Traveling with a Toddler: Is It Harder than Traveling Solo? (My Experience)

I hate it when I hear people saying: You can no longer travel after having kids. No, traveling with a toddler is not impossible!

Yes, there are some obvious changes you need to make when traveling with a toddler (or younger kids), but it’s not – and it shouldn’t be – the end of the world!

Guess what? In my case, I started my nomadic life (and continued with extensive traveling afterward) AFTER my son was born. We started with a month-long train ride across Europe when he was 2 years-old.

If you’re curious to see how that went (as well as where we stayed and how much we spent), I have a four-part diary of this amazing adventure:

• Around Europe by Train: Part 1 (Budapest & Vienna)
• Around Europe by Train: Part 2 (Munchen, Verona & Trieste)
• Around Europe by Train: Part 3 (Pula & Rijeka – Croatia)
• Around Europe by Train: Part 4 (Zagreb & Belgrade)

Over the last decade of globetrotting, from managing toddler meltdowns in Vienna to getting through modern airports today, and month-long stays in various locations, like Budapest, Valencia or Prague, I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t.

Traveling with a toddler is not impossible, but it does require a completely different style compared to solo travel. So if you want to learn everything I have learned (usually the hard way), keep reading! I am sharing the exact strategies, schedules, and mindset shifts that made my family’s trips successful, and how they apply right now.

You can travel a lot and have fun with kids. Or toddlers.

Solo Travel vs. Traveling with a Toddler

I won’t be that absurd liar who says that switching from traveling as a couple/solo to traveling with a toddler won’t change a thing.

Things will be much different, but not necessarily more difficult. And under no circumstances is it impossible to travel with a kid!

The biggest problem? You can’t really fast travel, as the little ones burn out pretty fast and they have a much slower-paced schedule that involves plenty of naps and breaks and a much slower tempo overall.

With a toddler, you basically have a tiny boss who dictates your daily rhythm. But if you weren’t really hopping from city to city before… things won’t change too much, though!

Why Slow Travel is the Ultimate Secret

I personally suggest slow(er) travel at least. The biggest lesson we learned after that first European trip is that fast travel is a recipe for disaster with a young child.

Being in one country today just to be in a different one tomorrow and leaving for the third one the next day is extremely tiring for adults, let alone toddlers or kids. Even a few days spent in one location, before moving to a new one is difficult.

Plus, you don’t really get the chance to experience the culture, the attractions and what each place has to offer if you’re just racing from one place to another, ticking cities off your list to impress people on Instagram (or for whatever reason you might have).

When traveling with a toddler, I think that the minimum amount of time you should schedule for any given location is around 5 days. That’s how we did it during our month-long trip in Europe and it worked fine, although none of us would’ve minded an even slower pace.

Toddlers have a pace of their own and especially different interests, according to their age.

While toddlers can easily be impressed with anything, as they go older, they will start developing their own preferences and it will be more and more difficult to drag them around to visit attractions they don’t really like.

They also need to rest more often, they need to walk less, they might not care about that museum or statue or castle or whatever you think it’s nice.

For example, when we visited a Zoo with our son, for the first time (the one in Budapest, which is pretty impressive), the only thing that really caught his attention was… a fly that landed on a flower.

He was fascinated by it, and not much impressed by elephants and giraffes and lions and anything else. He was two back then, so it’s understandable…

The ideas is that kids have their own personality and it is us who must adapt to their needs in order to have successful travels and return with amazing memories.

Don’t look at kids as weights you have to carry around, look at them as travel partners and everything will change. Everything will be better!

Even adults have their own perks and quirks and things that we love or don’t like so much. Yet, couples travel together and do it well… it’s not much different with a toddler, as long as you know what to expect.

What are the main challenges of traveling with a toddler?

We had two major problems traveling with our two-year old: his sleeping schedule reduced a lot of the time that we could spend outside, exploring or at least changed the times at which we could travel.

This was also a bonus: he usually wakes up at 6-7 AM and has to sleep at around 12-1 PM for a up to a couple of hours. Then he goes to sleep again at 7 or 8 PM.

This meant for us that we had outside time early in the morning and during the afternoon, missing the times when it was either too crowded or too hot (or both).

