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If you’re planning a family vacation in Paris, you’re probably wondering if seeing Monet's Garden is worth the day trip. Hands down, our trip to visit the Monet Gardens in Paris was the FAVORITE day of our entire family vacation in France and should be at the top of the activities list for anyone visiting France with kids! These 7 tips will help you have an amazing visit to Monet Gardens in Paris. I try to make these tips posts as helpful as possible for families in mind- because there has been SO MANY things we've learned first hand as a traveling family of 7, especially when it comes to family travel on a budget! So I hope that you find these Monet's Gardens tips super helpful for YOUR next Paris family vacation! 🥰 Tip 1 For Seeing The Monet Gardens In Paris: Be sure to arrive approximately 45 minutes before your ticket time. Do you have anxiety when you’re late for an appointment, or running late to get together with friends? I sure do! I like to be a little bit early- and I get VERY stressed when I think I’m running late for something. Our trip to visit Monet's garden during our family vacation in Paris this summer started out with that kind of anxiety! 😵‍💫 I had already learned online (I’m an avid researcher, as you can probably tell from my other posts) that the Monet Gardens had their own parking lot, which was GREAT- because parking in Paris is a hot mess! But I hadn’t anticipated that it would be COMPLETELY full, especially since our visit was in the middle of the week. It took us about 20-30 minutes of driving around the area to actually find an open parking space and park our car. In hindsight, we could have probably found street parking a little further out, but that would have also required additional time for walking, so we still would have been running a bit behind. (Street parking has been a life saver during our entire Paris family vacation- you can read why in my ‘7 Tips For Driving In France As A Tourist’ post! 😅) Give yourself an extra 30 minutes or so to find a parking spot, just to be on the safe side. (And, if you’re like me, you will save yourself a bit of anxiety!) Also add about 10-15 minutes to walk to the Monet Gardens entrance from the parking lot. It’s not an intensely long walk, but it does take a few minutes, especially if you have never been there before. When walking to the entrance from the parking lot, you will see a (long-ish) line alongside a building, which is the main entrance for people buying tickets the day of their visit. BEFORE reaching this main entrance line, there are small signs that will direct you to turn down a little side street IF YOU HAVE ALREADY PURCHASED YOUR TICKETS. Maybe I was already in stress mode, or maybe the signs just weren’t obvious enough, but I totally missed these signs walking down to the main entrance. (And neither my husband or any of our kids saw the signs either, so maybe they just weren't very clear signs. 😉) If you have already purchased your Monet’s Gardens tickets in advance, you will want to take the little side road down to the other entrance. (I've marked the side entrance in my map route down below in tip 7.) By the time we parked our car, walked down to the entrance, then found the CORRECT entrance for advance ticket holders, we were about 30 minutes past our ticket time- instead of being 15 minutes early as I had planned. So as long as you give yourself about 45 minutes in advance of your ticket time, you should be fine. And that brings me to my next (very important) tip… Tip 2 To Visit Monet’s Garden: Buy the tickets in advance and plan to spend a full day in Giverny. This tip is kind of two tips rolled into one- first of all, you WILL want to buy your tickets in advance so you can skip that long line at the main entrance. You can get your tickets directly from the Fondation Monet website here which are fairly affordable and goes straight to support their foundation. Second of all, you’re going to want to give yourself a FULL day to spend between the house (Monet’s Chateau), the gardens, and the surrounding area. (At the end of this post, I have a neat Google Maps route showing how we explored Giverny and the different sights!) I was very pleasantly surprised to see how much there actually was right in the immediate area! 😍 In fact, you won’t actually find the Monet Gardens in Paris, but instead in a small nearby town called Giverny. Giverny is a short drive (or take the Paris to Giverny train if you don’t have a car) outside of the main Paris area, and you can get there in about 45-60 minutes depending on the traffic. 🚗 There are also a LOT of really cute little shops, a few little cafes, and the impressionist art museum right outside the immediate Monet Gardens complex. Beyond that, as you explore Giverny, there’s a few historical hotels, a couple of small restaurants, art galleries and a pretty but beautiful little church all within a 15-20 minute walk! You’re definitely going to want to explore the church, because you can find the actual grave and headstone for Claude Monet and his family on the church grounds. You can also go inside, drop a few coins into the box and light a memorial candle if you like. The inside is pretty and peaceful, with a large stained glass window that is just breathtaking. On the way down to the church there is also a very cute little truck stand with apple cider and wine which is worth every penny! 🥂 We had an amazing time exploring the areas OUTSIDE of actually visiting Monets Garden and could have stayed even longer if we’d planned to visit in the morning instead of the afternoon. There are even more things to explore further out in Giverny if you want to drive through the town, but we didn’t go very far as we quickly ran out of time to explore. 🤣 You can easily plan a Monet's Garden day trip from Paris that the entire family will love, between the actual site, the art museum next door, and the town itself! Psst… check out my ‘7 Tips For A Great Paris Family Vacation’ if you’re still debating on adding this to your Paris itinerary. I know I personally was really wondering whether visiting the Monet Gardens was worth it or if my kids would get bored, but it REALLY IS worth the drive! In fact, I feel like these more quaint little towns we've visited have been some of the best parts of traveling Europe with kids- everyone is so friendly and the towns are quieter, cleaner and so much more beautiful! Visiting Monet’s Gardens Tip 3: Don't rely on local restaurants/cafes for lunch or dinner. I know, I know, I JUST got done telling you that there’s cute little restaurants and cafes- but here’s the thing- you can’t rely on them to have full meal type food, especially between 1 to 8 pm (13:00 to 20:00). Even though the hours listed on Google Maps often show the restaurants as open, most of them close the kitchen in the afternoon. 🤯 The ones that do stay open can get quite busy, and we did find a couple of cafes that had signs for sandwiches outside but when we inquired about it, they only had a few pastries inside. Instead, you can easily plan to have a picnic in the nearby grassy areas (there’s a great grass area right next to the Impressionist Museum). You can bring some picnic food in a small cooler and keep it in the car. -OR- Plan to eat before or after your visit and just pack some light snacks and water in the car instead. The nearby town of Vernon has several restaurant choices with more flexible hours and is a 10 minute drive away. Either way, do make sure you pack some water bottles and hydration tablets so you can walk around in the beautiful gardens without worrying about getting dehydrated. (Yes, again with the hydration tablets, sorry! 😅 They just make such a huge difference!!) Seeing Monet Gardens In Paris Tip 4: Be patient with your photography and don't let the crowd rush you. Okay, so I’ve gotten most of the more ‘practical’ tips out of the way, so here’s a tip that’s especially for the photo lovers… (Or basically any MOM, because we need 1,000 photos of our kids to lock in these amazing memories, am I right?!) When you visit Monet's Garden, you’re going to want to take LOTS of photos. 📸 Don’t get intimidated by all the people, and don’t let them rush you through the gardens! I found it very easy to get lost in the ‘flow of traffic’ of all of the people going through and actually ended up going back around because I wanted to take some photos without so many people in the frame. Just be patient and wait for breaks in the crowds, and you can find plenty of photo ops! The people will either wait patiently to grab a photo of their own or go around you to the next part of the garden, so it’s not a big deal to go slow and savor the beauty. 🤩 This is a GREAT place to bring a selfie stick, as well. There’s plenty of room in the garden to move around and get the shots you really love. The crowds up closer to the house (and inside) are more unavoidable, but there's so many beautiful things to see that it didn't really matter much, in my opinion. Also, here’s a fun photo tip I learned from the Udemy photography course my daughter and I took together before our family holidays in France, Switzerland and the Netherlands (aka our epic European road trip): When you’re on the green bridge at Monets water lily pond, you can get down low and put your phone closer to the water to get some really beautiful reflection shots. (Just be careful not to drop your phone into the water!) I really got so many beautiful photos throughout our family vacation in Paris, but the Monet's Garden pics and the reflection shots from Monets water lily pond were by far my favorites from our whole time in France! (And not bad for an amateur mom with a mid-range android phone camera!) Monet’s Garden Tip 5: Go into the Impressionist Museum BEFORE visiting the Monet Gardens from Paris. If you can plan time for it, it is really cool to visit the Impressionist Museum (Musée des impressionnismes Giverny) BEFORE you go to the Monet house and gardens. You will get to learn a bit about his paintings and his inspiration beforehand and the backstory really takes your whole visit experience over the top! 🤯 It does cost a few dollars for the admission fee (and it is separate from the tickets you buy for Monet’s House and Gardens) but it doesn’t take that long to explore and we did actually enjoy it! You can check out their website here for opening hours and admission prices. (Side note: the museum’s restaurant ALSO closes their kitchen between lunch and dinner.) If you don't have time to fit this into your itinerary, another fun option is to watch an informative (but fun) Youtube video the night before your visit so your kids get the backstory and appreciate the visit so much more! This one is great for kids and gives a nice but brief biography of his life and art in less than 5 minutes: Tip 6 To Visit Monet’s Garden With Kids: Wear a face mask inside of the chateau (aka inside the house). Yep- I’m getting on my health train right now. 🚂🚂🚂 You are going to want to bring a face mask to visit Monet's Garden- and be sure to put it on BEFORE you go into the chateau (house). I cannot stress this enough- nobody wants to be sick on their family vacation. I said the same thing in my ‘7 Tips For Visiting Versailles With Kids’ post, and I will say it again- a face mask here is a MUST. There are people from ALL over the world in very small, tight spaces inside the house’s rooms and hallways. This means exposure to lots of new cold and flu germs that you and your kids have never been exposed to before! We’ve gotten colds on vacations pre-covid and it is ALWAYS a major fun-killer. 🤒 Trust me on this one- we ALL got sick after THIS exact family vacation in Paris (I'm blaming Versailles, but the Monet visit probably didn't help either), and we also got sick once in Naples, Italy after just visiting Rome. And you REALLY don’t want to hear about the explosive tummy flu that knocked out our WHOLE family (except for me, woohoo!) when we went to Brussels a few years back! My point in oversharing all of this gross information is that I'm hoping you will please use this info to learn from our mistakes. Wearing a face mask in places like these is GENIUS, and I’ve added face masks to our future packing lists, permanently. 😷 Tip 7 For The Monet Gardens In Paris: Use our route as a rough guide for planning your family’s own epic Monet's Garden Day Trip from Paris. I’ve taken a bit of time to make this fun little route on Google Maps of the way WE explored the area, from visiting Monets garden and chateau as well as the surrounding Giverny area. 🥰 Since we didn’t have very much time (our tickets were in the afternoon, so we didn't even leave from our AirBnb in Paris to Monet Gardens until after 1pm!), the route surely could be improved or added to… But I thought it would be a good way to show you where we went and what was worth seeing along the way! You can easily add stops to this route after you open it in your Google Maps app on your phone, or rearrange the stops I’ve added as well! I can’t add notes to the Google Maps route that will be visible to the public, so I've broken it down briefly for you so you can see where we went throughout the area. Here are the stops on the map in order of our Monet Gardens day trip route: Parking Les Jardins de Claude Monet: This is the main free parking lot, but there are two other free parking lots nearby. The Impressionist’s Museum (See tip No. 6 for why it's important to go here first) The SIDE ENTRANCE for Monet’s House and Gardens if you have bought tickets in ADVANCE before arriving. Fondation Monet: The MAIN entrance to Monet’s House and Gardens Eglise Sainte-Radegonde (the beautiful church I mentioned above) Monet’s Family Tomb (Claude Monet’s burial grave site next to the church) A pretty art gallery you will see along the walk with beautiful paintings for sale. (You’ll also pass the historic hotels and cafes on this road.) A neat mechanical museum that our kids wanted to see (but it was already closed) Also, the cute little stand that sold apple cider and wine is NOT marked on this route since it’s a truck (and not a building)- but we passed it along this route somewhere also so you're sure to see it if it's out there. Google maps estimates that it should take about 30 minutes to walk from the beginning to the end of this route, so everything is really close together for the most part so you can really take your time to enjoy the Giverny area. And that’s my list of family vacation tips for visiting the Monet Gardens in Paris! It was definitely worth visiting, and won by a landslide in a vote of our kids’ favorite days on our family vacation in Paris! Quite frankly, I’ll probably plan another day to spend at Monet’s House and Gardens if we go back to Paris again, so that we can really slow down, explore the town more, and just savor the whole experience! We really just loved our day there so much. So if you’re still on the fence about adding Monet Gardens in Paris to your itinerary for your OWN family vacation in France, I hope this post helped sway you into the DO IT category! 🎉 If you have questions about any of these tips, or have your OWN tips for exploring France with kids, please drop a comment down below! Sharing is caring! And don't forget to signup for our newsletter to be notified when our next post comes out! Liked this post? Check out more of our similar tips, tricks & info! 👇👇👇 Thanks for reading our blog! We love sharing our adventures with you and hope you learn lots of great family world travel tips for making your family travel easier! Don't forget to check out our SHOP for helpful organization tools, and follow us social media! (Links are below!) P.S.- You can help support our blog for FREE, just by shopping for your favorite travel gear & other cool stuff through Amazon, using our referral link here! 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Visiting the Provence France Lavender Fields is a BIG bucket list item for many. (Me me me!) The scenery makes it an especially beautiful stop for any Southern France family vacation itinerary and it just seems so... peaceful. So here's a few tips you MUST SEE before planning your Provence France lavender fields family vacation to make it a visit that the whole family can enjoy! Provence France Lavender Fields Tip 1: Wear a long dress or pants so the lavender doesn't scratch you and cut your legs. Something I didn’t see during ANY of my meticulous (aka A-type, over the top pre-planning crazy) research was that the lavender plants are SCRATCHY and will cut your legs! Like many people who visit the Provence France lavender fields, I picked my outfit in advance. And, because this was a bucket list activity for me, I also picked outfits for ALL my kids (and gently steered my husband’s outfit choice) as well. 🤪 Since it was early July, we did what any reasonable person would do when planning a summer vacation- wear shorts. So it was a little bit of a bummer when we actually arrived to the Valensole lavender fields and started making our way through them- it felt like walking through weeds! 🤯 It was definitely an oversight- the lavender plants touching our legs didn’t even cross my mind once during all of my planning! That’s why I wanted to make that my VERY FIRST tip- because there’s enough things to think about when planning a family vacation in France, so at least this is one thing less to catch you off guard when you get there. 😉 Basically, if you plan to wear pants, slacks or a long dress, you’ll be fine. Or, maybe put lotion on your legs before leaving and pray for the plants to be kind if you have your heart set on a cute outfit that leaves your legs bare. Provence France Family Vacation Tip 2: The lavender fields are best enjoyed as a day trip or farm experience. The other tip I wanted to mention right off the bat is that the Provence france lavender fields can be seen in one day- making it a perfect day trip to include in any family vacation in France (or add to a fun European road trip). While the lavender fields south of France are definitely some of the most beautiful in the world, there’s really not enough to do or see over multiple days, and your little ones will probably get bored if you decide to stretch it into a weekend (or more). That being said, there are lots of other great things to do in the Provence region, especially if you like hiking, the beach, and/or lots of beautiful and quaint little towns. In fact, our Southern France family vacation was one of the favorites for our entire family- even the littlest ones loved it! 😍 (Check out our Family Holidays In South France tips to make the most of your family vacation!) But if you’re like me, you’re probably wondering if you’re really going to get the full experience if you only do a one-day visit?! I’ve got you covered below with a great link to the perfect lavender fields France map in tip No. 4. 😉 It’s easily enjoyed in one day, and we did it in one afternoon! If you really do have your heart set on enjoying them for longer, you might be able to plan ahead and book a fun farm stay or ‘airbnb experience’ stay right by the Provence lavender fields and get more of a ‘behind the scenes’ visit. Since we were already planning a multi-week European family vacation, it was easy to add a Provence visit to our itinerary as we passed through Southern France. Lavender Fields France Family Vacation Tip 3: Go early in the morning and get deep into the Provence France lavender fields for the best shots. Here’s where tip No. 1 really starts to matter. First of all, it is definitely important to get there as early in the morning as you possibly can. ☀️🐓☀️ I thought I would be super smart and schedule a late afternoon visit- I can get the late setting sun (hello, Golden Hour!) and won’t have to wake the kids up super early. But that was a bad idea for a couple of reasons- most of all because it was INSANELY hot! Luckily, we had water bottles in the car, because there weren’t really any cafes or anything near the fields to rely on. Also, the lavender fields were quite busy in the afternoon! Even though we weren’t able to visit in late June, when it's considered to be the ‘best time to see lavender fields in Provence,’ there were still a LOT of people taking photos and wandering around! 