10 Reasons Traveling as a Kid is Awesome
by Rease Kirchner
Some people hesitate to bring their kids with them when they travel. I imagine there are several reasons for that, the main one being that they want to escape their children. However, when I think back to the few trips I went on as a child, I remember how truly awesome it is to be a kid on vacation and I often wish I could experience some of the stuff only kids can experience while traveling.
These are my top 10 things that made being a traveling kid awesome.
1. You get to have ice cream way more often.
Okay, I’ll be honest, this still applies to me today, but as a kid, this was a serious
I will eat ice cream in any place, at any time and in any weather.
bonus. I have always been an ice cream fanatic, so being allowed to eat copious amounts of it on a daily basis made any amount of time in the car with my bully big brothers totally worth it.
2. You get free stuff.
Kids are cute and people like giving them stuff. Free candy, free sodas, free t-shirts, you name it. You get free stuff for smiling. You also get free stuff when you are sad and people in vacation mode don’t want to deal with it. You can’t lose.
3. You get presents when it’s not your birthday.
Traveling as a kid pretty much always results in at least 1 souvenir. when you are a kid, souvenir is just a fancy name for present and presents are awesome.
4. You win everything.
People don’t like seeing kids lose so most games tend to be fixed so you can win. I personally won a limbo contest on a cruise boat. Let’s just ignore the fact that I was 5 years old and didn’t have to start ducking until maybe the 5th round, the point is I was awesome. I also somehow managed to win a drinking game on that same trip, because there was a prize for the best person who handed shots to drunken tourists, of course.
5. You get to see weird animals.
When you are a kid, seeing a different colored squirrel is thrilling, so anywhere you go you are bound to see some unfamiliar creature. You might even get to ride it. However, this can backfire. Let’s just say a pony named Princess scarred me for life.
6. Your siblings get nicer.
This does not apply to car rides, where even the nicest children become insufferable. However, once the vacation has really gotten going, siblings tend to get exponentially nicer. The euphoria of the new surroundings and constant stimulations temporary suspends all sibling grudges.
7. You get to jump on the bed.
Rented bed=makeshift trampoline. ‘Nuff said.
Okay, turns out I still jump on hotel beds.
8. You can’t get grounded.
Until you return home, the punishments available are limited. Your parents cannot lock you in the hotel room, so no matter what, you still get to go outside and play.
9. Arcades.
Chances are your parents are going to want to get rid of you at some point. In my experience, this almost always results in getting a bag full of quarters and being sent to an arcade. Hello, Ms. Pacman and Space Invaders!
10. You get to see more than your neighborhood.
Geography class makes the world look totally inaccessible, but if you start traveling early you get to figure out that traveling is possible much sooner.
What about you? What childhood travel memories still make you smile?
Rease Kirchner a staff writer/Travel Adviser for Travelated. She is a US citizen currently living the ex-pat life in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is bilingual and an experienced traveler. She loves gaining and sharing knowledge of local cultures, customs and adventure. Her blog Mi Vida en Buenos Aires documents her life as a foreigner.
