We love to travel! When we had kids that did not change; however, how we travel did change. We love to hike, so we invested in carriers for when the kids were babies. We love to bike, so we invested in bike seats and a bike trailer until the kids could all ride bikes on their own. Just because you have a larger family does not mean that you have to give up doing what you love; it just may look different for a bit.
We have always done road trips with our kids. From the time they were infants we have traveled. One of our daughters was 3 weeks old when she did her first road trip (about 9 hours to visit family). Over the years we have done countless 17+ hour trips to visit family. We have flown a few times with them but mostly have driven. There are many ways to travel with kids and each family is unique. We tend to be spontaneous and not over-plan. The tips I'm sharing are pretty general but are things we've found to be helpful.
In no particular order; here are my top 10:
Set Expectations:
We have kids who tend to be more introverted so "personal space" is a priority. We have another child who likes to know all the details of a plan and has a harder time with unexpected changes. While we didn't have a complete itinerary we did explain that we would be stopping somewhere each night and that they would all have to share beds. We also set the themes of "go with the flow" and "for the next two weeks there is no such thing as 'personal space' ". Knowing these things ahead of time helped set the tone. We also explained that once we got to our rental unit there would be more room for some time alone and less kids would have to share a bed.
Be Flexible:
Being flexible made this trip, probably, one of the most fun trips we've taken. At one point we had our oldest girl just googling what was on the road we were currently on and then we decided if/where we wanted to stop. The kids loved getting to help decide. Hotels were booked a few hours before we were set to arrive at our stop for the night.
Prioritize hotels with free breakfast:
Eating out is expensive! Feeding a family of 8 (4 of those kiddos being teen or adults) is a lot. Finding hotels that included breakfast took away any added cost/hassle each morning. Since I don't typically eat breakfast everyone would get ready, head down to breakfast and I would have that time to get myself ready. It worked wonderfully!
Check if membership is cheaper (factor in if you'll use reciprocity):
This is something we have done since the kids were little. We used to buy a family museum membership each year; when we would go to visit family we would check which museums had reciprocity. The program has changed a bit, with many museums only giving a 50% discount but many still do give free admission. This trip we decided to stop at the Columbus Zoo; it was cheaper for us to buy the family membership than to pay for day tickets. Now that we have that membership we can go to museums closer to home for free for the year; using the museum reciprocity.
Using the reciprocity program over the years for museums and zoos has allowed us to take our kids to many places that otherwise would have been out of our budget.
For longer stays have a kitchen & cook:
This tip is similar to the breakfast one. Eating out is expensive! Due to the size of our family we usually have to stay in rental properties (we do have a timeshare but I do NOT recommend those! a decision made when we were younger that, while it has been useful over the years, is not one we would repeat; especially now that short term rentals are so prevalent.)
Having a kitchen is a huge bonus. My hubby and I enjoy cooking together; and while usually I handle the cooking when home; while on vacation it's fun to have more time to cook together. We typically do some simpler, fun recipes with ingredients that can be used for multiple meals. On this trip, the grocery bill was higher than our normal grocery bill but it was still much less than if we had eaten out every night.
Truck stops:
We have found that truck stops are generally a better choice than the smaller gas stations. We found that the gas is often cheaper, the bathrooms cleaner and their snack choices are better. This trip we grabbed some meal boxes which included hummus, veggies and pita breads. The truck stops also often have pre-made sandwiches, etc. Which are less than buying a full meal but more nutritious than chips, candy, etc that the smaller stores typically have available.
Everyone tries to go at every bathroom stop:
Okay, so this tip is one that we learned quickly when the kids were little. We would ask who needed to use the restroom, a couple of them would go and then we'd get a bit down the road and suddenly someone else had to go. So, now every time we make a bathroom stop; everyone has to try. Live and learn. :)
Bring comfort items:
It can be tempting to try and minimize packing but allowing the kids to bring a small bag with a few "comfort" items, such as a blanket, stuffed animal, etc. really makes life easier. We are fortunate that all of our kids will sleep in the car, having that special blanket helps. Also, each of them having a smaller bag of activities/items that they keep at their feet minimizes having to get into the back for everything.
Pack cooler/snacks:
Having a cooler and snack bag helps minimize stops and money spent. We typically pack crackers, hummus, veggies, granola bars, dried fruits/trail mix, cheese sticks, etc and drinks such as water, seltzer, cold coffee and sometimes we'll bring yogurt drinks.
It's their vacation too; let kids have some say:
Trips with the kids look very different from trips without kids...and that is great! We have been to Disney with kids and without kids; same place but the experiences were very different. While we do plan most of the trip we also fully recognize that this is their vacation as well. We want them to have fun and have a say in what we do too. For example, we took a side trip to Niagara Falls because one kid wanted to use their passport for the first time and a couple other kids have wanted to see the falls for a few years now. Another, very simple example from this trip. We mentioned how that once we got to the rental unit two of the girls would have to share a bed, while one of them could have their own bed (two double beds in the room they would share). All three of them did not like this idea; so our youngest asked if we could bring one of our twin air mattresses for her. The mattress didn't take up much space in the car and she was more than happy to use it for the week to have her own bed. It was a minor thing but made all of them happy.
BONUS TIP:
Credit card points! We have a credit card that we use for pretty much everything. We pay it off each month. This credit card gives us points that we can then use to cover travel expenses, etc. We have used these points to cover airfare, hotels, uber trips, etc. We have taken trips where the airfare for all 8 of us was covered by credit card points. Credit cards can be a wonderful tool when used responsibly!
Have FUN!