👀 This is one pic I got that had lots of people in it, but for the most part I tried to take pictures without people in the way (or crop them down), Since you can see both the sunflower and the Terranova lavender fields side by side here, it was quite a popular spot. Even though were actually cutting it pretty close to harvest by getting there July 10th (harvest is mid-July) it was still pretty crowded, in my opinion. So if I had to do it again, I would definitely go earlier in the morning so I can take advantage of the slower crowds and avoid overheating. Even if you're headed to see the lavender fields in France with kids in tow, this is one experience you'll want to wake up early for. For the second half of this family vacation tip, I suggest taking your time to actually GO deeper into the fields. I saw a lot of people standing to take photos around the edges of the lavender fields, but only the ones with professional photographers actually seemed to be walking deeper into the fields to get the good shots. It’s YOUR trip. You’re going to want to have beautiful memories of your France family holidays, so don’t be afraid to get in there and actually go for it! 🥳 There’s a reason the professionals were dragging their clients deeper into the fields- that’s where the prettiest shots are! (Don’t forget my earlier tip about longer dresses or pants though, those plants will get ya!) Provence Lavender Fields Family Vacation Tip 4: Use an updated route through the Valensole fields for the best experience. When doing my copious amounts of research (I’m crazy, remember?!)... I found an AMAZING blog run called LeLongWeekend by a woman who actually lives in Provence and updates a route through the Valensole lavender fields in Provence every single year! If you haven’t heard of Valensole yet, it’s a nice little area in Provence with LOTS of lavender fields and a cute little town area nearby where you can stop for lunch or an early dinner. All in all, if you follow the route she suggests, you can see ALL the best Provence France lavender fields as one glorious day trip, and then move on to enjoy the rest of your France family vacation activities! 🎉 You can see her wonderfully put-together and informative blog with her clever map route of all the fields here! Provence France Family Vacation Tip 5: Don't over edit your lavender field photos and be careful when using filters. You might have already noticed that most of my tips come from things we happened to find out first hand. So as you can probably guess, I turned all our lavender field photos purple. 😅 After we got back from our wonderful Valensole France lavender fields experience, I was SO excited to edit our photos and get them put up on social media for our friends and family to see! When I opened up my phone and started playing with the photo editing settings, I saw a 'cool' filter that REALLY made the purple in the lavender pop automatically! So I edited all my photos pretty quickly, uploaded them to Facebook (groan) and surprise! The clouds were all purple in my photos! It looked awful!! 😵‍💫 It looked better on my phone than it did on social media, I swear! LOL!! Luckily, I was able to go back to the original photos and edit them manually (no filters, thank you!) and they looked great that way! Crisis averted! I was able to save my beautiful lavender field photos and even though the purple didn't pop like it did before, the end result was still beautiful. (Sidenote: for the photos of the lavender plants themselves, the quick filter looked amazing! But when the people and the clouds start to turn purple, it looked overdone and not as beautiful as it could be.) And even though you've probably realized it by now, most of the lavender field photos you'll see online have been heavily edited to make that purple pop. My visit to the Provence France lavender fields definitely made me want to take a professional photo editing course ASAP so I can make my photos look as beautiful as the ones I see online! That being said, I've found some GREAT resources that I'd love to share in case they are helpful- there's a fantastic collection of the Top 50 Best FREE Lightroom Presets For 2022 if you're lucky enough to know how to use lightroom (which I will be learning ASAP!!), to help make your photos POP! There's also several AWESOME photography courses made for specifically for mobile phones from Udemy, if you'd like to brush up on your photo taking skills as well. My 13 year old daughter and I took a free course together a few weeks before our European road trip and had a lot of fun going around our town taking photos and bonding! (And for a free course, we were pretty impressed! Check out our photos from our visit to Monet's Gardens to see what I mean! 5 stars!!) Provence France Lavender Fields Tip 6: Don't skip the sunflower fields, they are prettier than the lavender! Okay, so remember that awesome Valensole lavender fields france map blog I mentioned earlier? She also makes a note of a pretty sunflower field that you can see along the way! I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but to be honest, we absolutely LOVED the sunflower field!! It was so beautiful, and since we had been in the fields for about two hours by the time we reached them, it was a really nice break from all of the many lavender fields South of France had to offer. It was also fun for the kids to see, because sunflowers are so popular but they had never actually seen one up close! So even though it wasn’t part of our original plan, when it comes to sunflower fields Provence France did not disappoint! In fact, since we've gotten up close and personal with some of these beautiful sunflowers, our kids point out sunflower fields whenever we embark on our family world travel and see new places. So I'd say they were definitely memorable for our kiddos! Provence France Family Vacation Tip 7: You can park on the sides of the roads of the lavender fields- but be careful crossing the streets. When driving to the Valensole France lavender fields, we initially expected to see parking lots and tourist attractions, like most other things that invite popular tourism. To be frank, we expected it to have been commercialized. It was a wonderful surprise to see that the fields actually still look like farming fields for the most part! With the exception of a few stores sprinkled around, you’re going to be driving on smaller roads with various farming fields on both sides. When you get to the lavender fields that you want to explore and/or take photos of, you’re often going to be able to just pull right over to the side of the road and park. Don’t worry- in most cases you will already see other cars parked there so you will know where to go. 😉 When you’re crossing the road(s) to get to the fields, be sure to pay close attention to the traffic from both directions. The speed limit was usually 60-70kph, and we saw many cars that seemed to be going faster than that- so we were very careful crossing with our kids when there were no cars in sight. Others weren’t quite so careful, and they were making me nervous for them! (I’m such a mom, when I get worried about total strangers crossing the road! Haha!) One couple even got honked at because they weren’t paying attention at all when crossing! 🤯 You should also check out our 7 Tips for Driving in France as a Tourist post for a few great tips that help make driving in Southern France a bit less stressful and more enjoyable. Provence France Lavender Fields Tip 8: Little shops & stands on the sides of the road also make great photo ops. There are multiple little shops spread out along the journey, and visiting them does make the trip a little more fun for the kids. It’s also fun to see all the different lavender soaps and trinkets. 😍 There is one shop called Lavandes Angelvin that has an especially beautiful storefront outside, and they have a (very) small parking lot to the side that gave us a very nice little photo op! There is a strict ‘customers only’ policy for using their parking, so be sure to park, go inside and buy something pretty, and then head back outside for your photos! It’s also really good practice to support the local shops- we bought something from each store and it really wasn’t that expensive- there’s plenty of small items for those on a budget. (Our youngest both got a stuffed lavender bear from one shop, and we got pretty soaps and embroidered towels from another.) Not only will you get a great souvenir from your Provence France family vacation, but you’ll be contributing to the farmers' livelihoods as well. 🤩 Since we always keep our family travel on a budget, I simply added $15 for each person to spend in the shops to our travel budget. We didn't even spend that much, so it worked out great, and our lavender fields visit actually ended up being a pretty inexpensive day! Also, I want to mention this cute little lavender honey stand that was along the side of the road. We almost didn’t stop and we actually turned the car around to go back (because I really wanted a jar of honey). I am SO glad that we made the effort to check it out! They have some bundles of lavender placed in bins around their stand and I got some VERY pretty pictures right there on the spot! 🥰 Overall, I’d say some of my favorite photos were from the little places we stopped at along the way, rather than at the lavender fields themselves. All of these photos above were taken at the different shops/stands (along the map route from tip No. 4) we visited! Provence Lavender Fields Family Vacation Tip 9: Bring a small drone to get beautiful overhead shots. This tip is definitely not going to be practical for everyone, so I wanted to make it my very last tip. Because seeing the lavender fields had been something I’ve dreamed of doing since I was a child, I saved money well in advance to be able to invest in a small drone to get overhead shots and video. Honestly, I could have just booked a professional photographer instead (and probably gotten better pictures), but I’ve also used my drone in Switzerland and a few other places so far and absolutely LOVE having the ability to capture our vacation memories in a new way! 😍 The drone I chose to purchase was the DJI Mini 2, because it was in the middle range of pricing while still being a VERY good quality drone- and most importantly, it was small enough not to require any professional license or permissions to fly it. I simply had to register my drone with our government online and 15 minutes later I was good to go! DJI also has an amazing app, so while you are flying it will clearly tell you if you are allowed to fly in that zone (some areas are restricted, such as airport zones), and if the wind is too fast, etc. It makes flying MUCH simpler and softens the learning curve. (There’s also flying tutorials where you can follow the instructions right along with the app and learn how to use the drone.) Having our drone with us was super fun, and a few other people also had drones out in the fields, so it’s definitely an idea that is getting more popular. I actually got the first photo at the top of this blog post from my drone! And here's another quick shot I took with our drone. (No more selfie sticks! Yay!) I didn’t have very many opportunities to learn how to fly it before our trip, so my footage wasn’t the best. Just be sure to buy your drone well in advance so you can learn how to fly it well and can take full advantage of using it during the lavender season in Provence. (This is the exact drone kit we purchased, because it came with 2 extra batteries!) All in all, we really loved the experience of seeing the lavender fields. It was a fun day and our kids enjoyed it MUCH more than I thought they would. I had prepped everyone in advance that if they just behave and take pictures nicely, I would get it over with as quickly as I could and we could enjoy the rest of our vacation. It was a great surprise when everyone had fun, and I wasn’t just dragging the family along! 🥰 If you’re planning on taking a family vacation to the Provence France lavender fields, these tips will hopefully help you to make the most of your experience and really enjoy the visit! (And don’t forget, the best time to see lavender fields in Provence is the last week of June to the first week of July!) Hopefully you find these tips helpful, and if you have any questions- or great tips from your own experiences- please share them below! Have a wonderful and memory-filled France family vacation! Liked this post? Check out more of our similar tips, tricks & info! 👇👇👇 Thanks for reading our blog! We love sharing our adventures with you and hope you learn lots of great tips for making your family travel easier! Don't forget to check out our SHOP for helpful organization tools, and follow us social media! (Links are below!) P.S.- You can help support our blog for FREE, just by shopping for your favorite travel gear & other cool stuff through Amazon, using our referral link here! Thank you so much! 🥰 Click HERE to jump back to top of page.

Driving in France as a tourist is a unique experience that, especially as an American driving in France, we felt deserved a post of its own! We quickly learned when driving in Paris AND Southern France that there were some big differences we wished we had known ahead of time! So in our typical fashion of being as helpful as possible to our readers, I’ve compiled our best tips for driving in France as a tourist! 😉 Driving In France As A Tourist Tip 1: Skip the parking garages and opt for street parking instead. This first family vacation tip for driving is probably the most important one (in my opinion), especially if you get a little bit stressed out when driving in unfamiliar places or circumstances. 😬 Instead of trying to find a parking garage, you will save yourself a lot of headaches if you just use the paid street parking instead. In fact, I suggest skipping the parking garages in Paris altogether, and just go straight for the street parking. (I know it's not the most revolutionary of family travel hacks, but hear me out...) Parking garages are easy to find on Google Maps, and you can even see multiple garages within a few blocks in certain areas- BUT it’s not as simple as it first seems. One of the things we discovered on our family vacation in Paris was that parking garages can be REALLY difficult to get into if you aren’t familiar with the streets already. The entrances for public parking lots can be hard to find. And there are often a lot of pedestrians walking across the openings and cars coming behind you (adding to the stress of the situation). And driving in Paris is already a notoriously stressful situation, so why add to the chaos? But side street parking is WAY easier to find and utilize! 🤩 If you’re driving in Paris, you’re ALSO going to want to leave an extra 20 to 30 earlier to find an open parking space along one of the smaller side streets. You can find areas on the side of the streets with white dashed lines and the word 'PAYANT' to signify that it is a paid parking space open to the public. You can often find good spaces on the side streets near the river (especially in the Notre Dame area), but you WILL have to drive a little while to find an open spot. For example, when we drove to see all the historic spots on the East side of Paris, we parked on this side street here. It is a little side street tucked between the two sides of the river, with less traffic, which made it easier to get to and park in an open spot. You can also find a REALLY good guide here for parking in Paris, which covers garages, parking meters, and even gives tips to make it easier to get around in Paris by car. (This would have been super helpful to find before I planned our family vacation in France!) If you’re driving somewhere less busy (for example, driving south of France), it’s a bit easier to find parking, and many of the options might even be free! Also, it's worth mentioning that both the Palace of Versailles and Monet's Gardens in Giverny have their own parking lots, so you don't have to worry about finding parking. The Versailles parking does cost money, however, so don't come without your wallet. (Get more tips about visiting Versailles here if that's on your France family vacation itinerary.) Tips For Driving In France 2: Use the app (or your credit card) to pay for parking fees instead of keeping coins in your car. If you’re worried about using the parking meters because you don’t have cash on you- that’s okay! One of the beautiful things about driving to France is that they’ve done an excellent job of making it easy to use their paid parking! 🤯 There’s often a credit card reader on the parking meters, and there’s always a QR code on the side of the machine to scan their parking app. (You can even download the parking app ahead of time here.) You can use either way to pay with your credit card instead of carrying coins or cash around! This is also safer, because you’re not leaving coins in the car. Cars do have a tendency (in any big city) to get broken into and robbed of any cash or valuables left visible in the car- so eliminating that worry just makes your family holidays in France that much easier! This is an especially important tip if you’re spending your family vacation in Paris, because Paris is a BIG and BUSTLING city! 😅 (And we've got more tips for visiting Paris here to help you be prepared and make the most of your visit to France with kids, so be sure to check those out.) Tips For Driving In France As A Tourist 3: Never drive anywhere in France without bringing your wallet with you. Believe it or not, parking isn't the only time you'll need your wallet when traveling Europe with kids- and that is ESPECIALLY true in France! We've talked about the many payment options for parking when driving to France, so now I’m going to jump right into our next driving tips in France- the dreaded highway tolls. No matter where you are driving in France, there are almost certainly going to be toll roads. We’ve discovered that France has a large selection of highways- and many (maybe even most) of them are PAID TOLL highways. This applies whether you’re planning your family vacation in Paris, taking a Provence road trip or anywhere in between! Of all the countries we visited during our European family vacation, France had the MOST EXPENSIVE toll fees by far. Prepare for toll fees on most highways, ranging from about 3 euros to over 20 euros depending on how long you’re on the highway and where you are headed. There ARE some highways that are free, but they take much longer to use, making them quite inconvenient to use unless you have an extra hour or two to add to your drive time. 😵‍💫 We learned on our Southern France road trip (aka the first leg of our family European road trip) that trying to avoid the toll roads could add SEVERAL HOURS onto our trip per day! The good news is that the toll highways DO take credit cards, so you don’t ever have to worry about carrying cash during your driving holidays to France. It is easiest to use your credit card to pay the tolls, especially if you have an NFC chip in your credit card. If you don’t have a credit card, the tolls DO take cash as well, so don’t worry. One thing that France is great about is making things easy to use. That was one of our biggest takeaways from our family holidays in France, the French are pros at simpification. 