Parents Share Tips for Traveling Internationally With Kids

International travel often comes with connecting flights, which means there are multiple opportunities for delays and cancellations. So, airline loyalty can make a huge difference in how the carrier makes amends when things go awry.

Granger and Boyd learned this on a trip to Greece when Kynsley was 2. They booked with Delta, an airline where they’d built up a rewards status. What should have been a one-day, two-flight trip became a two-day, three-flight trip.

Their first flight was delayed, forcing them to take an additional connecting flight domestically to arrive the same day. Then, their international flight to Greece was canceled, so they were stuck overnight in New York City.

Granger recapped their entire journey with a manager. “Please show some more courtesy or sympathy for the travel plan,” she recalls saying.

She said Delta then upgraded their entire group to first class for their round-trip flight to Greece.

“We’d spent so much money and accumulated so many points with Delta that we were able to use that as collateral in that situation,” Boyd said. “They helped us all out because of the status that we had at the time.”

Granger said it’s important to ensure you understand all the passport and visa documentation your child needs to enter or exit the country you’re traveling to, especially if your kid will be flying with another adult during your trip.

According to the US Government, many countries require a consent letter when traveling without both parents.

“Kynsley traveled with us to South Africa, and on the way back, she came home with my mom and dad,” Granger said. “There were so many documents that she needed, rightfully so, to leave the country with her grandparents. I’ve read a lot of stories about people getting held up by not having those documents.”

International destinations may lack certain comforts of home that babies and toddlers are used to, so Granger and Boyd suggest finding ways to bring those comforts along.

For example, when Kynsley was a baby, Boyd said she slept with a noise machine that played ocean and wind sounds.

“We traveled with the noisemaker so we could create the environment at home anywhere we went,” Boyd said. “And we turned it up to 10.”

Granger said they’d blast the sound machine at the front of her door on international trips.

“Even though at home it was lower, I knew all the noise happening outside, whether it was us or friends or family we were traveling with, would not distract her if she heard the sound that comforts her,” Granger said.

Granger and Boyd brought a cheap, folding stroller on their trip to Greece because they thought it would be easier to travel with than a heavy-duty stroller. But once they started to roll it on the cobblestone roads of Athens, they regretted it.

“It’s a very old, beautiful place, but our cheap stroller could not stand up to the cobblestone,” Boyd said.

Their stroller broke, and they had to buy a new one in Greece. So, the couple advises looking at the terrain of your destination and finding a stroller that can handle it.

“Don’t sacrifice on the stroller,” Granger said. “Having something that’s super sturdy but also very small might be worth the investment.”

Granger and Boyd recommend the Guava Roam Stroller because it’s compact, foldable, and sturdy on all terrains.

When traveling to another country with Kynsley, Granger said she packs a first-aid kit with “every option available over the counter,” from cough and cold to allergy medications.

“She rarely needs them, but there’s always something that comes up when we’re in another country and I’m not positive about their equivalent for something like Benadryl, for example,” Granger said. “So instead of scrambling, I just have my whole tool kit on me.”

Granger noted that her medicine bag is often pulled to the side at TSA checkpoints, so it takes longer to get through security.

“But that hassle is way less than the stress that you might have being international, where you don’t have the right tools for your baby’s sickness at 4 a.m.,” she added.

If you forget or run out of medicine, or your child has an unexpected health concern, you’ll want to be prepared. So Granger advises researching clinics and pharmacies in the area just in case.

She added that many hotels have on-call services. For example, Kynsley and Boyd got sunburn in Abu Dhabi, and they had a pharmacist deliver aloe vera at midnight.

You may be tempted to take a bus tour to get a lay of the land in a foreign country. Granger and Boyd have done so with Kynsley, but they regretted it. On these tours, Granger said Kynsley just wants to move around, not sit still.

“I think kids are just too antsy to spend hours on a bus just hearing somebody speaking over the loudspeaker, explaining what’s out the window,” she said. “I think there have to be more options for engagement.”

When the family went to Greece, Granger wanted to kick off the trip with a food tour. Boyd and Kynsley joined for 10 minutes before going back to the hotel.

Why? A high traffic volume on cobblestone side streets, from cars to bikes and mopeds, made them feel unsafe with their 2-year-old in a stroller.

“They were taking us to hole-in-the-walls to try local food, and it was just uncomfortable with mopeds flying by,” Granger said. “When you think about the traffic situation, it becomes harder when a baby is too little and can’t walk, and with a small kid.”

When Kynsley was a baby, Granger and Boyd avoided public transportation because lugging baggage around with a baby is challenging, as is dealing with diaper changes when trying to catch a train. Now that Kynsley is 3.5 years old, they have started doing so in places like Europe, where they’ve found clean, efficient trains.

They said Kynsley sees the train as another activity and enjoys looking out the windows and walking up and down the cars.

“My No. 1 advice for traveling with a kid on a train is to avoid rush hour,” Granger said. “So the middle of the day, between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., is a great time to take the train with the kid. But other than that, just avoid it.”

Communication can be challenging in foreign countries where you don’t speak the language. And when you’re traveling with a kid, there may be urgent situations where you need to get information right away, like where the bathroom is located. Granger recommends downloading Google Translate.

“Most times, Google Translate is the way that we learn to speak another language — very proper, not the way that people actually speak, but I think they usually get the gist and will point me in the right direction,” she said.

Granger said that being patient and considerate is important when asking for help.

“You have to find somebody who looks open to having that conversation because people are just enjoying their regular days of their lives, not on vacation like you,” she said.

Before trips, Granger also learns basic words like “toilet” and “pharmacy” to facilitate communication.