7 TIPS TO HAVE A SAFE AND SMOOTH FAMILY TRIP

Family Trip

7 TIPS TO HAVE A SAFE AND SMOOTH TRIP WITH YOUR FAMILY

Taking out time to travel with family is one of the best things to do. Apart from being a learning and fun experience, you make great memories. If you and your spouse are travel buffs, you don’t have to stop once you have kids. Whether it is your first trip with your child or the first after having a second one, the idea of traveling with children is pretty daunting, to say the least. Having toddlers already keeps you on your toes but with teenagers, you have tons of other things to take care of.

There is so much planning to do and items to tick off the checklist when thinking about a family trip. And if you have teenagers with you, you cannot bound them to yourself 24/7. They would want to explore and go sight-seeing on their own. Meet people and make some friends even. Now there is nothing wrong with that but, there are all kinds of people out there. In a new place, it kind of becomes difficult to know where your teen is at all times. So, this makes it compulsory to have a GPS tracking device or even better, Xnspy phone monitoring app at hand to make sure that kids do not get carried away with the excitement of the trip. It is important to take such safety measures to keep oneself and one’s children safe from an unfortunate incident.

From what to pack, what to leave and how to get there, there are tons of things to take care of. But, traveling with children doesn’t have to be such a problem. While planning a trip with your children, it is essential to remember that you can do this easily and will survive.

Family Trip Tips

If you follow these tips, from planning until reaching the destination, it is going to be a smooth ride.

Let’s start.

Family Trip

1. Take One Thing at a Time

Rather than overwhelming yourself, it is important that you take things slow. At first, you only had to do things for yourself or some for your spouse. Now that the kids are dependent on you, you have to go with the flow and take one thing at a time. For instance, you were used to doing things at the last minute and make use of all the shortcuts but now with having young ones in tow, let everyone rush around you and enjoy that. There is nothing wrong in planning but see that you don’t overdo it. You do want your children to have fun but you cannot plan everything. Rather than booking all the activities for them to do, write them down and then see about them when you reach there.

2.Selecting a Hotel for a Family Trip

You can select a hotel or even vacation rentals. Yes, hotels have a number of benefits such as meals, room service, and even babysitting facilities, but vacation rentals are more comfortable, not to mention homey. You cannot feed junk food to your child all through the vacation, right? You can prepare your own meals at these rentals and could surely come in handy if your child is a picky eater. It’s a personal choice but definitely worth considering.

Also, if you go to a hotel you have stayed in before, think long and hard again. You might have loved it before as there was less luggage and it was just you and your partner. What was a dreamland for you could easily manifest into a disastrous nightmare if you have children with you? Pay attention to things like, were there a lot of steps; were there enough rooms; were they up a steep hill? Because what was immensely romantic for you, might not be the same with children along.

3. Be Careful while Planning your Flights for a Family Trip

If you have to take flights, then plan them around bedtime. We all know what a blessing a sleeping child is in flights. Evening flights are costlier but they would be convenient for you. And in case you have to make a connecting flight, see that you have a lot of time on your hands. You wouldn’t want to rush through an unfamiliar airport with kids at your heels.

Try to make the journey a memorable and important part of your trip. Give yourself some relaxation as well. Stretch legs, walk around, eat, and get ready for the next flight. You would want to lessen the time you have to wait in line but you wouldn’t want to rush either. Make sure that you leave home with hours to spare and if you reach the airport earlier than expected, make use of the play area. The children will play to their heart’s content and then get exhausted. The more energy they spend on the ground, the better. They wouldn’t have much left to use up in the air.

Also, if you really want to save some money and get the cheapest fare then book about 50 days in advance.

Family Trip

4.Branding and Tracking

Excited children are hard to handle. Even if you assign an older sibling to go with them, kids need supervision. If you are traveling in a group with relatives and families, it is important to monitor your children. You could get tags with their name and your contact number. This is for emergencies. Also, if they are accompanied by older siblings, then consider installing Xnspy on their phones. The app’s GPS location tracking feature works great. This way, you can know exactly where they are all the time.

Teenagers need monitoring as well. And that too, for their own good. Xnspy allows you to track your children in various ways. For instance, if they have decided to do a group activity or thought to go somewhere with the other kids they met on the trip, and you have reason to believe that they might talk about inappropriate things or discuss something your child is not old enough to know, you could make use of the ambient recording feature to listen in on the surrounding voices. You never know the seemingly lovely couple or family you met on the trip could be making your child uncomfortable. Staying informed whether you are at home or on vacation, is definitely worth it.

Plus, Xnspy comes with a geofencing feature. If you have decided to call it a day and the children want to see some places, you can see their activities while sitting in the comforts of your hotel room. Xnspy has a Watchlist feature as well that allows you to add certain locations and words in it so you get automatic alerts whenever the said place is exited and entered. Xnspy is not only a GPS tracking device. It comes with an extensive variety of monitoring feature that lets you keep an eye on your children’s activities. The app is an ideal solution to monitor your children’s online and offline activities from a distance.

Along with that, it could be quite beneficial for you in case your child loses his/her phone. There are tons of personal information and other sensitive data on phones. You can remotely lock the device if you think you might not be able to retrieve it. Xnspy also allows you to wipe the device clean and clear all data on it. This could save your child’s information from getting into the wrong hands.

5.Sea or Pool on your Family Trip? Which to go for?

If you plan to stay nearby a beach, even then you might want to get a place with a pool. Many children love to be close to the sea but at the same time, many are not. Having a resurface pool deck with pavers is perfect for your little ones to have fun and splash around safely. it is much better to get them cooled and then exhausted in a pool rather than the sea which is not particularly safe for little ones.

6.The Explaining of the Journey

You will have to deal with the question of “are we there yet?” a dozen times during the journey. So, if your child hasn’t traveled before, then talk to them. Tell them where they are going and what is going to happen. Most children get excited about the idea of traveling so encourage them. Traveling with them no less of an adventure either!

7.Planning for any unforeseen circumstances

Make a list of whatever you think could possibly go wrong, Write everything that could go wrong. It can be anything from missing your flight to your child’s complete meltdown right before going to the airport. Then, write about how you would deal with the issue. Making scenarios in your head and then coming up with a possible solution actually helps you in getting mentally prepared.

As far as monitoring and tracking of your children’s activities are concerned, you can share the responsibility with your partner. As the app lets you monitor the activities of one device at a time, you and your spouse could both get Xnspy to monitor your teenagers if you have more than two. It comes in handy and saves you from a lot of hassle and trouble in the future by letting you intervene just at the right time.

In the end, try to stay as calm as you can. Easier said than done. But even if your child chooses the worst time to throw a fit, take a deep breath and keep calm. Last but not least, give yourself a break and don’t keep fretting. Take some time out to enjoy and make the trip memorable as well.

Bon Voyage!