What’s the best age to travel with kids or take your kids on a family gap year? How old should children be to travel the world? Should you take babies and toddlers travelling? Is it possible to take a gap year with your teenagers?
I’ve travelled with my kids from babies to now, teens and tweens, and this is what I have found. There are benefits to the kids and to parents at just about any age. But is there a sweet spot?
It may not be what you think, that’s fine, but you came here to see what I had to say about this, so can we stay friends? Thanks
Travel With Kids -Best Age To Travel
This is totally dependent on what you want the kids to get out of travel or travelling around the world and what you, the parent, want to get out of it.
Which is more important to you, their enjoyment, family time for mutual benefit, learning experiences for them or satisfying parental wanderlust?
There are a million reasons to take a round the world trip and I doubt that any two people’s are exactly the same.
You need to honestly figure out what your reasons are. Be real. Why do you want to do this thing?
What’s the Best Age to Travel for Education?
Kids will learn more from travel if they are older, the older the better.
All kids are different but my younger son remembers very little from our travels until he was about 8 years-old. Everything before that is pretty much a blank.
My elder son has a much better early memory but little kids really don’t pick up on that much.
Now, as teens and tweens, they learn far more and in greater depth from our travels.
Also, the older they are the more interested they become. They start Googling things because they want to. Little kids just want to play.
Sure, play is learning, that’s fine. But they won’t be learning a whole bunch about the countries they’re visiting, if that is your aim.
What’s the Cheapest Age to Travel With Kids?
The younger the better. Kids under 2 can travel virtually free.
Toddlers to kids about age 12 will qualify for kids’ admission prices and very slightly cheaper airfares.
Past 12 it’s like travelling with adult friends, that you’re paying for.
They also start eating a lot.
So the younger the better to keep costs down.
Do Kids Get Sick Much While Travelling? How Does Age Affect That?
Babies and toddlers get every bug going, it’s a normal part of growing up and they’ll go through this stage at home or on the road.
Would I want to go through normal childhood bugs while travelling?
Absolutely not.
It’s hard enough at home where you can access clean water, fresh clothes, heating or air conditioning, hospitals and familiar drugs.
I would not want to have a sick child on a travel day, nor in a hotel room.
This is a big reason to wait to travel with your kids until they are older.
Little ones may also pick up some really nasty bugs on the road, GI viruses, flu, Dengue and worse. Babies and toddlers crawl on dirty floors and put fingers in mouths. Rats are everywhere. They must be protected from sun, mosquitoes, dogs, deep water, cliffs, traffic and roads. Little ones are a big responsibility.
How Easy is it to Travel With Babies, Toddlers, Tweens and Teens?
The older they are the easier it gets, with the slight exception of very young babies. Babies that mum can feed and carry all the time are slightly easier than older tots and toddlers. But if the adult caring for the newborn isn’t getting any sleep, travel may still be very hard.
Once you have your small children fully toilet trained, able to walk reasonable distances, and past the picky food, naps, bath time, car seats and milk stage travel can become a whole new ball game.
Absolutely 100%, it gets easier the older they get and you, as a family, have far more options.
Snorkelling with manta rays, trekking in the Himalayas, and anything involving altitude, these big activities are only possible with older kids.
What About Older Kids Missing Friends While Travelling?
If they’ve been in the school system or have a group of friends or family that they see day in day out, if that is their normal, they’ll most likely miss that.
Some will miss it intensely and be deeply miserable.
The only solution is obviously not to put them in the system and not have deep roots at home that need to be temporarily severed. We’re lucky to have that, we’re 100% independent, but it’s rare.
Because mine have never been in the system it’s never been a problem. They’re very self-contained and will have fun with anyone, anywhere.
I always ponder on this. Does any child prefer school to weekends and holidays? I’ve never known one that does. Maybe if the home was absolutely dreadful or abusive, but most kids prefer being out of school and being able to do what they please.
