Monday, January 14, 2013

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:
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.

10 comments:

  1. Have a great time - everything will be fine!!

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  2. Congratulations!! I'm SO glad you are going. I'm a mom of two and the first time my husband and I got away I was beyond nervous, and actually almost didn't get on the plane. I'm so glad I did though, the trip was wonderful for my husband and myself, it came at a time that we greatly needed to reconnect with each other and it served to improve life far more than I had ever imagined. Have all your "ducks in a row" will help you to relax, and by the end of the trip I almost felt guilty that I hadn't thought of the kids for hours.
    Enjoy! I'm eager to hear more about your trip!

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  3. It will be great! But, I have to say, you look exactly the same in the first picture as you do now.:)

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  4. Wow… this is impressive and interesting… You are well prepared, so no wonder everything would be all right….

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  5. First glance I thought what's so hard about travelling without kids then I realised the article is all about pre- vacation :p

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  6. I had a good time before having my kids and now I always hang out with them and never leave them alone.

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  7. It might be good to hangout without kids, but it’ll hurt you a bit and feel like you’re missing something.

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  8. It always feel great when your little kids are not with you on a trip but for me, I would love to let my son experience the world. Exposing him to the world is a thing that excites me the most. There are times that I don't bring my son on our travels and that is on every wedding anniversary of me and my wife.

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  9. We have not experienced traveling without our kids and I'm actually looking forward to that day. But I don't think we can enjoy vacations as much as we do if the kids are not around.

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  10. We have not experienced traveling without our kids and I'm actually looking forward to that day. But I don't think we can enjoy vacations as much as we do if the kids are not around.

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