Great Family Holidays Traveling with Kids

This Hub is about how to make the most of your family holidays, and get the best out of your kids, no matter how old they are. It will help you make sure the whole family will really enjoy their holiday and the places they visit.

Was last year's holiday with your family as good as it could have been or should have been? If the answer is no - then I guess that the kids weren't as excited by the ancient ruins you visited or the beautiful countryside as you were!

This can be a big problem for many families - so how do we keep the kids happy when we're on great holidays?

As an experienced teacher and I know that both young children and teenagers always work hard at trying to understand the world around them, but first they must be stimulated, challenged, actively involved, and well prepared.

The whole family has to get involved when it's holiday time. If you don't do your homework, then they'll be bored, uninterested, and could even be frightened of the change.

Before leaving this page take a few minutes to listen to Sally Webster's (TEDsCanberra) Travel Stories for Young People, as she is expert at explaining exactly what needs to be done!

I used to be the UK Travel Contributor on Squidoo so a lot of my Hubs are about the United Kingdom.

Thanks very much indeed for your visit.

We have been taking my son abroad since he was 8 weeks old, so, at 14, he is really well traveled. When we take him abroad we always make sure that he knows something about the culture, history, and geography of the place. We do this to enrich his experience.

Although it sounds like more school, trust me, it is not boring if you do it the right way.

One of our recent trips was to Rome. My son was learning about the Romans at school and that included a week-long school trip to Hadrian's Wall, UK. So, it seemed the right time to take him on a trip Rome itself.

We started reading up about Rome's ancient history and about the places we were planning on visiting. We read exciting stories about gladiators, Roman mythology, gods, and the death of Julius Cesar - nothing boring there.

Also, we did things like cooked Italian food, learned on-line about the climate, and with Google Earth had a good look at some of the places we were going to see and where we were going to stay.

By the time we were about to set off he couldn't wait to get there and see it all for real and he really did feel as though he was going somewhere very familiar. Of course we also had to do our own reading and research so that we could talk about it all together, and could explain things and arouse his interest with anecdotes and extra info that a boy would like. All this made our trip all the more interesting too.

We first saw the Colosseum when it was too late to go in. Tomorrow we said, but he begged us to cross the road just so that he could reach out to touch it - that's how excited he was! His enthusiasm was completely contagious and we experienced Rome through his eyes.

The result truly was that we had a holiday that we will remember forever.

You may be thinking that it's OK for us because we only have one child to think of. I accept that that is easier, however, there are times when a playmate would come in very handy! We have found many ways of having fun, even when it rains on our parade!

And boy did it rain... very hard for three whole days. We, of course, prepared for Easter heat.

This is my son modelling his newly bought plastic poncho. We bought one each, all baby blue, well it was either that or pink! In the end we were even forced to wear our crocs and shorts under the ponchos, making it look as though we had forgotten our trousers! Not very elegant. Even the tourists laughed, but that was the only way we could keep going without getting totally drenched and admit defeat.

The unexpected always happens and so that's when my 'be prepared' mantra comes into its own!