The Top 5 Benefits of Family Travel
Wondering whether there are really any benefits of family travel? We’re here to say that there most definitely are and that it was actually difficult to limit it to just 5 benefits of family travel!
We strongly believe that traveling the world is the best gift you can give your children. We don’t place much importance on material possessions and live by the mantra – Collect moments, not things. This is one of our favourite travel quotes.
Here are our thoughts on the main benefits of family travel.
We enjoyed travelling the world before having kids but hadn’t seen everything we wanted to see. Many people asked us if we would miss travelling once we had kids, but we hadn’t really considered not-travelling as an option. It was a huge part of our life and we did not want to give it up.
When our first child arrived, we immediately applied for his passport and when his first baby vaccinations were complete we took our first flight with a baby to Italy.

Enjoying a family holiday with an extremely portable 11 week old baby
Travelling as a family is certainly different to our travels pre-kids. Be prepared to take a lot more stuff! Having a packing checklist for kids stuff can really help.
Concerned about how to deal with the first flight with a baby, check out our tips for flying with a baby.
Fying with toddlers? Check these toy ideas to keep toddlers entertained on a flight.
We also take a lot more photos! We have recently found a great way to deal with these. We have been making Rosemood photo calendars and photo books which are just gorgeous!
But what we have learned from our travels with the kids is that there are a whole host of benefits that come with travelling as a family.
So, still wondering what are the advantages of travelling with family?
Here are our top 5 benefits of family travel.
1. Family travel strengthens bonds
At home it can feel like we are hamsters in a wheel, spinning faster and faster but never getting anywhere.
We have routines with the ultimate goal of getting everyone to where they need to be (preferably on time!).
But these routines don’t allow much time for relaxing and just being with the kids, especially for Ed who has a very long and hectic working week.
When we’re on holiday, our focus is much more on the kids. They love this attention, and it gives them comfort and confidence that we enjoy being with them.
This is so much more beneficial for them than fleeting conversations at home. Stronger bonds are formed with this more focused quality family time.
Family time with the kids when we are travelling includes building sandcastles, playing any kind of ball game, hide and seek, treasure hunts….the list goes on.

Building sandcastles on Dikwella beach in Sri Lanka
2. Family travel is fun
This one goes hand in hand with benefit number one, and spending more quality time with the kids.
Regardless of how much travel we’d done before having kids, travelling with kids gave us a whole new perspective of the world – literally from knee-high to a grasshopper level!
They see many details that we may miss. They stop to question things. They question everything! They have no inhibitions and just want to have fun, which means we join in and do silly things and laugh and play.
If we had travelled to our desert camp in Wadi Rum in Jordan without the kids, we would have done a tour and then enjoyed a sunset drink.
With the kids, we did our tour and then did a spot of sand dune surfing before having our sunset drinks!
If you ask the kids what they love about our travels, they will probably tell you that mum and dad are more fun and we play more.
Alternatively, they may tell you that they get more ice cream – you never know with kids what they’ll say!

Sand dune surfing in Wadi Rum
3. Family travel is educational
One of the life-long benefits of family travel is that kids learn so much. They are little sponges for knowledge. We encourage our kids to learn about where we are going by studying a map.
They learn basic words like ‘Hello‘ and ‘Thank you’ in the language of each country we visit. Some will be forgotten as soon as we set foot on the plane home, some will last.
Our boys are quite taken with the word soukran (thank you in Arabic) which they learned and used a lot during our family trip to Jordan.

Greeting a carriage driver at Petra with ‘ As-salam alaykom’
They also show an appreciation for their surroundings (the flora and fauna) and they have been known to devour street food in Jordan and spicy food in Sri Lanka.
This has been great for combating fussy eating when we’re back home.

Enjoying street food in Kerak, Jordan
You may not think anything is going in when you ask what they learned that day and get blank looks, but we guarantee it is going in and will come out one day when you are least expecting it.
Things learned through travel and personal experience will stay put longer than anything read in a text book. Combine the two and you are onto a winning formula.