🥰 But I definitely wanted to mention this in case you're planning your family travel on a budget- because the expensive tolls can make quite the dent if you're not prepared. Tips On Driving In France 4: Always be alert while driving, and eliminate other distractions in the car. I know, I know, this probably sounds like an obvious tip. 😅 But this tip actually has multiple pieces of important information below, so be sure to read it through. Something we noticed as an American driving in France is that there are WAY MORE things you have to pay attention to when driving. This is true of most places in Europe, but especially applies to big cities. Driving in Paris is much more stressful than driving in South of France, for example. But Southern France road trips DO come with their own challenges! (More on that below.) When in busy city areas (even in the smaller cities) the city streets can get very busy with pedestrians & people on bikes. 🚴‍♀️ Probably the most important aspect to mention in this particular tips for driving in France is that there is a BIG difference in how the turn lanes and pedestrian crossings work in Europe. 🚶🚶‍♀️🚶‍♂️ When turning onto another street, be aware of the crosswalks as you turn. The crosswalks will often be green on the street you’re turning ON TO, so you will have to turn and then almost immediately stop to let the pedestrians cross. Once the pedestrians are all clear of your lane, you can go- you don’t have to wait for their crossing light to turn red. You also don’t need to wait until their are on the other side, as long as they are very far clear of your lane. (I often wait until they get to the middle of the road, as a general rule, but sometimes I get honked at, so 🤷‍♀️) We also noticed on our driving holidays to France that motorcycles can drive in between the lanes (much like they do in California). I’m not sure if that’s legal, but it happens A LOT, especially in the cities. When driving to South of France, there’s not as many motorcycles, but you do have to watch for semi trucks instead. There are also a lot of cars that frequently change back and forth into different lanes on the highways. They change to go around each other and around the many semi trucks in the right lane(s). They even change lanes in the tunnels! (Yikes!) I’ve come to believe throughout my road trip en France et au-delà that many drivers simply do not look behind them when changing lanes, however. So it is important to also watch your sides any time you’re going to be taking driving holidays to France or other European countries, especially on the highways. In general, it is important to pay very close attention to your driving, as well as to what is going on around you on the road. 👀 Don’t play loud music, make sure the kids are quiet, and don’t ever drive when tired. (I know I’m being such a mom here, sorry, but it’s important!) Tips For Driving In France 5: Assertive driving is as important as alert driving in France. By now, you might be feeling a little intimidated about driving during your family holidays in France. 🤪 So let me back up a quick second and say that while I AM throwing a lot of information at you, none of these tips on driving in France are especially difficult or complicated. I’m mainly just trying to give you a heads up on things that most tourists (especially Americans driving in France) might not know, so you’re not caught off guard. 🥰 That being said, I want to switch gears a little bit (Get it? Gears?! 🤣 Okay, I might need more coffee….) and talk about ASSERTIVENESS while driving. Don’t be afraid to go around cars that are traveling too slowly, which happens often, especially when driving South of France. (But don’t forget to use your rearview mirror first!) It’s also important to mention that the on-ramp and off-ramp for highways can sometimes be quite short. As an American driving in France, this was a big difference for me while driving on highways. In fact, both Spain and France have alarmingly short highway on-ramps and off-ramps, compared to other countries we've driven in during our family world travel. 🤯 You WILL have to be assertive when getting into the right lane to prepare for your exit from the highway, because the exits don’t give you a lot of room to get into the lane ahead of time. As soon as your gps says you'll be exiting soon (my Google maps directions usually let me know when my exit is about 3 kilometers away), start getting into the exit lane. Yes, you'll go quite slow for that last stretch up to the exit, but at least you'll get off the highway in time and in the right spot. 😉 Driving In France As A Tourist Tip 6: When driving in Paris, always use Google Maps’ longest travel time estimate. One of the things we noticed while we were doing our road trip en France: There was usually a pretty BIG window of time for the estimated travel time any time we were in or near one of the bigger cities. We didn’t have this problem when driving in south of France (during our Provence road trip), but we DID experience it every single day when driving in Paris. We stayed at a cute little flat on the southern edge of Paris, so driving into the city often gave us a time estimate ranging between 30 minutes up to an hour and a half!! 😬 I quickly learned to give ourselves the full time estimate (plus a little extra time if we had timed tickets for somewhere just in case) so that we wouldn’t be rushed or stressed while sitting in the city traffic. Sure enough, it ALWAYS took the full time estimate, usually because of accidents or issues that caused slow-downs on the highways. If you will ONLY be driving on the side streets, this might not be such a big issue, but also you won’t get such a big time window in your Google Maps directions either, so just be sure to pay attention to the time it gives you and add a little bit of time for cushion. As long as you give yourself plenty of time to get to each location, it shouldn't be a problem, and your family vacation in France will be much more enjoyable. Tips of Driving In France As A Tourist 7: Don’t be afraid to drive UNDER the speed limit and let cars pass you on the country roads & narrow neighborhood streets. This tip is especially for families planning a holiday in some of the more rural areas of the French countryside or that requires driving to South of France. Some of the roads can get quite narrow, but the speed limits are still relatively high (at least they seemed high to us) at 60-70 kph. 😅 I found myself getting a bit nervous about some of the curves on the roads during our Southern France road trip, especially going from our house in the French countryside to the Provence lavender fields. There are also places where only one car can fit through, so you have to stop and let the oncoming car pass you (or they will stop for you). Some general rules for driving in the French countryside: If a car is coming DOWN the hill, they get priority. Let them pass. If there are cars that seem too close behind you, pull to the side and let them pass. Never drive faster than you feel comfortable. People can wait, they won’t die by getting stuck behind Miss Daisy. If you are driving in the cities of France, there is a similar problem with the neighborhood streets becoming quite narrow. Most of the streets in the actual down-town parts of the city will usually be multiple lanes. But in the streets surrounding the city center and beyond, however, you will often run into streets that have cars parked along one or both sides. This can make the drivable part of the street quite thin. (Some are just narrow anyways, even without parked cars.) My best advice for these streets is to go slow and be generous about letting the cars coming towards you go first. I feel like that not only takes the pressure off me trying to get out of their way quickly, but it also gives me more time to absorb the GPS directions and see what types of street conditions are ahead of me. Aside from the things I mentioned in the tips above, driving in France is a very exciting experience! 🤩 There is a LOT of beautiful scenery to be seen outside of the big cities, and even driving through the highways in Paris was cool because there were some unique buildings that caught our eye. Hopefully, these tips help you to feel more confident while driving in France as a tourist, and especially if you’re an American driving in France, as the rules can be somewhat different! And please comment below if you think of any questions or have other tips for driving during your France family haolidays that we didn’t mention above! 🥰 P.S.- We have MANY more posts coming out from our European Summer Road Trip covering France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands- so sign up for our newsletter to be notified when our next posts come out! Liked this post? Check out more of our similar tips, tricks & info! 👇👇👇 Thanks for reading our blog! We love sharing our adventures with you and hope we're helping to make your family world travel easier! Please check out our SHOP for helpful planning tools & follow us social media! (Links are below!) P.S.- You can help support our blog for FREE, just by shopping for your favorite travel gear through Amazon, using our referral link here! Thank you so much! 🥰 Click HERE to jump back to top of page.

There’s so many amazing things to see during vacations in Southern France, but holidays in South France are a bit different from vacations in really touristy areas like Paris. We’ve put together our best list of tips for planning your Southern France family holidays, so you can make the most of your family holidays in France, no matter where you visit! 😉 Planning Family Holidays In South France Tip 1: Double check the address with the Airbnb host or hotel. This first tip is (as many of our family vacation tips are) based on something we learned the hard way during our own family world travel! 😅 Whenever you're traveling Europe with kids (or without), make sure to double check the address. We stayed in TWO different accommodations (one hotel and one gorgeous house in the French countryside) and BOTH had wonky addresses listed, so my driving directions were wrong! First, the hotel address in my Booking.com app just listed the general street without an actual street number. Talk about starting our road trip to Provence off on the wrong foot! But things really got interesting when we moved on to the cute cottage house we booked from AirBnb! We found ourselves lost in the French countryside because the AirBnb address was for somewhere totally different! (I’m guessing the host just put it in wrong.) This was especially stressful because the sun had set while we were trying to find our way there, while navigating the narrow roads (see the next tip below!), and we wound up trying to find our way to the house in the dark French countryside. I even accidentally side-swiped a tree trunk while turning the car around! It had been cut low and I couldn't see it- when suddenly we hear a loud crunch... and when we get out to look, the short little tree stub had left some colorful marks on the back fender. 😳 Planning vacations to Southern France can be a beautiful destination choice, but don't forget to DOUBLE CHECK the addresses with your host/hotels directly to avoid any unnecessary stress. It is a quick message to send and can save you some unnecessary stress! Tip 2 for Planning Vacations Southern France: Drive slowly!! The roads are narrow and curvy, with higher speed limits. This tip mostly applies to you if you’re going to be driving in Southern France. Since our Southern France road trip (part of our larger 3-week European road trip) definitely required driving, we wanted to be sure to include this tip! One thing we noticed when driving during the summer holidays in South France was that the roads often get a bit narrow, and one car has to scoot over for the other car to pass. When the roads get curvy, this can become a bit stressful, because the speed limit when driving in Southern France was usually 70 kph (approx 44 mph). This might not seem fast, but some of the bends get scary, and if a car is right behind you, the pressure to drive the full 70 kph gets higher. There were a handful of times during our Southern France road trip that we just pulled over to let cars behind us pass- especially because the one-lane roads make slowing down (or even stopping) for oncoming traffic more difficult. So if you're planning on driving during your family holidays in France, don't be afraid to go slowly and let the cars pass around you. 😉 We have a few more tips for driving posted here if you want to get more helpful details on driving in France, but I'm keeping things brief for this post, so please check that out if you're going to be driving in the French countryside. Tip 3 for Planning Family Holidays in South France: Many places close EARLY, so plan ahead of time whenever possible. One of the things we noticed during our vacations Southern France is that a lot of stores and restaurants closed earlier than we expected. Since we had booked a house in the French countryside, we needed groceries to make some of our own meals in the kitchen, and although there were a fair selection of grocery stores, they were all closed around 8pm, and some of them were also closed on Sundays and/or Mondays altogether! For us, since we live in Spain where the nightlife is part of the culture, we assumed stores would be open until at least 9 or 10 pm. (You know what they say about assuming things! 🤣 If you’re planning to spend your holidays in Southern France, don’t forget to head to the stores early. If you're trying to keep your family travel on a budget, this is an especially important family travel tip! If you need something from the store and don't make it in time, you might find yourself searching for a specialty store that's open later- and they tend to be more expensive. (If you can even find one, of course!) Also, when making grocery runs on your South of France trip, look for a store called Carrefour. Carrefour has larger supermarkets (like a smaller Walmart) AND many smaller grocery stores that are more like corner stores with main grocery staples. All of the Carrefour stores tend to be open 7 days a week, making it a little easier if you need to grab some food on a Sunday or a Monday. For restaurants, many places tend to close for the afternoon and open up again for a few hours at dinner time. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been on family holidays with teenagers, and they almost instantly become whiney, cranky creatures from another species until they’ve been properly fed. I’m convinced that they hit a certain level of sightseeing and some sort of inner ‘feed me’ switch flips. Beware- and be prepared! 🤪 By planning out the itinerary of your France family holidays in advance, you can save yourself a lot of trouble, and prevent the kids from getting hangry at 2pm when everything is closed and you still haven’t had lunch yet. PSST- You can use our free Super Simple Vacation Planner to organize your family travel with ease- so you can stay within your family travel budget AND make the most of your vacation time! Tip 4 for Planning Family Holidays in South France: Be sure to learn a few common phrases (or download a cheat sheet!) in French. During our road trip through Europe with kids, we spent almost two weeks of our family vacation in France, visiting both the southern French countryside and later going up north to Paris. (Part of this included our road trip Provence also, so be sure to check out our posts dedicated to tips for visiting the Valensole lavender fields and our Paris tips for the first time visiting Paris!) Even though we found many people in Paris spoke a bit of English and communicating was quite easy, it wasn’t so simple on our South of France trip. Not as many people speak or understand English, so it is going to be IMPORTANT to grab a cheat sheet of basic French phrases and try to learn a few in advance. I've created this quick cheet sheet with the phrases we used most during travel- just right-click the image to save it! OR you can download this awesome cheat sheet with even MORE phrases from The Intrepid Guide's travel blog and save it to your phone for easy access during your holidays in South France. 😊 Southern France Family Holidays Tip 5: The summer heat can get really hot in the late afternoon, so stay hydrated and sunscreened! Whether you’re heading to the Southern French countryside or planning a road trip Provence lavender fields, BE SURE TO STAY HYDRATED! It can get quite easy during the summer, but even in Spring and Fall the days can get warm and there is a LOT of beautiful sunshine- so make sure to pack extra sunscreen for mid-day reapplications and plenty of water. We always bring our trusty hydration tablets to get the kids to stay hydrated and there’s lots of yummy flavors. See our Must Have Travel Essentials post here for more info on why we love them, especially for our youngest who hates drinking water. 🤪 And sunscreen was a MUST during our South of France trip! Coming from sunny Valencia, Spain, we were surprised by the intensity of the sun even though we were further north! We definitely deepend our tans during our holidays in Southern France, even with a few daily sunscreen applications. Sun hats are also a definite perk to have on vacations in Southern France as well (or really anywhere that’s sunny, because hats are both cute AND protect from the sun). Our Southern France Family Holidays Tip 6: The rest stops are super fancy and very accommodating for kids! This tip is great if you’re planning a Southern France road trip -BUT- it’s also super helpful to know if you’re planning family holidays in France and plan to drive to get around. Rest stops are handy during long drives, but they are also helpful for giving your kids a break to play. Kids get bored- especially if you’re traveling down to Provence to see lavender fields (or just exploring different areas on a Southern France holiday)- because driving gets monotonous for them more quickly. The rest stops along the highways often have playgrounds and nicer outdoors areas for kids to stretch their legs. In fact, of all the countries we drove through on our European road trip (Spain, France, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany), France had the NICEST rest stops of all of them. Our kids wanted to stay and play longer every time we stopped somewhere. It was a great way for us to break up all the driving during our Southern France holiday AND let the kids play, because there aren’t many playgrounds sprinkled throughout the southern French countryside. 😜 So we definitely suggest planning some extra time into your family France holidays just to let your kids play- especially if you’re going to be doing a lot of South of France travel and the kids will be stuck in the car a lot. (One perk of family holidays with teenagers is that they often don’t mind longer car drives when they have mobile phones to keep them entertained!) That’s pretty much all of our tips specifically for Southern France, but we do have lots of other posts for different tourist spots, so be sure to check out the rest of our tips for planning family France holidays. And please comment below if you have more tips that we didn’t mention above! 🥰 Also, we have MANY MORE tips posts coming out from our summer European Road Trip, so make sure you signup for our newsletter to be notified when our next posts come out! Liked this post? Check out more of our similar tips, tricks & info! 👇👇👇 Thanks for reading our blog! We love sharing our adventures with you and hope you learn lots of great tips for making your family travel easier and useful family travel hacks! Don't forget to check out our SHOP for helpful organization tools, and follow us social media! (Links are below!) P.S.- You can help support our blog for FREE, just by shopping for your favorite travel gear & other cool stuff through Amazon, using our referral link here! Thank you so much! 🥰 Click HERE to jump back to top of page.

