Travelling with kids is a privilege I have been able to undertake several times throughout my parenthood journey. Although I say that travelling with kids is a privilege, this doesn’t mean it is easy. The review of this article on travelling with kids is very fitting as I am redrafting the text at the airport, and my eldest has just turned 18. To this end, let’s look at travelling with kids the organised way through a sequential process starting with babies, small children and moving our way to teenagers.

Travelling with kids/babies

I have quite fond memories of travelling solo with my daughter when she was still a baby. We got an Ergo Baby carry bag, she fit nicely and snugly on my chest, and I still had my hands free to navigate the paperwork and security process with some luggage in tow. I remember taking a ball with me and her having a great time whilst we had a layover from Australia to Europe, simply chasing the toy and consequently being tired when we boarded again. Overall, I found travelling with kids who are very young a positive experience, especially in Asia, where mothers with children are treated extremely well with priority for check-in, boarding and extra support during the overall trip.

The hard part of travelling with kids that are very young

Clearly, there are challenges associated with travelling with kids who are still in diapers. For flights, a key consideration is feeding, access to a bathroom with a change table (e.g., bringing a bin bag), and helping them to settle. When taking off and landing on a flight, feeding the baby can be soothing and helps their ears as the pressure changes.

In terms of gear, you need nappies, wipes, bin bags and food. As at home, when babies cry, they sometimes cry for a while. I remember on the way back from Europe the stewardess kindly asking me if I could get my child to be quiet! Really, if I knew the off button I would have used it two hours ago!

Another memorable event is a nappy explosion produced by my baby in the car with my parents and brother. The three family members parked the car and ran away from the smell as I changed my daughter’s diaper in the rain, whilst wishing I had taken a full hazmat suit.

Travelling with kids who are very young

A few years later, I found myself travelling with kids as a newly minted single parent, now this is not for the faint-hearted. I underestimated the flight from Sydney to Brisbane with two small kids (4 and 7 years old), having travelled back and forth around the globe a few times with either babies and/or toddlers in tow, ‘I knew I could do this,’ or so I thought.

It became very clear within the first few minutes of the trip, as we were queuing up for our bag drop, that something wasn’t working. I found myself carrying five bags while keeping an eye on two moving and talking kids. The problem wasn’t so much the organisation of the bags, which were packed in a way that I could easily find what I was looking for. The problem was that my offspring didn’t travel like luggage themselves anymore. I was outnumbered both by the bags and my kids. It turned out that carrying a sleeping baby in a bag on your chest is easier than keeping an eye on two moving young children.

Key takeaway regarding travelling with kids - give them ownership of their stuff.

This situation had to change fast! It also required ownership and a sense of responsibility for the children, as they now needed to look after their gear. After some contemplation and research, we ended up with a bag on wheels with as many pockets as we could find. It could suit both check-in and hand luggage and can be transported independently. To help them take ownership of the bag and the contents, we packed their bags identically and named the pockets. They each had a pocket for underwear and socks, swimsuits, toiletries, a travel diary or artwork, important paperwork, and games. In the big compartment, they have sections, which meant that their shoes went on the bottom left, followed by a row of pants and shirts and on the right, they place their pyjamas. Inside, at the top of the bag, they could place their collection of teddy bears.

The transformation was amazing, the kids turned into responsible, organised and capable travellers in a few hours of this setup, and my life was a lot easier from that point onwards.

Travelling with kids - teenagers

We had the above setup for several years, which provided a good return on investment, as both wheeled bags cost $25 at the time. Once the kids reached their teenage years, they wanted autonomy over the type of bag they had and how they packed it. Not to mention that my son’s shoes almost required a semi-trailer for their sheer size.

Travelling with kids – clothing

From very early on, I gave the children choices on what clothes they wanted to take on a trip. I would then check with them on what they had chosen, and together we would check if they covered everything they needed.

Travelling with kids who are older – autonomy is the word

At the time of writing, I am nearing the end of my intensive parenting period while we travel the world with our 18- and 15-year-olds. Before we set out on this world trip, we sought quality, and the bag had to last a year of intensive travel, spanning months on end across various locations and climates.

Both kids could choose what type of bag they wanted to travel with; both chose a bag that could be used as a backpack or a single-hand carry. One Osprey and one North Face bag, they both didn’t want wheels. My husband and I chose two-wheeled Osprey packs, which can be used as backpacks if needed. As earlier in our lives when we did travelling with kids, they are both responsible for their own backpack, as are we, the adults.

Since we are travelling with kids as a family for so long, we also got two Patagonia bags which can have overflow in terms of weight or size of gear that is not required at the location we travel to. These extra bags also allow us to pick and choose deliberately which bags get checked in and which can be made very light for onboard luggage. In these two-family bags, we all have our own colour of packing cube in which we can store our overflow.

As we have all matured, we also started to look more at quality and what we got out of our travel gear. During this trip, we often replaced items with better quality ones. For example, our family suitcase broke after three months of travel and was replaced by a Patagonia bag. A large hoodie was also replaced by a much better and smaller one. We all have some unbound Merino clothing, which reduces our laundry to ¼ of normal clothing.

As a family travelling with kids, we allow for individual preference, some of us want back-up towels, whereas the boys don’t mind using towels from our accommodation (which my daughter and I don’t always think are that clean). There isn’t a perfect way of travelling with kids and being organised, it depends on where you go, how long you are away, what climates you are exposed to and your familie’s need for creature comforts in terms of clothes, gear and quality.

In recent months (at the time of writing, we are 6 months, 14 flights, 25 Airbnb’s, and three countries in), I found that travelling with kids for a year as a family doesn’t suit the video genre of “look at me, I only travel with carry-on”. Each airline provider has different weight requirements and allowances. We have different needs when standing at the Glaciers in Argentina than we do on the beach in Costa Rica (tropical holidays will always require less gear, excluding your surfboard).

If you are about to go travelling with kids, as long as you think about how you organise yourself and your offspring and test if your set-up works for your family, you are miles ahead. You don’t have to have everything perfect and can tweak your systems when travelling with kids, as your needs and wants change.