This is of course the first step in organizing your trip, finding the destination where you want to go with your family:
Want to go on vacation in the sun in the south and enjoy a moment of relaxation on the beaches?
Want to cultural exploration, to discover new cultures and traditions, age-old civilizations with your family?
Need to go green, to recharge your batteries with your family far from the noise and urban hassle… Parents and children reconnect with planet Earth and nature, favor natural spaces, hiking with the discovery of landscapes, flora and wildlife?
Do you rather want a getaway, a family city trip in key cities and capitals such as Paris , London , Barcelona , Rome ,
Do you want a vacation in France, Europe or do you want distant destinations?
do you want a fixed stay or a family road trip? You can choose to stay at the same place. This makes it possible to rest with the family, to get to know the locals more easily, to soak up the daily life of people during the holidays. Others are more “backpacked” and live their family EireTrip Travel Blog in adventure and active mode.15 ideal family holiday destinations in France
Find all our top family destinations
Once you have an idea of your destination, all you have to do is ask yourself questions to check that it is suitable.
1) Is it the right season to go on a trip to certain countries?
You can travel everywhere but not just anytime. The season can dictate your family travel destination. You have to take the climate into account. Too bad to visit India during the monsoon, cook in Australia and freeze in Mongolia!
In addition, if you are traveling with baby, some regions are rather to be avoided due to excessive heat or very low temperatures. You can always go to Lapland in winter but with baby your outings will be limited. It is better to leave when your child is older to take full advantage of this type of trip.
To choose your family travel destination, you must also take into account the age of the children: you cannot travel everywhere with a baby or toddlers. Health constraints must be taken into account. Some travel destinations require vaccines that cannot be administered to infants: this should be discussed with your GP.
Finally, the political situation of a country should not be neglected. The world is yours but not everywhere! It is better to find out about the political unrest that may agitate certain countries before leaving with the children. You can consult the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, diplomatie.gouv.fr . Advice sheets are available for each destination.
Know that parents who travel the world with children are most often welcomed with open arms. Traveling with baby and child promotes exchanges!
3) Travel and children: managing jet lag
A constraint not to be overlooked when traveling with children is jet lag. If the time lag is significant, it is necessary to allow time for adaptation to the outward and return journey. In principle, two or three days are necessary for the children to regain their rhythm. If you plan to leave for a week, the children and yourself will hardly have time to enjoy it. It is better to plan a destination not too far away for a short stay.
2. Plan your route
Here is! The destination of your next trip with baby and/or child is finally found. Now, we will have to roll up our sleeves to prepare for your family stay. It’s both a moment of pleasure, you project yourself into the trip with your children but also a real headache to develop an itinerary that holds up if you have chosen to go on a road trip.
Over the years, we have honed our technique for organizing our routes. We organize the holidays in broad outline but without forgetting the details: it may be necessary to have a fairly precise program if we need to make reservations.
1) Make a list of things you want to do with your children
First make a list of visits, activities, walks, tourist sites, cities where you want to go with your children. You can of course help yourself with our guides indicating the essential things to do with the family, such as: Italy with the family , Spain with the family , Croatia with the family.
You can complete your information with a paper guide, such as Routard or Lonely planet
2) Locate places to visit on google map
family travel organization
Now that you have an (open) list of tourist places that you want to visit with children, you have to locate them on a detailed paper map or on Google map and group them by geographical area.
On an Excel file, we note the different sites by classifying them according to these geographical areas.
3) Plan your stay or itinerary day by day
Last step, plan your stay or family travel itinerary day by day. We use Excel on which we report the dates of our trip. We decide on the direction of our circuit and we pick up, region by region, the tourist sites that we want to see.
We take into account the distances, the travel time between the sites to plan our trips, which we often do in the afternoon or at the end of the afternoon so that the children can rest while we ride. We also add the cost of the visits, which makes it possible to make an estimate of the budget.
All this takes a long time! Good news, you can find on our blog-mag all our circuits refined by dad traveler for hours. You have both ideas for road trips and city trips. Here are some of them with the budget for a lot of them, the detailed days with visits and activities, where to sleep:
Find all our itineraries on the following page: family tours
All that remains is to fine-tune the itinerary, make the necessary reservations and plan your family trip.
3. Book your plane ticket
Your circuit is set, you know your vacation dates. All that remains is to finalize the organization of your family trip, make reservations for your tickets. Starting with your plane ticket if you are going to a distant destination.