Visiting the Palace of Versailles is often on the list for any great Paris family vacation, and when visiting a place this big (and this popular) there are some definitely tips to help make your visit go smoother. So we wanted to put together a post of our best tips for visiting Versailles with kids, so you can truly enjoy the experience! So let's jump right in here, because this first tip is a doozy! 😜 Best Tip For Visiting Versailles with Kids 1: Skip the entire thing and go explore the town of Giverny (where Claude Monet lived) instead. I know, I know, this doesn't sound like the greatest tips for visiting Versailles, but honestly, if you don't have a genuine love for French history or architecture (or some other big reason to go), then I definitely suggest NOT even visiting the palace of Versailles! 😂 There's lots of reasons for this- first of all being that the palace is a bit of a disappointment compared to a lot of the other main tourist attractions you could enjoy when visiting France with kids. Our family was quite underwhelmed by the entire experience, actually, and it was the least favorite activity of our entire European family vacation this past summer, if not of all time. (And we've covered a lot of ground during our family world travel in the past few years, so that's saying a lot.) But let's get more specific- without being too pessimistic- so YOU can decide for yourself whether or not you want to visit Versailles during your next family vacation in France. 😊 Is it worth visiting Versailles, or is it better to skip it? Let me get the main 'cons' out of the way, so you can plan your absolute best France family holidays trip with or without a visit to the Palace of Versailles: You will need to plan to spend a day in Versailles- a FULL day- if you want the visit to be worthwhile. This can be a bit tricky when planning your Paris family vacation, depending on how much time you have to spend and what other activities you'd like to do. The tickets aren't as affordable as many of the other activities (like the Eiffel Tower or Monet's House & Gardens) around the Paris area. If you're keeping your family travel on a budget, this might impact your cash flow. The palace is PACKED full of people. (More on that below!) Most of the artifacts, furniture, etc inside the are REPLICAS, as much was lost over time (and especially during the volatile French Revolution.) This might be a bummer if you're a history nut hoping to see the real deal. (Also, much of the marble walls was painted to look like marble instead of actual marble.) Your transportation choices for how to visit Versailles might be limited or require multiple transfers unless you're visiting Versailles from Paris (the inner city) or have your own car. So I know that's not the BEST way to start out a post about visiting the Palace of Versailles, but I wanted to get that out of the way FIRST. 😝 (Also, be sure to check out our 7 Epic Tips To Visit Monet's Garden before choosing between the two activities.) Now let's talk about the tips we've compiled to help make your next family vacation in France as amazing as possible! Best Tip For Visiting Versailles with Kids 2: Go early in the morning. The first of our tips for visiting Versailles might seem like a no-brainer, but if you've got kids, getting up and going in the mornings might be a bit harder to do. If you're like us, for example, you might have adapted your family travel routine to be more of a mid-day experience. Hauling 5 kids out of beds and getting everyone ready can sometimes feel more like a WWE cage match than a vacation experience! 😝 That means we've adjusted our family world travel to be able to leave in the late mornings, and sometimes even the early afternoon. But one of the biggest takeaways from our Paris family vacation was that we NEED to get out the door as early as possible to really make the days count. This is especially true when visiting the Chateau de Versailles (or as us Americans call it, the Palace of Versailles), because it is HUGE and it takes HOURS to navigate through the experience. For starters, when you're traveling Europe with kids, you will find that in some countries, the attractions, stores, etc will close earlier than others. The Palace of Versailles closes around 6:30 PM, which means that you'll have to get out the door as early as possible. We spent about 4-5 hours there, and we didn't even cover half of the palace grounds. And since the tickets aren't the most affordable, is it worth visiting Versailles if you can't experience very much of it? That's why early morning is the very best time to visit Versailles, so definitely try and get there as early as possible. You can get your tickets in advance from their official website while you're doing your family trip planning. Or if you want to REALLY make the most of the experience, book a family-friendly Versailles tour. As a side note, things in Spain often stay open WAY later, as their siesta lifestyle allows for more evening activities. So if you're like us and tend to get started later in the day, adding Spain to your European family vacation plans can help you enjoy a more relaxed itinerary that includes sleeping in. 😉 Or better yet- plan a longer trip and enjoy ALL the different countries! Our European road trip covered France, Switzerland and the Netherlands and was so much fun! (And read our tips for driving in France to make the road trip a bit easier.) Tips For Visiting Versailles with Kids 3: Pack water bottles and small packaged snacks. This is one of our universal family travel tips, but it especially applies to anyone visiting Versailles with kids! There's only a few 'cafe/restaurant' type establishments on the palace & garden grounds, and from our experience, they don't have a lot of food choices in stock and run out quickly of what they do have. Furthermore, the 'kitchen' hours are quite limited (think 12-2pm) and close by 5:30 or 6. Even if you do make it to a cafe around 3pm, there won't be much to choose from. We found chips, sodas, and a few desserts on plates left when checked out a few of the different cafe areas. So packing a few snacks (and always bring water!) to keep your kids from getting hungry is a definite must. There's a better selection of places to eat outside the palace as well. So eating a protein-rich breakfast, packing some small snacks, and then having a big dinner at a nice restaurant when you're done is our best advice when taking a day trip to Versailles. (This is another reason that early morning is best time to visit Versailles, because hangry families don't make the fondest of memories. 😅) But this tip comes with a BIG caveat- The security check is mostly looking for weapons/metal, and I didn't see anyone throwing away food or really digging through bags very thoroughly, so (in my humble opinion) bringing snacks is definitely worth the risk of maybe having to throw away a few protein bars. At the very least, be sure to bring some bottled water (and hydration tablets!) so you don't get dehydrated during all of the walking around. We really regretted not bringing enough water on our trip to the Provence Lavender fields and stocked up with extra water after that! Tips For Visiting Versailles with Kids 4: Bring a face mask. No seriously... BRING a mask. I know that everyone is a bit sick and tired of having to wear face masks over the past few years. But when traveling- especially in super touristy places- it can really be worth it to have one just in case you feel it's needed, even if you're not a big fan of wearing them. Of all the places we visited during our Paris family vacation, this was the one place I remember thinking- Oh, crap, there's a lot of people in here, and I wish we had masks... Visiting the Palace of Versailles means that you will be going into countless rooms that have wall-to-wall people touching you, pushing you and talking amongst each other. AKA- you will be breathing the same stuffy air as hundreds of people from all over the world- which introduces many types germs to your body that it has never met before. Our youngest two got sick after visiting Versailles, even though we'd been travelling for 3 weeks (in 4 countries!) already with no issues. Then guess what? They passed it to the rest of us older family members. 😅 A good chunk of other people we've talked to since our own experience have also said they've gotten a cold or flu after visiting Versailles France and other similarly busy tourist spots. Do you want to know how to visit Versailles without getting sick? Bring a mask! It's really hard to take selfies in the palace anyways because of all the people. So don't worry about missing good photo ops! If you DO find an open spot to take a quick pic, it only takes a second to pull the mask down for a photo. 😉 Tips For Spending A Day In Versailles 5: Don't Wear Open Toed Shoes (Or Heels, For That Matter.) Talking about how many people are at the palace brings me to my next tip... Make sure you wear comfortable shoes that PROTECT your toes. No, I'm not trying to be a fashion killer. I saw LOTS of people wearing outfits clearly picked out for a royal day trip to Versailles filled with selfies and insta reels… so I know that what you’re wearing is probably important for lots of people. But wearing open toed shoes (like sandals or heels) on your day trip to Versailles can be dangerous. My poor little feet got stepped on MULTIPLE times, and even though I was wearing tennis shoes, it really quite hurt a couple of times. When you’re spending a day in Versailles, there’s just too many people going from room to room, and as I said above, sometimes they are right up against you. Stepped on toes are just part of that package. So I just wanted to give this quick little tip as it stuck out to me as important. Plus, there's LOTS of walking, so comfy shoes helps prevent sore feet, too. Maybe it’s a mom thing, but I want your little toes to be safe. 😉 Tip 6 On How To Visit Versailles: Download the mobile app before you go to save 5 euros (and get a better experience!) The Palace of Versailles sells audio guides for about 5 euros each, and actually the guide is pretty good! The information is fun to learn and interesting, and both our 5 and 7 year olds were engaged and listening as we walked from room to room. But we didn’t buy enough audio sets- because honestly, we expected the little ones to get bored quickly and pass them on. So if you’re planning on visiting Versailles with kids during your Paris family vacation- don’t forget to DOWNLOAD the ‘Chateau de Versailles’ app ahead of time. There’s not a great data signal in much of the palace, so doing it there doesn’t work very well. Having the audio guide is a super great way to make the most of your experience without paying for an actual guided tour, so don’t skip it! You can click here to get their official app. It also helps to have one of those cheap, old school earbud sets so you can keep one ear in and the other ear free (or wear one single airpod), but since I hadn’t planned ahead, I just put my phone’s volume on low and held it to my ear the same way the kids were doing with the actual audio guide. And that brings me to the very last of our Versailles-specific family vacation tips… Tip 7 For Visiting Versailles: Do a bit of research before deciding WHICH DAY to visit. I have no idea what day is the best day to visit Versailles, and maybe there is a best day, but maybe not. What I DO know, however, is that I had to pay extra money to visit on a Tuesday- because Tuesdays are the days they have the ‘musical’ gardens in the Versailles Gardens. I could have bought tickets that didn’t include the gardens complex and only seen the Palace, but not seeing the gardens seemed almost wasteful when driving down and visiting Versailles from Paris. So I paid the extra money, because you simply CANNOT see the gardens on those days otherwise. Always check the website in case of changes, but as of now (summer, 2022), the Musical Gardens are on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and the Great Musical Waters on Saturdays and Sundays. That only leaves Wednesdays as regular days, because the entire palace complex is closed on Mondays. Also, be aware that they are currently dealing with a drought, so even if you buy a ticket for one of the ‘special’ garden days, the fountains are likely to be turned off. They were all turned off for our visit, which was disappointing after paying the extra money for the tickets. So in my opinion, the best day to visit Versailles would be on a Wednesday, when the gardens are ‘regular’ and you can just enjoy them without any special expectations. 😜 You can check out their official website to see which days and times are available, plus book your tickets in advance. And that concludes my top tips for visiting Versailles with kids! I promise that our other family travel hacks and tips posts for planning a Paris family vacation are WAY happier and funner- but all in all, Versailles wasn’t our favorite experience. I’m still glad we went and our kids can grow up and say they’ve been there and seen it, but honestly I just feel like there was a better way to spend our day in Paris than visiting Versailles. 🤷‍♀️ Hopefully these tips are helpful, and if you have any other tips, or questions that I might not have answered above, leave a comment and let me know! 🥰 Also, we have LOTS more tips posts coming out from our European Summer Road Trip, so signup for our newsletter to be notified when our next posts come out! Liked this post? Check out more of our similar tips, tricks & info! 👇👇👇 Thanks for reading our blog! We love sharing our adventures with you and hope you learn lots of great tips for memorable family travel on a budget! Don't forget to check out our SHOP for helpful organization tools, and follow us social media! (Links are below!) P.S.- You can help support our blog for FREE, just by shopping for your favorite travel gear & other cool stuff through Amazon, using our referral link here! Thank you so much! 🥰 Click HERE to jump back to top of page.

There are SO MANY things to do and see in Paris, and it can quickly become overwhelming trying to plan a Paris family vacation, especially if it's your first time visiting Paris. This post is all of our top tips for visiting Paris- so you can plan the BEST EVER Paris family vacation- with less stress! After spending 4 days in Paris this summer, our family really got to experience the ultimate family vacation- but there were some DEFINITE things I wish we had known ahead of time. That's why I wanted to put together a post specifically dedicated to the tips for visiting Paris for the first time that WE really wish we'd known. 😉 So without further ado... Paris Family Vacation Tip 1: Book your Paris tourist attraction tickets ahead of time to save hours of line waiting. Okay, so this tip might seem like a no-brainer. (Especially if you're a type-A over-planning mom like me!) But I cannot tell you how LONG the lines were to every tourist attraction we visited- from the Eiffel tower to Versailles Palace and even the Monet's Gardens in Giverny! The lines were absolutely insane! 🤯 If it's your first time visiting Paris, you'll probably be planning an itinerary for each day, so it's an easy 5-minute extra step to jump to the websites and buy tickets in advance. PS- just to make it easier for you... Here are the official ticketing sites to some of the best Paris attractions for family holidays: Official Eiffel Tower Paris Tickets Site Official Giverny Monet's Chateau & Gardens Ticket Site Official Palace of Versailles (Chateau de Versailles) Ticket Site Official Louvre Museum Ticket Site First Time Visiting Paris Tip 2: Always bring a bottle of water (and hydration tablets!) out sightseeing with you. This is actually one of those tips that seems like a no-brainer- but it's something we learned the hard way EVEN THOUGH WE KNEW BETTER! We made the mistake of thinking it would be easier to just bring our hydration tablets and then buy some bottled water while out visiting Paris for the first time- and it was a definite regret. Always bring water AND hydration tablets with you, even if you're going somewhere with lots of shops and cafes. It is especially hard to stay hydrated when seeing the sights and around Paris- and there's two problems with just stopping for a quick break at a cafe: Problem 1- Everything in Paris is BUSY- so you're going to be waiting in a line in most places. For example, we waited 45+ minutes in the cafe line in the Eiffel Tower. Problem 2- Things are more expensive in touristy spots, so even if you are able to stop in a little cafe that's NOT busy, that quick stop can easily add up to $20-30 just for drinks for the family! And if you're wondering about the hydration tablets I keep mentioning, they are our absolute MUST BRING for ANY family vacation we take- and you can see more about those in my '5 Must Have Travel Items & Kids Travel Essentials' blog post here. We've learned the hard way (more than once 😬) that it's really easy to get caught up in the excitement of sightseeing and forget to stay hydrated. And nobody wants to be dealing with headaches (or other unpleasant dehydration symptoms) when traveling Europe with kids. So now we make sure to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! 😅 Paris Family Vacation Tip 3: Monet Gardens is WAY better than Versailles if you cant do both activities. You might not have enough time to do ALL the activities you'd like to do, especially if it's your first time visiting Paris. And even if you do have plenty of time, sometimes cost of visiting Paris can also be limiting. If you find yourself trying to narrow down your list to only the BEST activities for your Paris family vacation, this tip is for you! Monet's Chateau and Gardens is an absolute MUST see- even if you aren't an art lover and could give two quarters about Monet himself. Although visiting Giverny from Paris is a bit longer and more time consuming than Versailles from Paris, it was WAY more worth the time and energy to visit Giverny. Like, hands-down, not even a competition. All of our kids- from ages 5 to 15 (our oldest didn't make it this trip now that she's a grown-up 20 year old with a job 😢)- absolutely LOVED Monet's Gardens. Likewise, all of our kids got bored and irritated at Versailles. And us older ones were quite a bit underwhelmed by whole the experience. (That's a whole other post...read our 7 Tips For Visiting Versailles With Kids here for the deets on that!) Now, if it's your family's first time in Paris, this might have you wondering... Is Paris worth visiting?? Absolutely! Is Versailles worth visiting? Yes... IF you have the time and resources to do so. 😝 But don't try to stretch your itinerary (or family travel budget) too far to make it happen, it might not be worth it in the end. We had taken a 3-week European road trip, so time wasn't a factor for us- especially since we were able to spend almost two weeks of our family vacation in France. Anyhoo... This leads me to the next one of my Paris tips, which is very much related... Tips For Visiting Paris 4: If you DO visit Versailles, go as early in the morning as possible. (Trust me on this.) If I haven't totally spooked you yet, and you decide to include a trip to Versailles for your Paris family vacation, make sure you get tickets for as EARLY as you can. To be fair, Versailles IS pretty cool to see if it's your first time in Paris, but you definitely won't want to experience it the way we did. 