A family trip abroad: what you really need to decide, and in what order

The first time we took the kids abroad, our oldest was three and the baby was eight months. We came home with two kids with colds, a suitcase of clothes we never touched, and one lesson that has stayed with us ever since: a family trip abroad is not a couple's trip plus kids. It's a different kind of trip with different rules, and if you plan it the way you planned trips before you had kids, you pay for it on day three.

We've done nine more since. Most were good. Two were a mistake. This page is what we wish someone had given us before the first one: not a list of destinations, but the order of the decisions. Almost every trip of ours that fell apart did so because of a decision we made in the wrong order.

First of all: is now the time?

Many parents ask from what age you can fly with kids. The honest answer is any age, and the real question is what you want from the trip. With a baby under one, you travel slowly, not far, and mostly for yourselves. The baby won't remember anything, and you'll mostly remember how hard it was to find somewhere to warm a bottle. There's a whole separate guide on this, first trip abroad with a baby, and if that's where you are, start there.

In our experience, the truly easy ages are four to ten. Old enough to walk, young enough to get excited about a tractor. After ten it's still great, you just start negotiating over every museum.

And there's one more question nobody asks out loud: do you, the parents, even want this trip right now? A trip abroad with the family is not a vacation for you. It's work with a nice view. If you need to rest, consider a week at a hotel with a pool. If you want to experience something together, read on.

Where to go: by age, not by Instagram

This is the easiest decision to get wrong, because everyone starts from a destination. A friend came back from Thailand thrilled, you saw a photo of a lake in Slovenia, and everything gets built from there. The order should be the other way around: first your kids' ages and pace, then the destination that fits them.

With kids under five, flight time is the parameter that matters. Up to four hours in the air, no connection, and a destination where you can spend a day doing nothing without feeling you missed out. Greece is the classic example, and for good reason: beaches, food kids actually eat, and short distances. Greece with kids breaks down which island suits which age. Croatia works on the same principle with a bit more nature, and the Croatia with kids itinerary is built on exactly that mix of beaches and waterfalls.

From about age six, the cities of Europe open up. Prague is, in our view, the best-value destination on the continent, and the Prague family trip explains why, including day trips outside the city. Amsterdam is a city of bikes and canals that kids simply get; see a family trip to Amsterdam and the Netherlands. London is the most expensive of the three, but also the one with the most free museums, and the London with kids guide does the real math, Harry Potter studios included. Italy is a story of its own, because it can be wonderful for kids or a nightmare of lines depending on how you build it, and that's the subject of Italy with kids.

Nature and lakes are a category of their own, and here we're not objective: Slovenia is our favorite destination. Small, green, two hours end to end, and a cave with a train inside. The Slovenia with kids itinerary is the one we'd send to friends. Austria is the more orderly version, with cable cars and lakes, and a one-week family itinerary for Austria is a good place to start. Switzerland is prettier than both and more expensive than both, and the Switzerland with kids itinerary tries to close that gap.

And if your kids are at the age when a castle with princesses is the high point of life, Disneyland Paris with kids is worth reading before you buy tickets, because there the difference between a good day and a terrible one is almost entirely planning.

A long-haul flight with kids is a different league, and we wouldn't recommend it before about age seven. But when it fits, three weeks in Thailand with the whole family and crossing America in an RV are two long guides we wrote for exactly the families who are ready for it.

And if you want the bigger picture before you choose, the best family destinations for 2026 sorts all of this by age, budget and season.

When to fly, and for how long

In Israel, "when" is almost always dictated by the school holidays, which means you fly exactly when all the other parents do. There's no magic fix, but destinations differ a lot. The Tishrei holidays (Rosh Hashanah through Sukkot) are a great time for Europe: September is still warm in Greece and the cities are no longer crowded, and where to fly with kids over the Tishrei holidays goes through the options. Hanukkah is a completely different story: cold, dark early, and for us it has always come down to either snow or somewhere warm, nothing in between. Where to fly with kids over Hanukkah explains both approaches.

A ski holiday is a special case, in budget and in logistics, and if it's your first, a first ski holiday with kids in Austria will save you a lot of expensive mistakes.

On trip length we have a clear opinion: a week to ten days. Less than a week isn't enough to recover from the flight before you head home, and beyond two weeks come homesickness, laundry and kids who want their own room. How many days to travel abroad with kids breaks it down by type of destination, but that's the rule.

What a family trip abroad really costs

The number people say out loud is the price of the flights. The real number is two to three times that: lodging for a family, food for four three times a day, entry fees, transport, insurance, and the line nobody budgets for in advance, which is stuff. Ice cream, a souvenir, a taxi when everyone has collapsed.

