Ever since I was a little kid I have wanted to see the world. Not just some of it...all of it! My parents were very good about making sure that my two brothers, my sister and I saw much of our own country - the United States. Our family trips consisted of National Parks and beaches all over this fair land. As I grew however, my tastes yearned to explore beyond my own country. Eventually I made my way over much of Europe, Mexico, and Canada. A few years ago I got married and started traveling with my wife. Nothing is better than seeing the world with someone you love. And now, we have a son. Our goal is to make him one of the most well traveled kids in the world. In his first 20 months he has been to New England twice, Hawaii, the Pacific NW, and most recently the United Kingdom. Future country pages of mine in VT will focus on travelling with young children. It is challenging, but there are rewards that you will never have had otherwise, and it is well worth it.
Here are my rules of thumb for travelling:
1. Take Time!
Never rush through a place dashing to the next big city, site, or photo opportunity. Take time to really get to know the area. Meet the people. Eat the local food. You will be much rewarded for doing so. Instead of trying to see all of the paintings or other masterpieces in a museum, plan on seeing only 6-7 items that you can really focus on. Never act like this is the only time you will ever visit the place you are in so you have to see everything. If you do that, you will more than likely miss the most important things. Always know that you are going to be coming back someday. If travel is a high priority in your life that will always be true.
2. Be positive!
Negative attitudes are a drain on you and everyone you travel with. You are bound to get tired, and there will no doubt be plenty of times where you will be tempted to complain. But do not do this! Treat each challenge as an opportunity. A raindrop is simply a way to see a place in a different light. Having your pockets picked should not be the end of the trip. Instead you have met the locals :) Get it? Positive attitudes get you everywhere, negative attitudes - nowhere fast.
Let me also say this (although you will be able to figure this about by reading through my pages), I am a born optimist. Even though I know there are negative things about certain locations, I have a hard time seeing it. Unless it is blatantly bad I won't express it because I have probably already forgotten anything less so. When you read through my pages you will notice how much I "Love" things and how much each place "Amazes" me. That is simply because I do love these places and they do amaze me. If you want more negative opinions you will have to go somewhere else. The good news here is that if I am negative about something, you can take it to the bank.
3. See the sites near your home!
Make sure you are not one of the poor souls who never appreciate the sites right in their own backyard. No matter where I go I meet locals who have never seen what I have traveled so long to their homeland to see myself. It is very tempting to stay a homebody when at home. We don't have the same drive to go and see the sites as we do when we are travelling. But force yourself to do just that and you will be rewarded. If you live in Philadelphia, spend a day in Valley Forge. Do you call Ohio home? If so, go see the Hopewell Indian Mounds. Get out of the malls and shopping centers. Go and see what others around the world are coming to your homeland to see.
4. Don't stop traveling when you have children!
Here are some general packing tips for travelling with very young children:
>Diapers - pack only what you need for the flight to your destination and the first day there. Once on the ground buy just enough to get you home. Diapers are bulky and it pays off to not have too many stuffed into you bags.
>Diaper Bag - Fill it up and treat it as a carry-on item. If there is extra space in the bag you can use it for items other than what would normally go in there, or for souvenirs on the return trip.
>Crib - We have traveled many times with a crib, and it is surprisingly easy. However, I would generally recommend that you use the hotel or B&B's crib if available. Having one less large thing to haul around is a good thing.
>Car Seat - Traveling with a car seat is very easy. Just bring it with you to the ticket counter when you check in for your flight, and check it in as luggage. They will wrap it in a big plastic bag for you (If they don't ask them to do so). Make sure you tag the car seat with your contact information. For trips where we have the rental car for the entire length of the trip I bring my own car seat. For trips where I am only using the rental car part of the time I opt for the car seat from the rental car company. Typically car seats rent for $5-$8 per day. So if you rent your car for a week you have paid for a new car seat in essence. If however you spend several days in the city depending on the metro and do not need a car seat, it may be worth paying the extra cost rather than lugging your own through the town.