🤪 Be sure to get there as early as you can because it gets VERY crowded VERY quickly. This is a big problem for a couple of reasons. First of all, the Palace takes HOURS to navigate through, and you're going to get hungry. The cafes quickly run out of food for some reason, making a mid-day stop at the palace restaurant a very disappointing experience with very little choices. They aren't actually what we would consider to be cafes or restaurants, BTW- they are more like quick grab-and-go counters. Also, there are limited kitchen hours (like, early lunch time) for most of the hot menu items. Sandwiches and salads go fast. Second of all, there will be a TON (and I mean a TON) of people. The Palace of Versailles is a hot spot for many people planning European family vacations, so it stays pretty busy year round. More people = more germs = getting sick after visiting. So even if you don't worry much about the current Covid sitch, BRING A MASK anyways! But by going earlier, you're going to have less people than you will in the afternoon, and ultimately cut down on the germ exposure. You really don't want to remember your family's first time visit to Paris as the time you everyone got sick and stuck in a hotel room or Airbnb. (France family holidays are AMAZING, but visiting France with kids who are sick is not so fun.) We have lots more tips for visiting Versailles, so be sure to see that blog post. Tip 5 for Your First Time Visiting Paris: Plan a full day for visiting the Eiffel Tower, not a half day (or few hours). Especially if it's your family's first time visiting Paris, you're going to want to get the best Eiffel Tower experience possible. Be patient and give yourself a full day to enjoy it- it really is worth it. I know it seems cliché, but seeing the Eiffel Tower in Paris France with kids was a total bucket list experience for our family. First of all, there are amazing places around the Eiffel Tower to get beautiful pictures before and/or after visiting the monument itself. (See my post on specific Eiffel Tower tips for more details on this!!) Also, there will be breaks in the waves of crowds. So if you can wait a bit on each level until the crowd clears a bit, it will be MUCH easier to take pictures while you're up there. Even if you're visiting Paris in July (peak travel season) like we did, there will be breaks in the crowds. You'll even have time to get some short videos if you like. 📸 On a not-picture-related note, it's fun for the kids to see the little gift shops, cute macaron shops and the little cafe inside the Eiffel Tower. So it really is important to give yourself more time to just explore and enjoy the experience. And honestly, of all my family vacation tips for traveling to Paris, this one really is a biggie- so PLEASE take my advice and set aside a full day to explore the whole thing. I feel like this is especially important for the first time in Paris, because the Eiffel Tower actually is bigger than it seems on TV or movies. When looking back on the experience, you really will appreciate having had the time to explore and take all the pictures your heart desires. ❤️ Tips For Visiting Paris 6: If driving, always opt for the street parking over parking garages. This is not one of my typically family travel hacks- because I almost always will set my GPS to go straight to a parking garage when we're in a new city, especially during our European family vacations, because I'm not familiar with the layout of the city and possible parking options. BUT in Paris, parking garages turned out to be a REALLY BIG pain in the tush. So I felt compelled to add this in as a tip for anyone else who might find it helpful. 😜 If you have your own car (or a rental car) it might seem WAY easier to brave the crazy city traffic and drive, rather than deal with complex bus/subway routes. And when checking the Paris map, it looks like there are TONS of different parking garages, making parking a pretty easy task with lots of various options. But there's a BIG snag in planning to use parking garages- which is why this is one of the more important tips for traveling in Paris if you're going to be driving. 🚗 Instead of setting your Google Maps destination to a parking garage, give yourself 20-30 extra minutes to find parking on one of the side streets instead. Here's why- parking garages are almost IMPOSSIBLE to get into! It's often hard to find the entrance of in between the hoards of pedestrians, bikes and other cars- especially if it's your first time to Paris and the streets are unfamiliar. And- here's the kicker- sometimes certain parking lots are privately owned, meaning they might close early or only have a FEW spaces available- and you won't know until you've finally managed to pull inside. It is way, WAY easier to just give yourself extra time (I say approx. 30 minutes to reduce any stress) to just slowly drive along the side streets until you find an open space on the side of the road. You will be able to recognize if it is paid parking or not, because there will be white dashes outlining the parking spaces, with the word 'PAYANT' spray painted on the street. The word PAYANT means you can park in these spaces! 🥳 And even better, you can pay the parking fee with a credit card!! Just find the little parking meter nearby and pay with your card or scan the app on the side of the machine to pay with your phone. Parking can be a REALLY stressful aspect of driving in Paris for first-timers, so taking a bit of stress out by parking on a side street really does help. Side note: Just like everything else in this post, I've got an entire post dedicated about driving, so if you're going to have a car in Paris, check out our 7 Tips For Driving In France As A Tourist here! 😉 There's just way too much information to fit into one post. Paris Family Vacation Tip 7: Don't be afraid to speak English in Paris. (Gasp! Shock! Horror!) I know this is a definite faux pas for frequent tourists, and I always suggest learning basic phrases in the language of the country you're traveling to. But here's the thing if you're traveling with kids... You're most likely going to need to ask or say something you didn't prep ahead of time, and if you try to stumble around with your Google Translate app and speak in broken French, it can really flummox you AND the person you're speaking to. We noticed that EVERYONE was really friendly when we were in Paris- and there were plenty of times our knowledge of French (and Spanish) failed us- so asking something in English was just fine and nobody minded! 🥰 Don't let the language be a barrier for your travels, especially if it's your first trip to Paris and you aren't sure what to expect. Everyone we met was helpful, kind, and patient while we asked questions and ordered food, and addressed little one's issues (urgently needing a bathroom in a very small cafe, for instance) even when we weren't sure of the words to say. And just to keep you completely covered, we've got a great French/English travel phrases cheat sheet you can screen grab in our Family Holidays in South France Tips post here with the main things you'd need to say while traveling (like Where is the bathroom, Can I order xyz, and I'm allergic to...".). BONUS Tip For Visiting Paris: Its ok to eliminate some of the things from your trip itinerary and SLOW sightsee. I know this is a bit of a repeat from our Eiffel Tower tip above. But here's the thing- EVERYTHING takes more time than you expect it to. This is especially true if you're a Paris first time visitor and/or you're traveling with kids. Even though it is really tempting (and can even seem quite doable), don't try and cram too much into one day, Everything we did in Paris was an all-day event. Our trip to Versailles- all day. Our trip to Giverny to see Monet's Garden- all day. Our trip to Eiffel Tower- 3 hours (but I felt like we'd rushed through!) PLUS 1.5 hours going to and from our parked car & snagging a few pics on the way. One day, I had even set up a wonderful walking tour to see all the big monuments like Notre Dame, the Louvre, Sainte Chappel, Luxembourg Gardens, etc. Google Maps gave me an estimated walking time of 1.5 hours to make the whole circle. Well... we spent 30 minutes parking, and then almost 3 hours later we hadn't even made it to the Luxembourg area yet! 😲 So, yeah.... take my advice and just give yourself all day to enjoy and appreciate all the amazingness of the city and each place you visit. By relaxing your itinerary. you will be less rushed, less stressed, and more able to enjoy the experience without totally exhausting yourselves or the little ones. (Because tired kids make the the trip a whole different experience! 🤪) It's also really helpful to keep your Paris itinerary simple because activities in Paris can add up pretty quickly. If you're planning your family travel on a budget, allowing yourself more time to enjoy each activity or location can really help you get the most bang for your buck. That's it for my tips for traveling to Paris for the first time- but I definitely suggest you check out my other Paris (and France) posts for specific more tips on the different activities and things we did to save yourself stress (and money!) And don't forget to signup for our newsletter to be notified when our next post comes out! P.S.- in case you're still wondering: is Paris worth visiting? It was by far one of our family's favorite places to visit and we can't WAIT to go back! So, yes. Hands down. Book the flight, and enjoy your Paris family vacation. 🥰 You're going to love it! Liked this post? Check out more of our similar tips, tricks & info! 👇👇👇 Thanks for reading our blog! We love sharing our adventures with you and hope you learn lots of great family world travel tips & hacks for making family travel easier! Don't forget to check out our SHOP for helpful organization tools, and follow us social media! (Links are below!) P.S.- You can help support our blog for FREE, just by shopping for your favorite travel gear & other cool stuff through Amazon, using our referral link here! Thank you so much! 🥰 Click HERE to jump back to top of page.

One of the requirements you will see when applying for ANY visa in a foreign country is visa document translation. Visa document translation services are professional translations from one language to another. For example, we needed Spanish document translation services for our non lucrative visa. which means that ALL of the documents required for our non lucrative Spanish visa needed to be professionally translated from English into Spanish. This post is going to help explain visa document translation in general, as well as what we did for our non lucrative visa in Spain and the lessons/tips we learned during our visa process to move abroad with family. Please keep in mind that each country and visa type might have different requirements, so always check with your consulate or embassy if you have any questions. (Side note: there are also additional and/or different requirements for moving abroad with children, so make sure to check the visa requirements for both adults and dependents if you are bringing kiddos along!) What are visa document translation services? When you are applying for a visa for a foreign country, there is a high likelihood that the country you are applying to live in has a different official language than English. For example, Spain's official language is Spanish (which is usually called Castellano in Spain), so we needed to have all of our documents for our non lucrative visa translated into Spanish. I do also want to mention that it will be helpful to have many of these translated documents (such as birth certificates, marriage license, etc) with you during various aspects of your family world travel- especially when crossing borders between countries, enrolling kids in local schools, etc. So the translations do end up being useful even outside of the visa application process. How do I get visa document translation services? To get your documents translated, you will need to contact a certified document translation service. It is VERY important to get official document translation services that are certified and approved by the government of the country you are applying for. There are several companies that provide worldwide document translation services, and their prices vary by a few different factors: The type of document you need translated The length of document and/or how many words the document has The turnaround time (or speed) for when you need the translations back Can I use FIVRR, Upwork or another freelance site to get affordable visa document translation? Never use a freelancer or a site like Fivrr or Upwork to hire a translator. Even if it is for English to Spanish document translation services (which is a very common service offered), the translations will not be valid for your non lucrative visa application. For any visa application, you can ONLY use certified document translations, which has been officially approved. Even though these sites offer lower document translation prices, you don't want to risk the documents being rejected, which could delay (or worse) your visa application. Which brings me to my next topic... Can I use Google Translator or an online automatic translator to get free document translation services? My official advice (keeping in mind of course that my advice is not worth much other than perhaps as someone who's come before you in the non lucrative Spanish visa process) is NO. Using a free online translator gives you the same issue as Fivrr or freelance services- you need to have certified document translations by a professional. That being said, there is a small possible caveat. Since we are a family of 7, and the visa application process gets EXPENSIVE for 7 people, we did choose to cut a few corners on getting our official document translation services. We DID use Google Translate's document translator for our financial document translation. I have to preface this by saying that it is a true risk, and your application could be delayed or denied if you do this, but we downloaded PDF copies of all of our banking information and used Google's English to Spanish document translation services. To do this, you have to go to the actual website (not the mobile app) and go to the DOCUMENTS tab at the top left of the screen. Next, you upload the PDF of the document, and choose the languages it is translating from and to. (For example, we chose the English to Spanish document translation service.) Then, simply push the TRANSLATE button, and wait for the new PDF to be generated. Lastly, download the new PDF, which should now be translated into your chosen language. Again- I ONLY did this with our financial document translation, because bank numbers and lingo are mostly the same. There was very (very) little difference between the two documents. This definitely helped us cut down on some of the document translation costs, but it was a risk that we willingly took. 😜 (Also, I've been told that the Spanish Consulate in Miami is more relaxed and friendly, which may have helped in accepting our application, even if the Spanish document translation services were a little lax.) Google Translate's document translator is especially helpful during the entire process of moving overseas with kids and living abroad. I have used it to translate school documents, medical documents, and more since we've moved to Spain! How DO I find a certified visa document translation service for approved, official visa document translations? As I mentioned above, there are a few companies that offer global translations to a LOT of different languages, such as Pro Translate, Linguation, or Translated.com (which seems a bit more expensive) These are a bit more costly than more local services. You can find more affordable services by typing 'official certified document translation services' into Google (or your fave search engine). What documents need to be translated for a non lucrative Spanish visa application (or other visa application)? The non lucrative visa in Spain has a list of documents needed which "must be legalized or apostilled and, where applicable, must be submitted together with an official translation into Spanish." (See this in full on the consulate's website here.) You typically won't need to pay for translations of more personal documents like your letter of intent or health certificate, because those are translated by you when you are preparing them. (See our Letter of Intent example.) In general, you WILL need a certified translation for any document that is issued by the government, such as: birth certificates marriage licenses/certificates custody and/or adoption paperwork family book (some countries have an official 'book' showing family members These documents will FIRST need to get an apostille (see our main visa requirements post that lists everything you need if you aren't sure what that is) and THEN be sent for certified document translation. Also, make sure the health certificate you get from your doctor includes BOTH English and Spanish on the same page. Since this is stamped by the doctor, you won't need to get any additional certified translation of this document as long as it is in BOTH languages on the same page. You can read more about how to put that together (including a simple template!) in our post specifically about that medical health certificates. How do I get my documents to a visa document translation service? (And then get them back) Most translation services (including Spanish document translation services) will have you scan a copy of your document and send it to your assigned translator by email. You will need to make sure that the document is scanned COMPLETELY (including all text or numbers on borders or edges of any pages) and is clear and easy to read. This is the fastest, easiest and most reliable way to get your documents translated. Some services may require you to send your documents to the translator. It is FAR BETTER if you can send in a scan of your documents. Even if the document translation cost is higher from companies that accept scans, it is best to choose this option because they cannot lose your important documents. For our non lucrative visa in Spain, we were able to scan ALL of our documents into the computer and then mail everything off to get apostilled, which made our overall application timeline faster. Once you get your documents TO the visa document translation provider, they will translate everything and then sign and STAMP each document. This signature and stamp is what makes it an OFFICIAL, certified translation, and will be accepted by the consulate or embassy. They will put their official translations into an envelope and mail them to you. This should be included in their price estimate. 🧐 Our Spanish document translation service also emailed us scanned copies of each translation, which was VERY helpful in the future when we needed translated documents for other things. Things we learned about document translations during the application process for our non lucrative visa to Spain: Translator services are misleading about quotes for the document translation cost. They might tell you initially that document translation prices are cheaper for documents of the same type, but then charge you the full price because the documents were not identical. The consulate or embassy website might not clearly state that you need an OFFICIAL SWORN TRANSLATOR, but it is a good idea to clarify it personally with your specific consulate. Our consulate's website just said "translated into Spanish" and I had to find out via email that it must be an officially sworn translator. 🤯 The website has since been updated to be a bit more clear, but for a process as large as a visa application, I always operate by this rule: ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS AND GET CLARIFICATION ON ANYTHING YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND. This is my last tip and certainly the most important. Ask, clarify, and question everything you aren't 100% sure about. Also, if your consulate is not very responsive, join Facebook groups for expats and ask questions there. Just search in Facebook for groups like 'Expats in Barcelona' or 'Americans Living in Portugal,' etc. Disclaimer: for every helpful answer you get in an expat forum, also expect a handful of rude, condescending, and sometimes even hurtful responses. Not sure why, but this seems to happen on even the smallest of topics and is a famed problem often joked about among expat circles. I'll be writing a separate post about the give and take of expat groups, but just be prepared to accept the helpful responses and ignore the rest. I think that about covers everything on the topic of visa document translation services, but if you have any questions that I didn't cover in this post, PLEASE ask it in a comment below! I'm here to help! 😉 Liked this post? Check out more of our similar tips, tricks & info! 👇👇👇 Thanks for reading our blog! We love sharing our adventures with you and hope you learn lots of great tips to make family travel on a budget & your move abroad with family easier than ever! Don't forget to check out our SHOP for helpful organization tools, and follow us social media! (Links are below!) P.S.- You can help support our blog for FREE, just by shopping for your favorite travel gear & other cool stuff through Amazon, using our referral link here! Thank you so much! 🥰 Click HERE to jump back to top of page.

