Travel for Kids: Trip Planner

Planning trips with kids is easier than you might think – do a little research, find the itinerary and budget that works for your family, and everything will fall into place. Do you want to make your own flight and hotel bookings, or would you like a family tour? Are you planning a trip to Costa Rica, but you've decided a cruise from Costa Rica to Panama looks like fun – a cruise package might have good deals on flights. Traveling over Thanksgiving or spring break – book everything in advance to have the most choices. Here's our staff picks for useful sites we use to plan our trips:

City Walks with Kids: Paris

Natasha Edwards

50 colorful cards with maps on one side, and information on the other, for cathedrals, museums, parks, places to eat, and walks around Paris. Let the kids pick what to see today! (Guide)

Kids just love riding on trains, there's something fabulous about a day-long train ride through the snow-covered Andes, or sleeping in berths on an overnight train through the Canadian plains, zipping at speeds through the French countryside on the high-speed TGV, or eating dinner with a view of the vast Australian outback.

For info about steam trains and long distance trains in the United States, check out USA by Rail. Here's a fun site where you can read about train rides worldwide – from a day trip steam train in Wales, the world's fastest train in China, the zigzag train ride to Machu Picchu, and tons more: Train Traveling

Rail Europe

Amtrak

Via Rail Canada

Cruise vacations are fun for families because there's something for everyone, from small ships in the Caribbean, to large cruise ships. Alaska, the Caribbean and Mexican Riviera are a great choice, but there's also cruises through the canals of Europe, up the Amazon, or around the Greek islands. Here's a cruise portal sites where you can find cruises for every family itinerary and budget:

CruiseDirect

To buy your plane tickets, see your local travel agent or use online sites for ticket purchase.

Flying in the U.S., look for regional carriers such as Jet Blue or Southwest.

For trips out of the country, you'll want a good selection of schedules and prices from different airlines to make the best choice. Here's what we use for our online flight purchases abroad:

CheapTickets.com

Sidestep.com

Lisa's Airplane Trip
Anne Gutman, Georg Hallensleben

Hilarious story of Lisa, a movie in-flight, and a glass of juice... This is simply one of our favorites! (Picture book)

Lots of practical tips for family vacations: "Traveling with stuffed animals," don't leave home without them, "Tips for traveling with preschoolers," encourages parents with young kids to take long trips, "Choosing a family tour package," how to find a trip to the Galapagos or African safari, "Get those tickets to ride," family discounts on trains in Europe,"Baby's first flight," insider secrets for flying with infants, "Packing for your trip" and more...

read all the travel tips

For trips abroad, right off the bat, it's wise to consult the currency rate of exchange for your home currency. When making hotel reservations or vacation rentals, you'll want a clear picture of the price. Don't make the mistake of thinking pounds or euros convert one to one to dollars. Here's a currency converter we use, conversion for over 100 countries:

Currency converter

Another tip: We always print out the Currency Converter Cheat Sheet, it's a handy reference to take on our trip.

Don't bring full-size shampoo or hand lotion bottles on your trip. Transfer your shampoo, hand lotion, liquid face soap into small bottles. Use clear small bottles so you can see how much is in each one (don't start on a trip with a nearly empty shampoo bottle). Label the bottles so you're not confused what's what. Give a small shampoo bottle to each child to carry in his luggage. If one bottle gets left behind, you'll have another.

Travel with Babies and Young Children
Fawzia Rasheed de Francsico

An essential guide to planning a trip abroad, especially adventurous destinations – what to bring, traveling by plane, car, or train, how to handle challenges (bites, dehydration, cuts), plus lots of first-hand travel stories. Best of all, detailed information about diapers, bathrooms, food, cultural tips and etiquette for Africa, North and South Asia, the South Pacific, Caribbean, Central and South America, Middle East, and Western Europe. (Guidebook)


Staying with kids in hotels, the most important thing isn't necessarily a scenic view or luxurious sheets – it's hotels in neighborhoods near to places you'll want to explore, and staff that welcomes families. It's staying in a place that's convenient for meals, and amenities, such as fresh-baked cookies, cribs and babysitting services, swimming pools, suites with kitchens, and more. Travel for Kids now offers our own lists of family hotels:

EUROPE

	Rome	Paris

	Florence	Barcelona

	Venice	Madrid

	London

USA

	California	Washington DC

	San Francisco	New York City

	San Diego	Chicago


Depending on what you want to do on your trip, you may want to sign up for a family tour package. Are you concerned about traveling abroad with kids for the first time? Thinking of a trip to the Galapagos or an African safari? Are you a single parent, or you have an only child? Has your family been talking about an extended family vacation, taking the grandparents along too? Would your kids like a long bike trip through the Loire or kayaking in Alaska? Here's our editors' choice for family tour companies:

	Backroads

	Classic Journeys

	G.A.P Adventures

	Generations Touring Company

	Intrepid Travel

	Journeys for Families

	Thomson Family Adventures

	Wildland Adventures Family Travel




If you don't have a passport for your kids, start now. You' ll need to bring the child in person to apply for a passport, and to renew kids' passports. Here's information on how to apply for US passports: Passport Services

Some countries also require visas. Click here to find out more information about visa entry requirements for different countries (for U.S. citizens).

Need passports in a hurry, or would like assistance with your visas, check out this site:

	Passports and Visas



Tip: Our lists of Travel for Kids hotels make it easy to find hotels just for families. But the world is big place, and you may be traveling to a locale that we haven't researched yet. In the meantime, while we are expanding our Travel for Kids lists, here's four hotel sites with lots of choices:

	Venere.com

	HotelClub

	Hotels.com

	Best Western

travel for kids | travel tips | trip planner

travel for kids

your best choice for family travel