7 Tips for Traveling with Friends who Don’t Have Kids

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You have kids…but your friends don’t.  Or vice versa.  Can you still travel together?  And will everyone actually enjoy it?

When we were newly married sans kids, we traveled with different friends all of the time.  We headed on a cruise to the Bahamas, drove through wine country, celebrated the New Year in Miami, wandered the streets of San Francisco, hit the slots in Biloxi, and saw Aerosmith twice in New Orleans…all with friends, pre-baby!  If we could all find an excuse to travel, we did it.  Daddy J and I spent a lot of time traveling just the two of us, but we love to travel with dear friends also! 

Fast forward a few years, and add my son to the mix.  When we got pregnant before most of our traveling buddies decided to have kids, my husband and I thought our days of traveling with friends were over.  Fortunately, we were wrong!  Now most of our friends have children and when we travel together there may be as many as 10 kids in the mix!  Here are a few things that we have learned along the way so that we can still enjoy the adventure!

•  Be sure to get separate hotel rooms on the same floor or rent a large house/cabin.  You will be changing poopy diapers, up in the middle of the night with a little one who had a nightmare, or serving breakfast as the sun rises.  If your friends don’t have children, or if you don’t have kids and your friends do, the extra separation will be nice when family gets a little crazy and you need some downtime.  Also, if the little one has a place to lay down at night separate from the group, you will be able to enjoy your evenings together.

Relaxing in the stroller on another group adventure!

• There are lots of things that kids and adults alike can enjoy.  You don’t have to alter your plans completely because you are traveling with several children.  When considering places to visit, we kept the kids that were going to be traveling with us in mind.  We went on a ski trip to Wisp Mountain when my son was a year old.  We traveled with two other couples who did not have kids.  We played in the snow while they went skiing. 

Playing in the snow while the guys ski!

• Consider renting a beach house or camping.  Some of our best memories of traveling with friends when Big S was the only child around were the camping trips and beach adventures.  While our friends read a book and drank glass of wine on the porch, we built sand castles and splashed in the water.  We have lots of pictures of my husband carrying Big S through the hiking trails.
• Don’t be afraid to go out and do something on your own as a couple.  You might be tired of listening to your friend’s kid’s fire engine toy for the 900th time.  At the same time, your friend might be tired of keeping their kid quiet in a non-annoying way!  Also, if you don’t want to hit the children’s museum then don’t!  I have found that traveling together in groups is much more fun when the group splits up to do his/her own thing too!

Waiting for dinner on a camping trip.

• If you are feeling generous, offer to keep the children while mom and dad enjoy a quick romantic dinner or drink out…it may have been a long time since their last dinner out!  If the kids are yours, don’t be offended if the rest of the group wants to go out late and you are stuck at the hotel.  Bring a good book!

On a Disney trip…our kids were the only little ones on this adventure but everybody is going to act like a kid at Disney!

• Eat early.  You don’t have to skip the fun dinners out because your little one is with you but try to eat a little earlier than usual so you avoid the crowds and can enjoy dinner without the child meltdowns.  If you are staying in a rental that has a kitchen, plan cooking some meals in.  This will save the whole group money and is lots of fun in the process!
• Be flexible.  This is my number one rule for traveling with kids anyway!