Trying to plan activities for family vacations can be stressful- especially when you have kids of different ages. This collection of family vacation games is not only FREE, but fun for all kids from toddler to teen! They are also easy games to take on holiday- you can either print them out or save as an image for your phone and play on your trip! So check out these awesome family games to play on vacation and see how to have fun on a family vacation without all the stress of planning activities into every day, whether you're planning local trips or family world travel! These games are also perfect for keeping your family travel on a budget, because they help add free activities into your itinerary, so you can focus on other things that make traveling eaiser! Best Games for Family Vacation No. 1: Street Art Scavenger Hunt First on my list of fun games to take on holiday is a game I created for my own family. We play this in just about ANY big city- and it never gets boring because we see different things every time we play! 😍 It's a scavenger hunt style game for STREET ART- where you find certain types of art and check it off the list. There's no need to print this, you can save it to your phone and mark it off as you go with your stock pic editor! 😉 The cool thing about fun vacation games like this is that they are easy to whip out when you're dragging kids through a city to go sightseeing. And since every city has different art, this game never gets boring! PS- It can be hard to plan the best family vacation with teenager and tween ages because they like to grumble and complain when away from their electronic devices for too long... ...so add an extra twist to this game and have them take a pic of each type of street art they find! You'll be surprised how much fun they end up having! Snag this free Street Art Scavenger Hunt Game here and get ready for some fun family bonding. We've actually used this activity in multiple places on our European family vacation AND while we were moving abroad with children, because it keeps ALL of them entertained! Psst... here's one of my family travel hacks: The older kids often find themselves having fun (yes, really actual FUN!) helping the littler kids find everything on the list. So it's a total SCORE for no-prep travel activities. Fun Games To Take On Holiday No. 2: Beach Sand No-Prep Games Headed to the beach for your next family trip? These family vacation games are PERFECT for keeping kids entertained at the beach- giving you just a bit more time to relax in the sunshine and listen to the waves. 😘 This collection of fun family building games requires nothing more than the sandy beach and a stick, making them super easy since you don't have to drag a bunch of stuff down to the shower with you. With fun activities like tic-tac-toe, beach hopscotch, and cat & mouse- there's no need to print anything, just bookmark this page and pull it up on your phone when kids start to get bored of chasing the waves. 😉 See the full list of no-prep beach games here at MiniTravellers' website. The best part about this collection is that you won't be dragging extra stuff with you to keep your kids entertained! We all know that beach trips require SO MUCH more family travel gear- towels, suits, extra changes of clothes, etc.... So having games that can be played on the beach without lugging along even more stuff is a total winner in my long list of family vacation tips! And while we're speaking of family travel gear... don't forget to browse our super cool list of 5 Must Have Travel Items & Kids Travel Essentials For Making Travel Easier. 😉 Best Family Vacation Games No. 3: Nature / Outdoors Scavenger Hunt If you're looking for fun family games to play on vacation in the great outdoors, this one is for you! This cute scavenger hunt printable from For The Love Of Food can also be used on your phone, making it one of the easiest vacation games out there! Make sure to download the game image to your phone (or print it out) and take it hiking with you. No additional travel accessories for kids needed, just grab your phone! It's one of the easiest games to take on holiday and gets the kids engaged with the wilderness and nature around them! Any time you can trick kids into doing something educational under the idea of having fun is a WIN in my book! Plus, look how cute this game is?! (And you might have noticed that I'm a HUGE fan of scavenger hunt games because they teach kids so many skills- from learning to pay attention to details, to thinking outside the box and using their visual skills, even learning collaboration and improving memory- the list goes on and on! They really make the best games for family vacation!) So be sure to grab this cute nature scavenger hunt here before your next hiking trip! Best Family Vacation Games No. 4: Say What? Game - Disney Edition If you're heading to any of the Disney theme parks for your next family vacation, you might already be dreading the LONG lines to wait for the rides. If so, never fear! We've got a fun no-prep travel game for you, too! 😉 Having a blog full of travel with kids tips means thinking outside the box to make vacations as stress-free as they can be- and that includes tackling those annoyingly long wait times for princess photos and roller coasters! This 'Disney Say What Game' by Marcie And The Mouse makes the BEST games for vacation to the Disney parks! We make a slight tweak to this game to use it while waiting in the theme park lines. Instead of using tokens or anything, we just go down the list of questions and each take turns answering! Not only is it fun to hear everyone's answers, but I feel like it really helps the family bond and get to know each other better! (And I love family building and bonding games!) Since there's a great variety of questions, we can usually entertain ourselves for hours instead of getting bored in the line- so I just had to include this on my list of family games to play on vacation for anyone else planning a Disney visit. 😉 So be sure to save this game as an image on your phone (or print it out) before your trip to the parks, and get ready for the best family vacation (even with teenagers!) You can grab it directly from their website here! Also, this is a great time to remind you to check out our post about how we use our Family Travel Budget to plan our travel world wide- because theme park vacations get expensive fast, and you might find our tips for budgeting travel with kids to come in handy. 🥰 Best Family Vacation Games No. 5: City Scavenger Hunt Printable Here's another fun scavenger hunt games for vacation in the city! This is a fun one from Lady and the Blog's Vera Sweeney. I like this vacation game because it has a lot of ordinary things that can be found in almost ANY city, making it easy to do anywhere, even if you're not going on vacation! And Vera has put links to a BUNCH of other scavenger hunts at the bottom of the post, also! This gives you access to tons of different options for fun vacation games to places like the zoo, the beach, and a license plate one for road trips! (She even has holiday and indoor versions!) Since scavenger hunts are (in my opinion) some of the easiest and BEST games for family vacation, this site is definitely worth the visit if you're looking for easy ways to keep the kids entertained on your next trip. 😜 You can find all of her different ones listed here and download what you like best! And I know I already listed a bunch of the learning benefits for scavenger hunt style games, but they really do teach a lot of neat skills without making learning obvious. Other Fun Vacation Games To Include In Your Next Trip: Don't miss these other fun games for vacation activities that are easy to enjoy! 10 No-Prep Campfire Games by 123 Homeschool 4 Me Color Car Search Road Trip Printable by ProductivePete Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt by PlayPartyPlan Camping Bingo by MamaLew And don't forget to download our Street Art Scavenger Hunt game! (Seriously, it's SO good, we've used it in so many cities during our family world travels!) You won't know how NOT to have fun on a family vacation with these awesome games! If you've found any family travel games that YOU absolutely LOVE, please share them below in the comments so we can all share in the fun! 🥰 Liked this post? Check out more of our similar tips, tricks & info! 👇👇👇 Thanks for reading our blog! We love sharing our adventures with you and hope you learn lots of great tips for making your family travel on a budget as easy as can be! Don't forget to check out our SHOP for helpful organization tools, and follow us social media! (Links are below!) P.S.- You can help support our blog for FREE, just by shopping for your favorite travel gear & other cool stuff through Amazon, using our referral link here! Thank you so much! 🥰 Click HERE to jump back to top of page.

Our family vacation in Lisbon, Portugal was as dreamy and relaxing as it was invigorating and fun! For the kids Lisbon was a blast- with LOTS of things to do during our 3 day Lisbon itinerary that the WHOLE family enjoyed (from toddler to teen)! If you're planning any Lisbon holidays, here are all the activities and sightseeing we did during our family's 3-day Lisbon itinerary! And as always, we did this family travel on a budget, so you're going to find plenty of Lisbon attractions for families that WON'T break the bank! 😉 Lisbon, Portugal is said to be the most beautiful city in the world- and we were not disappointed! As our first stop in Europe, it was quite a breathtaking welcome. I can say that Lisbon should probably have a disclaimer, like 'guaranteed to firm up your butt just by walking' because the hills and stairs in Lisbon are INTENSE. But don't let that discourage you! We spent 3 days of beautiful Lisbon holidays with 5 kids and did everything STROLLER FREE! If we can do it, anyone can! 😉 We're already anxious to go back, this seaside city was just that amazing! I feel like I should also note that most of the activities we did were either FREE or insanely cheap- and I think food was our biggest expense (and even that was cheap when coming from the USA). Where To Stay With Kids In Lisbon Okay, before diving into our 3-day Lisbon itinerary... let's talk about where to stay! Being such a gorgeous city, there is no shortage of AirBnBs in Lisbon Portugal at a crazy affordable rate. Deciding where to stay in Lisbon with toddler (or small kids) requires a bit more planning, however, especially in the colder months. Central heating (& AC systems during hot summer months) are not standard features in this seaside wonderland. This can make it difficult to stay in an AirBnB if you have smaller kids, as they don't regulate body heat as easily as we do. We booked a 2 bedroom flat that was very close to the Tram 28 line, which takes you to all the popular Lisbon neighborhoods and runs every 10-15 minutes or so. The location was fabulous- and I was actually shocked (after coming from $$$ NYC $$$) at the low prices! Alas, we fell into that winter heating trap, though. The little heaters our Airbnb hosts had put in each room were just not enough to keep us warm! 🥶 The littles' fingers were freezing even with hats and gloves on- even though we were inside the flat! We ended up booking a hotel room in the center plaza for our last night, and it was so cozy and warm, that we regretted not staying there the whole time! Now you can see why I'm so adamant about checking for heating/cooling features when looking at where to stay in Lisbon with toddler, baby, and/or young kids. Yikes! That being said, aside from those two (freezing cold) nights, the other parts of our family vacation in Lisbon was blissful! 😍 Before I dive into our 3 day Lisbon family itinerary, I want to give a quick disclaimer about the stroller situation. While planning our big European trip/move, were told by a couple of (well-meaning) people that taking strollers would be a pain in the butt, and annoy people on the narrow European sidewalks. So we ditched our strollers, and instead used a really cool backpack carrier (I talk about it in this post about family travel backpacks here!) And even though our backpack carrier was probably the COOLEST piece of family travel gear we ever bought, we still regretted not having a stroller for our toddler. Having both the baby carrier AND a stroller would have been one of the things that make travel easier when you have small kids. So don't feel intimidated by bringing a stroller, it IS worth having, especially when little legs get tired in the afternoons! (And we saw LOTS of strollers on the sidewalks! 🤷‍♀️) Day 1 Of Our Kids Lisbon Holidays Itinerary: The first day of our family vacation in Lisbon was fairly relaxed, as we were all tired from our overseas flight from New York. (Have you seen our NYC with Kids post? Check it out here!) Since our trip to Lisbon was our FIRST EVER European family vacation, we were very excited, and eager to explore the city. If you're considering traveling Europe with kids, but haven't been yet, Lisbon is a GREAT way to introduce your family to the beauty of family world travel. It's beautiful, it's clean, and the people are so FRIENDLY and WELCOMING, and they really love kids! While planning for our trip, we heard a LOT about Lisbon's amazing street art, so we went on a scavenger hunt and wandered through the streets for the coolest art we could find. It was a great way to explore the city AND immerse the kids in Lisbon culture at the same time! If you're looking for ideas of things to do in Lisbon Portugal with kids, this is a great FREE activity that we all really enjoyed. (Snag our FREE street art scavenger hunt printable here and use on your phone while walking- it's a great activity for any big city!) Asking questions along the walk also helped turn it into a great family activity: -Which painting is cooler or most colorful -How many of a certain image (fish, stick figure, word) can you find -Playing I-Spy (a GREAT way to see things through the eyes of others, BTW!) -Do the scavenger hunt as a group or see who can find the most! (PS- our free scavenger hunt game makes this super easy and fun) While wandering the city streets, we stopped into one of the many fruit stands for some fresh, juicy produce! Not only did I feel good as a mom for stacking vitamins into my kids in a fun way, but I also saved some bucks by filling their bellies with mostly healthy, cheap alternatives to restaurant food. Later in the afternoon, we stopped for gelato- which was amazingly yummy! (So much for healthy foods! LOL!) That night, after a short break in our flat to rest our toes and regroup, we made our way to see the beautiful Lisbon Cathedral, which is a gorgeous church (both inside and outside) right near our flat! (I absolutely LOVE church architecture, so we stop at a LOT of old churches for at least a quick peek inside!) This ended up being one of our favorite days, even though it was supposed to be a 'restful' (aka Mommy has jetlag and no energy to plan real activities) day! It was really just the most wonderful way for us to show our kids Lisbon and fall in love with Europe. 🥰 Side Note: I'm not entirely sure where we ate for most of this trip. I didn't think about blogging about our travels until a few months after we took this Lisbon trip, so I hadn't kept a very good record of where we ate- and unfortunately didn't take many photos at meal times that would help me know where we were! 😜 That being said, we had a great experience at EVERY restaurant we stopped into throughout our stay, and the kids often talk about moving to Portugal simply for the food! LOL!! It should also be noted that everyone is SO SUPER FRIENDLY to kids in Lisbon- we were often complimented on our large family and encouraged to go ahead of lines and things simply because we had kids! Day 1 of our Lisbon Holidays Recap: - A Street Art Scavenger Hunt Throughout Lisbon For Kids & Adults - Fruit stand & Gelato shop stops - Explored the Lisbon Cathedral - Ate dinner somewhere yummy Holidays in Lisbon Day 2 Itinerary: For the second day of our 3 day Lisbon itinerary, we decided to go explore a castle. Our kids actually love castles thanks to our many visits to St Augustine, Florida, which has a wonderful old castle/fort that was always fun to explore. Lisbon has a wonderful old castle with cork trees and great views of the city and coastline below! So we walked a few blocks up toward the top of the Lisbon hills to spend a few hours exploring the Castelo de S George. This is an incredible way to spend the day- and one of the best rated TripAdvisor Lisbon attractions for families. (PS- it's also free to visit and explore!) We were a little bit sore on day two, from all of the walking up and down the city streets (did I mention this town is extremely hilly?!?), so we got a bit of a late start to the morning. 😉 It actually worked out great this way, because we were able to enjoy the mid-day sunshine and weren't cold at all, despite being early December! The castle is broken into sections, and there's a more preserved (I think newer) section that you can explore with a little restaurant that sells wine inside if you want to stop for lunch. The cork trees are cool to look at and you can read the little plaques that explain how cork is harvested. Our kids really enjoyed the open space and trees, being able to run around a bit in the sunshine while the hubby and I marveled over the architecture and views. On the other side, you can find the older castle ruins, which you enter over a drawbridge. While it's finer details have been long worn away over the centuries, it's a great place to step back into ancient times...the ruins are just gorgeous! We also got a peek of some amazing white peacocks walking around and up in the trees. We could seriously have stayed here forever and nobody would have complained- at least until we got hungry, of course. 😜 After thoroughly exhausting ourselves enjoying the ancient awesomeness of the Castillo, we had a late lunch at a very uncrowded Lisbon restaurant. We enjoyed a local dish of potatoes, steak, and tortillas (which were eggs, I think). There wasn't too many tourists there in December, but since we have such a large family, we always need to look for places with LOTS of available seating. Large family vacation tip: We typically avoid 'trendier' restaurants while traveling, as they get too busy and can't always accommodate our family of 7. We've also found that we get to experience more authentic food if we look outside of the way of the typical touristy spots, which is another perk in addition to avoiding the crowds. The restaurants in Lisbon are really amazing, and a LOT of places (even the small ones) have a multi-language menu or are very friendly, patient and helpful. On night two, we decided to experience a 'must-see' tourist spots of Lisbon- the Santa Justa Lift. It's a very tall tower with an elevator located right in the center of the city, which takes you up high to get amazing views of the whole Lisbon area. Unfortunately, we found that this wasn't one of the best things to do in Lisbon Portugal with kids, particularly with smaller kids, for a few different reasons. First of all, the line to get into the lift was VERY long and split into two sides in a crowded touristy street area, making it a bit confusing on where to go and who exactly was in line. Then, to further complicate matters, the line ALSO seemed to split into a front section and a back section, and people kept dipping into the front section (cutting in front of the back section of the line), so we stood in line going nowhere for quite some time. We eventually just gave up and left, because cranky toddlers don't have the patience for that whole 'standing in line for hours' kinda nonsense. 😜 This was also a huge reinforcer that we don't really like to do the 'typical' touristy stuff as a big family. (The shame! The HORROR!) Lol... Buying tickets online would have probably prevented this whole line thing, but honestly there are so many places to get a great view of Lisbon that I don't think it would have been worth it. (This vacation taught us a few important family travel hacks, but perhaps the most important one was to plan activities in advance, so you can buy tickets in advance. They are usually cheaper that way AND you often get to skip the longer lines.) Anyhoo, seeing as how we were already in the city center, we pacified the kids with a delicious pastry pit-stop called Cafe Gelo. We ordered a variety box of dessert pastries and sat down to enjoy. 😁 Everyone took a bite of each thing, getting to really dig into the culinary delights of Lisbon desserts. Yum! We could have eaten twice as much and still kept going, despite our bellies saying otherwise. We actually sat down outside at one of the tables meant for the restaurant next door, and the waiters there were very helpful. They let us stay at the table, and even asked if we needed napkins or anything! We left them a small tip for their time and trouble. 💗 (BTW- leaving tips in Europe is a controversial topic as servers actually get paid real wages here, but Larry and I have both been servers during our American youth, so we still have a REALLY hard time not tipping in certain situations!) Another vote for Lisbon being the most family friendly city in the world! 😎 Day 2 Recap of our Family Vacation in Lisbon: - Spent a couple hours exploring the Castillo de S. George - Tried Portuguese steak, potatoes & tortillas (yum!) - Abandoned the Santa Justa Lift 😅 - Enjoyed dessert pastries from Cafe Gelo Day 3 Of Our Kids Lisbon Holidays Itinerary: This was the last full day of our family vacation in Lisbon, and we wanted to make sure we got as much fun in as we could! Our trip was fairly laid back for a 3 day Lisbon itinerary, but there was still so much to see and do that we already knew that 3 days in Lisbon wasn't enough! And since we were taking an 8-hour bus ride to Sevilla, Spain the next day, we were less worried about wearing ourselves out (or having sore legs) and mostly just excited to see more Lisbon attractions for families. First we hired a TukTuk driver to take us across town to the Monastery of Sao Vicente of Fora. It was our first time riding in a TukTuk, and is the perfect way to explore Lisbon with families- we all fit in without a problem! We often find ourselves having to hire 2 taxis to get places, so this bigger TukTuk was an amazing find! The ride was fun for the kids and the driver showed us landmarks and gave us some fun historical and cultural info. It was fantastic! You can pre-schedule a TukTuk tour here. When we got to the Sao Vicente, we quickly realized we had underestimated this place. We expected it to a be a quick trip (mostly so Mom could see more cool church architecture), but we were blown away by it's beauty and it's size!! The Monastery of Sao Vicente is an old, huge cathedral complex turned into a museum. We were also able to explore the compound up even to the roof, where you get an incredible view of the coastline and surrounding city. This time the view was of the other side of the city, so we really got to see ALL of the best views of the city during our full holidays in Lisbon. (Take that, endless Santa Justa Lift line!) From the inside to the outside to the roof top, there is just SO much beauty in this ONE location. I cannot even express enough what a must-see this place is! After visiting the church, we stopped for lunch and then headed back to the city center. Since it was December, Rossio Square had holiday lights and a small festival going on. The scene in the plaza was very beautiful, and while the sun was going down we had fun letting the kids play around the fountain. This is a perfect activity in Lisbon for kids (and many other plazas in Portugal and Spain also), because there is often someone blowing bubbles for the kids, people playing instruments, little shopping stands, and other fun activities going on. Once it got dark, the lights around the entire city center lit up with grandeur. If you haven't spent the Christmas holidays in Lisbon yet, I definitely recommend it! There were little Christmas stands set up, selling decorations and knick-knacks, souvenirs and treats. It was a great way to spend our last evening. I've been told that they do many different things here in the plaza all year round, so I'm definitely excited to see what Lisbon has in store for us during the warmer weather! Day 3 of our Holidays in Lisbon Recap: - Took a fun tour ride on a TukTuk - Explored the Monastery of Sao Vicente of Fora - Enjoyed another yummy Portuguese lunch - Played in the Rossio Square plaza - Browsed the Christmas festival and took in the holiday lights All in all, our 3 day Lisbon itinerary was lovely and the whole family had a blast, It is still our favorite of all the cities we've been to so far over the past few years. If you have a bit more time to explore Lisbon with families especially, you can easily spend 4-5 days here and not get bored at all! We were definitely sad to leave, but also super excited for our NEXT stop in our overseas adventure: Sevilla, Spain! Goodbye, Lisbon, but not for long! We will be back again soon! PS- We took so many amazing pictures of Lisbon it was hard to choose which ones to post! So here's a few more of my favorites that didn't quite fit in above. 😍 All in all, our trip to Lisbon was the PERECT introduction to traveling Europe with kids, and really helped to bolster our bold plan for moving abroad with children. In hindsight, I feel like when you travel with kids tips and hacks can really make a difference in being able to enjoy the actual trip without so much stress. So this trip was a big lesson in travel planning and prep for me, but it also gave me a HUGE desire to keep traveling the world with our family (and maybe even take some long European road trips hint hint) in the future! 🥰 Liked this post? Check out more of our similar tips, tricks & info! 👇👇👇 Thanks for reading our blog! We love sharing our adventures with you and hope you learn lots of great tips for planning family travel on a budget & fun family world travel! Don't forget to check out our SHOP for helpful travel tools, and follow us social media! (Links are below!) P.S.- You can help support our blog for FREE, just by shopping for your favorite travel gear & other cool stuff through Amazon, using our referral link here! Thank you so much! 🥰 Click HERE to jump back to top of page.

