What kind of planner are you? Do you like to research and have a highly detailed itinerary, or do you just show up at a new place and wing it? I highly recommend a mashup of these two strategies for the best result. If you overplan, you will either be exhausted or disappointed. If you underplan, you may not get to do much since all of the tickets to the places you wanted to visit might have been sold out for weeks. It’s best to have a flexible plan to avoid disappointment given how crowded it is literally everywhere these days. Channel your inner Goldilocks, and you’ll have a successful trip with your family.
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I have been planning trips for decades at this point, and I am going to give you some tips to show you how you can think about your schedule while on vacation with young kids (or possibly older family members) in tow. Some of these will be different if it’s a city vs countryside destination, but the general thoughts below are applicable.
Small kids or doing multigenerational travel? Pick one must do thing in the morning and one in the afternoon.
I read suggested itineraries that talk about going hard from 8 am to 10 pm, and I think, maybe we can do a quarter of the things (or fewer) they have suggested and still be back at the hotel by 8 pm at the latest? Then we go out and about, and we manage maybe 15% of that. We are traveling with a toddler at this point, and honestly, we are pretty beat by the time 7 pm rolls around anyway. That’s why I recommend the nicer hotel. You will be there a lot.
We pick no more than one thing to do in the morning and one thing to do in the afternoon (post-nap). Generally, we will do a museum in the morning when everyone is fresh. I only really think we will ever make it 1 hour, but I am often surprised by Bear, and we are able to stay longer. And sometimes, like when a shoe suddenly appears under a painting past the security barrier that looks suspiciously familiar, and Bear is now showing the world whatever wonderful socks we picked for that day, one hour is more than enough. Docents are very helpful in a multitude of scenarios! We have a sort of secondary list of things that we would like to do that are close by, and we do them if we are able, but we never push it super hard if the kid is cranky or we are just running late. It’s just not worth the stress it puts everyone under. When your kid is super young (like less than a year), you can still go to museums for long periods of time or basically do anything you like because the younger ones are kind of goldfish and just along for the ride, so do all things while you can.
Manage your expectations on how much you can really accomplish. This is not to say you won’t get to do much! You will! Pay attention to everything you see as you walk to the museum or other activity, stop and let your kiddo play at parks along the way, and just enjoy your family’s company. There are some massive hidden perks to traveling with small children as well that I never knew about until we had one.
Be aware that if you are traveling with small children you might be able to skip the line.
One thing that came as a big surprise is that sometimes you get to skip the line. A lot of museums have family entrances that are not really advertised, but we have been discreetly told about them while lining up in London and in NYC, and it saved us a ton of time. It usually means you get to use the members’ entrance. We also got to cut to the front of the taxi line at LaGuardia Airport, which was a little weird, but I was not about to argue with the employee, and it was super nice. I would not say to expect this perk, but know it is out there and see if you can take advantage of it by doing a little research before you go.
Set yourself up for success by booking tickets ahead of time.
Pick your morning and afternoon activities and book them ahead if you can. Things are crazy busy these days, and you don’t want to be caught out with no ticket and sold-out signs. This is a place where an excellent concierge MAY be able to help, but you will pay a premium, and it’s best to just be prepared. Some things can’t be helped though, and forgetting to buy tickets happens. If you find yourself standing in a long line, and they are selling tickets, check to see if you can buy tickets online while you are standing in that line. If you can, just buy them and waltz right over to the ‘pre-purchased’ ticket line and save yourself a lot of time. Seriously, I have done this many times and I always feel like I am cheating somehow, but people don’t seem to get this? I find it a little odd, but it’s always worth it to check. See the other posts in this section for more information! Best wishes and bon voyage.