How I prep for travel with a neurodiverse family!
I just returned from an epic 10-day trip to Europe over spring break with my husband and my 18, 16, and 12-year-old children. My oldest is a senior, and wise beyond her years, she agreed to skip the more conventional “senior spring break” trip with her peers and share her last spring break before college (insert mom crying) with us!
Did you see my latest reel, which is all about how I prepped for a successful spring break trip?
Ruby and Jeff did the basic itinerary planning together, picking the stops on our European vaca, and then I threw together an itinerary considering everyone’s interests and needs. Ok… less “throwing together” and more accurately, I spent countless hours pouring over blogs, TripAdvisor, Facebook groups, and more!
Curious about where we went and what we did on our Epic European Adventure? Check out these reels:
My Krakow reel will be posted next week, so make sure you are following me on Instagram so you don’t miss it!
Wondering how we possibly pulled this trip off financially? Traveling with a family of five 1 to 2 times a year wouldn’t be possible without being super savvy with credit card point strategies. My favorite family travel point guru, hands down, is Rachel over at Brooklyn Family Travelers
My husband and I have been traveling on points for decades. However, following Rachel on Instagram and her Substack have revolutionized our travel strategy. She recommended specific cards for me with amazing introductory bonuses. One card provided enough points within a few months to cover 10 nights of European hotels for us on this trip. In Europe, standard rooms only allow two people; therefore, we had to book two rooms at each hotel, and one room had to be a suite or a larger/more expensive option. Therefore, getting all of our accommodations covered through credit card points was a game changer. We also paid for one of our plane tickets using Chase points and booked a one-hour boat cruise on the Danube River through Chase Travel using points! Subscribe to her Substack below; you won’t regret it!
We had a fantastic experience on our European Spring Break. No, that doesn’t mean there were zero sibling squabbles, arguments, or moments I thought of “accidentally” getting lost and spending a day alone. When you go on vacation, your sibling dynamics and everyone’s struggles AND strengths come with you. So my first (and I believe most important) advice when planning a family trip is to " right-size your expectations” and plan ahead.
Right-sizing your expectations is a key concept in my parenting model. So much so that the first chapter of my award-winning parenting book, “I Love My Kids, But I Don’t Always Like Them!” explains this philosophy in detail. When I started this practice myself, it was a total game changer for my parenting experience!
Below is a step-by-step walk-through of my thought process for planning ahead to set my family up for a successful trip:
First, I thought about what challenges might come up.
This led me to think about each family member's stamina, food needs, activity interests, anxiety triggers, sensory needs, and more.
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