In the next few weeks, my husband and I leave for an 18-day trip to Europe with our kids. We are going to Italy again, but we are also taking a Mediterranean cruise that stops in Greece, Croatia, and Albania.
All and all, I know it will be a blast. But sometimes, I get overwhelmed with all the details of these trips. There is so much to plan and think through, and this is especially true when you travel with kids in tow.
Here are some of the steps I take before any big trip:
- Walk through my daily itinerary to look for issues. One of the first things I do during the planning stage is create a daily itinerary in a Word document. This helps me ensure I have booked accommodation for each night and have a general flow for our trips. As our departure date approaches, I like to walk through each day to see what I might be forgetting. Will we need a rental car for part of the trip? Do I have trains booked? How will we get from the airport to the hotel? All details for each day of our trip are saved in this Word doc so I can see the entire thing in one place.
- Double check all our hotel and Airbnb reservations. I also double check to make sure all our reservations are for the correct dates. If it’s an Airbnb instead of a hotel, I reach out a few weeks before departure to find out how I will communicate with them and let them know about our arrival time. I also add all the host’s details to our travel document so that, once again, it is all in one place.
- Select our seats and meals on the plane. I typically select our seats on the plane as early as I can. I always select “child” meals for our children and vegetarian meals for us, too. I hate airplane food, but I definitely do not want to be served animal products by surprise.
- Set up transportation. For this trip, I have a rental car booked for a few days. We also have a train booking from Venice to Naples, then a private transfer from Naples to the Amalfi Coast. These are all things I booked early and saved in our travel document.
- Plan our travel budget. While we pay for most of our trips with points, miles, and flexible travel credit, they still aren’t free. We have to pay for food and many of the activities we take part in. I am setting a food budget of $100 per day for this trip, so hopefully, we can stick to it. I also had to budget for some items we paid in cash.
- Book day trips and excursions. I love booking guided tours when we’re with our kids. There’s something relaxing about just showing up and having someone else do the planning work for you. For this trip, I booked a boat trip from Praiano, Italy to Capri through Chase Ultimate Rewards. I also booked cruise excursions to Olympia, Greece and Ksamil Beach in Albania. I booked those through MSC Cruises.
- Create a folder for all our travel documents. I print hard copies of all our reservations so I can bring them along with a printed copy of our travel document. I like having everything in writing in case my phone isn’t working.
- Set up daycare for my dog. I usually hire a housesitter when we go on big trips. It helps to have someone get our mail and also keep an eye on our crib. I also really dislike putting my dog in the kennel for more than a week.
- Pay all our bills. We use a monthly budget, so it’s easy to prepay most of our bills for the month. I don’t like dealing with finances when I’m abroad, so this is easiest.
- Call the bank. I call the bank to let them know we will be using our credit cards and ATM card in another country. I also make sure to bring along credit cards with no foreign transaction fees since I like to use credit as much as I can. I typically wait to get to my destination to get money from an ATM instead of bringing foreign currency with me.
- Make copies of our passports. We make copies of our passports in case we lose them. This is always one of my biggest fears!
The Bottom Line
There is so much to think about any time you travel, but the list gets longer when you travel far from home and for a few weeks at a time. Fortunately, it all comes together in the end — even if it takes a while.
What steps do you take before a big trip? What would you add to this list?
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