When we travel, we want to make the most of our time and see literally every possible thing. And yes, this is true especially when we’re traveling with kids! We want to see all the highlights and also have some local experiences - we LOVE a busy day!
For this post, I’ll use New York as an example, but you can apply this process to any city. We had a couple of days in NYC last summer, and we wanted to jam pack in as much as possible. We'd already been a few times, so we had a head start on initial ideas... but we still did a LOT of research to build a full list.
And we used a lot of pen and paper to get all the kids involved, but you can also utilize your phone and do the whole thing electronically if you prefer.
brainstorm all the things.
First, we spend time gathering a list of every possible thing we’d want to see. Every single thing. When we're making our list, we somewhat consider the kids, but we usually build an initial itinerary focused on the sights any adult would visit - and then we add in some stuff that is specific to kids (e.g. cool playground) and make edits as needed to allow extra time too. And as you already know, every meal counts so we plan food too.
To come up with our intial long list, we use a few resources:
Lonely Planet: We use both the website and the books. Their bigger country or state books are best if you’re spending a lot of time in one place. If you have a full day or more in a city, I also love their “pocket” books specific to a city. For shorter trips or destination searching (like figuring out what regions we want to visit within a country) I’ll use their website.
YouTube: This one is great for the kids. We search something like “best things to do in New York” and then watch the short clips with the kids. They can pause it as they go to write down their list.
Other blogs and groups: We look on blogs (check out who we're following on Insta for examples) and search their websites. Plus we use Google to find new blogs by searching the “best things to do with kids in New York”. Blogs are a good place for the stuff geared specifically to kids (like some really special playgrounds), so don’t skip those as you build your list.
we lay it out by location.
Then we group our initial long list of things by location within the city or country. As we lay it out, we map the distance between them. We also figure out what mode of transportation we'll be using to make sure that we have the most efficient routes and the best estimates.
For our NYC trip, we took our list and cut out each thing we wanted to do. Literally printed and cut them out. We laid them all out on the counter and started organizing by location. This way we could figure out what would be best to cluster. (You can also do this on Google Maps and/or utilize the notes app - but the kids loved the paper version because it was easy for them to be involved).
Note: In addition to the list of very specific activities, we also usually have a running list of random experiences that are more flexible. Examples in NYC might be - take the subway, eat at a hot dog stand, etc. Include those too.
research the details to assign the order
After we lay out the wish list by location, we start looking at a few other components -
Open/Close Times: Unfortunately, some of the most popular spots have weird hours. For example, many of the famous museums are closed on one of the weekdays (eg Louvre closed on Tuesdays). Make sure this is part of your research as you start a plan.
Ticket Availability: We always make time for some cool, under the radar places. And we also always like to visit the most popular spots too. We believe there is a reason these famous places are famous… so we don’t skip out! But because of that, we are often at the mercy of reservations/tickets available when we make our plans. This is especially important post-COVID where some places still do timed entry and limited capacity and such.
Weather Info: Sometimes we’re planning too early to have this info on hand. We also know it’s subject to change. But still, if we see that one day consistently seems to be a 90% chance of rain and the other is sunny, we’ll definitely adjust an itinerary for that forecast.
fill in with more food
In some smaller cities, food drives much of our itinerary. We're foodies. But in many big cities with lots of neighborhoods, we have a few food spots that we actually include on the list, but many others we research after we get a rough itinerary.
Since I always get asked, I'll tell you my main ways of finding cool restaurants:
Eater: I've loved this site for almost a decade. For most cities they have a “short list” of the top restaurants. I’ve traveled a LOT (counting my old work travel… which was extensive) and found this site to be very reliable as their writers seem to appreciate good food and they keep their content up-to-date.
Google Maps: I use Google Maps to zoom in on the neighborhood we'll be around during meal time, and then either search by type of food or just look at all restaurants. I’m paying close attention to a high volume of good ratings!!
Once you fill in every small gap with a good meal or a snack ;), you're ready to go.
And like any good plan, we know that we may need to switch things around a bit on the ground. This can be for fun reasons (a local we meet while traveling says we MUST MUST do something or we see a place as we’re walking by that we must try!) or less fun reasons (the subway has a big delay, a walk takes 3x longer than planned, a flight is delayed, or we need a little more sleep!). But starting with a plan is always easier than starting from nothing in terms of efficiency.
And... ta da - you have an itinerary cool enough to hang on the wall. ;)
We've never regretted packing in ALL the activities, and we suggest you give it a try! So to sum it up - brainstorm a list, map it out, check open/close times, age restrictions, ticket availability, and weather (if available)… then make sure to fill in the best food! And as we always say, make a detailed plan but stay flexible for your sanity!! Have fun!
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