Family Travel Tips  -  11 Lessons Learned On Our Trip to London With Kids

Hey guys in this video we are going to be sharing 11 lessons that we learned on our recent international trip to Europe with our kids. Hi I'm Joseph and I'm Tasha with One Big Happy Life and we make videos about how to find balance build wealth and live happy. So if you are all about creating a life that you love on your own terms then we make videos just for you. So be sure to subscribe and hit that notification bell so you don't miss any of our videos. We just got back from a wonderful vacation to London and we have some lessons that we want to share with you so if you're thinking about international travel you can make it the best it can be. And we'll drop a link down below and card up above so you can check out the highlight reel from that trip where we kind of talk about what we did every day and show you some of the sites from our trip. So be sure to check that out too. Our family is relatively new to the international travel game. This is actually only our second trip where we're really doing the planning and getting around to see the sites. So we're still learning and we want you to learn from us. So number one plan your trip in advance and so in our Singapore trip we that pretty much went out went off without a hitch because I spent a lot of time really literally months planning out every single detail of that trip. Our London trip Alexis actually did most of the planning and there was planning involved but it definitely wasn't quite as intense as my as the planning for Singapore because we ended up running into a couple of hiccups. One of which is leaving enough room for like transit and just kind of some flexibility. If you pack it in too tightly then stuff's going to get cut and and so that advanced planning can really help with that. Yeah I feel like most of the things on Alexis most of the days on Alexis's itinerary had at least four things for us to do every single day and in theory some of them should have been really short like the first day was like an easy day where we were going to three or four parks. Three or four parks seems like a lot in a single day but she's like oh but they're close we never made it to any of those parks because we were so tired it's and Alexis was very sad about that but just try not to over schedule or overbook yourself. It's I know it can be really tempting because I know we wanted to see a lot because we were thinking well how many times are we really going to come back to London better to try to see everything but we just ended up burning ourselves out trying to just fit too much in. Yeah so it's best just pick those few big priorities that you definitely want to hit and then spread those out and then fit in some little nice things along the way. Number two get travel insurance. Now this is for a lot of different reasons and if you're traveling a lot you can even get like a policy that covers the entire year or if you're only traveling occasionally you can get this just for a single trip but the reason that it's so important well there's several okay so if you get sick while you're in a foreign country well that'll cover you for that it'll cover you if there's some crazy weather and that you have to cancel your trip and if you're like us and a bag doesn't arrive with you it can also help you. It will help you because it will include your baggage coverage and I we normally do get trip insurance but I forgot I completely dropped the ball I'm like oh well I'll get to it and then I didn't I forgot and so we're there we lost a bag it's the first time we had ever lost a bag thankfully it wasn't the worst possible bag for us to lose because we still had all of our clothing and obviously we had the shoes that we wore there it was our toiletry bag so it had you know a lot of diapers not all of the diapers though um things like toothbrushes and stuff like that so it wasn't that bad yeah I mean I couldn't fix my hair for an entire day oh it had my makeup which is why when you'll see the first day that we're vlogging I don't have any makeup on because my makeup was in the bag normally that's one of the essentials that I pack and I take with me because I'm like oh I don't want to run the risk of not having my makeup and I didn't and bam look what happens now the reason that it's critical if you lose something like like the toiletry bag like we did so the airlines have pretty strict policies on what they will reimburse you for and how long how many days it'll take to get reimbursed and travel insurance is much more flexible about helping you out like we happen to be staying with somebody where it was really easy to just borrow some of the things that they had but otherwise we'd be out buying deodorant buying or buying clothing if we had been unlucky enough to have lost a clothing bag now thankfully we did get our baggage the next day but we were just sitting there scrambling in a way that we never have before because we're also like oh my gosh well which credit card did we use to book this trip is there some travel coverage for baggage at least on the credit card and the answer was no it wasn't because that credit card had cut those things so I guess a secondary thing to the travel insurance is in addition to your travel insurance also think about which credit card you're going to be using to book your trip for the travel benefits that your credit card might have and I don't know of any credit card that has extensive benefits to where you can just completely not have travel insurance so don't think that your credit card is going to be enough but it's sort of like this base level that can help you out number three make sure to pack your like some comfort items and snacks for your big trips because you don't want to be on the plane and have to be buying snacks and buying blankets because not all that stuff is included like maybe it once was but it's definitely nickel and diming situations on a lot of airlines yeah we did I didn't check I assumed because so we flew Norwegian I knew that we were going to get meals it's like meals because one was a full meal the other one was basically like a roll that's not a meal that's a like a roll but when we flew Japan it was like two full meals and unlimited snacks and beverages in between plus they had little slippers they had like moist towelettes for you to like warm towels for you to wipe your hands they had blankets they had pillows they had everything you could need an unlimited supply in the super cheap economy class so with Norwegian we just kind of sauntered onto the plane like of course this is going to be awesome no we're buying five dollar blankets that are thin as paper and all of that so I just you know check your flight check the airline see what they include and what they don't include because chances are you're going to want pillows and blankets maybe even something comfortable to put on your feet if it's a long flight and if you're traveling with children don't make the mistake we made and travel without at least one stuffed animal bring at least one stuffed animal we made a mistake there number