The pandemic robbed us all of time with our families and time to travel and in my case, traveling to see my family in France. So 2022 became the year for us to catch up on travels and to expose our two children, ages 4 and 2, to their Latino roots in Puerto Rico and my home country, France. Before this year, I hadn’t travelled with a child since my first-born was about 18 months old (see here for my tips for solo travel with a baby), let alone travel with 2 children and it is no small feat, especially managing a toddler. But my husband and I did learn some valuable lessons along the way and the purpose of this post is to share some of these travel tips as well as underline the many benefits traveling can offer to young children, developmentally. Trust me, you won’t ever regret taking them to new destinations, even if you feel differently during the experience itself.

A child’s brain develops the most in the first 5 years of life and each experience and social interaction will allow them to fire new neural connections in their brains, enhancing their skills such as observation, language, problem solving and hopefully, paving the way for them to step out of their comfort zones as adults. Travel will help your child develop confidence, cross-cultural understanding, reinforce a target language (if you’re a bilingual family), increase their adaptability to a variety of contexts and people, foster patience all the while turning them into global citizens who care for the beautiful places that make up this Planet. Let’s dig deeper into the 4 benefits of travel for young children under 5.

1. Language & Social Development: Travel can shape a baby’s linguistic development, as it provides ample opportunities for them to distinguish between the various speech sounds and patterns they hear. Emilia, who is 4 years old, spent one month in France and her progress in the French language has leapt forward rather significantly. She says fuller sentences now to express herself. She does have a tendency to resort to code switching, which is normal in a developing bilingual brain, but her vocabulary has increased and she quickly developed a habit of repeating things my father would say to her in French as well as engaging in pretend play by herself in French, which she was not doing at our home in New Jersey. I noticed one game she was playing with my father where she pretended that she was calling him on a telephone using her hands and she asked him questions and he would in turn ask her questions like where she was, what was she doing etc. This game taught her how to ask questions and how to answer them in French. Both Emilia and Leo had plenty of opportunities to play and engage with French children around their age, which further strengthened their French language skills and general language development. They played for hours at a time with my best friend’s children and I even overheard Emilia and her friend bickering in French, which was pretty adorable. Play is very important in helping children learn how to engage with others and to regulate their emotions, fostering sharing, respect, empathy as well as self-esteem.
2. Cross-Cultural Understanding & Environmental Stewardship: Our trips this year exposed our children to a variety of cultures and backgrounds and they learned that even though people speak different languages or look different, we all feel the same type of human emotions and we all care about our families, friends and peers. Within the last year, our children were exposed to Spanish-speaking locals in Carolina, Puerto Rico, French people who didn’t speak English as well as bilingual French and English children. I am so grateful for the fact that they are growing up in a highly multicultural environment, just like I did. They are or will be enrolled in the American school system, I speak the minority language at home with them, they take weekly French classes and they interact with Latino children on a daily basis. When children learn about new cultures via travel or their daily lives, they are more likely to develop cross-cultural understanding and an attuned sense of place, which will encourage them to be stewards of their environment, wherever they go. As a climate advocate, I want to pass that on to my children.
3. Adaptability: I noticed a lot of growth in how each of my children responded to a variety of situations during our travels, especially Leo, who is a COVID baby and who didn’t get out there much for the first year and a half of his life. They each had to adapt to two different houses within 2 weeks and even though Emilia insisted on never being left alone at night, they adapted remarkably well to new sights (beaches in a tropical setting in Puerto Rico and on the Brittany coast of France), sounds (rainforest sounds, roosters in Puerto Rico), and to people and the local culture. Their travel experiences will shape their understanding of the world and their willingness to try new things in their daily lives.
4. Patience & Delayed Gratification: Driving from Paris to Brittany is a six hour car ride and we managed this in an entirely screen-free way. I had a couple of bags full of goodies for the kids to play with and sometimes, all they did was giggle at each other or stare out the window — a great lesson in not getting passive entertainment all the time or getting somewhere instantly. We stopped two or three times for lunch, diaper changes or simply to run around or play in a playground (McDonalds in France offers great playgrounds inside or outside). Both our children did really well in both the international plane rides and car rides. I am convinced these early childhood experiences will give them tools to cope with waiting in other contexts as well. Building patience and delayed gratification is harder and harder to achieve in this day and age.

