Travelling with Grandparents and Extended Family

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Travelling with grandparents or other extended family can be great. You’ll have built in child care, you can divide up the planning work, and nobody has to play host. Best of all, getting out of your routine and having lots of planned activities can make it easier to be together than being at home.

Here are some tips to help things go smoothly:

• Set expectations up front about the children’s schedules and eating habits and how they will impact the trip.
• If you expect the family to babysit for you, be clear up front about what is ok and what is not. Can they take your child out for an activity, or do you want them to stay at the hotel? Are you comfortable having your child ride in a cab? What about public transportation? Don't forget to bring along an Emergency Contact Sheet in case something goes wrong.
• Encourage everyone to be independent. Everyone does not have to visit every site together (and in fact, you’ll be happiest if you break up and get back together on occasion).
• Bring cell phones or walkie talkies so that you can coordinate as schedules change.
• You may want to pre-arrange some meals as many restaurants will have trouble accommodating a large group. It can also help to plan some picnic lunches and breakfasts
• We like to rent apartments or villas for family travel. The apartment makes a nice base for breakfast and to gather before going out, and there is a little more space.
• Everyone should stay in the same place if possible. Some rental companies have several apartment units in the same building, meaning that everyone can have their own space, but it is still easy to meet up. It also means that family members with different budgets can choose different sized apartments. In a hotel, you might want to arrange for one family to have a bigger room than others to give you a place to gather.
• Try to make it easy to meet up while you’re doing an activity (e.g. we’ll meet you in the modern art section of the museum) instead of waiting for everyone out front. This will minimize the amount of time you spend waiting and maximize the amount of time you spend doing!
• Where possible, arrange tickets in advance (or send one person to wait in line) to keep everyone in a good mood
• Expect that the kids will melt down around day three or four, and accept that you'll probably look like a bad parent when that happens. It usually easiest to get the behavior under control once you have distanced yourself and your child from the rest of the family.