Samen de wereld ontdekken!
Specialist in (long-haul) travel with children
I've been working in the travel world since 2008, and after the arrival of Fynn (2013) and Robyn (2017), my focus lies entirely with family travel. Together with my own children, there's nothing I'd rather do than discover the world!
If you book your trip with me, you can assume that I take the points below into account:
1: Family rooms
Lovely! You've always travelled together and a few years (maybe months) after the arrival of the children, the travel bug starts to bite again. You want to make a first long-haul trip with the children. How romantic is it that you, as parents, then have to split up for three weeks because the travel company you booked your family trip with hasn't reserved any family rooms. Not!
When I book a trip for families, I always assume family rooms or rooms with a connecting door. That's a given for me. Unless, of course, you yourself prefer two separate rooms.
Tip: Family rooms aren't always available and are often only available in limited numbers. That's true! So book in good time. That gives you the best chance of family rooms or rooms with a connecting door.
2: A calm start to your trip
A long flight, different temperatures, different food, time difference, strange bed, strange language… Those first days at your destination are quite something. Give that some room and let the children literally land at their holiday destination for a bit. At least two nights near the airport to really settle in before you head straight off. And that doesn't have to be right next to the runway – just choose a nice guesthouse with a swimming pool, or sleep near the beach or a pleasant little town, and start your tour well-rested.
3: Short travel distances
Also a given, since I don't think any child is happy about whole days in the car. And yet they exist: tours with several travel days of 7 to 8 hours. Sometimes it can't be avoided – America, for instance, is immense. If you want to see something there, you sometimes have to plan a longer travel day. Still, try to limit them as much as possible, for example by making the loop smaller or choosing a "one-way" trip. Start in San Francisco and end in Los Angeles, for instance. Or, for Canada, start in Vancouver and end your trip in Calgary.
4: Slow travel pace
Huh, isn't this the same as short travel days? No, actually – you can have short travel distances but still move on every day. You don't want that when travelling with children. I myself always apply a minimum of 2 to 3 nights in each place. That way you always have one full day to do an activity. Or simply to have a proper lazy day, of course!
5: Swimming pool and/or outdoor space
After such a long travel day, a dip in the pool is often a wonderful way to end it. Or a bit more playing in the (play) garden before bedtime, to burn off energy. If you're travelling during our summer months, it isn't summer everywhere. In South Africa, for example, it's winter, and then the (unheated) swimming pools are only for the brave swimmers among us. Staying on a farm is then a nice alternative. A really lovely place is 'Skeiding Guestfarm' in South Africa. When we were there, the sheep were just being sheared and we were allowed to ride along in the bakkie to feed the ostriches.
Tip: feel free to ask me about more places like this. I've visited many destinations myself with my kids, so I can advise you from personal experience.
6: Suitable – kid-proof – excursions
Even I'm not happy about it myself: an hours-long tour with a poorly English-speaking guide, through yet another temple. You can imagine what that's like for children… Of course a visit to a temple is part of it when you go to Asia, of course! Then just choose the most important, the most beautiful or the oldest, and try not to see them all. Immerse yourself once in Sri Lanka in the hysteria surrounding the Temple of the Tooth, but don't also travel a further 3.5 hours to Anuradhapura. Unless, of course, you have plenty of time for your tour.
Cycling always goes down well on holiday too, or take a cooking workshop. That can also be great fun with children: heading to the market with your guide to buy your own ingredients and then into the kitchen. And how about a wine tour in South Africa? If you choose the right tour there, the children are catered for too. In South Africa, Fynn was even allowed to do a "wine" tasting. He got three glasses: one with chocolate milk, one with blackcurrant cordial and one with apple juice.
Do you have older children? Then go rafting through the jungle of Sri Lanka, take surf lessons in Bali or go ziplining while you're in Canada. Generally speaking, it works best if there's variety in the activities.
7: No excursion on a travel day
You set off in the morning after breakfast, stopped once on the way for a toilet break and lunch, and so arrived nice and early at your next accommodation. It's only about three in the afternoon. Bags in the room, everyone's picked their bed. Yes! There's a play corner or a football pitch. And then? Back in the car, because a safari of at least three hours awaits you. Or because you still need to see the sunset at the Grand Canyon. While actually you just want to flop down, read a book, and let your kids process all the impressions too. Try to avoid travel days also becoming excursion days. A long-haul trip with children is often impressive enough as it is – give the children (but also definitely yourself) the space to process all those impressions too.
8: Advice from a travel specialist who has experienced the country with his or her own child
You can have visited a destination yourself and advise your customers based on that experience. You'll know the broad strokes, but that's really quite different from when you've travelled there with your children. How did they experience everything, what did you run into and would you do differently next time, what are the packing tips? Do they sell nappies and formula there? You advise truly from your own experience. That's how we discovered that in Sri Lanka, it's nice to bring socks when visiting a temple. The tiles at the 'Temple of the Tooth', and also at the temple ruins of Polonnaruwa, were scorching hot in the sun. Flip-flops have to come off, but you're allowed to keep your socks on. That meant Fynn held out a lot longer while our guide told us something about the temples. And so did we, actually…
9: Preferably no malaria areas or health risks
Especially when travelling with young children, you want to avoid travelling to a malaria area. At least, that's how I see it. Anti-malaria tablets are a nasty business and can really mess with your head. Many anti-malaria tablets for children are the same as those for adults, only the dose differs. Some tablets may not be prescribed to children. Doxycycline is suitable from the age of eight, and Malarone only for children weighing more than eleven kilograms. That's not for nothing, of course. So avoid it!
And then number 10: Preferably fly direct and no long layovers
If you want to take a long-haul trip with children, there's no getting around flying. Fortunately, flying with our children is quite manageable. No, it doesn't always go according to plan… If we plan a night flight so they can sleep, they're awake for five of the eight hours. If we plan a day flight, they don't even notice take-off because they're already asleep. So there's not always a logic to it. What I do try to avoid is a flight with a layover. And if it has to happen because you can't fly direct, or because it simply saves you quite a few euros, then I don't want to have to wait eight hours at an airport. Every flight takes that into account!
Suitable destinations for a long-haul trip with children:
So where can we actually go? Actually, you can visit plenty of countries with your kids, as long as you bear the above points in mind. No, they won't remember it all, but travel does shape your children into the adults they'll later become. And the blue ice cream our son got in America… he still talks about it.
Top picks, if you ask me? Sri Lanka, South Africa (watch out for malaria in the north), America (with a love for the western United States), Canada, Java & Bali (Indonesia) and Morocco. But also Mexico, Costa Rica, Thailand and Peru (from age 8). Or how about New Zealand, with a camper van. The latter is high on our bucket list!