For a family of four on a week in Europe, it usually comes to around NIS 15,000 to 25,000 (Israeli shekels) all in for us, and most of the difference between the low and high ends is lodging. What a family trip abroad costs breaks it into line items with ranges, and our suggestion is to do this math before you choose a destination, not after. A destination that fits 80 percent of your budget is a good destination. One that means living on bread for the whole trip is not.

How to build the days

This is where most families stumble, and it isn't their fault. You've picked the destination, booked the flights, and now you're staring at 30 open tabs and a list of 40 must-dos. The question isn't what to see. It's what fits a Tuesday afternoon, when the little one has already cried twice and the big one is hungry.

There's a method, and family trip planning step by step walks through it in order. Its principle in one line: arrange the day by geography, not by importance, and leave a gap in it.

There's also an earlier question: plan it yourself, buy a ready-made itinerary, or let a machine build it. There's no single right answer, and ready-made itinerary vs. planning it yourself lays out the three ways honestly. We went from fully manual planning (two evenings per day of travel, no exaggeration) to using AI for the skeleton, then fine-tuning by hand the things that matter to us. AI trip planner: how it works explains the mechanics, and planning a family trip with AI explains what to tell the system so the result fits your family and not a generic one.

The flight itself

The flight is the part parents fear most, and it's almost never the hardest part. Departure time matters more than price: an early morning flight with small kids means a 4 a.m. wake-up and a child who falls apart at the airport, and a short overnight flight means nobody sleeps and everyone arrives wrecked. If you have a choice, go for midday or early afternoon, even if it costs a bit more.

For seats, two parents in two rows with a child next to each works better for us than four in a row, because every child gets their own parent and nobody has to climb over anybody. For the carry-on: one screen with headphones already tested at home, snacks that don't make a mess, and something small and new that's only opened after takeoff. Half an hour of quiet costs about NIS 20.

And don't plan anything for the day after an overnight flight. No museum, no drive, no meal at a restaurant you booked ahead. A child's body doesn't understand time differences, and that day belongs to the pool or the nearest playground.

The paperwork you remember at the airport

Passports. Check the expiry date for every member of the family, and remember that many countries require six months of validity counted from the day you leave, not the day you arrive. A child born since your last trip needs a passport of their own, and that takes time in busy seasons. The UK now also requires an electronic travel authorization, the ETA, for every traveler including babies, and the London guide covers it in detail.

Family travel insurance is not the place to save. Kids fall, run fevers and end up at a doctor abroad far more often than adults. And if anyone in the family has an ongoing medical condition, make sure it's covered explicitly.

And lodging: after many trips, we'll almost always choose an apartment with a kitchenette over a hotel room. Breakfast in pajamas, a washing machine, and a door that closes between the kids and you at nine in the evening are worth more than any breakfast tray.

What to pack, and what not to

We overpacked on every trip until the fourth. The rule we learned: anything you can buy at your destination for NIS 20 stays out of the suitcase. What does go in, and in the carry-on at that, is a first-day kit for each child: a change of clothes, a snack, a bottle. Suitcases get delayed, and a child without a change of clothes on day one is how a trip gets off on the wrong foot. What to pack for a family trip abroad is the full checklist, including the first-aid kit that is worth carrying.

The mistakes everyone makes once

A few things we learned the hard way, in order of how much they cost us.

Landing day is not a sightseeing day. Plan nothing for it. If you have energy left, go out for a walk. If not, you haven't missed a thing.

Three hours of driving between bases is not "on the way." It's half a day gone, and with kids it's sometimes a whole day. Two bases in a week is a lot. Three is already a parents' trip whose kids are suffering in silence.

Morning is the time for the important thing. The afternoon is for the park, the pool, something that doesn't involve a line. We flipped that once, and we won't forget the screaming in the Uffizi Gallery.

And don't count on "we'll grab something on the way." A hungry child in a strange city at seven in the evening is not a problem you solve, it's one you prevent. Pick a place for dinner in advance, even if you end up going somewhere else.

From here to an actual family trip abroad

If you've read this far, you have the order: age, destination, dates, budget, days, paperwork, packing. The part that takes the longest is the days themselves, and it's also the part you can take off your own plate. In Diretix you say where, when and who's traveling, and you get a full day-by-day schedule with attractions matched to age, hotels and an estimated budget; then you change the two or three things that matter to you. That's the base we work from today, and the rest we do as always: on the road, with kids.