So many people dream about traveling. They scroll Instagram looking at incredible destinations, unbelievable natural wonders and think to themselves “Man I would love to go there!”. Unfortunately, many will not make those travel dreams come true. Why? Well there are plenty of reasons travel gets put on the back burner.
One reason I hear often is, “I don’t have enough vacation time.” While this may seem like an impossible obstacle to overcome, there are ways to work the system, so to speak to make the most of your time off. I like to align my vacations and paid time off with federal holidays, and days I know we will be out of the office. For example, you can look up the 2024 calendar to see what days of the week our holidays fall on this year like in this blog post by Travel Pirates:
Wanna Maximize Your Travel in 2024? Turn 11 Days of PTO into 44 Days of Vacation 🗓️ 🤩
While not everyone has vacation time most places offer at least 2 weeks paid vacation, and sometimes more. You can make the most of that time and start prioritizing travel right away!
I often hear people say “ I’ll travel more when our kids are older. What???? Traveling is one of the most enriching experiences you can provide to your family, and kids are way more adaptable and easy to travel with than you may think. The more exposure they have to this big beautiful world, the more well rounded, and easy going they will be. Do not deprive your kids the opportunity to grow and flourish in this amazing life they get to live.
This brings me to the reason I wrote this blog post, giving you 5 reasons why you should prioritize family travel!
- Traveling helps with brain development
Our kids brains are like sponges, the more new experiences they have, the more they learn and soak it in. Traveling exposes children to new and diverse environments, cultures, languages, and customs. This exposure enhances their cognitive flexibility, helping them adapt to new situations and think creatively. Traveling engages multiple senses – seeing new sights, hearing different sounds, tasting new foods, and feeling different textures. This multi sensory learning experience enhances memory retention and overall cognitive development in children. These experiences stimulate a child’s brain, promoting cognitive development by encouraging problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and spatial awareness. Also being immersed in a foreign language environment can enhance their language skills, including vocabulary, pronunciation, and even the ability to pick up new languages more easily. You will be raising geniuses!!
2. Traveling raises emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence encompasses the ability to recognize, understand, manage, and navigate one’s own emotions while also being attuned to the emotions of others.Traveling often involves meeting new people, whether locals or fellow travelers. Engaging in social interactions with a diverse range of individuals helps children develop strong social skills, including communication, cooperation, and the ability to connect with others from different backgrounds. These experiences encourage children to be present in the moment, appreciating new surroundings while practicing mindfulness and being present. An added bonus to this is less screen time and let’s be real, we can all use a break from these screens after finishing this post of course. 🙂
3. Traveling improves adaptability
At home, we are on a pretty tight routine. Dinner by 6, baths by 6:30, books by 7:15pm, brush your teeth then off to bed by 8! While my husband and I love our 2 hours of alone time before hitting the sack ourselves, when we travel our routine goes out the window! Our kids adjust real quick to not having the comforts of home and can deal with any curve balls our travel plans throw our way. Traveling inherently involves dealing with uncertainties like , unfamiliar surroundings, changing sleep times, and substitutions for honey milk before bed. Navigating these situations fosters adaptability and resilience in children, helping them develop coping mechanisms and problem-solving skills they can bring back home with them when we have a change in our normal routine.
4. Travel enhances creativity, critical thinking and curiosity
Exposure to new and diverse experiences fosters a natural sense of curiosity in children. Open up the flood gates of the never ending “Why?”, and you know what? I love it! This curiosity can lead to a lifelong love of learning, encouraging them to explore and seek knowledge throughout their entire lives. They will be able to think critically, and use their experiences to creatively problem solve in their day to day interactions. These critical thinking skills will lend them to think about past exposures they have had and how apply them to their everyday lives. Creative problem solving will go a long way when encountering new experiences and successfully navigating unfamiliar environments helping children build confidence. As they conquer challenges during travel, their self-esteem and emotional resilience grow. What an amazing gift to give your kiddos that no one can take away.
5. Traveling with kids strengthens your family bond
With so much going on in the world, it pays to keep our families close. Our job as parents is to teach our kids what truly matters in life and how to be good human beings, travel can help with this. When we travel with our kids we are building on shared experiences, making memories, and these memories will contribute to a deep bond rooted in a strong family attachment. Every time we are jumping waves at the beach, holding hands while watching the sun set and hiking trails in the mountains while carrying my baby girl up a hill because she decided she didn’t feel like walking anymore, we are creating core memories. These core memories are something we will hold close to our hearts, and can think about anytime we are having a crumby day! One of my favorite memories is of my daughter chasing down a baby iguana and finally convincing it to give her a little sugar lol. You absolutely have to see this video!
In summary, these 5 reasons to prioritize family travel barely scratch the surface on the life long benefits you can provide to your kiddos. Ok, so you may be thinking “yea this all sounds great, but how can I afford it? Well you’re in luck! Check out my blog post: How to start travel hacking to make travel dreams come true!