For the next post in our Traveling with Kids series, we are switching gears from babies to teenagers, both complex for their own reasons. Today’s post comes from Janine Robinson who, with her partner, took her 17-year-old son and his 13-year-old twin sisters to Europe in March of 2019. She is a brave woman and lived to tell us the tale.
Why Take Teens to Europe
When many people think of family vacations they think about relaxing on a beach with their feet in the sand, kids building castles, and playing in the surf. This certainly sounds amazing right now as winter in Ohio is quickly approaching, and our family does enjoy the beach house vacation where I read trashy romance novels and completely zone out in the sun. But sometimes I want something a little different from my vacations.
Every few years we go big and take a trip that creates unique life-long memories. Our most recent trip to Europe was certainly one of those adventures, one that had people asking me over and over: Why on earth would you take three teenagers to Europe?
The answer is simple: My husband and I believe our lives have been enriched by travel so why would we not believe the same for our children? Any travel, domestic or abroad, is a great opportunity to hone personality traits we hope will help our kids thrive as healthy adults that contribute to their communities: traits like curiosity, flexibility and compassion.
I think now is the perfect time to expose them to new things and uncomfortable situations, while my husband and I can help guide them when they get off track (even if they protest). Got on the wrong train? Laugh about it, get off at the next stop and get on another. Can’t read the menu? Look for clues in the words, Google ones you can’t figure out, and always try to read it aloud to your server, rather than just pointing. Can’t speak the language fluently? Try anyway. Locals will appreciate the attempt. Found yourself lost? Use your basic directional knowledge. Your hotel was north of the big church and you can see the steeple peeking above the buildings so head that way.
Going through experiences like these instills a mindset that things don’t always go as planned, sometimes there are challenges and you have the tools, ingenuity, and tenacity to work through them.
Prepping for Missing School
We decided to go in March because we could tack our trip onto the back end of the week long spring break the kids already had. Even still we knew they would miss about a week and a half worth of assignments. While some parents wouldn’t dream of doing something like this, and frankly some of teachers did not approve either, we knew that we could take advantage of off-peak deals and that our teens' minds would be expanded in so many ways during the trip. Ways that just cannot happen in the classroom. We also are blessed with three excellent students, so we knew that they would each catch up on missed assignments quickly.
Planning Our Adventure
Another question I often get is: How did you plan that big of a trip yourself with no travel planner? When we started planning this trip six months out, we knew we wanted to include the kids. After many conversations around the family dinner table, we decided we would let each teen choose one city and plan that part of our trip themselves. Doing it this way took some of the heavy lifting off my husband and me, and it empowered our kids to take ownership of their vacation. They researched where to stay, things to do, places to eat. They not only had a voice in the planning, but they each served as the cruise director in their chosen cities, navigating time changes, train maps, restaurant reservations, and activity tickets. Of course there was some parental guidance, encouraging them to include the traditional tourist spots like museums and cathedrals, but also to look for off-the-beaten-path ideas and consider what the locals do in the area. Additionally, we love to leave time for unplanned discoveries, some of which end up being the most memorable.
It was like having three personal travel agents, and because each of the kids sees things through a unique lens, each city’s itinerary was distinctly different. Some attractions where more traditional like our Eiffel Tower visit and a canal tour. Others were completely random and stumbled upon such as Horta’s life-sized labyrinth in Barcelona and the Fairy Garden at Malahide Castle outside of Dublin.
By breaking up the vacation planning in this way we gave our kids a measure of responsibility and ownership of their own experience, along with the ability to have pride in sharing their choices with the rest of the family.
Taking Off
With bags packed and everything booked, we headed off on our biggest family vacation yet. We ended up visiting Spain, France, Germany, Netherlands and Ireland, and traveled by plane, train, car and boat.
We leveraged this hodge podge of transportation means to move locations every 2-3 days and also experienced a 20-degree temperature swing from our first stop in Barcelona to our last in Dublin. Because of the transient nature of our travels we had to be very thoughtful about our packing choices (layer, layer, layer) and of course leaving room in our luggage for all the mementos we picked up along the way.
During our more than two weeks abroad we stayed in both hotels and Airbnbs. The later accommodations were where we felt the most at home and we got the most genuine experiences as many of our Airbnb locations were nestled in quaint neighborhoods rather than busy tourist areas. The locations of the Airbnb flats also put us in the center of some of the most amazing, and often cheapest, restaurant selections with some of the friendliest staff who would talk to us, ask the kids about their experiences, and give us inside tips and recommendations for the next day. For these, and many other reasons, we hands down vote for renting from locals when you travel if at all possible.
Looking back, our trip could not have been more perfect. I say this with full memory of a dinner in Spain when we ordered 20 different tapas items but only had a mild clue what half of them were, the complaints from my 4'10" tall daughter about the too-fast walking pace of my 6' tall son, and the style-hindering frustrations of my other daughter regarding our rule that everyone only have one piece of luggage. Heaven forbid each person also be responsible for hauling their own bags. Nothing ever goes completely as planned but that is what makes it fun, that’s where you learn about other people and the world around you. It is in these moments that you can grow as an individual and make memories that last a lifetime.