Our greatest loves in life are the mountains, the desert, and travel. Oftentimes, that travel is on the road, but we try to do a bigger international trip every other year.
In our framework for navigating parenting, we decided West will always have the outdoors, books, music, and travel. There is so much noise around parenting and this has helped us to center around what we think is most important.
But that doesn’t mean we haven’t been daunted by traveling, especially internationally with a little kid!
Most recently we spent two weeks traveling through Spain and France. Per usual, I spent the month leading up to the trip trying to plan everything that would be required to successfully enjoy Europe with a four year old in tow.
I schemed plane toys, snacks, outfits, floaties for the pool, activities that might be enjoyed by all.
It often turns out that all my planning and worrying is for naught. It all goes so much easier than I usually think it will.
We have traveled internationally with West at one, two, and four years old and it has always been amazing. In fact, our trip to the Dolomites with West when he was two may have been my favorite trip of all time. West is lit up, engaged, and interested almost everywhere we go. His enthusiasm for the novelty of travel matches ours.
It doesn’t hurt though to have a few tips heading into one of these big adventures. Here is what we have learned.
Long haul plane rides are never as bad as you think they will be-pack the toys and the snacks.
It doesn’t pay to sweat the long-haul plane ride, but believe me I have. First of all, they always come to an end and when they do, you are on an adventure somewhere neat!
Any time we have landed traveling with West, I always think it wasn’t that bad. The toys we recommend for road trips are also our go-tos for the plane.
We throw out all our screen rules on the plane and let West watch as many movies as he desires. On this trip, he watched an entire movie in French. Go figure!
I always overpack snacks but cheese, hardy fruit, crackers, nut butter, and a fun treat always make the trip with us.
The post plane ride nap to combat jet lag is clutch.
In our ideal scenario, if we land in the morning or early afternoon, we try to all take one short nap and then immediately sync to our new schedule. West has pretty much been unfazed by jet lag so far, but we did learn a lesson in Munich when we tried to stay up after landing. We pretty much all ended up crying in a lovely square.
A little kid’s idea of culture is not the same as yours.
In Barcelona, in one of their prettiest squares, Greg and I enjoyed the old majestic buildings and West enjoyed…the trash truck.
We once made the mistake of going into the Doge’s Palace in Venice when West was two – the entire time he whined about wanting to leave. We tend to forgo art museums these days as a result, BUT we did go to the underground Roman city in Barcelona and we all were fascinated. Greg and I loved the ruins and West was fascinated by the fact that we were under the street.
The point is to find a selling point for everyone.
Don’t fret if your kid will only eat cheese and grapes in Italy.
West has pretty much survived on cheese, bread, and grapes on all our international trips. In Italy, this horrified me. He doesn’t eat much, but he does eat pasta and here we were surrounded by the best pasta in the world and he wouldn’t touch it.
On our most recent trip, I let go of the idea that he would try the local food. I encouraged him but accepted it when he didn’t. On vacation, I don’t want to fret about expanding his diet so we packed cheese and grapes everywhere we went … we were at peace.
You can’t orchestrate the best travel moments. They just happen.
My favorite memory of Spain is running through the charming, medieval streets of Giorna, where West had taken over as tour guide and chose whether we would go right, left, or straight. We explored with no agenda and made turns we never would have without West at the helm.
Also, if you ever find yourself in Barcelona, don’t miss nearby Girona. It’s a gem.
Bribe with gelato.
I told West our mission on our most recent trip was to find the best gelato/ice cream place every day. Then I researched things I wanted to see or do and found the best gelato place near the destination.
West was motivated by the gelato. I was motivated by medieval splendor.
