Travelling with children introduces logistics that don't exist for solo or couple travel — but with the right preparation, family trips can be genuinely relaxing rather than a test of endurance. Here's what experienced family travellers know.
Booking Flights with Children
Seat Selection Matters More Than You Think
For flights over 2–3 hours, paying for seat selection to guarantee your family sits together is often worth it — gate agents try to accommodate families, but it's not guaranteed, especially on full flights. Budget airlines in particular randomly assign seats unless you pay.
Timing Your Flights
For young children, flights that align with nap times or overnight flights (where they might sleep through most of the journey) can make a significant difference. For older children, avoiding very early morning departures (which disrupt routines for days) is often worth a slightly higher fare.
Infant and Child Fares
Infants under 2 generally fly free or for a small percentage of the adult fare on an adult's lap (international flights often charge ~10% of the fare plus taxes). If you want a seat for an infant — for a car seat or bassinet — you'll need to book a seat at the child fare, which varies by airline.
Bassinets: Available on many long-haul aircraft for infants, attached to the bulkhead. These need to be requested in advance and are limited in number — request early.
Packing for Kids
The "Boredom Kit"
A small bag of activities that come out only during travel — new (even if inexpensive) items maintain novelty better than toys from home. Include: a few small toys, snacks they don't normally get, a tablet pre-loaded with shows/games (and headphones), and simple activities like sticker books for younger children.
Snacks: Bring More Than You Think You Need
Flight delays, unfamiliar food, and picky eating combine to make snacks essential. Pack more than seems necessary — familiar snacks are often the difference between a calm child and a difficult one when everything else about the day is unfamiliar.
Change of Clothes — For Everyone
Pack a full change of clothes for young children in your carry-on, and a spare top for the accompanying adult. Spills, accidents, and motion sickness happen, and having a change readily available prevents a minor incident from derailing the day.
Managing the Flight Itself
Ear Discomfort During Takeoff and Landing
Pressure changes affect children more noticeably. For infants, feeding during descent helps. For older children, chewing gum, sucking on sweets, or yawning deliberately can relieve pressure.
Realistic Expectations
Even well-prepared trips have difficult moments — a meltdown, a missed nap, a long wait. Other passengers have, for the most part, been there themselves or will be. A brief apology and continuing to manage the situation calmly goes further than visible stress.
Accommodation Considerations
- Connecting rooms or suites vs. a single room: depends on children's ages — very young children often need to be in the same room for naps and bedtime; older children may do fine in a connecting room
- Kitchen facilities (apartments, some hotel suites) make a significant difference for managing meal times and costs with children, especially picky eaters
- Location — being centrally located reduces transit time, which matters more with children who tire from extended travel
Jet Lag and Children
Children often adjust to new time zones faster than adults in some ways (less affected by the social/work pressures that keep adults on old schedules) but can also have more dramatic short-term sleep disruption. Maintaining outdoor time and meal schedules according to local time, as with adults, helps — but expect a few rough nights regardless, and build buffer days into the itinerary rather than scheduling activities for day one.
Managing Expectations for the Itinerary
The single biggest adjustment for family travel compared to travel without children: plan for roughly half the activities per day that you would otherwise. Build in downtime, accept that some days will be largely unstructured, and prioritise a small number of experiences over an ambitious list. Trips that try to "do everything" with children tend to be the most stressful for everyone.
Family trips often benefit from booking well ahead — but flash sales can appear anytime. AirHuntr tracks deals across family-friendly routes and destinations.
