Family Trips That Don’t Leave Anyone Exhausted

Anyone who has travelled with young children knows the particular exhaustion of a holiday that was meant to be relaxing. Somewhere between the meltdown at the airport and the fifth trip to the same playground, the idea of a restful family break can start to feel like a myth. It isn’t, but it does need a different approach to the sort of trip you might plan for just yourself.

Fewer locations, more time in each

The single biggest change that helps is cutting down on movement. A trip that hops between three destinations in a week sounds efficient on paper, but with kids in tow the packing, unpacking and travel time eats into any actual downtime. Staying in one base and taking day trips from there tends to work far better, and everyone gets to unpack properly instead of living out of a suitcase.

It’s tempting to think more locations means more value from the trip, but the opposite is usually true with children. They tend to remember the details of a place they had time to settle into, the same beach visited three days running, the cafe they went back to twice, far more than a rushed list of different towns.

Build the day around their nap or energy patterns

Rather than fighting a toddler’s schedule, it’s easier to plan around it. Do the big activity in the morning when everyone’s fresh, keep the early afternoon low key or built around rest, and save something fun for the early evening. Parents who ignore this and try to power through a full day of sightseeing usually end up carrying a crying child back to the hotel by four o’clock.

This same logic applies to older children too, even once naps are long gone. Energy dips happen at predictable points in the day, and building in a proper break rather than pushing through it tends to save everyone from the kind of meltdown that ruins an otherwise good afternoon.

Let older kids have some say

With school age children, involving them in a bit of the planning changes their whole attitude to the trip. Let them pick one activity or one meal out during the holiday, even if it’s not what you’d have chosen. That small sense of ownership tends to reduce the complaining considerably, and it’s a good way to find out what they’re actually interested in rather than what you assume they’ll enjoy.

It’s a small thing, but giving children a genuine say, rather than just asking them to approve a decision you’ve already made, tends to turn passengers into willing participants for the rest of the trip.

You might also enjoy our guide to Things to Do in Cambridge if you are still planning your itinerary.

If you enjoyed this, our guide to Things to Do in Paris is well worth a read too.