Tips for Traveling With Kids | All The Hacks Podcast Clip

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - You traveled a lot as a solo traveler,

00:00:07.840 | you just got married, congratulations.

00:00:09.820 | I've heard you on a couple podcasts say,

00:00:12.240 | you know, one day maybe there's a family, I have one.

00:00:14.960 | How do you think that changes?

00:00:16.340 | Or, you know, you haven't been through it yet,

00:00:18.240 | but you've probably met lots of travelers.

00:00:20.360 | You know, the idea of spending the afternoon

00:00:22.060 | kind of sitting in a bar, meeting some astrophysicists,

00:00:24.880 | going out to a random show,

00:00:26.920 | is not the kind of experience it's easy to have

00:00:28.960 | with, you know, young kids around.

00:00:31.200 | So, how do you kind of create these interesting experiences

00:00:35.120 | when you probably have a tighter schedule?

00:00:37.340 | And you, have you thought at all about that

00:00:39.080 | or talked to anyone that's done it successfully?

00:00:41.360 | - I'd be curious actually from you actually,

00:00:43.000 | if you've felt, you know, as you've,

00:00:44.840 | as your travel style has been, has changed,

00:00:48.080 | how you've felt yourself adapting.

00:00:49.920 | I think what's exciting about traveling with kids

00:00:54.000 | and having kids is that you now get to instill

00:00:56.980 | that curiosity and that sense of serendipity

00:01:00.440 | in someone new, right?

00:01:01.760 | And encourage that in someone

00:01:03.320 | and have them grow into the kind of traveler

00:01:05.560 | that maybe it took you longer to be.

00:01:08.500 | And I know that that's much easier said than done

00:01:11.680 | when there's like nap time and, you know,

00:01:14.280 | meal time and all these things

00:01:15.440 | that are pretty set in stone when you're traveling.

00:01:18.080 | But I do wonder if there's not like,

00:01:20.440 | of course, yeah, you can't be like,

00:01:22.180 | peace out partner, I'm gonna go hang out at the bar

00:01:24.920 | and meet some astrophysicists, have fun with the kids.

00:01:27.500 | But I do wonder if there are like micro moments

00:01:30.300 | of serendipity that you can create,

00:01:31.820 | where you can be like, you know,

00:01:34.260 | we're gonna go for, we've rented this car,

00:01:37.460 | we're gonna go for a drive on this route

00:01:39.080 | that we've researched,

00:01:39.920 | but we don't know where we're gonna stop yet.

00:01:41.940 | We don't know where we're gonna have lunch.

00:01:43.460 | We don't know where we're gonna go for a little hike.

00:01:45.980 | These little things that you just leave open enough

00:01:48.340 | so that when you do do it, you're discovering it together.

00:01:51.300 | You're discovering that moment together.

00:01:52.980 | You're having that moment of uncertainty

00:01:54.440 | and you're like, oh, is this the right place for the hike?

00:01:56.340 | Ooh, this looks like a little intense,

00:01:57.460 | but then you do it together and you're like, wow,

00:01:58.820 | we did that, that was crazy.

00:01:59.820 | Remember when we did that thing?

00:02:02.100 | And I think I learned that from my parents too.

00:02:05.020 | And my parents were very good about doing that.

00:02:07.700 | I don't, I have like this problem.

00:02:09.540 | I like, I don't remember a lot of things concretely

00:02:11.740 | from my childhood, but I have like vague,

00:02:14.120 | like more like snapshots.

00:02:17.740 | And I have so many like mental snapshots of family trips,

00:02:21.920 | of like the car pulled over on the side of the road,

00:02:26.580 | the physical map out over the hood of the car

00:02:29.380 | while my parents are like tracing our route

00:02:31.140 | and trying to figure out where the hell we are

00:02:32.440 | and where the hell we're going.

00:02:34.540 | I have so many memories of us before smartphones,

00:02:38.300 | before the internet, pulling into hotels

00:02:41.180 | and like knocking on the door and being like,

00:02:43.500 | hey, do you have space for five at like 10 o'clock at night?

00:02:46.380 | Like my parents did that stuff a lot.

00:02:47.960 | And I think that they still, of course,

00:02:51.180 | their safety was the first priority when we were younger.

00:02:54.100 | There was all these other needs they had to cater to,

00:02:56.300 | but they still kept that little bit of mystery to travel.

00:02:59.560 | And that little bit of,

00:03:00.880 | we're kind of gonna make it up as we go along.

00:03:02.540 | We're gonna improvise a little bit

00:03:03.580 | and we're gonna do it together.

00:03:04.900 | And we're gonna have a conversation about like,

00:03:06.340 | ooh, which of these two restaurants looks better?

00:03:07.800 | What do you think, little Jimmy?

00:03:09.660 | You know, like bring them into it,

00:03:11.580 | bring them into that experience.

00:03:13.140 | So I think there's ways.

00:03:15.780 | I think, yeah, maybe you can't do it like you used to,

00:03:18.380 | fully kind of flying by the seat of your pants.

00:03:20.780 | But I think in micro moments and through little adjustments

00:03:23.540 | and through involving them

00:03:25.360 | in your decision-making process as you go,

00:03:28.100 | you can still keep that mystery of travel alive.

00:03:30.460 | - Yeah, it's funny.

00:03:31.300 | As you were talking,

00:03:32.120 | I just started thinking about a trip we haven't planned yet,

00:03:34.520 | but different ways that we would kind of bring it to life

00:03:37.460 | with children.

00:03:38.300 | And our kids are two and two months.

00:03:39.700 | So, you know, we're not quite old enough

00:03:41.860 | to take them on all the adventures,

00:03:44.540 | but a few things came to mind.

