Engaging Kids in Travel

The best way to keep kids engaged and interested on family travel is to make them part of the planning and travel process. You can be pretty sure of keeping a kid’s interest if the attraction or place you’re visiting is one they’ve chosen themselves.

For older kids, this can begin long before you leave home, by involving them in the choice of destinations and activities. Once at a destination, older kids can be responsible getting the family from place to place or following walking tours with GPS. They can be responsible for checking opening hours and determining if advance booking is necessary. Keeping track of the small change is a favorite for pre-teens traveling in a foreign country (and good math practice, too).

Kids love collecting things, and a good way to keep younger kids engaged and observant is by encouraging them to “collect” new experiences. A favorite mode of collecting is through different means of transportation — planes, taxis, buses, trams, cable cars, funiculars, gondolas, bicycles, ferries, kayaks, tuk-tuks — they’ll be surprised how many different ways they’ll see people getting around.

A favorite collection for our kids is animals, which they’ve found carved at the top of columns in medieval churches, worked into Roman mosaic floors, on flags, as part of statues and paintings and in contemporary street art.

If kids are are too young for a cellphone, give them a small inexpensive camera so they can record and share their collections.