Now that we delved into the benefits of travel for small children’s development, I would like to offer some travel tips to families who might be afraid to travel with small children in tow:

1. Car & Plane Ride Hacks: For car rides, make sure to bring plenty of snacks, entertainment and plan to play games. Prepare a bag with a variety of snacks as well as a separate bag with entertainment items such as books, Montessori busy boards, and music (create a play list with a wide selection of music and even audio books). On our car ride, I also brought some stickers and paper and my toddler and preschooler both spent a while taking off the stickers from the sheet and placing them on the paper. This was a great way to review colors with your toddler. Be ready to play a few games, such as I Spy and Simon Says. This is what I recommend if you, like our family, would like to avoid screen-time during travels. As far as plane rides, make sure you are seated with your family. On the way back from France this summer, my husband and Leo were seated in a different row than mine and Emilia’s and that made things a whole lot more challenging, particularly when dealing with our cranky toddler. On a long flight, you can be more relaxed about screen time and allow your children to watch as many TV shows or movies as they want — anything to pass the time. If you have an antsy toddler, walk up and down the aisle when the seat belt sign goes off and let the flight attendants interact with him, which gives you a break. If he becomes overtired, which will inevitably happen, just soothe him as best as you can: give him some milk, hug him, talk softly and stroke his hair. This too shall pass and don’t even worry about the looks of judgment from other passengers. If they don’t empathize with your struggles, that just means that they were never parents or it was too long ago for them to remember. Be kind to yourself.
2. Accommodation: While we enjoyed our stay in a beautiful hacienda on the outskirts of El Yunque Rainforest in Puerto Rico, the house we stayed in was way too hot and even though there were fans, that didn’t prevent the humidity from making our stay rather uncomfortable. If it had been just my husband and I traveling, we would have been fine with it but with small children, you do want to keep in mind that their bodies can’t handle heat as well as adults. So do yourself a favor, if you book a trip to a Caribbean island or any other tropical destination, book a room that has air conditioning. I know, it might seem like first world problems but in a heat-prone world we live in, you have to resort to these measures when you can. Also, when you do book lodging of any kind (Airbnb, hotel etc) and you have a child under 2, make sure you ask the owners whether they provide a crib or a pack and play. Trust me, that will save you from a headache!
3. Planning Your Day Trips: When it comes to planning your visit in another country, be flexible and make a realistic plan for the day, taking into account your children’s ages, abilities and interests. For example, when I planned my day trip to Paris with Emilia, I knew I could only hit 2 spots with her, before she would become tired: I planned to take her to the Café des Chats, a “cat Café” since she loves cats. We went there for lunch and already, getting to the café was an adventure in its own right: taking the suburban train and the metro. After lunch, we headed to a playground near the café at la Place des Vosges. She loved it there and easily spent an hour and a half at the playground, going on the see-saw, slides, swings and interacting with other children. After that, it was time to head back home and by the time we got back home, she was exhausted. Don’t expect to pack in a whole day of sightseeing with small children because it’s unrealistic and quite frankly, very stressful on everyone involved. At that age, children just want to play and a simple subway ride is enough to get them curious about their surroundings. Try to hit a couple of places, bearing in mind that small children might need help getting around via a stroller or a backpack with a built in carrier for hikes. Also avoid sight seeing during the hottest time of the day in particularly hot and humid places in the world.
4. Capturing Memories: Small children likely won’t remember these special trips you take them on, but you can do your part to ensure you keep talking and referring to the memories you made long after the trip. Buying a few souvenirs are great keep-sakes and conversation pieces. You can creatively come up with a tradition of collecting something in each country you visit — a fridge magnet, seashells, sand, or anything else that your child is interested in. Don’t forget to also take plenty of pictures during your trip and create a Shutterfly photobook, for instance.

Enjoy your travels and watch your children grow as they learn about new cultures and take in new experiences, both sensory and social. Remember, the first 5 years of a child’s life is critical in terms of developing their brains, so give them lots of affection, kind words of encouragement and provide ample opportunities for them to discover new horizons.