Overseas travel with 4 yo twins?

[SucreK]

Hello! I live in the US and am considering taking my twins (who will be 4 when we'll travel) to Europe. My husband and I loved international travel pre-kids, and have obviously put it off for about 4 years now. Does anyone have tips for long flights? For where to stay (AirBNB vs hotels)? For how to make this trip successful? Also, AM I CRAZY?

Thanks!

 

[jessmke]

My kids are quite a bit younger, but we've been travelling internationally with them since birth. My two year old has been on 5 overseas flights so far. What really helps for the flights are new interactive toys/books they've never send before so they are exciting and hold their attention for longer. Also download movies/tv shows from Netflix onto your iPad/phone. Most airlines have in flight entertainment, but it goes down sometimes so if you have shows downloaded then the kids can watch those instead.

We've done air bnb, hotels, and (most recently) an all inclusive. I think for older kids like yours air bnb would be the best option and give you the most flexibility.

 

[MindUtopia]

We only have one, but we went to the west coast of the U.S. from the UK earlier in the year with our 4 year old.

As for the flight, I would say manage expectations and give yourselves a break when you each get to sleep or eat or read a book while the other is ‘on duty’. Bring snacks and entertainment (tablet and headphones, etc). Don’t necessarily assume they will sleep either. We had an 11 hour flight and mine only fell asleep as we were coming in to land! She slept for about 20 minutes and then was totally awake again for like 30 hours straight! She was fine. We were exhausted!

I would definitely do Airbnb. Make sure you have separate space for yourselves in the evening so you can relax. Each have breaks where you can go see something you’re interested in that wouldn’t be kid friendly. Plan in lots of time in neighbourhood playgrounds or anywhere kids can play and you can rest with a coffee (or wine). We did a lot of picnic lunches with wine at parks. Our daughter played and we got to sit down and have some adult time and everyone was happy. Also I would plan in 3 days to adjust to the time change. Ours woke up at 2:30am on the first morning there and wouldn’t go back to sleep, then 4am the next day and finally back to 6:30 by day 3. Bring tablets, put on the tv and sleep on the sofa next to them, whatever just to get through. Trade off so you each get sleep. And plan it for long enough to make the most of it. We were away for 2 weeks which was plenty of time but a week would have been too short and chaotic.