To find the best prices without spending hours, the most practical way is to use a flight comparator from all the airlines. You will also get the best rates by booking 6 months in advance for long hauls, a little less for shorter journeys
We advise you to use Skyscanner, the most powerful tool and the easiest to use. You can use the search form directly below to find your ticket
4. Book your family accommodation
Organizing your trip goes through the accommodation booking phase. We are not adept at booking on site at the last moment: after a day of sightseeing, we don’t really want to waste time looking for accommodation, especially after a day full of visits and activities, so tiring, especially with children.
Bangalore, where you can easily get around with comfortable Bangalore cab services and explore the city’s unique attractions? Whatever your travel preferences, it’s important to choose the right destination that suits the interests and needs of your family to ensure a memorable and enjoyable vacation.
In addition, booking in advance allows us to compare prices, find the cheapest, identify the accommodation best placed in relation to the tourist sites we want to visit, see if there is public transport proximity to move us around town without taking our vehicle.
If you prefer backpakers mode, we advise you to book your 1st and last night of your vacation: the plane trip, especially if it is long with jet lag, can be tiring and require a few hours of good recuperative sleep .
Good to know, some destinations are very touristic at certain times of the year: if you want to be sure to sleep in a bed, it is better to book in advance.
To make our accommodation reservations, we have been using Booking.com for years , for us the best comparator with the widest selection of accommodation worldwide and the cheapest rates.
There is a wide variety of accommodation, from hotels to youth hostels, campsites, riads, lodges, apartment rentals, B&Bs, etc. The vast majority of hotels offer the free cancellation option. For families, you can check practical options in the filters such as “family room”, “Establishment suitable for families” or even at the top of the results “Selections for families”.
The very nice bonus with Booking.com is that you benefit from a loyalty program allowing you to benefit from reductions.
To make it easier for you to prepare for your family trip, find our selections of hotels and accommodation suitable for babies and children on the pages below:
Hotels and family accommodation: guide and selection
Family camping; selections and holiday guide
Unusual family night
You can also use the search form directly below to find your accommodation:
5. Rent a car
If you have planned to prepare a road-trip, we advise you to rent a car on site: the advantage, especially with children, is that you can stop where you want and it will be easier to transport a stroller or /and travel cot.
We recommend the Rentalcars comparator , very present in the world with the cheapest rates and allowing you to compare many rental companies, such as Avis, Hertz, Europcar, Sixt but also local service providers.
This comparator offers options like:
unlimited mileage
the 2nd driver
comprehensive protection insurance.
You are entitled to free modification or cancellation of your rental.
Good to know, in some countries, you will need an international driving license and you will have to present your rental company with a credit card on which is mentioned “credit”.
6. Book your tours, activities and excursions
We have seen almost all the steps to organize your family trip. It remains to facilitate your daily life on site, book your excursions, activities and visits.
Some outings and activities require advance reservations. Entrances to certain tourist sites such as museums and archaeological sites are very busy. To avoid wasting time in queues, we always book our tickets in advance. We also look when we do a city trip, if it is interesting to take a pass card.
Good to know, you don’t pay more by buying a ticket in advance and, sometimes, by booking in advance online, you pay less for the ticket.
We use these 2 official online ticket booking sites a lot:
getyourguide
7. Traveling with suitable mobile equipment for babies, children and parents
Leaving with baby and child also requires organization for nomadic equipment. As traveling parents, we have accumulated a lot of experience to select the most suitable travel equipment for you. We always try to choose light, compact, durable and environmentally friendly products. Find some selections below:For a complete list, see our page: the shop travels with children
More tips for organizing your trip with children
And as a bonus, here are some more tips for organizing your family trip:
during our journeys, especially in large cities, we use the GPS of our phone. We also used a very practical application to move around the world: maps.me. You must download the map of the country where you are traveling before leaving.
Make a paper and digital copy of your identification documents. To keep in your phone or send them to you by email
Retrieve the Google translation application: practical for knowing what you eat in restaurants or buy in stores
Remember to print your itinerary before leaving…
You are overwhelmed parents, you leave at the last minute and do not have time to prepare your family vacation: why not go through a travel agency working with locals to organize your tailor-made trip.
This is possible with our partner Evaneos : this company aims to connect travelers and local agencies. You thus benefit:
the best rates by going directly through a local agency without an intermediary
You are covered by the guarantees of a major French tour operator.
you choose a circuit that you can customize to your liking: just ask for a quote. It’s free and without obligation.
Many circuits offered are suitable for families, with babies, children or teenagers.
Here are some ideas for family tours:
