Not long ago, I was talking to a friend who wanted to take the kids on a family vacation—but hadn’t planned anything. “What if something happens?” she half-whispered to me. Can you relate? Do you worry about the potential problems of travel? Do family travel worries circle your brain like a delayed flight waiting to land?
Nearly 9 in 10 people have concerns about travel safety, says one survey. With everything going on these days, it makes more sense than ever to pay close attention to health, safety, weather and other conditions when considering whether to travel.
While travel concerns are 100% valid, being worried doesn’t mean you 100% shouldn’t travel.
I spoke with other busy parents and listened to the family travel problems they were concerned about. This post addresses the most common family travel worries:
- getting sick on vacation
- car trouble
- getting lost
- bad weather
- dirty hotel room or home rental
- delayed and canceled flights
- lost luggage
Read on to learn what to do in the most stressful vacation problems.
Important note: I absolutely support and follow local government’s guidelines on when/how it is safe to travel. I urge you to do the same by respecting stay-at-home guidance when applicable. I also urge you to follow all safety precautions to slow the spread of illness, including social distancing, frequent hand washing, and mask wearing. It is up to all of us to keep ourselves and our communities safe and healthy.
So as you read this post, keep in mind that my recommendations apply only when you’re able to safely travel in accordance with governmental guidelines and common sense.
This post contains affiliate links. That means that when you click and buy, I earn a small income at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting To & Fro Fam!
Someone gets sick
If someone is sick on vacation, it may be tempting to power through. After all, you want to make the most of your trip.
But if you go forward with all your plans, you risk skipping the extra rest your loved one’s body needs to fight the bug.
So take a more toned-down approach if kids get sick on vacation (or you do, for that matter). Have a lazy morning. Watch a movie. Take a short walk instead of the city-wide tour you’d planned. Scale back so everyone feels better sooner rather than later.
Further, you definitely don’t want to risk spreading a bug to others. So skip any indoor activities where you could pass germs.
These days, illness is even more fraught than usual.
Some attractions and lodging also have standard surveys now. They may ask if anyone in your group has been sick recently or is dealing with symptoms such as fever, cough or aches. So if someone in your party is sick, you’ll need to answer honestly—and probably change plans.
Because of the pandemic, hotels, airlines and other travel-related companies are more understanding of a change of plans due to illness. So if you feel like you need to cancel or reschedule because someone gets sick, you’re more likely than ever to do so without forfeiting what you’ve already paid.
For even more advice, check out my full post on what to do if your kid gets sick on vacation.
Car trouble
Truth time: This is actually the potential family travel worry that stresses me out.
When I was in high school, I took a basic car maintenance workshop. Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten everything I learned in the class. That means I’m just not terribly confident about dealing with car trouble on vacation.
That’s why it’s so important for all of us to get familiar with what to do in case of car trouble.
First consider the potential issues you could encounter: a flat tire, a dead battery, an accident.
Next, talk through what you’d do. Ask a friend or your partner—someone who is more confident with car maintenance—to listen and offer advice if you’re not sure.
Then practice. Do you know how to use jumper cables? Install snow chains? Use a flare? Try these very learnable skills in low-stakes situations—i.e. not an emergency. Your confidence will go from 0 to 60.
Finally, make sure you travel with everything you need to deal with car trouble on vacation. Is your emergency supplies kit stocked and up to date? (If it’s not, make sure you get one right away! They’re important to have in your car at all times, not just on a road trip.)
One more tip: Call your car insurance agent to understand what your policy covers. I recently talked through our car insurance coverage and found out that it covers towing and locksmiths if you lock your keys in the car. (Darn—that last tip would have saved me $200 last summer when I locked the keys in our minivan.)
And if you’ll feel more comfortable with car emergency coverage, consider getting a membership to a company like AAA.
Reservations are lost or canceled
My sister recently drove several hours to an out-of-town home rental—only to discover they had no record of her reservation.
Talk about a vacation disaster!
The best defense for this travel problem is a good offense. Keep meticulous records of every reservation, from lodging to restaurants to activities. Here’s what I do:
Prevent a lost reservation
- Take a screenshot or photo of the confirmation page when you book online. Yes, the company should also email you—but take this extra precaution just in case.
- Keep the email confirmations. You might want to star them or transfer them into a travel folder.
- Forward your reservation to an app like TripIt. It will keep everything organized and at your fingertips.
- Print confirmations. Sometimes having hard copies as evidence makes a big difference.
That said, if you haven’t taken these steps and you’re still faced with a lost reservation, work with the hotel/airline/car rental company.
Behavioral psychology suggests that our default setting is to want to help others. So enlist the company representative in helping you. Try language like, “I’m not sure what happened—but can you help me find a solution?”
You can also try using “we” language, which puts you and the company representative on the same team. “Can we figure out a way to fix this?” feels collaborative, not combative.
If those tactics don’t work, escalate the issue. Managers have more ability to right wrongs like a lost reservation. Respectfully ask to speak with the manager or supervisor, who has more of a stake in making you happy.
And as frustrated as you might get, try to stay civil. Lost reservations are probably not the fault of whoever you’re talking to. When a car rental company lost my reservations and my family and I had to wait ages, I tried really, really hard to be nice to the agent. She was probably having a crummy day, too. And you know what? When she eventually fixed the problem, she gave me a few upgrades and perks right before thanking me for being understanding and patient.
When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind.
–Wonder, a YA book that will make you feel so many feels
You get lost
Getting from here to there is easier than it’s ever been, thanks to GPS and apps that give us directions. But it’s still possible to get lost.
Your phone might die. You might not have service. The maps app might be plain wrong (like when Waze misdirected drivers, who got stuck in the sand in the middle of a wildlife preserve).
No matter what the issue is, you still could find yourself in a 20th century situation of being lost!
If this happens, the most important thing is to keep your cool. Your kids are watching: Show them that a) everything is ok and b) a little problem like getting lost can’t ruin your vacation. It’s actually a terrific opportunity to model how you want your kids to react when something unexpectedly goes awry.
Then get your bearings. Can you retrace your steps? Can you tell which way is north—based on the position of the sun, the progression of street names or where the ocean is?
Asking for help is your best bet to find your way again. Find a local who can put you back on track. I always look for someone to ask at a gas station or a hotel desk. They’re used to giving directions so tend to be extra-helpful.
And remember that travel is just as much about the journey as it is about the destination. Your kids may end up fondly remembering the Time You Got Lost. In fact, my own kids still laugh about how their grandma yelled, “Siri, you’re fired!” when her phone led her astray.
The weather is awful
“Why isn’t it snowing?!” Maxine asked me the other morning. It was winter, she pointed out—so where was the snow?
Alas, I cannot control the weather. I’m guessing you can’t either. And unfortunately that might mean you get bad weather when you’re on vacation.
No one wants rain to ruin plans to hit up the amusement park. But weather isn’t reason to throw in the towel on your wonderful family vacation.
If weather is messing with your plans, adjust. Here are ideas when you have bad weather on vacation.
- Are there indoor alternatives to your outdoor plans?
- Can you dress for the weather and move forward with your intended activities anyway?
- How can you transform the bummer weather into something awesome? (Perhaps it’s raining, but can you grab an umbrella and turn a walking tour into a puddle-stomping sightseeing adventure?)
- Can you switch the timing of some activities? For example, if you planned to visit a museum on Tuesday but Monday’s weather is crummy, can you go to the museum on Monday instead? You might end up with better weather later in your vacation.
- What if you scrapped your plans? Yes, you probably want to get out and about. But if you ask your kids, they’d probably be just as happy swimming in the hotel pool all day!
The hotel or rental is gross
We’ve all heard them: horror stories of disgusting hotel rooms or home rentals. I’m very grateful that we haven’t stayed in super-sketchy lodging as a family. (I wish I could say the same of traveling without kids. I could tell you stories about a certain motel in Detroit when I legitimately texted friends my location in case I went missing, and the hotel in Thailand with the chained monkeys out front. Geez.)
If you ever do find yourself in an unacceptable hotel room or home rental, you have some options to fix the family travel problem.
- Call the front desk or property management company. Ask them to come and clean your lodging. We once checked into a rented apartment that hadn’t been cleaned between guests (yuck!), but the cleaning staff took care of it lickety split.
(This was pre-COVID. You’re probably like me and are even more stringent about the cleanliness of lodging. Make sure they’re adhering to safe cleaning protocols.) - Ask to be moved. If the lodging is just plain unacceptable, or they can’t fix the problem in a reasonable length of time, relocate. Have them set you up in a different hotel room or request a move to a different property.