If you're planning on traveling with a toddler, you've probably been spending some time on Google and Pinterest looking at all the tips and hacks for things to make travel easier with your little energy-filled humans. I know, I've been there lots of times- and after buying lots of neat travel caddies and specific travel essentials for toddlers, most of what I've bought quickly got boring, and I needed to update my toddler travel items list STAT! So this is MY list of toddler travel necessities that REALLY DID make traveling easier for our family. Hopefully, this list will give you some new ideas and save you some frustrated plane, train and bus trips! This post lists a few of the items that WE have personally used on our family world travel- inlcuding airplane travel, long bus trips and train rides. They are mostly going to be toddler travel necessities rather than activities. When it comes to travel activities, it's important to consider what YOUR toddler enjoys. For example, one of my toddlers had no interest in coloring pages, but loved craft type things. Our youngest would sit for hours and color and be totally content, on the other hand. So when looking for things that will keep your toddler happy and entertained on long journeys, don't just take others' word for it- do a bit of creative shopping for things YOUR kiddo will actually enjoy doing. (PS- if that's a tablet screen, who cares? An couple of hours playing on an iPhone instead of squirming, whining, and kicking the seat in front of them is still a win.) I'll also try to keep this list fairly affordable because we're big believers on keeping our family travel on a budget, so we want to make sure we're only suggesting items that are truly worth the money and won't break the bank. BTW- if you haven't seen my '5 Must Have Travel Items for Making Travel Easier' post, be sure check it out for some awesome gear that makes traveling so much easier for the WHOLE family. 🥰 Anyhoo, with the disclaimer(s) out of the way- here are our travel essentials for toddlers. Must Have Travel Item 1: A Folding Travel Tray This is a genius product- created by moms- and has saved me so much frustration while traveling! First of all, this tray keeps toys and snacks clean and free from touching airplane trays, train tables, or whatever other surface your toddler will use to place their things on. No matter how much wiping down I've done of those trays, they still seem grimy and gross. So this is a HUGE perk in itself. When making your list of what to bring when traveling with a toddler, this amazing folding tray should be considered for the cleanliness aspect alone. (Yay for less germ contact!) There are other types of trays like this, but honestly this one is the best (IMHO) because it folds smaller and is just easier to toss into my carry-on or diaper bag without much hassle. But there is ANOTHER reason I absolutely LOVE these trays. And if you've already done some traveling with little ones, you probably will know exactly what I'm about to mention... My kids have dropped ANYTHING and EVERYTHING at some point during our journeys. I've had to bend and twist my body like a pretzel to reach toys, sippy cups, and who knows what else that has been dropped underneath plane seats, bus seats, etc. And those spaces are tight- so it was quite a feat to get back whatever precious item my little one has dropped. So the fact that this neat little tray has raised sides- therefore keeping all your kids travel essentials and activities neatly INSIDE (and off the floor)- has prevented so much frustration of trying to reach dropped objects without bumping the seats around me. Talk about a product that actually makes traveling easier! 😅 Raised sides + compact foldability = total score! It's also at the top of my list of recommendations because we've found that traveling Europe with kids involves LOTS of train rides, and many of those trains also have handy trays (or sometimes even tables!), making this a tray a must-have for family travel gear if you've got smaller kiddos. Must Have Travel Essential For Toddler 2: Foldable Travel Toilet Seat Okay, y'all... this item has been one of my must have travel items for a while now... it is the LITERAL best travel essential for toddlers- and let me tell you why... This product isn't just for travel. I bring it everywhere- to the park, to restaurants- you name it. It folds up and fits right into my purse, easy peasy! How many times have you gone somewhere and had to hold your little one up over a public toilet- either because it's dirty or because they might fall in?! This is no longer a problem, thanks to this genius invention. Seriously, I'm obsessed with this folding toilet seat! I wish they had this around when my oldest was little! In fact, I've bought a few different 'toilet' items over the years, and this is definitely the winner of all the must have travel items for toddlers. It folds nicely, it doesn't pinch their little tooshies, and it is easy to pop onto any size or shape of toilet. Also, it has it's own little carry bag, so I can just give it a quick wipe and toss it in the bag after using it. Then when I get home, I spray the seat and inside the bag with Lysol. So easy! And this awesome seat is surprisingly affordable, giving me another reason to have it on my list of smaller kids travel essentials! It's seriously just the best invention- it's one of those things that make traveling easier for smaller kids (especially toddler and preschool kids) and always on my list of family travel hacks. Nobody likes dirty public toilets, so this product just rocks. What To Bring When Traveling With A Toddler 3: CozyPhones Headband-style Headphones This is one of our family's must have travel items- even the big kids have snuck a few turns using these. These headphones are made in a soft and comfortable headband style, which is not only easy for toddlers (and babies) to use, but their fun designs get toddlers excited to wear them! If you've got picky kids like mine, they might have complained about other headphones- even the ones with the soft cushions- hurting their ears. So I was excited to find these- and we've reliably been using ours since late 2017! They have both the standard wired version and Bluetooth wireless version. They are a favorite item to bring on all of our travels, from plane rides to road trips. And if you're planning a road trip, be sure to check out to make the journey easier! The headphones we use have wires, which I actually love, because I was able to position the sound pads over their ears better. The wireless ones are sewn into place, making them less adjustable. I should also note that the wired ones are sized smaller than the bluetooth version- so they have been perfect for our family from about 1.5 years up to about 5-6. Our older toddler (who is a bit large for her age and has a head size that rivaled my 9 year old at the time we bought these) outgrew hers more quickly, and by age 4 she needed a bigger size. The wireless ones are a better fit for older kids or kiddos with larger heads. Another perk to these (aside from being comfortable and cute) is that they fold up quite small. Since we're packing for a family of 7, every bit of space in our bags counts. When deciding what to pack when traveling with a toddler, cozy headphones that fold up small without breaking are the BEST! They also have cartoon ones from Paw Patrol, PJ Masks, and Sesame Street, as well as other fun animal designs. So toddlers REALLY do love wearing and using them! You can click here to check out the bluetooth (wireless) ones, or click here to see the wired ones like ours. Both are amazing must have toddler items that really do make traveling easier. 😍 Oh! I almost forgot- these have been parent tested / parent approved (and have thousands of rave reviews on Amazon), so not only do I love them, but TONS of parents love them too! I also see this brand recommended often when parents of younger kids are asking for family vacation tips or suggestions for helpful travel accessories for kids under 8. In general, these make headphones a bit more bearable for younger kids who might not like the feeling of a headset. The fun designs help get kids excited to wear them, too, which is always a plus. Must Have Travel Item For Toddlers 4: BlissTime Safety Wrist Link (For Small Children & Toddlers) Okay, this is one of those super important toddler travel necessities- but it comes with a warning. I've actually been made fun of for having one of these... and not all parents approve of the idea. But if you've ever had a wild child, it's worth every penny. You know... that kid who learns to walk and suddenly decides to just want to run off at random with no fear, no worries and no limits?? That was our 4th child. SHE was the child that inspired me to finally buy the controversial 'kid leash.' It actually wasn't until we were walking through the Orlando Airport when she was about 2.5- and she suddenly just TOOK OFF RUNNING on her little toddler legs like it was nobody's business! No clue why or where she was going, but she'd decided she was gonna get there... and fast! I quickly chased after her and she was fine, thank goodness! She didn't make it very far, and there wasn't a lot of people in the area at the time. (Whew!) But I was on Amazon that night shopping for a 'kid leash' like my sanity depended on it. 😅 It became one of our must have toddler items even when we weren't traveling! We went to lots of theme parks, zoos, and other busy places and I never again had to worry that she was going to just up and RUN, because her little wrist was attached to mine. It was beautiful! And as far as those other mommies who (not so politely) judged me for 'putting my kid on a leash like a dog' I just have to say that thank heavens you've never had a kid that made you feel like you needed one! 🥴 But for those of us raising a kiddo who just loves to explore and test their limits, these safety lanyards are a serious blessing. 😜 And this one has LOTS of great reviews and safety features that I really just love as a mom. It's definitely on our list of toddler travel necessities (thanks, Kid No. 4...) at our house! Also, since we are on the topic of travel safety- I want to share this fantastic article by SafeWise, called 10 Safety Tips for Taking Your Kids on Vacation. It has a few helpful and easy to implement tips to help make your trip a bit safer for little ones (which means less stressful for parents, too!) If you're not too crazy about the idea of having your child attached to you while travling, I totally get it. It's not for everyone, and that's ok. But it's definitely topped our list of things that make traveling easier with toddlers- and there's been a few times I've been so glad to have included it in our go-to family travel gear. Must Have Travel Item For Toddlers 5: A 48 piece set of Wikki Sticks I almost made it through this list without including any 'activities' because kids all have different interest and you never know if it will be a hit or a miss. BUT- Wikki Sticks have been on our list of travel essentials for toddlers, big kids, and even our teens love them!! I buy them for every big road trip or long plane ride. They are a no-fail activity that hits all of our big checkboxes: - They take up very little space - Wikki sticks are super affordable so you can keep them or toss them - They promote creativity and free imaginative play - These sticks DON'T make a mess (like most 'creative' toys or activities do) - Literally ALL ages love these little things!! When making your list of what to bring when traveling with a toddler, these are always a huge hit. And, I'm going to be honest, I've logged in some play time with these as well. I've had stick figure building contests with my kids, we've made 'gardens' and cars and silly mustaches... they really are just fun and enjoyable to play with. 🤩 Just be sure to buy enough- I've bought the 8 or 12 pack, which really isn't enough to get super creative. (Plus the kids will bicker over who gets which sticks, or whatever...) The 48 pack of WikkiSticks is a really great size because they have enough to entertain 1-2 kids (or you and your toddler) without needing more sticks. There are bigger packs (like 200? 500?) if you're looking to separate them for multiple kids or if you travel A LOT and want to just buy them once and bring a chunk of them at a time. These could actually be on my more general list of kids travel essentials because they really do make traveling easier and keep our whole family entertained. But I ALWAYS suggest them to friends or family asking what to pack for a trip with a toddler- so this seemed like a more specific list to add them to. 😜 (Quick family travel hack- screenshot this list of 50 things you can make with Wikki Sticks so it's handy on your phone for long bus, train or plane rides! Talk about ideas galore!) And that's it for my list of what to bring when traveling with a toddler- hopefully you like these suggestions! Everything I've added to this list are things to make travel easier or simpler based on our family's travel experiences. Your travel items list might be a bit different- and that's totally ok! If you've found any toddler or kids travel essentials that you absolutely LOVE, or even any cool travel with kids tips, please share them below in the comments so we can all make travel easier! 🥰 Liked this post? Check out more of our similar tips, tricks & info! 👇👇👇 Thanks for reading our blog! We love sharing our adventures with you and hope you learn lots of great travel with kids tips to make your family world travel easier than ever! Don't forget to check out our SHOP for helpful organization tools, and follow us social media! (Links are below!) P.S.- You can help support our blog for FREE, just by shopping for your favorite travel gear & other cool stuff through Amazon, using our referral link here! Thank you so much! 🥰 Click HERE to jump back to top of page.

