Today’s guest blog post comes from @GotPassport.

It’s the holidays again, which can mean STRESS (for some) when it comes to family travel. How about international travel? Impossible, you say? Too expensive? We know many families that are hesitant to travel with their kids, but we’ve always believed that our love of travel CAN and SHOULD include our daughter (now a first grader). We’ve traveled with our Emma, from road trips to international flights, ever since she was a one month old. We managed to make it fun, and we always look forward to our next adventure. We’ve also learned many lessons along the way (typically frugal and fun), and we would like to share them with you.

• Wherever we go, Emma packs her own backpack, which included toys, crayons, pencils, an activity book (Brain Quest workbook), Nintendo DS, and her favorite stuffed animal-a small snow leopard named Amanda. This gives her a sense of ownership and teaches her to be responsible for her own belongings. Nothing worse than a bored child on long flights or road trips!
• Luckily, most overseas flights have personal entertainment screens per seat, and many have kid friendly programs.
• On long flights, we get up frequently and walk around and explore the plane.
• We include Emma in our daily trip plans, and she seems to benefit from the structure. We believe kids like structure, and traveling tends to remove them from their safety net of a predictable routine.
• At the same time, we try to teach her to be flexible, and we use the phrase “Go with the flow,” quite often… For example, Emma enjoys a wide variety of foods, and is not picky or rigid about her taste buds!
• We try to leave time to relax & recharge, and to casually explore the neighborhood. Walking to local food markets and enjoying fresh food was one of the highlights of our visit to Thailand.
• We visit local grocery stores or open markets for our family picnics. It’s more authentic, and saves us money.
• Zoos, city parks, and children’s museums may not be listed in top destinations, but we had our best moments at the zoos in Thailand (Bangkok and Chiang Mai-see the pandas), the Madrid park in Spain, and so on. We have a great collection of photos of Emma on playgrounds around the world. They are great for geography lessons and to help keep travel on our minds.
• We love to commute like the locals wherever we travel. We use different forms of transportation as an event/activity in itself.
• Hostels are not just for college students. We stayed in many hostels in Europe with no issues at all. You can even find places with private rooms. It’s a great cost saver, and we met many wonderful people. Just call ahead and be sure they welcome children.

To us, traveling with Emma is quality family time. For Emma, she loves to travel, and sees any destination as just a flight away.

Got Passport: Will Travel, We’ll Serve.

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