Your First Family Holiday: Because Travelling With Kids Is a Whole New Ball Game.

You’ve travelled solo. You’ve travelled with friends. You’ve travelled as a couple.

But travelling with kids?

That is a whole new ball game.

Our first proper family holiday was Fiji, when our kids were 2 and 5. We’d done the odd Queensland road trip before that, but this felt different. We were actually getting on a plane, leaving the country and heading off for a proper holiday as a family.

And while I spend my days helping other people plan holidays, travelling with your own kids is a very different experience.

There are things you suddenly think about that never crossed your mind before. There are things you think will be important that really aren’t. And there are things you don’t think about at all until you’re standing in the middle of them wondering why nobody warned you.

So, if you’re planning your first family holiday, here are the things I’d be thinking about before you book.

Start with the kids – not the destination.

Before we even start talking about where to go, I’d want to know about the kids.

How old are they? What are they like? What do they enjoy? Are they little adventurers who want to be out doing things all day, or would they happily spend six hours in a pool?

Because age makes a huge difference to the holiday I’d recommend.

It can change the room configuration you’ll need, how big your travel days can realistically be, which flight times make sense and even what type of holiday will work best.

And then I’d ask the parents:

What’s important to you about this holiday?

Is it uninterrupted family time? A bit of time for Mum and Dad? Seeing somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit? Having a really easy week where someone else cooks and cleans?

And finally:

What’s your one non-negotiable?

For some families, it’s no overnight flights. For others, it’s a ground-floor room, a particular room type or a view they really want to wake up to.

There isn’t a right answer. The point is to work out what matters to your family before you start looking at holidays.

Don’t underestimate the importance of the room

One of the things I think parents get wrong most often is accommodation configuration.

When you’re travelling as a couple, a standard hotel room might be perfectly fine.

Add children who go to bed several hours before you do, or a toddler who still needs a nap, and suddenly that beautiful hotel room can feel very small.

A separate living area can be a game changer.

It means the kids can go to bed while Mum and Dad can still sit up, have a drink, watch TV, scroll their phones or simply exist in a room with the lights on.

If your budget allows it, I’d be looking at family rooms, suites, apartments or connecting rooms that give you some separation.

Because a family holiday is still supposed to be a holiday for the adults too.

Breakfast is worth thinking about

For me, breakfast included is one of those little things that can make a surprisingly big difference.

It’s one less thing to organise in the morning.

You don’t have to drag hungry children around an unfamiliar city trying to find somewhere that’s open, kid-friendly and serving something they’ll actually eat.

You can get everyone fed, grab your coffee and get on with the day.

And let’s be honest, decent coffee is pretty much a mandatory requirement for parents.

Think about the travel day – not just the holiday

When you’re booking a family holiday, it’s easy to get excited about the resort, the pool or the destination and forget that you actually have to get there.

This is where I’d be thinking about flight times, connections and transfers.

A travel day that looks perfectly manageable on paper can feel very different with a couple of tired children, carry-on bags, snacks and the inevitable “are we there yet?”

Where possible, I like to make the journey from the airport to the accommodation as easy as I can.

Private transfers can be worth the extra cost.

They’re generally faster, take you door-to-door and are often better set up for accommodating car seats.

After a flight, the last thing you want is a transfer with ten stops before you finally reach your hotel.

And when it comes to flights, don’t underestimate the value of choosing your seats.

For us, that means making sure the family is sitting together, thinking about who wants a window seat and who would prefer the aisle, and – particularly on connecting flights – making sure Mum and Dad aren’t accidentally stuck with the same child for the entire journey (unless that is something you want).

Share the load.

Pace yourself

This is probably the biggest thing I learned from our first family holiday.

Remove all expectations. Pick your battles.

What you can realistically see and do with kids can be very different from what you’d manage travelling without them.

Allow for slow mornings.

Allow for days where you do absolutely nothing.

If you planned to head out sightseeing but everyone is happy sitting by the pool, stay by the pool.

You don’t have to prove that you’ve made the most of your holiday by squeezing an activity into every available hour.

Sometimes the best day of the holiday is the one where nobody has anywhere to be.

And that’s something I wish I’d thought about more before our first trip: what is actually achievable?

A family holiday doesn’t need to look like the holiday you would have taken before kids.

It just needs to work for the family you have now.

And then there’s the pool…

I genuinely didn’t appreciate just how long children can play in a pool.

There is no such thing as a quick dip.

Throw in a waterslide and you’ve potentially got the entire day’s entertainment sorted. How many times can your kid go down the waterslide?

It’s amazing how quickly time disappears when kids are happy in the water, so don’t assume you’ll only be down there for half an hour.

Take everything you might need.

Towels. Sunscreen. Hats. Water. Snacks. Whatever else your family needs.

Because once you’ve made the trek back to the room, there’s a good chance someone will announce that they want to go straight back.

Don’t panic about the food

Before our first family holiday, I spent far too much time worrying about snacks and food.

Turns out, I really didn’t need to.

There is usually a convenience store.

There is usually something familiar to eat.

And if all else fails, as someone once said to me:

“It’s a holiday. Worst case, they eat ice cream for a week.”

Obviously, this is different if you have a particularly fussy eater or a child with dietary requirements. Those things absolutely need planning.

But if you’re worrying about whether your child will eat every single meal exactly as they would at home, I’d take a breath.

You don’t need to pack half your pantry.

And about kids’ clubs…

Here’s one family-holiday myth I’d like to challenge:

Kids love kids’ clubs.

Wrong.

Imagine being dropped into a room full of strangers and told, “Go on, make some new friends!” Some kids absolutely love it. Others would rather stick with Mum and Dad – and that’s completely fine.

Don’t book a resort purely because it has a kids’ club and assume you’ve solved childcare.

Think about your actual children.

Would they enjoy it? Are they stage-5 clingers? Would they be comfortable being left somewhere unfamiliar? Do they like structured activities? Or would they rather spend the day swimming with you?

There’s no wrong answer.

Gather the gang

Here’s another option worth considering for your first family holiday: bring your people with you.

Friends. Grandparents. Siblings. Another family with kids around the same age.

Bring the kids for your kids.

There’s something pretty special about creating your own little holiday tribe. The kids have someone to play with, you have another set of adults to share the occasional meal, poolside conversation or “can you please watch them for five minutes?” moment with – and suddenly the holiday can feel a whole lot more social.

It doesn’t mean you need to spend every waking minute together either.

You can have your family time, your own downtime and those moments where the kids disappear off to play with their little holiday crew.

And let’s be honest, sometimes having another family around is the closest thing to a kids’ club your child actually wants.

Spend your money where it makes your holiday easier

Family holidays are one of those times when convenience can be worth paying for.

For me, private transfers and choosing your seats on flights are two examples.

You’re not necessarily paying for something glamorous. You’re paying to remove a little bit of stress.

And sometimes that’s exactly what you want your holiday budget to do.

The biggest thing I’d tell you?

Take the pressure off.

Your first family holiday probably won’t look like your holidays before kids.

You might see less.

You might spend more time at the pool than you ever imagined.

You might eat somewhere you never would have chosen at home.

You might abandon half your plans before lunchtime.

And that’s okay.

Somewhere along the way, I realised that travelling with kids isn’t about trying to recreate the holiday you would have had without them.

It’s about figuring out what makes this version of travel work.

So before you book, think about your kids, think about what matters to you, think about what will make the travel days easier — and then leave a little room for the unexpected.

Because sometimes the holiday you thought you were booking isn’t the holiday you end up having.

And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.