Traveling Abroad
Outside county travel tips:
Traveling to another country with (2) kids can be very stressful for the parents. As for the kids, it is the opposite because they are super excited about swimming, food, exploration, and most important of all spend quality time with their parents. To make sure both parties’ times are enjoyable as possible, the parents need to prepare for the trip carefully.
Before the trip:
Make a list of what you want and expectation from your travel. Make sure that the goal you have set for the family trip is realistic. If you hit 90% of what you want to do, then consider your trip as successful.
Check on your resort pricing – This might sound crazy, but when you think that you have a great deals because you book early, I would still check for the resort price again 3 weeks prior. For 2022 Cancun trip, I was able to save $537 because the price changes, and cancelled my previous resort booking for the same days. You can do this for all of your stays.
Then there are basic essentials (is also important thing) to bring on the trip that we always overlooked: sunscreen, small first aid kit, mosquitoes spray, hats, sandals, goggles, toothbrush, toothpaste, swimming clothing, wind breaker, toothbrush and paste, camera, small bottle of water, windbreaker, etc.
The items below are what I always have with me when I’m abroad. It started when I was traveling (before I have kids) and became hard for me to leave them at home. These are something you might consider taking with you:
* Pocket knife/ multi-tools with knife – In all of my pass trips (95% of the time), I would have some use for a knife cutting cutting fruits, take out splinter, cut out small thread on clothing, protection, kill a fish during fishing, etc. I would recommend a Leatherman multitool or a Victorinox Swiss Army knife. To take a small knife on you trip, never put it in a carry-on, but in a check-in bag(s). So far, I have ever been caught or maybe the security don’t care.
* Flash light/ headlamp – You are allowed to bring it in a carry-on or put it in your luggage. I use it navigate in the dark airplane ale, hotel backout, and not well-lit streets. For the kids, we uses it to find animals at night in beach resorts.
* Nail clipper – always have one in your emergency bag because on a trip kids are very active and you wants to cut their nails during a trip because you will be too busy to remember before your travel.
* Lip bam – I have one for every bag that I own cause kids’ skin are very thin, and if you go to dry places, their lips will chaps.
* Clear tape – Bring a small clear tape for any emergency. I commonly use it to tape a large piece of paper loosely over the AC vent so it won’t blow on anyone’s faces during bedtime. In the pass, I’ve use it to make tempoaray bandage.
* (Small) Clear empty bottle – I would make sure that I would dry out the clear empty bottle and have it on a carry-on. Make sure that the bottle is dry or else TSA will not let you bring it over the screening, or Xray, area. When you get on board, and the time that they pass out the drinks and snack, you and your wife should ask for an extra cup of water and the extra water pour into the empty bottle. The air in the airplane cabin is very dry and kids gets thirsty when they wake up from a nap. Even after the flight, do not throw away the bottle with the water, because after the process of going through immigrations, baggage claims, waiting or your shuttle pickups, and making it to the hotel the kids will need to be hydrated during those time. You can get a bottle of water from the airport store, but it can be costly and time consuming when someone ahead of you have trouble communicating with the clerk.
On the day of the trip
Make a habit to arrive to the airport 2.5 hours early. This is because in my 2021 Costa Rica trip, my wife spell my last name wrong, and because we checked in 2 hours prior to our flight, the senior clerk supervisor was able to correct my last name which took 45 minutes to do. Sadly my 2016 Thailand trip, I was there 1 hours prior to my departure time, and my wife’s last name did not match with the passport. I can see that the clerk wants to help but can’t because they were short staffed and there was a long line of people on my flight waiting to check in, she was not able to help us. I was charged $1,335 for a new ticket, and the original $650 ticket with the incorrect last name was a total lost.
Let’s say that your process of checking in and boarding is smooth, and you are 1.5 hours before boarding, I like to spend some time with the kids at the airport food court to finish their breakfast/lunch/diner/snack and talk about the trip to let them know what to expect and what I expect from them to make the trip more enjoyable. Also, it is a great time to hype up the vacation for everyone.