four pack your favorite snacks you are going to get hungry on a long haul flight and waiting in the airport you're going to want to munch on something and you don't want to be paying airport prices or you don't want to run the risk of having to eat whatever the hell is in the airport when you don't actually want any of that stuff so it's better to just kind of pack a couple apples granola bars whatever gummies things that you know that you actually enjoy eating so that you're not coming to just eat whatever happens to be at the airport because not every airport has a good number of options now one thing about that if you are flying internationally sometimes the fresh fruits and vegetables that can like get you like they'll take it from you when you arrive and so make sure you eat that on the plane before you arrive so you don't lose it once you get there number five keep essentials in your carry-on now we followed this rule really well when we went to singapore in that we each had two changes of clothing in our carry-ons just in case something happens to our baggage and so we did not follow that rule when it came to going to london and thankfully again we just lost the toiletry bag so it wasn't a big deal but if we had lost either one of our other suitcases well one of the suitcases had all of the kids clothing in it and then the other suitcase had all of our clothing in it so it would have been a disaster if we had lost either one of those suitcases so we kind of got off lucky so lesson learned we will never again not have at least a couple essentials like extra diapers the and at least one change of clothing for each of us in our carry-ons now the one thing that i did do correctly so if you've been following us on instagram you know that we're getting ready to do an ibf cycle and that i started this we started the cycle while we were in london i had i took the birth control pills with me to start the cycle normally i would put my put the birth control pills in with the toiletry bag that's where my prenatal vitamins were but i said well you know what just in case let me put it with me in my carry-on and so i had my birth control pills and i was able to start them on time because i kept them with me so thankfully that worked out yeah number six take your kids ages into account when you are planning all of those activities the last thing that you want to do is plan a full day of things that your kid is just going to be bored out of their mind you can't get out of the stroller so definitely mix it up and like you had a really active kid like a toddler that's three named reeves you got a plan that he needs to run around and you want like he loves to be chased he needs room to be chased and yeah and it's funny i thought so like we went to where's the place where the crown jewels are again went tower of london so we went to the tower of london there's plenty of open space for reeves to run around he didn't want to get out of the stroller because there was nothing interesting to look at like he does not care about the crown jewels compare that instead to how he was with the two museums the science museum and the natural history museum he was happy to pop on up and look at all the different things he was very intrigued even though the natural science museum it was like rockets and stuff like that and he's still like nope this is super cool so i think that we could have done a better job of making sure that there were things that would be very interesting to him and so with singapore basically everything that we did was visually appealing like the zoo um the there was a science museum that we went to twice we went to light shows we did like aerial things like where we were at the cable cars like so like when we were in the london eye he was just fascinated the whole time in singapore but yeah you're right when whenever we had great views things to that looked really interesting then he was into it like a castle it was cool for about 30 seconds and then there's a castle and then that was it yeah so definitely take that into consideration and so to that end i don't think when it comes to reeves we won't be doing european type city type things anymore because he just doesn't care about architecture he's not really that into food like chicken nuggets and french fries and he is good so that is not the best type of trip for uh you know a three or a four or maybe even a five year old number seven investigate all of your transit options well in advance before you get there now this this was the most complicated transit options that that we had like there were so many different ways to get from here or there and we we made our best guesses before we got there but once we were there we ended up changing plans like completely doing rail versus being driven in and so you want to know the best ways to do all that well in advance and how much it's going to yeah when it comes to planning so with singapore versus london when i was planning it out i thought about i looked at where everything was going to be on the map and how we would get from place to place how far apart things were with london we didn't realize how far out my aunt lived until the week before because i didn't ask her for her address and so we're like okay that's far but we didn't realize it was a 40 minute drive but it's an hour and a half on the train so we were spending three hours a day commuting back and forth to my aunt's house and then we also used the tube to get around london whereas in singapore we ubered everywhere and with our singapore trip people were like oh well why are you guys ubering everywhere you know the transit is great but with singapore we knew we were time crunched and we didn't want to spend 30 minutes on the you know public transportation when it could be a six minute car ride so with london we didn't even consider ubering we just decided we were gonna tube and it would take us like half an hour 40 minutes like as we were going from attraction to attraction not to mention going in and out of london to my aunt so we wasted a lot of time just in transit and i think the trip was not as good because of it like we didn't get in as much and realistically like the ubering and we're taking a taxi wasn't financially feasible as an option like we could do it but oh my gosh it would have been so expensive we did uber we did there were some nights when we got in so late like when we got in from bath and it was like nine o'clock and we were trying to see if maybe we were gonna go to paris the next day on that 7 a.m flight we what was it like a 60 or 70 uber pound 60 or 70 pound uber from london to my aunt's house and we were just exhausted there was no way we were gonna take the train so just know how you're getting from place to place and plan budget for that for sure number eight space out really busy days or really long days with some lighter days to let you relax we tried to pack in two major days back to back and we ultimately just couldn't cut it so we had a 12 hour trip to windsor castle bath and stonehenge and then the very next day super early flight flying over to paris we plan those back