Planning a Trip with Kids

I’ve always wanted to visit London. To be fair, I had been to their airport twice, but that is not really visiting. It is sitting, and honestly, one time I was delayed there for 8 hours, so the memories were not great ones.

Since I travel for work, I am lucky enough to have air miles stacked up, and I used the points to take my husband and two boys to London for Spring Break. No surprise, London lived up to my every expectation.

Partially because I had altered my own expectations. Not that London isn’t fabulous, but when you take kids, tweens or teens on a big trip, you can start to have an expectation in your mind about what will excite them.

An older, wiser friend told me to think of this as my trip and that the kids are just along for the ride. Basically, she told me to plan it the way I want it to be and add in any requests along the way.

This was the best advice.

Kid’s don’t always care, and asking them a hundred times expecting an answer frustrates them and frustrates me. My husband was happy to go along with whatever I planned.

My mom ended up coming along at the last minute as well, so she was happy everything was mapped out.

We discussed “must-dos”. Daniel wanted to see Stonehenge and Grandma really wanted to go to Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey). These were longer day trips out of town so took some planning, but it was easy enough to do.

We also went to Abbey Road to honor my Dad.

The boys have repeatedly told me they had a great time. Yet, most of this trip was planned to my tastes and not theirs. I did not overthink what they would like. I tried to hit the high points without asking them a hundred times what they wanted to do in a city they had never visited.

Moral of the story: Parents, plan your own trip, your kids will enjoy it!