Traveling at the last minute is a hassle. You will need to pack a lot of things and organize all your belongings, all while you are getting your documents ready, and all while you are making sure that you are able to get to everywhere you want to and need to be. Now multiply all these troubles with two or more people, and worse, a family. Traveling last minute as a family can be difficult, and it can be made even worse when you have to tag along children. If you are anticipating last minute travel with your family, then you may need to take note of the following tips:
* Are your children already the right age to go and travel with you, and appreciate everything that they see? Bringing kids along on a trip that involves museums, churches, long walks, and even hikes is not only dangerous and clumsy, but it can be wasteful. Think about it: you want to bring along people who will remember the trip, be consciously enriched by it, and truly love and know about the things that they see. Bringing a baby along to a museum is not only wasteful on your part, but it can be disrespectful to other museum goers who will be disturbed by a sobbing, bawling child.
In other words, if you can leave your children at home and if you know that they will not be able to appreciate certain things until they grow much older, then don't feel guilty. Find a good babysitter, leave your children with some relatives, and go off and travel. Take the older kids with you, the ones that don't need a lot of taking care of in order to enjoy things. Not only will you save money, you will also enjoy your trip more.
* Packing for a lot of people can be difficult, so you will need to plan what you need to pack before you start emptying your closet. For instance, if you are off on a trip that will last a week, take seven changes of clothes, may an additional two changes just in case something comes up, and the appropriate amount of underwear or over wear.
Then, ask your children to pull out the clothes that they want to have that fit exactly these qualifications, no more and no less. This way, they can help you and control the style of clothes that they want to bring, and you don't have to take more clothes with you simply because one of your children insists.
* Try to get a buddy system in place. If you have more than one child, you may need to ask the older children to guard the younger ones. If you have two small children, you and your husband or wife may need to take one of each. All you need to do is find a way to guard every single child so that you lose no one. The problem with panic is that you can't see everyone at once, so you need to break jobs down.
* Still insisting on bringing the kids along? Ask your travel agency, hotel, or tour group for a children's discount, family discount, or a group discount. You may be able to get some amounts off your final price if you are able to bring in the tots or have a big group.
