I’m excited share this collaborative post with y’all with so many great tips for traveling with your little nuggets.
A lot of single parents worry about heading off on a vacation with their child. They’ve heard all the horror stories about toddlers throwing tantrums on planes much to the disdain of other passengers and kids getting dirty looks when they dare to y’know have fun and make a little noise and they wonder how they’ll deal with it all alone.
If you’re a single parent and you’re having similar worries – don’t. Sure, it might not be as easy to travel with a child when there’s only one of you to pick up the slack and deal with the problems, but are you really going to let that stop you from spending a fun vacation with your child? Of course not, and with these single parent travel tips. You really don’t have to worry about doing so anyway…
Book Flights Around Your Child’s Routine
If you can, when you’re planning a vacation, you should try to book your flights so that they fit with your child’s routine. What I mean by this is that, if your child tends to get up early in the morning, an early flight might be fine, but if he or she likes to sleep until 8, it is sure to be a disaster if you wake them up at 5! So, do what you can to avoid tiredness related tantrums.
Forget Check-In Lines
When you have a kid, who can get cranky very easily, in tow, check-in lines are a real no-no. Your child is sure to get bored, tired and quite possibly upset if he or she has to stand in line for what seems like an age. So, when you’re booking your flights, try to ensure that you choose an airline that allows online check-in, which you can do from the comfort of your own home up to 24 hours before your flight. That will save you at least one headache.
Board Early
Even if you have to pay extra to do so, it is usually worth boarding early, especially if you have one or more young children in tow because getting down the aisle with baby and luggage in hand is much easier and you can get your child settled in their seat before the plane starts to fill up.
Book into A Child-Friendly Hotel
Using vacation comparison sites like Viaja Compara and Hotels Combined, it is possible to find hotels that advertise themselves as child-friendly and they are much more likely to have lots of fun facilities for your child and be populated with other families who will not only be more understanding of the tantrums, tears and general noise that your child makes but also more likely to become firm companions for you and your child during your vacation.
Book a Room with a Balcony
As a single parent, you probably spend a lot of time caring for the needs of others and too little time caring for yourself. That’s why I suggest you book a hotel room that has a balcony. That way when your child is having a nap, you can head out to the balcony with a good book and perhaps a glass of wine and enjoy relaxing in the sunshine.
Vacationing as a single parent isn’t without its issues, but most of the common problems you are likely to face can be eliminated with a little forethought, and the opportunity to get away from it all is one that you shouldn’t pass up.
This post was a collaborative effort – please check out my disclosure policy page for more details.