But getting a good night’s sleep in a hotel with kids isn’t impossible. The more I travel with my two girls, the better we’ve gotten about sharing a hotel room with kids. And now I’m here to give you the tips we’ve learned along the way!

Are you ready to actually sleep the next time you share a hotel room with kids? You’re in luck: This post has 12 great tips to help your kids sleep on vacation. Get comfy—and get ready for the best night’s sleep in a hotel with kids you’ve ever had.

13 tips to sleep in a hotel with kids

1. Book a suite to sleep better

Whenever you can, look for a suite instead of a regular hotel room. A suite generally has a door that separates the sleeping area from a living area and kitchen.

When you can close the door, your kids can go to bed earlier than you do. Everyone will sleep better in a hotel room because of the separation.

2. Get two beds

A king size bed sounds luxurious—but make sure you book a hotel room with two queens so you and your kids have enough space. I’ve slept with my kid’s toenails digging into my back to learn this lesson.

3. Request a room away from the elevators

After you book your hotel, call the front desk directly and ask for a room away from an elevator. The area near the elevator gets the most traffic—and therefore noise.

When your kids are trying to sleep in a hotel, you don’t want the constant ding! of the elevator (or noisy hotel guests) to keep them awake.

4. Cover up noisy hotel sounds

My kids sleep with a white noise machine at home, so to make the sleeping environment in a hotel room as close to normal as possible, I bring it along. (We have used this white noise machine for 6 years!)

If you forget the white noise machine (and I’ve been there—oops!), turn on the bathroom vent. The noise helps cover the sound of the air conditioner turning on or people walking in the hotel hallway.

5. Keep the hotel room like home

In addition to the white noise machine, you’ll want to make the hotel room as close to home as you possibly can. Familiarity will help your kids sleep better in a hotel room—which means more rest for everyone.

So bring your child’s lovey, favorite bedtime book, nightlight or whatever else helps him sleep at home. That’ll help you sleep in a hotel room with kids on your next family vacation.

6. Stick to a bedtime routine

We follow the same bedtime routine every night at home, and sticking to that comforting pattern helps my kids sleep in a hotel room.

We can’t duplicate the bedtime routine perfectly; after all, at home I read my kids a bedtime book in a rocking chair. But do your best to match what you can. For example, I’ll pull the computer desk into the bedroom and swivel it back and forth, which mimics the rocking motion of the chair at home.

When you keep to the same bedtime routine even when you’re on vacation, it signals to your child’s body that it’s time to get sleepy—and not, you know, time to do flips.

Hotel Room Acrobatics from Catherine Ryan Gregory on Vimeo.

7. Help your kids share a bed

My kids share a bedroom but sleep in their own beds at home. Unfortunately, we don’t usually have that many beds when we sleep in a hotel room, so they end up sharing a hotel bed.

To help avoid turf wars over bed space and blankets, put a pillow in the middle of the bed. This acts as a barrier between the two so they don’t kick each other or complain their sibling is moving into their space.

8. Keep your kids from falling out of bed

My kids’ beds at home have railings, but hotel beds don’t have this safety feature. To keep kids from falling out of a hotel bed, tuck a pillow under the fitted sheet on the outside edge of the bed. It’ll act as a bumper, keeping your little safely in bed when you sleep in a hotel room.

9. Cover any electronic lights

Research shows that the light emitted from electronics can stop your body from producing melatonin, the hormone that helps you fall asleep. I’m pretty sure we can all agree we don’t need any more obstacles in going to sleep in a hotel room with kids.

So when you first arrive, unplug electronics or cover them with washcloths. Don’t forget the bedside digital clock—it emits a surprising amount of light!

10. BYO pillowcases

If you’re like me, you try to pack light on family vacations—it’s less hassle trying to get your luggage from A to B! But bringing your own pillowcases is a family travel hack I wish someone had told me years ago.

Hotels tend to use harsh detergents to wash linens, and my kids have sensitive skin. Bringing pillowcases from home—where I use all-natural, unscented laundry detergent—prevents skin reactions and headaches for my sensitive kids.

11. Be flexible

We do our best to put the kids to sleep in a hotel room in their own shared bed. But sometimes Hubs and I end up taking a kid each.

Sleeping next to our kids (one of whom grinds her teeth and one of whom prefers to lie on top of me as she snoozes) isn’t ideal. But if it means they sleep, it’s sometimes a decent compromise. After all, when your kids are rested, family vacations go 1,000 times more smoothly.

12. Hide in the bathroom

If you don’t get a hotel suite and have only one room to share with your kids, the bathroom is your friend. You can leave a book, computer or tablet in there to keep yourself entertained after you get the kids to bed.

13. Prep your own bedtime routine

I learned this lesson the hard way: If you have to rummage around your suitcase to get your pajamas and toothbrush, you’re pretty much guaranteed to wake up your kids in a hotel room.

So as you prep your kids for bed, lay out everything you need for bedtime, too. I make a little pile for myself in the bathroom so I won’t disturb sleeping kids in the hotel room.

Level 10 travel tip: Pack what you’ll need the first night in the hotel at the top of your suitcase. This means I pack our toiletries and one set of pajamas last so they’re easily accessible at the top of the luggage.

