I've planned enough family vacations at this point to know the big stuff (flights, hotel, itinerary) can be easily managed. I do my research. I pick the “best” place for our family, and it all usually falls into place. However, after traveling so much with my family (internationally as well), I’ve come to realize that the smaller, menial tasks can actually make or break whether we come home feeling like we need a vacation from our vacation.
On our recent trip to London, I made a handful of tiny adjustments that ended up mattering way more than anything on the actual itinerary. Here's what I'd do again in a heartbeat.
I packed a separate "landing day" bag.
From the time we left our house for the airport to the moment we landed at Heathrow, I knew that we’d be dead tired and feel so groggy. (With the time change, it’d been about 24 hours!) Before we left, I pulled together one small bag with a full outfit for everyone, including me, plus toiletries and anything we'd need, so we could refresh and change at the airport before leaving. I put everything right on top of my carry-on so it was easy to grab.
Landing after an overnight flight with a kid is not the moment you want to be unzipping a fully packed suitcase, looking for a fresh pair of underwear. Having one bag we could grab and go meant we got to the hotel, dropped off our stuff, and didn't have to think about changing again (because I was wearing sweats on the plane and it was 95 degrees in London). I don’t want to be in the back of a hot Uber in my sweatpants. It sounds like such a small thing, but being stuck in London traffic in fresh clothes just feels better than airplane clothes from the day before.
I booked our first meal before we even left home.
I made a reservation for dinner the night we landed, a week before we left. I have learned from experience that our entire family falls to pieces when we’re all hungry. I wanted to avoid this at all costs. Figuring out where to eat after a full day of travel with a tired kid is a recipe for hell.
Having it already decided meant we didn't have to make a single decision that first night. We just showed up at our reservation time and enjoyed our meal. I'd also recommend doing a quick grocery delivery order to your hotel or rental accommodations for the basics (water, snacks, coffee) so day one doesn't start with a stressful supply run.
I hired a private car for the ride home.
This is the one travel tip I'll never skip again. By the end of a trip, everyone is running on fumes: tired, worn down, and hauling more luggage than you left with because, yes, I went to Notting Hill and bought a bunch of cute stuff and books with UK covers! Getting off that last flight home is never the moment to be standing on a curb waiting for your 75-year-old dad to come through going 35mph on the highway (Trust me!!!), and it’s also not the time to have to walk or take a shuttle to the designated ride-share area.
I booked a car service through Blacklane for our ride from the airport on the way home, and it was genuinely one of the best decisions of the whole trip.
The driver was texting me the moment we landed, saying he was ready and waiting to grab us whenever we made it to the arrivals deck. No surge pricing, no scrambling to fit bags into a car that clearly wasn't built for a family.
We just walked out, got in the car, and had a quiet, calm ride to the airport instead of one more stressful thing to manage. If you're going to splurge on convenience anywhere in the trip, I'd argue the way home is where it counts the most, because that's when everyone has the least patience left.
I give myself a 10-minute unpack rule.
Before we started traveling more, I used to let all of our suitcases sit half-unpacked (or fully unpacked) for a week after we got home, which just meant that I was delaying laundry and actually getting my life in order. If I unpacked, vacation was officially over, right?
This time, the second we walk in the door, everyone has to open up their suitcases and leave them by the laundry room door. I gave myself 10 minutes to do a fast unpack: dirty clothes in the hamper, everything else roughly sorted, suitcases zipped up and out of the way.
It’s not a crazy deep clean, but it’s just enough to make the house feel normal again. A soft launch into reality. It’s just a small habit that made the transition back to regular life feel a little less jarring.
None of these small changes were especially expensive or complicated to get done, which makes them all the more attainable. They were just small, deliberate decisions I made ahead of time to make the entire trip a little smoother.
source https://www.scarymommy.com/parenting/small-changes-for-international-family-travel
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