We’ve learned this the hard way — over 25 countries together and now 10 with a toddler — that the best trips aren’t the ones where you see the most, they’re the ones where you actually enjoy what you see.
We still want to explore. We still want the good meals, the walks, the random finds. But we also want to feel like we’re on vacation, not on the struggle bus trying to repack a hotel room every 24 hours with a toddler who has is “helping”.
So over time, we’ve landed on a system that lets us do both.
It’s not rigid. It’s not a checklist. It’s just what has consistently worked for us when we want to see a lot and have a good time doing it.
Start with a Soft Landing
The first rule: make your life easy when you land.
If you don’t, you can set yourself up for the trip taking you, not the other way around.
The combination of no sleep, navigating somewhere new, figuring out transportation, and managing a toddler who has just gotten off a long flight is not the time to be ambitious. That’s how you end up missing connections, getting lost, or having a full blown meltdown (usually the parents).
Instead, we try to build in a soft landing.
Sometimes that means landing somewhere we already know. When we went to Croatia, we intentionally stopped in Vienna for a couple of days because we had been before. When our daughter got sick and we spent a day slowly moving between naps and parks, it didn’t feel like lost time. We had seen it before and knew the places in the park you could get a good beer and sit in the shade while a toddler napped off her fever in the fresh air (no joke this actually was doctors orders).
Sometimes it just means making logistics easy:
- hiring airport transport so you’re not dragging bags and a stroller through an unfamiliar system
- booking a hotel with breakfast so you can drop your bags and eat immediately
- having a loose plan for coffee, a playground, and lunch already saved
When we land, the goal is simple: walk, get fresh air, drink a lot of coffee, find a playground, and eat something good.
That alone will fix most of jet lag.
Just as important — it gives you a moment to actually enjoy that you’ve arrived.
If you skip this step, you’ll feel it later.
We learned this the hard way in Switzerland. We went straight from Zurich to Lauterbrunnen — train, then another train, then a bus — with an overtired two year old and not nearly enough snacks. By the time we found the Airbnb, we were exhausted, slightly sticky, and had exactly enough energy to unpack and nothing else.
The next day, what was supposed to be an alpine adventure turned into one stop at a playground and a very low key day in Interlaken.
To be clear, it was still a great day. But it was also a very clear “we should have just landed here first” moment.
Give yourself even 24 hours of ease at the beginning and everything that follows gets better.
Pick a Place You Actually Want to Be (and Stay There)
Once settled, we try not to move around constantly.
Instead, we pick one place that we’re genuinely excited about — somewhere that, if we ended up spending a full day there, we’d be perfectly happy — and use it as our home base.
From there, we explore outward.
The sweet spot for us is keeping most things within about 45 minutes. An hour is fine if it’s worth it. Two hours starts to feel like a full travel day, especially with kids.
The biggest mistake here is picking somewhere just because it’s “central” without asking if you actually want to be there.
Because there will be a day where you had plans to go explore, and instead you decide that the logistics just aren’t the vibe. On that day, you want to be somewhere you’re excited to stay.
We’ve done this everywhere from Christmas market trips to beach towns — choosing somewhere that is both a destination and a jumping off point.
A small but very real rule for finding a place to stay if you are exploring: stay as close to the transport hub as you’re willing to carry a 27 lb sack of potatoes after a long day.
That’s your radius.
Build Your Days Around a Rhythm (Not a Checklist)
We plan just enough to know what we’re doing, and leave enough room for the things we didn’t see coming.
Most days follow a similar flow:
The night before we talk through the plan so when we wake up we’re on the same page.
Mornings start with food—always. Never assume you’ll “grab something on the way.”
If we’re taking a train, we try to go first thing. It gives us time to explore before nap and makes the day feel longer without being rushed.
Our daughter naps on the go (we are very aware this is lucky), so we usually plan lunch around that. Find somewhere we want to sit for a while, have a drink, eat something good, and let everyone reset.
Afternoons are intentionally looser. Parks, wandering, maybe one or two things we want to see.
We generally head back to our hub for dinner. This allows us to make a quick exit if need be. If all else fails and everyone is too tired: room service it is.
The biggest shift for us has been thinking about energy instead of activities.
We take turns. We divide and conquer when needed. One of us runs around a park with her while the other gets a coffee and a minute to breathe. Then we switch.
Green space solves most problems.
Use nap time as your own downtime instead of trying to squeeze in more this is your moment. This is your chance to recharge, do something that feels like vacation again, and reset before heading into the afternoon. Whether that’s reconnecting, planning the rest of the day, or jumping in the ocean without having to hold a kid and sip your margarita at the beach pub, take it.
Go on the Day Trips (But Only the Ones You Actually Want)
We’ll absolutely go out of our way for something we’re excited about.
We’ve planned entire days around a single stop — including going to the Ted Lasso pub in London and tucking a sleeping toddler next to a radiator while we had a drink.
In Switzerland, we traveled an hour just to go to an epic playground next to a restaurant.
Two hour drive to Kotor from Dubrovnik because the walkable medieval town is called “The Cat Capital of Europe?” Buckle in kid, we’ve got some kitties to pet. One of the very few two-hour trips we’d do again in a heartbeat.
If you want to see it, it’s worth it.
But you don’t need to do everything.
You definitely don’t need to do things just because someone told you to.
Never forget, kids love trains. They love switching seats. They love snacks. The journey can be just as entertaining as the destination.
Keep it simple. Keep it intentional. Pick the things you actually care about.
What to Do When You Don’t Want to Go (Spoiler: Don’t)
This is what we call an “audible day.”
If you’re getting into bed and dreading the logistics of the next day, that’s your sign.
Scrap it.
We had plans to go to the Natural History Museum in London and instead ended up spending the day wandering between pubs while our daughter napped for three hours in the stroller.
It was a great day.
If you picked a good home base, you’ll always have options for these days — a new neighborhood, a park, somewhere to sit and watch the world go by.
Sometimes exploring deeply is more fun than exploring broadly.
Sometimes the best travel days are the ones you didn’t plan.
The Part People Get Wrong
People think traveling with kids means you have to show them everything.
It doesn’t.
For us, the best part of travel is the time together. No emails. No chores. None of the normal decisions of everyday life. Instead it’s “what pub is next”, “wait, that looks like a cool playground, let’s go!”, or “of course you can jump naked into that lake.” That’s the good stuff.
We’ve seen huge leaps in language and connection after trips, not because we checked every box, but because we were present. I also swear she grows an inch every trip—whether it’s the French fries and croissants or the newly gained independence of climbing the stairs in the Tower of London on her own.
Running around a field singing, coloring in a plaza, stopping to pet every cat — those things matter more than another monument.
We refuse to do something just because you “have to see it.”
But we will listen if you tell us where to get a good coffee or lunch.
Long Story Short
If you’re trying to figure out where to start:
Pick somewhere you’re excited about.
Give yourself a soft landing — make the first day easy on purpose.
Have a few coffee spots, a playground, and lunch saved before you arrive. You can’t explore on an empty stomach.
Pick one place you actually want to be, and explore from there.
When you don’t want to do something — don’t.
Enjoy the time with your kid.
They’ll only be two, running through a Swiss field of wildflowers and singing at the top of their lungs, once.
And that’s really it.
Somewhere between a good idea and plan.
to wander - verb 