So even though we did have to adjust our schedule, it wasn’t really a big problem. As a bonus, when they’re so young, kids can sleep anywhere: carry them in a wrap, go in a park and hold them, let them sleep in the stroller… the opportunities are endless.

Just make sure they do get all the sleep they need. It’s extremely important at this young age!

Back to the schedule, when we visited Verona, we thought we won’t even make it to Juliette’s balcony because of the crowds, but we were shocked to see only a handful of people when we got in the area, randomly strolling around. That’s what happens when you arrive at the site early in the morning!

And we also managed to turn the Con that we had to be back home at 7 PM into a Pro: we used the evenings to catch up with some work (the advantages of building your own blog!) and do some extra planning for the following days.

Plus, it kept us well rested as we too usually went to sleep at 10 PM. You have to adapt and everything will be OK.

Also read: Solo Travel vs Group Travel – What’s the Best?

Leveraging Digital Tools for Smooth Trips

Finding your way around a foreign city with a stroller used to involve a lot of trial and error, asking around locals in a language you didn’t know and physical maps. Now, we fortunately have those smart brains in our pockets and they’re incredibly useful.

Make sure to take advantage of them to the max! Map out your routes before you leave. Modern transit apps and updated map routing can explicitly show you stroller-friendly paths and subway stations with working elevators, for example.

Everything is made easier nowadays with technology, so learn to get the most out of it!

The Reality of Travel Costs

The truth is that when we started traveling with our son, the costs have increased significantly. We did pay a lot more than we used to, mostly on accommodation, because we had the little one with us.

It was not because of him, though, but because of me: we HAD to sleep in separate rooms, in separate beds, because I am an extremely light sleeper.

Our son is like a tornado in bed so he keeps waking me up. Therefore… in order for me to keep my sanity intact, we had to have different beds.

This translated in extra rooms in most cases, but I am also OK with even separate beds or sleeping on the sofa in the living room.

But all these options are usually more expensive than hostels or studios on AirBnb. And it gets even more expensive as they grow older, and they start losing freebies, discounts, need more space/food, and such. When they reach age 12, things get the most expensive, because in most places, they start being counted as adults and not children.

Now, if you don’t have anything about sharing a bed, you could still keep costs low: it all depends on how light of a sleeper you are, but be prepared to spend some more money when traveling around the world with a toddler.

There are extra costs involving food mostly – but at this age, they don’t really consume much. Even as they grow older, they still rarely need a full portion bought at restaurants and the increase in costs when cooking at home is minimal.

At the moment of updating this article, our son is almost 13 now, and only recently we started ordering an entire portion for him (which he usually is unable to finish).

But until he was 8 or so, we still ordered two portions and it was enough for the three of us (sometimes, there were also leftovers). Thank you, restaurants, for creating insanely huge portions!

What to pack when traveling with a toddler

I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that there are books published on this topic, but the truth is that you can sum things up in a few sentences.

Especially for new parents, overpacking is the sad reality – we’ve been there too. But you don’t need to pack your entire house! Sure, you must ensure you have all the right gear – the things that are actually needed – but not everything.

Keep it minimal but effective. I always prioritized a lightweight, foldable travel stroller that fits in an airplane overhead bin – that is when we got the stroller with us, because usually we managed to do it without it.

A comfortable baby carrier is equally important for places with cobblestones or stairs, where a stroller becomes useless. Bring familiar snacks from home to prevent meltdowns during long transit days, and always carry a basic medical kit with child-safe pills and plasters and everything needed. And make sure that you have extensive travel insurance – this is a must!

The Bottom Line

If you have kids, don’t let them stop you from traveling the world if that’s what you want or what you dream of!

If you don’t have kids just because you think you won’t be able to travel afterwards, understand that it’s not true. You can still travel and have a great time with a toddler. You just have to change your habits a bit and adapt, but it’s all doable.

And trust me – when you see the happiness on their faces, the joy of seeing new things, experiencing new cultures, the same joy that you get when you travel, it will all be worth it!

So how to travel with kids? Just plan your moves, take it slow, pack your bags and leave. That’s all!

Now over to you: are you traveling with kids? Share your story and thoughts in the comment section below!