>Stroller - The first time we traveled with our very young son we were unsure what to do with the stroller. We opted to bring the small collapsible stroller as checked-in luggage rather than using our bigger stroller. We were wrong on that count. With a stroller there is no need to check it in at the counter. Keep your child in the stroller at the airport (other than at the security gates where they will have to be removed). When you are called to board the plane simply stroll (literally) down the tarmac and just before getting on the plane, gate check the stroller. Make sure you get a receipt that matches a tag that will go on the stroller. When you de-board your stroller will be waiting for you immediately when you get off the plane. Knowing all this we figured out that the bigger stroller was the way to go. It had plenty of compartment space that allowed us to stow our bags while we walked around. Depending which cities you are in strollers may or may not be easy to work with. Some metro systems have very good stroller accessibility with elevators. Others (like London's tube) have very little to help you get around with a stroller. In these cases, use an infant-carrier backpack, or just go for broke and slowly navigate the stairs with the stroller. It is a workout to be sure - but it is worth it. Almost always someone will offer to help you lift the stroller up or down the stairs.
>General - If you can manage it, travel with friends - whether they have kids or not themselves. An extra pair of understanding hands always helps. Plus, if both couples have kids, they can trade off in the evenings watching the kids so that the other couple can take in a show or go to a nice restaurant.
The best tip that I can offer for traveling with children is - just do it (Stealing a line from a famous shoe marketer). Is it challenging? Yes. Is it hard at times? Yes. But it is more rewarding that you can imagine. It forces you to slow down and smell the roses. You will meet more people that you can ever imagine! They come right up to you - to meet the children. Don't be afraid of trying it.
5. Go local!
Okay, there are always going to be times where you are just going to look and act like a tourist. That is what you are. However, as much as possible you should go local. Eat where the local people eat and what they eat. Shop where the locals shop. By all means, try to speak the language as much as possible. Don't worry about botching it up. The locals will appreciate any attempt. As the old saying goes, "when in Rome, do what the Romans do". It is not always easy trying to figure out how to do this, but that is why websites like VT are there. You can always find someone who lives where you are going, and who is willing to advise you on how to be a local. Again, I don't think you need to go overboard here. By all means go out and see the sites, pull out your cameras, snap some shots, and guffaw like everyone else.
6. Let your hair down!
You're on vacation. Don't be so concerned about wrinkles in the clothes, or mussed up hair. Of course, I'm not suggesting that you should be a slob. And there are times when dress and appearance is very important. But for the most part you should leave the concerns of life at home and enjoy the present.
7. Pack light!
You will appreciate this tip no matter where you are going. Plan on visiting the Laundromat rather than packing enough clothes for the entire trip.
8. Show respect!
You are a guest in their home, not the other way around. Don't expect everyone to speak your language. I am talking to all you Americans here! Remember we are all God's children, and everyone deserves to be treated as such. There are plenty of jerks out there, and you are bound to run into a few in your travels. Just make sure you don't become one yourself. Be the diplomat and the lover.
9. Plan ahead!
Okay, I know that some of you really get a kick out of going to a place with no plans at all, just leaving fate to the wind (you SP types). And I think that is great. There are plenty of times where I like to do that as well. However since I now have a family planning has become very important to staying in the travel world. Planning for your trip is a lot of fun. Get out onto the local websites and figure out what you want to see. Read up on the history and culture. Mark your routes. Again, there are times when not planning can be lots of fun, and certainly you can always over plan. But for the most part, planning for your trip will save you time, money, and headaches.
10. Plan to travel!
You've heard it before, and it is true - "fail to plan, and you plan to fail". In the case of travel the failure is that you will not travel as often as you would like. So many of my friends are amazed at how much my wife and I travel. They cannot begin to understand how we get the time or money to make the trips. Some of our friends think we make way more money than we do because of the amount that we do travel. The truth is that you don't need to make a lot of money or even have a ton of vacation days to travel. Planning makes all the difference. One activity that I would encourage everyone to do is write out a list of all the places that you want to see before you drop dead. For some of you the list may be only a few places. For others, such as myself, the list was quite large. After making the list prioritize it. Rank them in the order in which you would like to see them. I did this same activity a few years ago and came to the sobering realization that life was way too short. In order to see all the sites I now knew that I was going to have to make one big trip every two years and one smaller trip on the opposite years. That being the case I knew that I was going to have to start a regular travel savings fund where a little bit of money would be added every paycheck. By taking the average price of a yearly trip and dividing by 52 I figured out exactly how much I needed to apply to the travel savings every week. Once I started doing this, travel became automatic. There was never a question of how I would pay for a trip. And more importantly, I now had a plan to see all of the places that I wanted to go. I saw how I could return again and again to the places that I love the most without trying to see it all in one whirlwind trip. That is planning. There is no magic to it. And I highly advise anyone that values travel as much as I do to do the same thing.
Let's explore the world!
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