Trying to plan the perfect trip can be fun, but also stressful. There’s a LOT to keep track of for any family trip planning, and I quickly learned that a vacation planning spreadsheet kept things simple and organized. (I know, spreadsheets, ugh!) First, I want to share the 8 simple steps I use for my family trip planning so that YOU can plan the BEST vacation ever, plus snag my FREE (and super amazing) Google Sheets travel planner to make planning super easy! If you don't love the 'vacation planning spreadsheet' idea, no worries- these steps can be used no matter how you choose to plan your perfect trip! 😅 Step 1 To Plan The Perfect Trip: Decide where and when to go on your next vacation. This is by far the funnest and easiest step of planning for any family vacation. You probably already have an idea of where you want to go, but BEFORE you get too deep into the vacation planning process, it can be SUPER helpful to make sure that you're going at a good time. Some seasons are more expensive to travel, especially spring break and summer. I go into more detail about this in my post about our Family Travel Budget, so I don't want to repeat too much here, but definitely make sure you check with sites like AirBnB.com, Hotels.com, and Google Flights, to find a good combination of prices for transportation and accommodations. This will really help you when doing your family trip planning and budgeting. For example this summer I've been trying to plan a European family vacation, so I've been balancing stays at both AirBnBs and hotel rooms to save money (and gain much needed space!) while traveling. Side note: I try to use Hotels.com for hotel stays whenever possible because they have great customer service and have always been easy to work with whenever we've had a problem with our stay. I have found their customer service to be better than Booking or AirBnb, plus their free night rewards program is awesome when you're trying to plan family travel on a budget! To save money while trip planning, I found that I could adjust our trip dates by just a few days and get lower prices! 😎 Always check the calendar for vacation planning that targets the most affordable dates. Once you know WHERE and WHEN you want to go, we can start locking in our reservations! Step 2 For The Perfect Family Trip Planning: Book the travel accommodations (i.e. how you're getting there). The next step of planning the perfect trip is reserve your travel tickets. If you are planning on driving your car (woohoo- family road trip!) then you can budget for gas (and gas station snacks) costs. If you are going to be traveling by plane, train, bus or some other transportation method that requires tickets, it is best to buy those as soon as possible. Since there are often only a certain number of planes/busses/etc going to a specific destination, and each has limited tickets available, time is more critical here. You definitely don't want to wait too long and get stuck without a way to get to your dream vacation destination. Also, travel is something that DOES tend to get more expensive as the trip dates get closer. Another thing to keep in mind is the rise of gas costs. If you're planning a summer vacation, don't forget that gas usually costs more in the summer. When I planned our family's European road trip this past summer, I added about 25% to my gas budget, that way I wasn't stressed about rising gas costs. (And we actually had extra money left in the budget at the end of the trip.) So as one of my bonus family travel hacks- adding that extra 25% to your travel budget can go a LONG way to relieve pressure on your overall vacation budget. Don't forget to plan for activities during travel as well. This is something that lots of us forget about when first planning our family trips, and then we get stuck with bored kiddos asking us 5,000 times how much longer it will be. Make sure to take a few minutes to plan a few little activities to keep kids busy during your travel time. You can also check out our '5 Must Have Travel Essentials For Toddlers' post for some great travel activity ideas! Now that you've booked your travel tickets, the next step is to actually lock in your accommodation reservations. Step 3 For Planning The Perfect Trip: Book the sleeping accommodations (i.e. where you are staying). The next time-sensitive part of family trip planning is to figure out where you're going to be staying on your vacation. You probably discovered a few good options while you were checking your travel dates (in step 1), but if you haven't already reserved a place to stay for your family trip, this is the perfect time! I always suggest looking at a few different sites to see a good variety of what's available in your price range. Sites like AirBnb.com, VRBO.com, Hotels.com and Booking.com usually have a pretty wide selection of places to stay- and good customer service should anything go wrong with your stay or the actual room/flat. If you are wanting to plan a European vacation, AirBnB and Booking seem to have the most variety internationally (but Hotels.com is catching up!). When we were vacationing in the United States, VRBO and Hotels.com were my favorites in terms of variety, pricing, and customer service. Once you have your hotel or AirBnB booked, things get a little bit more fun! Grab a cup of coffee, channel your inner personal travel planner vibes, and let's get started planning activities and meals! (Yay!) Step 4 For Epic Family Vacation Planning: Start planning your trip activities (+ use the free vacation planner spreadsheet to keep things organized!) This is probably the FAVORITE part for any personal trip planner, and it's definitely MY fave! I could spend hours upon hours looking at the fun things to do in pretty much any destination! 😜 But, if you're like me, you might be prone to adding in too many activities! (They just all look so awesome!) When trying to plan the perfect trip, you want to find a good balance of activities. This is especially true for family vacation planners, as we usually have little legs that get tired quickly coming along! I've learned to include a variety of activities that include: sightseeing (monuments, museums, etc) fun experiences (food tours, local cooking or crafting classes, etc) things that let our legs rest (boat tours, bus tours, dinner shows, etc) things that let little ones be wild (and get tired) for slow days (playgrounds, hiking, swimming, etc) Your activity budget is VERY important when trying to plan the perfect trip because fun activities can get expensive quickly! I always suggest looking for free activities that you can add to your vacation itinerary BEFORE adding in the more expensive activities. Most museums and monuments have free (or super affordable) audio guides you can get to make the most of your visit as well! (And you can get discounts on activities (and help support our blog) by using our Groupon affiliate link- just click this image below to see what's on sale atm! 😉) One of my go-to family vacation tips is to add in playgrounds, parks or 'gardens' into our activities list. Not only are these free to do, but it makes our little ones happy to get some play time in, they usually play with local kids (which is super fun for them), AND we adults get to rest our legs for a bit while they play! Whenever I'm looking for fun activities, it helps me to use my Google Sheets travel planner spreadsheet. I can add the date and costs right there on the page to get a good idea of what we're going to be doing (and spending!) each day. I may be a spreadsheet nerd, I know, but it has saved me SO MUCH time, energy and MONEY to take an extra few minutes to better organize our trips and balance out the costs if the activities start to get expensive. Organizing the activities on my personal travel planner has been a lifesaver whenever I've had to plan a European vacation, too, because there's so much to keep track of in the different countries and I like to keep each location separate! Step 5 Of Planning The Perfect Trip: Figure out the meal planning for your vacation (and food costs!) I'm going to get real with you for a second- vacation meal planning is NOT fun for me. I could easily skip this step forever. I have the absolute worst luck in choosing restaurants or places to eat ahead of time. My family teases me about it all the time! 😂 One time, I chose a cute little cafe for lunch, and it turned out to be vegan food, which would have been fine, except that they were out of most things on the menu and we ended up stuck with vegan hot dogs. Of all the odd foods I've eaten in my life, there is nothing comparable to the weird texture and aftertaste of those hot dogs. It took a long time (and a lot of convincing) to get my kids to try any other type of vegan food after that. (Luckily, they've now totally fallen in love with vegan nuggets and can't even tell the difference from chicken nuggets! Score!!) Anyhoo, back to the point. LOL!! I've learned that even if I'm not going to be planning ahead of time which restaurants to go to (much to the relief of my kids), at the very LEAST, I have to figure out some sort of budgeted meal planning for our vacation. This means I figure out what the typical meal(s) will cost in our destination and then set up a budget for each day so I know roughly what we will spend on food. If you DO want to plan specific restaurants or cafes in advance (especially for trendy areas or busy cities where reservations might be helpful to avoid long wait times) when meal planning for your vacation, Google Maps is a great resource! Not only is it helpful to use Google to plan a trip, but Google Maps trip planning tools help you find great local restaurants (or even local activities!) that might get overlooked on big sites like TripAdvisor. I usually type in our hotel address into Google Maps, then look around to see what is around. I've found TONS of great options when planning this way! (Plus, restaurants on TripAdvisor tend to become expensive since they get more publicity and ratings from the site.) When it comes to vacation food, one of my favorite travel with kids tips is to plan grocery store meals into any trip. Whether it's a picnic lunch or yogurts & fruit for breakfast, it helps to keep our budget on track AND makes sure we get some healthier meals added into our trip! Once you have all of your restaurants and/or budget done for your vacation meal planning, most of the hard work is finished! But before you can really be done planning the perfect trip, there's just a couple more things to consider. Which brings us to the next step... Step 6 For Epic Family Vacation Planning Determine any extra trip expenses you might have during your vacation. An important part of planning a vacation that OFTEN gets overlooked is the miscellaneous costs of vacations that add up at the end. This would include things like hiring pet sitting (or house sitting) services, if you need to purchase a new suitcase (p.s.- see our post about the best family travel suitcases here!), any new clothes or gear you might need to buy, and so forth. These seemingly minor costs can really take a bite out of your travel budget if you don't plan ahead! I've included a spot on the Google Sheets travel planner to list these out so you don't get caught off guard and go over budget. (Just list them in the travel planning spreadsheet, and they will be automatically added to the trip's budget.) We've had a few family vacations where our budget was really tight, and any little unforseen purchase was stressful. I'd find myself mentally calculating where else in the budget I can adjust things to make up for the extra spending. I quickly learned that adding extra money into our budget for those unexpected things relieved that pressure so I could enjoy our family trips with less stress, and often end up with money left over from our vacation, which was always welcome! 😅 Step 7 To Plan Your Perfect Trip: Make any necessary adjustments to fit your vacation budget. By now, you've done all of the hard parts of trip planning- and you've probably gotten a good idea of your estimated vacation costs. This is the perfect time to make adjustments to your calendar for vacation planning that ACTUALLY fits into your budget. When I first tested my skills as a European travel planner (we flew from NYC to Lisbon!), I found out the hard way that my planning was sub par. I had just guessed how much we would spend on food based on our US restaurant experiences- and to keep things cost effective, we stayed somewhere a little less nice than we would have liked. The AirBnb we booked ended up having gnats AND ants- even though it was December- and virtually NO heating. We wound up checking into a hotel after the first night because it was so cold for the little ones. It actually ended up being a GREAT trip and our 3 Day Lisbon Itinerary for Families was fantastic, despite our initial airbnb snafu! Once I'd gotten a little more experience at planning a European vacation, I learned to look up the LOCAL prices so my budget was more accurate and I wasn't trying to cut costs somewhere I'd later regret. 🤣 The good news is that it only takes a few minutes to go over your plan and budget one last time for any potential opportunities to save some money. If you've found that the costs of your activities is higher than you'd like, for example, you can replace some of them with free (or cheaper) activities instead. Again, using Google to plan a trip and find local activities can be REALLY helpful! Not everything is shown on TripAdvisor! For example, I had to use Google Maps when trip planning for Switzerland, as there were nearly ZERO activities listed for our destination city. The map showed me TONS of options, from tourist attractions to kids activity centers. I now use Google Maps (and Google Reviews!) any time I'm traveling Europe with kids, because there's so many more options. Once you have double checked your activities, food costs, and other plans, there's only one thing left to do... Step 8 - Enjoy your wonderful trip! Relax and enjoy the amazing adventure you've planned out for your family vacation! You've done ALL the hard work, and there's literally nothing left to do but to GO ON YOUR VACATION and love every minute! Whether you are planning a local vacation, a weekend getaway, or even family world travel, you will be SO glad that you took the time to plan the details beforehand- because now you can just reap the benefits of your amazing planning and soak up the experiences! I hope you enjoy your next vacation! 🥰 And don't forget to snag the free Super Simple Vacation Planner! 👇 Liked this post? Check out more of our similar tips, tricks & info! 👇👇👇 Thanks for reading our blog! We love sharing our adventures with you and hope you learn lots of great tips for making your family travel easier! Don't forget to check out our SHOP for helpful organization tools, and follow us social media! (Links are below!) P.S.- You can help support our blog for FREE, just by shopping for your favorite travel gear & other cool stuff through Amazon, using our referral link here! Thank you so much! 🥰 Click HERE to jump back to top of page.

Another important requirement for applying for a non-lucrative visa in Spain is having proper health insurance coverage. Most visa applications will also require a valid insurance policy with specific requirements. This post is going to walk you through our experience with getting health insurance for our visa and what was required before moving abroad with children. Full disclosure: This post will likely be boring, but probably save you time, frustration and $$$. Plus it comes with a valuable lesson learned about applying for the non lucrative Spanish visa. (With any luck, it will at least make your move abroad with family a little bit easier! 😉) So sorry in advance for the mundane (but important) reading you are about to embark upon.... There are specific requirements for visa health insurance policy, so you want to check your consulate's requirements that match your chosen visa application. We had specific requirements for our non-lucrative Spanish visa. (Keep in mind that this also applies to residency requirements for Spain, but you will apply for Spanish residency as part of your visa application so the two go together.) I also want to mention that there is a health insurance policy needed for a non lucrative visa, AND a completely separate medical health certificate needed from your current doctor. These are TWO different requirements, so don't confuse the two. 😉 (You can see my post about the health certificate example here if you haven't already checked that out.) What kind of health insurance is needed for a Visa? One of the main requirements for a non lucrative Visa application for Spain (and most other visas/countries) is that each member of the family must be covered with health insurance valid in Spain (or your destination country) which has repatriation coverage. Repatriation coverage means that the insurance company will pay to move you back to your origin country in case of emergency or death. I had already done a bit of research and gotten recommendations from a variety of other bloggers experienced with family world travel as well as expats living abroad, and this process seemed fairly straightforward. It most definitely WAS NOT as easy as I had anticipated. Who offers health insurance policies for visa applications? There are a LOT of insurance companies that seem to have a policy geared towards travelers or expats. (Expats stands for ex-patriot, and is a common term for people living abroad in a different country.) The company you currently use for health insurance might have their own policy, so I definitely suggest checking with them first for simplicity's sake. I personally discovered that most of the U.S. based companies (like Blue Cross and Aetna) cost quite a bit more money per month. If you're like us, and trying to do your family travel on a budget, every little bit of savings helps. So a cheaper policy might be worth the extra effort. 😅 On the plus side, however, the US companies were excellent choices for someone who needs a monthly payment (as opposed to paying for the policy upfront) and the application process was readily available online and in English. We also got several reccomendations for World Traveler Insurance. We found World Traveler Insurance to be even more expensive, but came with the perks of travel insurance in case of lost luggage or cancelled plans, etc. If you planned on taking various trips to many different countries or embarking on a LOT of family world travel, this would be a great option! In the end, we chose the Spanish company, Sanitas as the health insurance for our visa. Sanitas had a policy that the closest to what we have had in the United Stats in regards to including dental, vision, etc and the monthly price was cheaper than most of the other policies we looked at. There was also no copay for doctors or hospital visits, and Sanitas covered us on vacation should we have an accident away from home and need to go to the ER. Since we were moving abroad with children (read our move abroad backstory here), we wanted to make sure we had full healthcare coverage for them. And seeing as how we were planning to live primarily in Spain and start traveling Europe with our kids every few months or so, this was a GREAT fit for our family and met ALL requirements for the non lucrative Spanish visa application. While it seemed like an easy decision making process, once we chose a company and went to actually APPLY for coverage, things got interesting... ...and by interesting I mean a hair-pulling, PMS inducing sh*tshow of confusion. How to apply for health insurance for a visa application? The first step to actually getting a health insurance policy is applying for it. This is pretty standard and similar to most other health insurances- they need information about your family, birth dates, IDs, information on any major health issues, etc. Getting in touch with an insurance agent or representative is often helpful, as they can walk you through the process and answer any questions. This is SUPER important when making sure that the health insurance policy you choose is actually going to MEET the requirements for a Spanish visa (or the visa for your destination country). Having a representative who works with the company can double check that you are getting the correct policy that meets all visa applicaiton requirements. So here's where the health insurance process get hairy for us... 🤪 After filling out all of the information online and getting our initial quote, I started dealing with a representative from Sanitas to finish our final enrollment. While it was fast and easy to get the online quote, the representative was not very clear on things such as costs, payment process, etc. I think part of the problem was the language difference, and knowing what I know now, I should have SPECIFICALLY ASKED to be connected to a representative who spoke English. Sanitas is actually GREAT about having English speaking customer service reps available on their phone line, but I didn't know that at the time. I figured, hey- I'm moving to Spain, and Spanish is something I'm gonna have to learn to navigate! 😅 Anyhoo- after asking for clarification at several points throughout our emailing back-and-forth, the representative explained to me that the policy needed to be either: (1) set up for monthly payments using a SPANISH bank account, or (2) paid for 12 months IN FULL using a credit card. The problem is that a 12 month policy paid IN FULL is a crap ton of money, especially when you're budgeting for moving abroad as a family of 7!! (For our family, for example, the monthly cost of insurance was quoted at around 465 euros, which meant a 12 month premium was almost $6,000 USD to pay upfront!!) So.... route #1 required adding a HUGE 12-month health insurance premium into the budget for our non lucrative visa application. (Yikes!) But there was also a huge roadblock with route #2.... I could not legally open a SPANISH bank account without being physically in Spain with a valid NIE number. I could not GET a valid NIE number until AFTER our visa is approved.... which I cannot apply for without this insurance... See the crazy circle I got stuck in?! 🤪 I ended up shedding some tears, punching some pillows, and wondering if our non lucrative visa for Spain would be forever lost into the unfulfilled dreams category. Then I pulled my feelings together, poured another cup of coffee, and carried on. (With any luck, the ability to open a Spanish bank account post-covid is now a bit easier to do online?) How we finally secured health insurance for our visa: I ended up logging into my local expats Facebook group to give a heads up to another family we'd befriended. They were at about the same stage as us in their own non-lucrative Spanish visa preparations. I let them know about this complication in hopes that they would be able to better prepare and not be caught off guard like I was. And, who knows? Maybe they could see a better option I had not considered. 🤞 By sheer luck and amazing fate- an AWESOME representative from Sanitas happened to see my post and commented that SHE could help me set up our health insurance plan with a SIX MONTH premium instead of 12! (Hallelujah!🎵 Hallelujah!🎵) SCORE!!! Although this was still a large, unexpected chunk of change out of our budget, it was half as much and WAY more doable... (PS- you can see our full list of non lucrative visa requirements here, & snag our FREE visa application checklist to stay organized!) As a bonus, it would relieve some of our monthly expenses once we get there since we would have already paid for healthcare for the first six months. This woman ended up being a real LIFESAVER.... She helped with paperwork, getting things done super fast in time for our rapidly approaching Non Lucrative Visa appointment at the Spanish consulate. She even calmed me down along the way (because at this point, my stress level was on overload and there was not enough wine in the world to fix this level of crazy...lol). So, in the end, we DID end up getting fantastic health insurance coverage that met ALL of the requirements for our non lucrative visa for Spain. Lastly, I want to be sure to mention that once you get your health insurance coverage, you are going to need to mention your policy's coverage specifically in your visa application Letter of Intent. (You can see what we wrote in OUR letter of intent to use as an example.) The Most Valuable Lesson Learned While Getting Health Insurance for our Visa: Networking skills really CAN be a lifesaver!! This is a HUGE process, don't go it alone! Start joining groups, asking questions, and making friends as soon as you figure out what you're plans are! People are seriously just amazing and helpful, and will undoubtedly save you lots of wondering and freaking out down the road. Hopefully this post helps you save some stress- or at least prepare you to fork over a bit of cash for a bigger premium (and not get caught off guard like we were). 😊 If you have any questions about the insurance process that I didn't cover in this post, PLEASE ask it in a comment below! I'm here to help! Liked this post? Check out more of our similar tips, tricks & info! 👇👇👇 Thanks for reading our blog! We love sharing our adventures with you and hope you learn lots of great tips to make moving overseas with kids easier than ever! Don't forget to check out our SHOP for helpful organization tools, and follow us social media! (Links are below!) P.S.- You can help support our blog for FREE, just by shopping for your favorite travel gear & other cool stuff through Amazon, using our referral link here! Thank you so much! 🥰 Click HERE to jump back to top of page.