Being the youngest
in my family with two siblings and a 20-year gap difference, I was undoubtedly
the princess of the house. Moreover,
my siblings live abroad, which essentially means from the time I reached middle
school, my summer vacations with my family have not been to my maternal or
paternal villages but to UAE and South East Asia, where they lived earlier.
As I grew older,
these abroad vacations continued and as a family, we found our happiness
traveling. It rarely happened that we spent more than three or four months
without a road trip or traveling somewhere new. To travel, explore and find new
places has become ‘my’ way of life and now that I have a family of my own; the
itch to travel and explore continues.
While I have
friends who would rather save money for the ‘future’, I am one of those
impulsive people who unquestionably and unarguably spend all the savings to
travel. As a mother to a nine year old daughter, I realize now that there are
so many ‘life skills’ I learnt by simply traveling to new places.
In today’s times,
simply putting one’s child in an international school will not cut it out! I
want my daughter to grow, thrive and discover her own voice in this big world
and that can happen only when she travels.
There are lots of
reasons why you need to travel with your children such as memories, family
bonding, adventure, compassion, fun activities, Independence, quality time and
shared memories, flexibility, helping, appreciation, etc.
Reasons Why You
Need to Travel with Your Children
There are lots of
benefits of traveling as a child, it helps in good for child physical and
mental development and with family it is more rewarding. So traveling with your
kids will be rewarding and enriching experience for both parents and kids. Here
we listed top 10 reasons why you should consider traveling with your children.
1. Educational
Opportunities: Traveling provides real lifetime
practical education than bookish knowledge. Kids learn new cultures, history,
and traditions and with family they clear their doubts very easily related the
places they visit.
2. Cultural
Exposure: Routine is breaks by traveling and we enters
in different cultures that helps kids to understand cultural differences and
sensitivity between them. They learn various ways of living of life than their
routine life.
3. Family Bonding: Traveling with kids provides a special bonding time where they spend
quality time with each other and creates lasting memories and strengthens their
family bonds. Sharing new experiences to each other and overcoming challenges
during travelling together creates stronger the relations between family
members.
4. Adventurous
Spirit: Traveling develops adventurous spirit in kids,
trekking, water sports, skating, etc. encourages children to be open-minded and
adventurous. Kids can easily trying different adventurous activities due to
family members with them and increase their confidence level.
Also Check Out: Adventure Tourism in India
5. Life Skills
Development: Traveling is practical life lessons where
children learns real life skills such as budgeting, planning, navigating, and
problem-solving. They learns how their parents solve the real time problems.
These skills are valuable for their personal development and future
independence.
6. Language and
Communication Skills: Visiting different tourist
places increases language exposure so it also ignite an interest in kids to
learning new languages. Kids develop language skills, adaptability, and the art
of non-verbal communication.
7. Appreciation for
Nature: Traveling often involves in the exposure of
real life natural wonders and landscapes
far from the city man made life. This can foster a love for mother nature and
environmental awareness in children, promoting a sense of responsibility
towards the our planet to protect it from pollution and over exploitation.
8. Culinary
Exploration: Picnic tours where family make their food
with natural resource or limited available resources with them develops foods
cooking skills. Also at different places trying local foods is very delicious
way for kids to experience a new culture differences.
9. Social Skills: Traveling provides new opportunities to kids to interact with
different and diverse background peoples. How they behave with each other and
how to they have to behave with them. This develops social and moral skills,
and understanding of different social norms.
10. Confidence
Building: Exposing different types of tourist places
around the world, navigating new environments, meeting with different type
people, and overcoming challenges during traveling boosts children’s confidence
level to deal the different situations of the life. They learn to adapt in
different environment, situations and become more self-assured.
Places to Visit
with Family
As a working woman,
a mother and an avid traveler; I am
listing down a few places and must have experiences for every family.
Desert: There is absolutely
nothing that can prepare you to live in a desert. I am an avid researcher and I
am that person, who carries a lot of books, cut outs and reviews for every
place I travel but the pin drop silence in the night, the cold wind, the
feeling of being absolutely alone in this big world is something every person
has to experience. I took my then 2 year
old daughter camping in the desert, that was her first time and the entire
process of setting up a tent, lying down in sleeping bags, roasting
marshmallows and canned soup in campfire was out of a movie and it was an
absolutely must have, safe and humbling experience.
Best places to
camp:
- Jaisalmer, Rajasthan
- Hajar Mountains, Oman
- Umm Al Quwain, Dubai, UAE
- Morocco
National Parks: I am a born and
bred city girl and when I was younger, the idea of camping, sleeping in tents
and being one with nature did not excite me. In fact, on my first trip camping
on a riverside, I was bitten by mosquitoes, shared a toilet with river frogs
and the overall lack of hygiene put me off for several years. Later, on a family trip abroad, we camped at
the National Park and that ‘scouting, camping, lighting fire and even telling
scary stories at night’ became a must have event for every family trip. I have
camped in national parks across the world, with my 70 year old mother, 9 year
old daughter and as a couple and this is a must have experience to bond and
grow closer together as a family.
You Should Read: Best time to visit Satpura National Park
Best Places to Camp:
- Jim Corbett National Park, India:
There are options to choose from staying in luxury hotels to camping at
specified campsites, both are an amazing experiences - Yellowstone National Park, USA:
Rent an RV, take a big tent or sleep inside the RV and enjoy! - Alps, Switzerland
- Nubra Valley, Ladakh, India
Villages: Being a city born,
born to parents who had no family or ancestral homes in villages, honestly, my
experience of villages has purely been by chance. My sister, an avid yoga
instructor and mosaic artist, loves to travel to small villages across India to
discover local art and artists.
Initially, I hated the idea of staying in homes without A/Cs, no TV and
Internet connection (I first visited villages in the early 2000s!) and eating
food that was not pizzas and burgers, my staple meals. I enjoyed, however,
pumping water from the water pipe, getting water from a well, sleeping in jute
and cane beds, using hand fans and eating local food. When I took my daughter for the first time, I
was pretty certain she was going to hate it but to my complete surprise, she
loved it. She played with the local girls of the village, fed food to the peacocks
who would come to the roof every day, ate local food and enjoyed herself,
without being bound to the online world.
Best Villages to
See:
This is purely
personal but since I have visited a lot of villages across South India,
Maharashtra and Goa- we just drive and stop at a place which appeals to us and
enjoy the ‘local’ life there.
Beyond India, the
villages of Switzerland, Southern Italy, small Amish villages in the US are all
amazing places to explore and stay.
I have traveled
across South East Asia, UAE, US and Europe and despite the countless trips, I
always feel I come back a little wiser and with definitely a lighter pocket!
As far as my
daughter is concerned, I thoroughly recommend traveling with your children from
a young age, it teaches them to adapt, communicate, explore and try out new
things, eat new dishes and interact with people across all cultures, classes
and communities. It makes you realize, the world is indeed a small and
beautiful place and you come back home, feeling at home, in each new place,
every single time.
Guest Post Writer
-Vinita Rk