Traveling expands your horizons and makes room for life experiences. It can also expand your cultural and historical knowledge and is the only thing that seems to make you richer the more you do it.

I believe that children should be exposed to travel at a young age. The reason for this is that children can gain a lot of knowledge and experiences through travel while learning cultural tolerance. It shows them the differences between them and the rest of the world and can highlight how privileged they are to have what they have.

When I became a mom, I immediately started making plans for our first trip. I needed my children to be enriched through travel experiences. Here’s how I went about traveling beyond our city:

Start early

One of the biggest issues when traveling with children is that other people tend to judge you for their noise. When you’re on a long haul flight with a screaming child, others lose patience and tolerance very quickly.

Understandably, most parents don’t want to “waste” money on travel experiences for children who are too young to remember. However, starting early is essential to having well-behaved children later on.

Don’t start with an exotic trip abroad. Start off with a trip to the local museum or some other local attraction. The process of being in a vehicle and having to respect others in the area will start to become ingrained in the child.

Move from the inside out

When I came across the Best Luaus in Maui online on a portal that guarantees the lowest prices for Maui packages, I knew my children needed to be prepared for an out-of-city trip very quickly. I started taking my very young children to the local park to show them that there is safety and comfort even in the big outdoors.

After this, I started taking them to places where they had to learn to keep quiet on command. Places like museums might not be ideal for a three-month-old who needs regular feeds, but can be more suited to your two year old who is more understanding of what is going on.

The idea is to get your child used to different rules in different places, as well as the process of traveling and being away from the comfort of home for more extended periods of time.

You can start off with a few hours at the local park and work your way to a night or two at a little hotel in the city. As your children get more comfortable, you can start moving further from home for longer stretches of time.

Long-distance travel

The ideal time for long-distance travel will differ from family to family. You need to judge for yourself if your children are ready to behave on a flight for a few hours. If not, are you willing to deal with the glances, comments, and stares of those less tolerant commuters?

My trip to Maui happened when my eldest was five and the youngest was just shy of three. I needed an exotic break, since the museums and parks had now become boring and routine. So, I took the risk and booked us all on a flight to Hawaii. My children were well-practiced and I could easily get them to behave because of the training trips they’d taken from very early on.

In fact, while other children on the flight were making noise and seeking attention from everyone, my children were happy to watch a cartoon or play some games quietly. They were ready for this, and my nerves were calm.

Our first trip outside of our city went smoothly, and the children adapted easily because I started to show them from an early stage that travel is a privilege and they should not spoil it for others. I hope these tips can help you on the way to confidently traveling with young children.