Learning about marine life from a submarine in the Red Sea
4. Family travel creates life long memories
The memories created from travelling as a family are priceless. Already the kids at 4 and 6 like to recount their favourite memories from our travels.
As they get older the memories will become more sophisticated.
We live by the mantra – “Collect moments not things“.
For now, their favourite memory is of a little Sri Lankan toddler they met at one of our homestays who wet his shorts, wiped his hands on his shorts and then slapped George on the head. Don’t ask…

Practising writing and keeping a journal of our holiday activities
5. Family travel is good for our mental and physical health and well-being
And leaving the best for last, travelling can help children and adults alike to become more mindful.
Children are naturally mindful, and we as adults can learn from their ability to investigate and be inquisitive.
New experiences and places provide wonderful opportunities to remind one another of the importance of stopping and becoming aware of our surroundings, using the 5 senses; smell, sight, touch, taste and sound.
We felt this was an important topic to research because of the worrying trend of increasing mental health issues in children, and ended up writing a separate blog piece on this – The Mental Health Benefits of Travel for Children.
If you need any more convincing, here’s a very interesting read in The Telegraph looking at the science behind how holidays make your child happier and smarter.
There is no doubt that we are a stronger family unit when we’re on holiday for all of the reasons above, but I won’t lie to you and say that while travelling we exist in perfect harmony all the time.
We still have to deal with the odd tantrum. Kids will always need to let off a little steam if they are tired or hungry.
The hardest days for the whole family are transit days, which can be very long and tiring but are a means to a (good) end.
These tantrums are, however, much easier to deal with if everyone is more relaxed in the first place.
We hope this post has given some encouragement to just get out there and explore with your little ones.
And it doesn’t have to be foreign travel at all – it’s important just to get out and about and spend quality time together as a family, wherever that may be.
We can’t always travel now that the kids are in school, so sometimes we just head off somewhere in the UK for a change and to get away from the routine at home.
In fact, we recently bought a VW Campervan and are making the most of exploring the most beautiful parts of the UK in the campervan with the kids.
Van Life brings us even closer together (in more ways than one!) and we highly recommend it.
Thinking of camping with young kids but not sure whether it is doable? Make sure to check out our tips for camping with toddlers and general family camping tips.

Family time in the UK on a stay-cation

Yes. Yes. Yes. Travel broadens the mind and lifts the spirit. Travel is fun but you have to prepare your mind for the delays en route.. Have a plan B and plenty of distractions for the younger ones when stuck in queues. You don’t have to go to New Zealand or the States for a fun holiday with the kids. Let them discover that in their, ‘gap’ years.. Closer to home France has a never ending and diverse holiday experience.. Each department has its own charm, traditions and festivals throughout the year. OK everyone wants the sunshine of the South of France but Dunkirk has its annual herring festival every February, /March with thousands gathering with their colourful umbrellas and masques, some on stilts.. And it’s jus a hop across the Channel. Oooh please stop me…I’m already to book our next France adventure.. Ps did I mention the Alpes and Pyrenees? ?
Completely agree Terence – you don’t need to travel halfway around the world to have a unique family travel experience. France is very much a staple for us, and we try and get there every a year on a road trip exploring. It’s so easy to all bundle in the car, hop on a ferry and have an adventure. We were blown away by some of the passes in the Pyrenees, they must rival any views in the world… I feel a blog post coming on!
I love your idea to focus more on your kids when on vacation. My wife and I are trying to find a place that has things for us and them. But I’ll see what she thinks about finding a place that is better for them so we can just experience our happiness through theirs.
Thanks for your comment. I’m not sure we ever said that holidays should be all about the kids. It’s definitely better to find somewhere that everyone will enjoy. I hope you manage to find something suitable.
I love how you said that traveling as a family gives your kids priceless memories. My husband and I want to make sure our kids have a wonderful childhood experience. One of our kids’ favorite things to do is watch parades, so we will have to look into traveling as a family to see a cool parade that will give our kids fun memories.