I wanted him to be able to check in and out on his own. He was just old enough to do this. But he was too shy to interact with the girls on the ship (the first grandson is very extroverted and would talk to anyone and wanted to meet girls whereas this child rarely ever says anything - I didn't find out how he felt about some things until he was in the car with his mom on the way home from the airport), and he thought the boys were kind of nerdy. But he could go shoot some hoops or play video games (with his own money), and get breakfast and lunch on his own. And then he went with me on excursions and to dinner. I'm planning to take the sibling of the first boy with me next summer on another cruise. |
#5
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Traveling with kids...
My DD (almost 4) has frequent flier cards on two airlines, simply because,
with no local family and relatives all over the USA, plus DH and I both travelling at least once a year on business (and, so far, it's worked that the other spouse and child can come along), she's flown 4-6 round trips every year since she was born. The biggest help, if we can get it, is to have a suite, not a hotel room. If we can have a separate sitting room and bedroom (with her sleeping in the sitting room-pull out couches are great for her since they're lower to the ground than most hotel beds, as are rollaways), she sleeps well and it works wonderfully, or, when we travel with my parents, as we do a couple times a year, get two rooms that connect. In both cases, this allows her to sleep while it allows the adults to not have to be on a preschooler's schedule. If we have a regular hotel room, pretty much everyone has to sleep on her schedule, because she needs it dark and with few distractions to initially get to sleep, and that doesn't happen in a hotel room with other people. Once she's out, turning on a reading light is possible. I've also been known to take a book out in the hallway, make the hotel room dark, and leave the door open a crack so I can hear her, especially for afternoon naps. On air travel, she's got the security stuff down to a science. I will forever be grateful to the TSA agent who, on one of her first flights when she was old enough to go through the security gate on her own, asked her if he could look at Draggy's "bones" on the monitor, and then turned the monitor so she could see (after going through the gate herself) what her dragon and bag looked like as he scanned them. Since then, she's handled it herself fine, putting her shoes, backpack, and draggy up for scanning, walking through, and getting her things on the other side. We take her car seat with us, since she still uses a 5 point booster which is legal for airline travel. She's more comfortable in it, and she can see out the window, and we need it when we get there anyway. We let her pack her own backpack of toys and activities, plus I make sure she has a few new books, a new coloring/activity book (dot to dots are the favorite now), crayons/markers and a couple of little new things for the trip (I stock up on small seasonal toys after holidays for this purpose. I've still got a few from last Easter in our closet). This is usually enough for the flight and a relatively limited amount of time spent in the hotel (and usually she ends up collecting a "treasure" or two on the trip anyway). Even at her current age, we do still take the stroller on trips, although we don't use it in the airport, and the only place I use it at home is the zoo. A lot of the places we go end up having a lot of walking, and having the option to NOT carry her is very nice. |
#6
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Traveling with kids...
"Babie" wrote in message ... Some of you may know how much I love to travel. But so far we've only taken our daughter on domestic trips. How old were your kids when you felt comfortable taking them internationally? I take a lot of cruises (5th 6th and 7th this year in December. 17 overall) but I've not felt ready to take her with me. Jarrod travels with me some of the time, but usually I travel alone or with friends. I realize cruises are a far cry from true international travel but I've not been ready to take her yet. Nickelodeon did a Summer cruise this year and have 2 planned for next Summer. I personally prefer to not travel the Caribbean during hurricane season (because of heat, not fear of hurricanes), but one of the sailings is to the Mexican Riviera. So we're thinking about taking her on that one next year. She'll have just turned 6 then and with it being aimed at children, I think I'd feel safe enough taking her. My DD went on her first cruise at 13 mo and DS went on his first one at 2 yo. We go about every one or two years. They absolutely love cruises and so do I. The Mexican Riviera ones are fun because of the number of kids on board. I guess that's a drawback for some; but for families, it's what we look for. She'll love the children's programs. In fact, my kids never ever want to be with us. They want to go to the program and stay there. They never want to leave and they get upset when the cruise is over. If your DD goes, there will most likely be a talent show night where she can showcase her talent. Some kids are serious about it and play piano or sing, but others do lightsaber battles or hula hoops. DS prepared his song before we left for the Mexico cruise this past summer (he just turned 7 yo). I highly recommend cruises for children. Have lots of fun! |
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