In this instance the older they get the harder it will be.
Little ones play with other little ones wherever they happen to be and language barriers don’t stop them until they get older. It’s very easy to find playmates for tiny tots anywhere that kids gather, but of course, playing with mum and dad is fine by them too. Be ready for endless tag and sand castles.
Do Kids Like Spending Time With Mum and Dad Every Day?
Yep, mine do.
Up to puberty, this is a total no-brainer. After that their need to play with and be close to a parental unit or two diminishes. If you play your cards right, yes, teens can still love hanging with mum or dad.
My teen is my funny friend, my sunshine, I adore him in a whole different way to his tween brother and we share humour and interests.
If I can prize him away from his computer games.
So What’s The Best Age to Travel With Kids?
I’d say the sweet spot is 10-12, depending on how early or late puberty gets a grip. You can still have great times, really great times, and huge adventures with older teens, but the tweens win. This year I have travelled with my 17-year-old and my 19-year-old, separately, domestic and international. Both experiences were fantastic, but I think it’s quite rare for parents to still be able to do that, and they’re certainly not “kids” any more. But still, we all get a lot out of these trips and have loads of fun.
That’s my honest answer based on my hugely scientific sample group of two. What do you think? If you want more posts along these lines, how about travel with teenagers or our family gap year ideas?
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Hi,
We are taking our kids (soon 4 and 6 years) to Australia for 6 weeks. I have lived and travelled the whole country before, so I am quite familiar with all our destinations. We have pre-booked every accomodation, and we are mainly interested in just enjoying nature and living stress-free while on the road.
My question is: have you experienced your kids to be burned out from moving from place to place? We are staying for longer periods at the same place at the start, midle and end of the trip. In between these we are between 2,3 nights in each place + 3 single sleeps. My biggest concern is that the kids will not like moving around, and that they will get stressed from doing so.
I would really like to hear from your experience and thoughts. I could write more about our plan, but in short I have tried to make it as easy going as possible.
Regards Jeanette
No, that’s never been an issue Jeanette. But we are mindful of just chilling and giving them plenty of sleep, great food, they love their food and things that they enjoy doing. That includes being online as often as possible. We always make sure there is good free wifi at our accommodation. But they enjoy trekking in the Himalayas too, and that’s totally offline. One likes groups and other people, sometimes, so group tours, his volunteering, he likes to chat to cool people. And often it’s the simple things like a tuk tuk ride that they enjoy. Sometimes an amazing theme park, sometimes a huge buffet, just things they love. Also movies, we take them to see movies a lot in Asia, they love that. Treats, things for them, not things mum and dad enjoy on occasions that the two are different. But I think because mine started young and did it for so many years ( and now my son tells me he loved/loves the lifestyle) they just accepted it as normal. I really love the long travel days on buses, trains etc. The kids enjoy them too because they just chill and read or now, have their phones. They like flying days too, airports always mean junk food, planes ( on decent airlines – not budget – nobody likes budget) mean more food and movies. They detest cars. Cars are bad for my two, and boring, no other people, nothing weird happens. Best of luck.
We are planning a gap year in 2020. Kids will be 9 and 11 and )
(Gasp) 2-1/2. The little one came before these dreams of a gap year but we don’t want to let him stop us! We realize the planning will be much different but we are thinking more of a slow travel year. If we wait until he is older the older kiddos may not be into it, so we’ll make do. For now I just need to keep reading and figuring out how to make this possible!!!
Hi there. There’s no reason that you have to do slow travel just because you have a toddler. It’s possible to go at a normal bckpacking sort of pace. The trouble with slow travel is you get a lot less travel for your dollar, fewer destinations, less experiences, but you will get to know small areas in some depth. I think slow travel is more for us on long term and full time trips because- I know you won’t think it now- a year is actually very little time to see much of the world. So really hone down on where you most want to be, what destinations you choose if you want to do it that way. What destinations were you thinking of picking?
