Advice for Traveling Without the Kids

I'm tagging along on my husband's business trip to England this week. The last time we were in Europe together, we looked like this:

In other words, 5 years younger and without the stress of 2 kids!

But as I'm preparing to leave the Arrows for nearly a week, I'm relying on great advice from my fellow family travel bloggers. Here are some tips and stories they shared about traveling without the kids:

• My favorite resource is this list of Things to Do Before Your Vacation without the Kids over at The Vacation Gals by Jennifer of Two Kids and a Map.
• This checklist for Planning for a Vacation without the Kids that Linda at Travels with Children put together is another really helpful post, especially if you'll be gone for a while like we are.
• Mara's post about 5 Reasons to Travel without the Kids at The Mother of All Trips reminds me to stop worrying and just enjoy the time together. I think "finished conversations" are what I'm most looking forward to. (Well, that and the fact that my carry-on bag includes books for ME to read. To myself. And not using a pirate voice.)
• I really relate to this post Tips for Leaving Baby to Go on Vacation from Hilarye at Dotting the Map, because her daughter and Little Arrow (13 months) are about the same age, or they were at the time she wrote her post. In some ways, he's the hardest for me to leave, mostly because he's the neediest and can't express what he wants to anyone yet. (Unlike Big Arrow (3 1/2) who will be more than happy to tell his grandparents he'd like another cookie...)
• Katie shares her journey from mom traveler to wife traveler at Trekaroo and offers some tips at her post, Are You Ready for a Romantic Getaway?
• Corinne at Have Baby Will Travel explains why sticking close to home for a night away is a good idea at A Little Jaunt without Baby.
• If you need a laugh, this is a great post from The Family Adventure Project as she prepared for her first trip away from the family: What Am I Now? A Female Solo Family Travel Blogger? Hopefully I don't show up at Heathrow with a Disney backpack.
• When Sherri Scofield-May, who writes Sherri's Traveling Classroom, has to be away, she has an emergency packet for her sitter. It contains everything important, like insurance information and instructions for an emergency. What a great idea even if you don't have travel plans... you never know when the unexpected will happen.

As for me, I've put together a medical release letter for both boys, which includes their health insurance and allergy information. I've also created a large document with general info on our day-to-day schedule, favorite foods and restaurants, fun and easy outing ideas, household info like trash day, and contact info for neighbors, friends and our pediatrician. The kitchen is stocked with favorite foods for the boys. We also cleaned the whole house over the weekend and did the boys' laundry right before we left. Hopefully this means there won't be much "housework" beyond the usual clean up after meals and toy clutter.

My husband has an international cell phone, so we'll be an easy and free phone call away. And we've practiced FaceTime with all the grandparents, so it will be nice to actually "see" the boys while we're gone, too.

With such fun grandparents, do you really think they'll miss us?

I'm really nervous about leaving the Arrows for this long. But I know they're in good hands, and I'm a firm believer in spending some time with your spouse away from the kids. So it's time to practice what I preach and get on that plane.

More on our adventures in England to come!

This post is a part of Travel Tips Tuesday at Walking on Travels and Suitcases and Sippy Cups.