Planning an International Trip with Kids, How Do I Make This Happen?

So we've touched upon the mental preparation of choosing to travel internationally with kids, sharing some ways in which travel has a positive impact on young minds, and now we are ready to dive into the nuts and bolts of planning. This is one of my favorite parts!

As an A-type personality, researching and making lists turns me into a giddy child, and that's what this next step in our international travel planning process is all about. Are you ready to figure out where to go, how to find transportation and accommodation, and figure out what you'll do when you get there? Here's step two!

Planning an International Trip with Kids, Three Part Series

Take the Leap!   |   How Do I Make This Happen?   |   Don't Pack the Kitchen Sink

Planning an International Trip with Kids, Take the Leap

For those who have never traveled internationally with their children, the thought alone can be sweat-inducing. Some days, it seems like you can hardly manage a grocery store trip without losing every last shred of dignity and sanity, let alone dragging them across borders and into cultures, languages, and landscapes completely foreign to you.

But as the mama of three kids under the age of four, I'm here to tell you that it can be done. You can not only survive traveling internationally with your kids, but you can thrive! And they will, too.

What follows is part one of three steps on how I encourage others to travel internationally with their kids and walk through our methods for preparing mentally, deciding upon the destination, and packing light but smart.

Planning an International Trip with Kids, Three Part Series

Take the Leap!   |   How Do I Make This Happen?   |   Don't Pack the Kitchen Sink

Beaching with Babies

I rarely went to the beach as a child.

My mother disliked sand, and with six children, an excursion to the beach more closely resembled an invasion of enemy territory than a joyful, memory-making opportunity. Because of that, as soon as I became mobile (read: drivers license + car), I made beaching my job whenever I wasn't actually, you know, at my job. Day trips, weekend trips, corn hole on the sand, day-drinking, wave jumping, body surfing, driving on the beach in a jacked up pick-up truck, raising the Jolly Roger high to the croons of Jimmy Buffett - these are all essential parts of the American beach experience!