Thanks for your reply! We lived in Germany for 3 years and did a lot of quick fast paced traveling. It was somewhat exhausting and I don’t hinj my husband would be amenable to a year of that! We were thinking of Asia and Central/South America… still a lot to conquer in a year. I need to start really researching and making a list of must sees and then really want to sees :).
I’d love to hear what you pick! There are so many awesome choices.
Really helpful and insightful article to read. So I have two children 4 years apart. Neither are old enough yet to travel but we have our hearts set on doing this when we feel they are ready. With the age gap being being 4 years, do you think 7 and 11 is a good age? or would you wait until older? The boy is older and the girl, younger.
I think that sounds pretty good. From my ( limited) experience with girls, it looks to me as if they get much more difficult to handle past about 12. Boys are so much easier!
Thank you for writing this Alyson. It is something I have been concerned about for some time. On the one hand, my partner is at a critical point in his career and it would be a shame to leave now, but on the other hand, I had been feeling the pressure of time as my son has just turned 7. I feel that he really gets so much out of our short trips already and I was concerned we would miss the boat leaving long-term travel until he is older. But you give me heart that there are many benefits to leaving things for a few years. If we could go now and take our time we would, but if we only get one chance and that has to be left a while I can relax about it. My son has never been in school, so I don’t think ‘extracting’ him from his life here will be too much of a problem.
Thanks for writing this, I think a lot of people are reluctant to travel with older kids because they view school as critically important to their futures. This is a great perspective from someone who has done all ages!
Yep, getting them out of the system is probably the most critically important thing. Who wants to get the sort of jobs the majority of school leavers end up in anyway? They need to think outside the box and have their eyes opened to all the millions of possibilities there are in this world.
PS: Is it irony that you post about ‘the older the better’ just as they are getting ‘older’, and want to stay home? I’m just… running into that myself, as my oldest is now doing college/PT job stuff, and causing my scheduling of trips some difficulties!
No, mine don’t want to stay home. Very happy to carry on travelling, but they do like their computers and good wi-fi a lot too.
I don’t know. We started taking trips when my youngest was three (oldest 13), and because I’m such an intensive scrapbooker, they spend HOURS looking at themselves at all of the places, reading the stories I have in the books about our adventures. It’s like the story of *them*.
I know they don’t *remember*, exactly, but I’ve remembered for them, and if they didn’t have that… would their story be as fun for them to look back at? Not thinking so. There are pros and cons to everything, but WE as the adults only have so much time, and that factors, too.
I agree too. Ours are 8 and 10 and the 10 year old is engaging more with the experience and is less ‘work’, although that is also a personality thing. On the other hand, it’s probably too early to tell what exactly the 8 year old is getting out of it all. She’s not as positive about traveling and is more challenged by the whole thing but that could mean she ends up being more impacted by the end. In her case personality is a big factor, possibly more important than age. I am curious to see what changes for her by the end of our 8 months.
Totally agree! 2018 was our “gap year” which sounds better than our “ mid life crisis year” ????. Our kids were 10 and 12 when we pulled them out of school to travel for 7 months and then moved to Ireland from Seattle. They really were the perfect age for everything we wanted to do and our oldest had just finished elementary school. I’d be happy for her to skip all of middle school to be honest. I mean who ever says, “ wow, middle school was great, I miss those years.” Anyway, both our girls have started new schools in Ireland and our now 13 year old going on 16 wants to be settled and hang with friends. My husband and I feel like we got so lucky on timing and found the perfect “sweet spot.” I
Sounds like it all worked well for you.
Well pleased to read we are about to embark in the sweet spot one 9 and one 11 – they have been in the system but very happy to be leaving and if we only last a year then they are already asking to be home schooled on return. Some good points in this one for me to remember – thanks!
Sounds like you have everything sorted and your kids are ready to pack up and go on an adventure 🙂