- Leave. If the situation is truly over the top awful, you may need to leave. If that’s the case, document everything. Take notes on the steps you tried to take to make the lodging livable, whom you talked to and when, and details of exactly what was wrong. Take photos. The more information you have, the better.
If you end up going this route you may not get a refund… immediately. But once you find different lodging, you can escalate the problem with the less-than-satisfactory lodging company. Provide alllll the documentation you collected, then request a refund—and perhaps additional compensation for your trouble.
Yes, there’s always a risk of staying in a hotel room or home rental that isn’t up to your standards. This is actually quite uncommon, though. So if the potential for a dirty room or not-as-advertised rental is keeping you home, consider yourself armed with the info you need to take care of it should this family travel problem arise.
I’ve had great experience with AirBnB. Hosts have always been very responsive and eager to fix any issues that come up. Check out AirBnB properties here.
Your flight is delayed
I know you’re probably not flying much at the time I write this. But I do think that air travel will make a comeback once it’s safer to fly.
As much as I look forward to being able to fly again, though, I *don’t* eagerly await this family travel bummer: delayed and canceled flights.
Here’s how to deal with delayed flights on family vacation.
First of all, do your best to understand what kind of delay you’re dealing with. Is the delay because your plane left its previous destination an hour late? If that’s the case, it’s likely that the airline’s estimate of your new departure time is fairly accurate.
If the delay is because of weather or equipment malfunction, estimates are less reliable. Just knowing how likely the updated departure times are to stay consistent will help you set your own expectations.
Next, find a place to post up. You may need to spend an extra hour—or more—waiting at the airport, so you might as well settle in.
Take turns getting up and moving with the kids. One adult should stay back to listen for announcements and watch your stuff. Don’t expect your kids to sit, though; walk around together so your littles burn off energy.
This is also an excellent time to get creative about entertaining your kids. You can download my book, Road Trip Games & Activities for Kids, for just a few bucks. Even though you’re not driving, you can entertain your kids with dozens of games at the airport. Try some of the 33 ideas in my book!
Finally, don’t stress if you can’t endure the delay with only the things you’ve packed. After all, you probably packed just the right amount of snacks and activities for the time your trip was supposed to take.
So you may need to spend a little extra on food or entertainment for the family while you wait for your delayed flight.
You lose your luggage
You spend all that time deciding what to bring on vacation then packing it just so—and then the airline loses your luggage.
Argh!
As annoying as it is, you’re bound to lose your luggage at some point if you’re traveling. If you do, then how do you recover? Especially if that suitcase had kid stuff in it?
First off, check in with the airline about expectations—and how much they can help. Do they know where the bag is? Can they estimate how long they’ll need to return it to you? Will they give you a budget to buy the essentials until you get your bag?
Most airlines will also give you a toiletries kit so you can at least brush your teeth.
Clarify where you need the airline to send the bag. So if you flew into Los Angeles but are actually staying in Anaheim, the airline should deliver the bag to your lodging—not the airport where you landed.
Then you’ll need to grab the bare essentials: a change of clothes, any must-have toiletries not provided by the airline or your lodging, and anything else to tide you over. I prefer stopping at a place like Target, which has pretty much everything you need. (You can also grab some groceries while you’re there to save money on your food for the vacation.)
Lastly, keep tabs on your lost luggage. You’ll get a claim number and a phone number or website to check on your status.
Lost luggage is a total pain. But the possibility of a lost suitcase is not a good reason to delay a family vacation.
The bottom line: The stuff you packed is, at the end of the day, just stuff. The memories you’ll make as a family when you travel are worth astronomically more than the potential inconvenience and cost of replacing your things.
When travel worries are more than regular stress
I’ve just covered the most common family travel worries—the 8 scenarios most likely to stress you out. I also shared tips to help you prevent these travel problems and what to do if they happen anyway.
Do you feel better? Do you feel more confident that you’ll be able to salvage your trip?
I hope so. If you don’t, and your vacation anxiety is getting in the way of things you want to do, consider talking to your doctor or mental health provider.
Travel anxiety is absolutely a thing. So if your worries feel out of control, or your life is being dictated by your anxiety, reach out and get help.
(If you wonder if your travel anxiety will ever let you take a trip, look at me as proof: I wrote a whole post on how to deal with anxiety at Disneyland.)
So what’s stopping you? Now that you know what you’d do if you hit any of these family travel problems, do you feel more prepared? Are you ready to start planning your next vacation?