to back that was crazy now alexis will make it clear that she actually did not plan those back to back it was supposed to happen there was supposed to be a day in between them but because our sunday got thrown off it threw the rest of the schedule off and so it bumped those two up together and the one that we made it to was bath and then we did not make it to paris so that means that the tickets to the louvre that we had the flights that we paid for that money all was just like gone down the drain so lesson learned there yeah fortunately though at least the flights weren't that bad which is why we you know aren't just just dying from it number nine plan to stay close to the attractions if at all possible now i'm gonna say that i already said this in our highlight reel video but i loved spending as much time with my aunt as we did it was the highlight of my trip um that's the most i've ever spent with her in my entire life and i love getting to know her better and to know you know her story better and to hear about her life um and so i wouldn't change it for a thing and honestly just going back to see family is the only reason why we would really go back to see london because we just that was the highlight of our trip for i think all of us really second close second is stonehenge and third would be boden where i got this shirt um for me anyway yeah but you gotta take into account the transit time and because if you're only going to be going there you know maybe once ever then the last thing that you want to do is get a really really intimate knowledge of the inside of a train car and we spent a lot of time on the train i would say we spent just as much time on the trains or buses as we did at attractions like very close yeah and so so for us while it was it was great being able to see tasha's family there there was also definitely a time consideration with that and so if you can make sure that you're picking where you're staying around the things that you want to see so that you don't have that transit time or know that you know your trip is going to be extended and you're not going to be able to fit in as much as you want to fit in and so for us with singapore the only reason why we got in as much as we did is because we stayed central because we had thought about staying a little bit further away where the hotels were cheaper right which is basically what we did with my aunt and we decided not to do that because we knew that we wanted to fit in as much as possible and we didn't know when the next time would be or if ever that we would return to singapore so we were trying to do a similar thing in london except we didn't stay close in we stayed way far out so we really didn't get to see very much at all number 10 plan your communications so your cell service we each have phones alexis tasha and i reeves doesn't yet hopefully never but we looked into how we were going to be able to communicate in case you get separated or intentionally go see different things and fortunately for us we have t-mobile and the plans that we have work over there in the uk yeah for no additional fee yeah so so no problem there with us but you might need a new sim card or something like that and so it's best to know exactly how you're going to do that ahead of time so you can be prepared for the expense and maybe some of the time the hassle to get whatever new sim card or a burner phone or whatever it's going to be so number 11 we thought we would chat a little bit about things to consider if you are choosing to stay with family on your vacation and so this is a multi-part final tip so number one understand that it's not going to feel as much like a vacation because you're staying in someone's house and my aunt was the most gracious host like of all time she's like make yourself comfortable reeves is picking up glass things and she's like oh that's fine we can buy another one like my british accent is not great but she's just like it's it's totally fine it doesn't matter this home was made for children he can do whatever he wants and he was jumping all over the place and she was awesome but it's not it's still not the same as being at a hotel and knowing that you can kind of be messy like not like dirty but like let your clothes flow out of your luggage and you know no one's really going to judge you don't have to worry about you know imposing on someone as much as they tell you you are not and you can do whatever there's you still a part of you is not going to be able to let go of the fact that it's i have to make sure that i'm cleaning up very well after myself and i'm putting away things you know i can't just rush out to try to catch this attraction i have to leave their house in a respectable manner and they're you know it's not their responsibility to make my bed for me in the morning and that kind of stuff yeah so there's definitely going to be a sense of responsibility that you don't want to offend the person that you're staying with and rightfully so yeah it because you know like a towel on the floor or in the bathroom at a hotel that's not a big deal you know they expect that but i just think about if somebody were staying with you and they're they were leaving towels on the floor you might be like that's a little odd it's okay but and so you know there's that sense of responsibility and and that's fine yeah so just take that into consideration when you're making your decision on where you want to stay lastly you'll want to actually ask your family where they're where they live before you say that you're going to stay with them because the minute you say you're going to stay with them they're making plans right so they like my aunt she cleared her schedule for us and so understand that you know depending on how your family is i don't know they may just be like yeah come i'm just going to be living my normal life and you just come and go as you please or they might say all right i'm available for you all week long whatever you want to do i'm going to take you around so depending on you know how they are but just know where they live like ask them where they live because like we live in the dc area but we are an hour and a half by train away from dc so we would definitely say like if someone wanted to come stay with us because they want to see dc i'm like that's cool dc is expensive but just kind of understand that you're probably going to have to rent a car and like schlep back and forth and if you're cool with that we're cool with that because we have a guest room that nobody ever uses so you're more than welcome but just kind of know in advance and make sure that that's part of your travel plan when you do that all right so hope you guys can take our lessons learned and apply them to your travel and we certainly encourage travel and it was super fun even though we have these little lessons as as we're doing more and more travel you know you'll get better and better at it the first time might be a little rough but you know this is super good trip like it was really enjoyable awesome and so we will see you guys in later this week with our cost breakdown from the trip bye bye