10 tips for traveling abroad with children, according to parents who took their toddlers during 10 international trips

International trips are often delivered with connection flights, which means that there are multiple opportunities for delays and cancellations. Thus, the loyalty of airlines can make a huge difference in the way the carrier is honorable when things go wrong.

Granger and Boyd learned this during a trip to Greece when Kynsley was 2 years old. They reserved with Delta, an airline where they had built a reward status. What should have been a two -flight day trip has become a three -day trip to three days.

Their first flight was delayed, forcing them to take an additional connection at the national level to arrive on the same day. Then, their international flight to Greece was canceled, so they were stuck overnight in New York.

Granger recapitulated all his trip with a manager. “Please show more courtesy or sympathy for the travel plan,” she recalls.

She said Delta then improved their group in first class for their round-trip flight to Greece.

“We had spent so much money and accumulated so many points with Delta that we were able to use it as a guarantee in this situation,” said Boyd. “They helped us all because of the status we had at the time.”

Granger said that it was important to make sure you understand all the passport and visa documents your child needs to enter or leave the country where you travel, especially if your child flies with another adult during your trip.

According to the US government, many countries need a letter of consent when they travel without both parents.

“Kynsley traveled with us in South Africa, and on the way back, she came home with my mother and father,” said Granger. “There were so many documents that she rightly needed to leave the country with her grandparents. I read a lot of stories about the people who stood by having these documents.”

International destinations may lack some house comforts to which babies and toddlers are used to, then Granger and Boyd suggest finding ways to bring these comforts.

For example, when Kynsley was a baby, Boyd said that she had slept with a noise machine that played ocean and wind sounds.

“We have traveled with the Broisemaker so that we can create the environment at home wherever we went,” said Boyd. “And we turned it to 10.”

Granger said they would explode the sound machine at the front of his door during international trips.

“Even if at home, it was below, I knew that all the noise was happening outside, whether we or friends or a family with whom we were traveling, did not distract it if it heard the sound that comforts it,” said Granger.

Granger and Boyd brought a cheap folding stroller on their trip to Greece because they thought it would be easier to travel with a robust stroller. But once they started doing it on the paved roads of Athens, they regretted it.

“It is a very old and beautiful place, but our cheap stroller could not resist the paved,” said Boyd.

Their stroller broke and they had to buy a new one in Greece. Thus, the couple advises to look at the field of your destination and find a stroller that can manage it.

“Don’t sacrifice on the stroller,” said Granger. “Having something super robust but also very small could be worth the investment.”

Granger and Boyd recommend the Guava-hack Because it is compact, foldable and robust on all terrains.

When she goes to another country with Kynsley, Granger said she wraps a first aid kit with “each optional optional option”, from cough and cold to allergies.

“She rarely needs it, but there is always something that appears when we are in another country and I am not positive about their equivalent for something like Benadryl, for example,” said Granger. “So, instead of rushing, I just have my whole tool kit on me.”

Granger noted that his medicine bag is often pulled on the side of the TSA control points, so it takes more time to spend security.

“But these hassles are much less than the stress that you could be international, where you do not have the right tools for your baby’s disease at 4 am,” she added.

If you forget or miss medicine or your child has an unexpected health problem, you will want to be prepared. Granger therefore advises the search for clinics and pharmacies in the region in case.

She added that many hotels have childcare services. For example, Kynsley and Boyd had sunburn at Abu Dhabi, and they had a pharmacist delivered at midnight.

You might be tempted to make a bus visit to obtain a configuration of the land in a foreign country. Granger and Boyd did it with Kynsley, but they regretted it. During these tours, Granger said Kynsley just wanted to move, not sitting.

“I think the children are simply too impartial to spend hours on a bus when they heard someone talking above the speaker, explaining what is happening through the window,” she said. “I think there must be more options for commitment.”

When the family went to Greece, Granger wanted to launch the trip with a gastronomic tour. Boyd and Kynsley joined for 10 minutes before returning to the hotel.

For what? A high volume of traffic on the paved streets, from bicycle and moped cars, made them dangerous with their 2 -year -old child in a stroller.

“They took us to hole in the walls to try local food, and it was simply uncomfortable with the mopeds who go,” said Granger. “When you think of the traffic situation, it becomes more difficult when a baby is too small and cannot work, and with a small child.”

When Kynsley was a baby, Granger and Boyd avoided public transport because the filming of luggage with a baby is difficult, as is the changes in diapers when trying to take a train. Now that Kynsley is 3.5 years old, they started doing so in places like Europe, where they have found clean and effective trains.

They said Kynsley considered the train to be another activity and liked to look by the windows and go up and down the cars.

“My advice n ° 1 to travel with a child on a train is to avoid rush hour,” said Granger. “So the middle of the day, between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., is the ideal moment to take the train with the child. But other than that, avoid it.”

Communication can be difficult in foreign countries where you do not speak language. And when you travel with a child, there may be urgent situations where you need to get information immediately, like where the bathroom is. Granger recommends downloading Google Translate.

“Most of the time, Google Translate is the way we learn to speak another language-very well, not the way people really speak, but I think they generally get the essentials and will lead me in the right direction,” she said.

Granger said that being patient and considerate is important when you ask for help.

“You have to find someone who seems open to have this conversation because people just appreciate their regular days of their lives, not on vacation like you,” she said.

Before traveling, Granger also learns basic words like “toilets” and “pharmacy” to facilitate communication.