2025 travel year reflections

This year reminded us that travel doesn’t pause when you have kids—it transforms. Every destination became a shared adventure, every challenge a lesson, and every experience a memory we’ll carry long after the suitcases are unpacked. As we reflect on our year traveling as a family, we’re sharing what worked, what surprised us, and what this journey taught us about traveling with kids.

Traveling with kids isn’t exactly the postcard version of travel. It’s louder. Messier. Slower. But it’s also fuller, richer, and more magical than we ever expected. Here’s what this year taught us.

1. Kids Are the Best (and Funniest) Tour Guides

I love planning with the kids. Ahead of our trips, we use dinner table discussions to hammer out our must-see spots / activities / priorities and then we build an itinerary with all of our needs. Kid priorities are usually: a pool, ice cream and playgrounds.

And honestly? This way of family trip planning works way better for us.

We found ourselves slowing down, grabbing last minute fun lunches, hanging out in local parks instead of rushing through too many museums, chatting with other families instead of standing in long lines, and discovering the tiny details—street musicians, quirky statues, stray cats—that adults tend to miss.

2. We are still learning how to Move at Kid Speed

Traveling as a family forced us to slow down—and that turned out to be a gift.

Instead of trying to squeeze every landmark into a single day, we became masters of the “one big thing” strategy: one meaningful activity, surrounded by relaxed wandering, spontaneous stops, and rest time.

We stopped measuring days by how much we checked off and started measuring them by how much we enjoyed them.

3. The World Became Their Classroom

Geography becomes real. History becomes tangible. Languages becomes playful, did you ever think about how peso and queso rhyme? Because my kids reminded me.

Our kids learned to identify flags on passing ferries, and observe how life looks different—and the same—around the country and world.

But the biggest lesson? Flexibility.

Travel gave them practice adapting to new places, new routines, and the occasional unexpected delay. As parents, watching them grow more confident and curious has been one of the greatest rewards of the entire year.

4. Not Every Day Was Instagram-Worthy—and That’s Okay

Yes, there were postcard beaches and jaw-dropping mountains. But there were also meltdowns in airports, missed trains, suspicious snacks, and nights where nobody slept.

We learned that “perfect” was never the goal. Connection was. Togetherness was. Building a shared story—one we’ll laugh about later—was the ultimate accomplishment.

5. We Became a Team in a Whole New Way

Somewhere between getting lost on long drives and navigating unfamiliar grocery stores, we discovered new rhythms as a family.

Our kids took on small responsibilities. We learned each other's strengths (who packs the bags, who handles transit, who finds the best snacks). We problem-solved together. We celebrated small victories—successfully using the washing machine, catching the right bus, finding the one restaurant everyone liked.

Travel didn’t just take us around the country and world —it brought us closer together.

6. We’re Not Done Yet

As this year ends, we feel grateful, humbled, and so much more connected to each other. The world no longer feels big and intimidating—it feels inviting.

We're excited for the adventures ahead, but for now, we’re pausing to appreciate how far we’ve come—and how much more we’ve learned by traveling as four than we ever did traveling as two.

Here’s to more memories, more curiosity, and more imperfectly perfect days on the road.