00:03:45.980 | One, in the last few, I don't know, months, year,

00:03:49.620 | we've met a number of interesting people

00:03:52.340 | that live in our neighborhood going to the park.

00:03:54.540 | Like just the park down the street from our house,

00:03:56.340 | we meet parents almost every time.

00:03:57.780 | So for some reason,

00:03:59.140 | I hadn't thought about it until you were talking,

00:04:01.100 | but I feel like we could just,

00:04:03.100 | if you want to meet random stranger,

00:04:04.340 | instead of doing it at the bar

00:04:05.800 | where you're sitting having a drink,

00:04:06.940 | which might be, you know, the solo traveler,

00:04:09.900 | you know, place of choice,

00:04:11.420 | you could also just go to a park.

00:04:12.620 | You probably meet other parents.

00:04:13.880 | They probably have other kids your same age.

00:04:16.260 | You could make that your place

00:04:17.620 | to serendipitously strike up a conversation.

00:04:20.980 | So that was one that came to mind.

00:04:22.740 | Another thing that I think every person I know

00:04:25.620 | that seems to have unlocked travel

00:04:27.660 | one level beyond with children does

00:04:30.700 | is they all contact their hotel in advance

00:04:34.500 | or wherever they're staying

00:04:35.640 | and try to find some trusted source of childcare

00:04:39.500 | that can, not for the entire trip,

00:04:41.620 | but maybe help out one night

00:04:43.940 | so the parents can go out

00:04:45.220 | and have that kind of interesting, unique adventure

00:04:47.900 | of just walking down the street,

00:04:49.100 | finding a place to eat, et cetera.

00:04:51.300 | - Another way to do that,

00:04:52.140 | and I know I have some friends with kids

00:04:53.660 | who have taken this route as well,

00:04:56.500 | is traveling with another family

00:04:58.660 | or another two families that are friends of yours

00:05:00.700 | with kids the same age.

00:05:02.100 | Then like you either can kind of rotate

00:05:04.860 | who's in charge of the kids that night

00:05:06.460 | while the others go out to a show or dinner

00:05:09.300 | or to meet people or whatever else,

00:05:11.260 | or you all kind of pull your money together

00:05:13.100 | while you're hanging out in France for some childcare

00:05:15.700 | that can take care of the kids one of the nights

00:05:17.260 | or two of the nights or whatever,

00:05:18.740 | and that way you're doing it together

00:05:20.420 | and it's a little easier.

00:05:21.920 | So I know some people who have gone that route too,

00:05:24.500 | and I think that's a great, great way to tackle it as well.

00:05:27.420 | - The last one that I'm really excited about,

00:05:29.380 | and Japan hasn't opened the borders yet,

00:05:31.260 | but I'm a big fan.

00:05:32.620 | We've been a few times.

00:05:33.660 | It's like re-experiencing the places

00:05:35.880 | that you know a little bit, right?

00:05:37.020 | Like I've never lived in Japan.

00:05:38.740 | I've been three or four times.

00:05:40.140 | I wouldn't consider myself an expert,

00:05:41.900 | but I do feel like I know it well enough

00:05:44.220 | to make it easier to kind of wander the streets

00:05:47.100 | and have a serendipitous experience

00:05:48.500 | than I would if I'd gone to Uzbekistan,

00:05:50.540 | which I've never been to,

00:05:51.860 | and I feel like I would be trying to get my bearings

00:05:54.460 | as well as lead the family

00:05:56.180 | through the public transportation.

00:05:57.540 | So one thing I'm excited about

00:05:59.460 | is just going to places I've been

00:06:01.620 | to kind of share that experience

00:06:03.560 | and make it a little easier, right?

00:06:05.020 | Like the first trip with two kids running around a city,

00:06:08.700 | probably nice if you'd go to a place you know.

00:06:10.540 | Maybe you even test it out locally.

00:06:11.980 | Maybe we go to New York for a long weekend

00:06:13.740 | 'cause it's like I know that city even better.

00:06:16.340 | You know, we've already tested it in San Francisco.

00:06:18.300 | You know, we take the Caltrain.

00:06:19.380 | We actually throw our bikes on the Caltrain,

00:06:22.040 | ride the Caltrain up to San Francisco,

00:06:24.060 | bike around, and then come back.

00:06:25.900 | So like we're trying to get a feeling

00:06:28.320 | for what it's like to adventure in a city.

00:06:30.660 | You know, we have our own travel training wheels

00:06:33.140 | as new parents that we're kind of trying to take off

00:06:35.860 | before we take a big adventure.

00:06:37.380 | - But also like what a fun thing to like see a place

00:06:39.680 | that you thought you knew well,

00:06:41.140 | like to see it anew through the eyes

00:06:42.700 | of someone else too, right?

00:06:43.860 | Like I think that's why people love taking friends

00:06:46.180 | to places that they love or whatever.

00:06:49.420 | I'm in the middle of planning a bachelor party

00:06:51.500 | for friends of mine, and I'm really excited

00:06:54.660 | that they've chosen New Orleans,

00:06:56.180 | which is like a city that like I love so much.

00:06:58.820 | And now I'm gonna be able to like see it anew

00:07:01.260 | through their eyes, seeing it for the first time

00:07:03.020 | and go to all the restaurants that I love

00:07:04.360 | and all the bars that I love and do all these things.

00:07:06.660 | And I think that's just like such a fun thing to do.

00:07:09.100 | I can imagine with kids too, to like see them

00:07:11.720 | get excited about something that maybe you've taken

00:07:13.480 | for granted by the fourth or fifth visit.

Tips for Traveling With Kids | All The Hacks Podcast Clip

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