Now that you’ve read these family travel hacks to sleep in a hotel room with kids, you can rest easy: You have the tips to get a lot more shut-eye on your next family vacation.

After all, you and your kids will be able to enjoy your family trip much more when you get extra zzz’s. Rest well, friends!

PS – Want even more tips to help your kids sleep on vacation? My post on pediatric sleep expert-approved advice to stick to a sleep routine on vacation has all the intel you need for better rest en route.

The post Get a good night’s sleep in a hotel with kids (for real!) appeared first on To & Fro Fam.

A writer’s retreat staycation to level up your blog

Being a travel blogger as a side hustle isn’t always easy. I love nothing more than exploring a family-friendly destination with my kids (or a kid-free getaway!), but then I have to actually find the time to write about my adventures. I love writing blog posts, too, but while juggling my full-time job and motherhood, my to-write list is always long—and daunting. That’s why I recently reserved an entire day for a writer’s retreat staycation—and here’s why you should, too.

Setting aside a whole day to do nothing but work on my blog made me more productive. It helped me bank a reserve of travel blog posts to draw from during busy weeks. It allowed me to focus on creating great content my fans love to read. And it cut out distractions—even the cutest distractions in the world, aka my kids.

What allowed me to spend a whole day focused on travel writing instead of laundry and fixing snacks and pretending not to see the stack of unopened mail on the counter? Building the writer’s retreat staycation around a brilliant concept I just learned about: Hotels By Day. The startup, which you may remember from its appearance on Shark Tank, partners with hotels around the world to open up rooms during the day. So if you have a day-long layover en route to a far-flung destination, or you want a place to clean up for a wedding and use the pool after a day of hiking, you can reserve a room with Hotels By Day. Or, of course, you can do a “daycation” writer’s retreat like my blogging bestie Jenni from A Well Crafted Party and I did.

7 steps to write a library of blog posts in one day

Pretty sure it’s safe to say all of us bloggers want to create better content more quickly—right? Batching blog post writing—in the right environment and with the right productivity hacks—helps you write more (and more engaging!) posts. Here’s how to plan the ultimate blogging writer’s retreat staycation.

1. Post up in a place without distractions

Jenni and I got into our room at Portland’s The Jupiter and it was clean, uncluttered and definitely free of My Little Ponies all over the floor. In other words, it was the serene opposite of my house.

Booking a daycation with Hotels By Day for our local writer’s retreat gave me the space to concentrate on writing great blog posts. Because my attention wasn’t being constantly pulled this way and that, I was able to get more done in these hours than I could ever dream of at home.

2. Pack your writer’s essentials

When we went on our writer’s retreat staycation, I packed the notebook I use for brainstorming posts, my bullet journal with my hashtag lists, post-it notes—and a pack of La Croix. You see, we all have quirky routines that put us in the writing mindset, and mine just happens to be sparkling pamplemousse. #dontjudge

3. Articulate your writing goals

To have a successful writer’s retreat staycation, you first need to figure out what you aim to accomplish—and be specific. For me, I wanted to write a bank of travel blog posts that I could have ready to publish during the busy weeks when I don’t have the time to write a post from scratch. You may want to spend your time researching long-tail keywords and brainstorming post ideas, or rebranding your web site, or go my route and just write. But regardless of what you do, pick—and stick with—one theme, at least for a chunk of time.

This productivity hack is called batching, and research shows it’s much more effective than our usual way of working. When we multitask—e.g. begin to write a blog post but then remember that you need to create a pin for it so you go through your images and then remember another point you want to add to your post—your productivity dips 40%.

So be clear about your goal for your writer’s retreat staycation. You can write it on a post-it note to steer you back to your task when you’re tempted to peek at reddit, or you can share it with your writing partner like I did with Jenni. Just make sure you know what you’re doing—and what you’re not doing.

4. Fuel your creativity

If you’ve rented a room for the day, you may be tempted to hole up and not leave—but don’t forget to eat! Jenni and I ate breakfast at Moberi and lunch at Prasad East, where we indulged in 100% healthy and delicious food that wouldn’t make us feel sluggish afterward. Make sure to take food breaks! A hungry brain is not creative.

5. Channel encouragement and inspiration

Sometimes it’s hard to get in the blog writing zone—whatever you type doesn’t seem right. In these moments, I like to draw inspiration from other writers.

That’s why I made a set of cards with quotes on writing. (I even made them pretty, because glitter washi tape makes everything better!) When I’m feeling stuck, I pull out a card at random and use the advice from the quote on writing to push me out of my rut.

And hey, you can too! Download my free quotes on writing printable for a little inspiration. And if you’re like me and want to go just a tad bit extra, gussy them up with washi tape. #teamglitter

6. Get a change of scenery

Just because we booked a Hotels By Day room didn’t mean we had to stay behind that closed door (although have you seen the doors at The Jupiter? They’re chalkboards! Yes, we took advantage).

So no matter where you’re doing your writer’s retreat staycation, move every so often. Getting out of your chair wakes you up and increases blood flow (and therefore nutrient-rich, creativity-boosting blood to your brain). A change of scenery may help spark new ideas, too.

At The Jupiter, we hung out for a bit in the hotel lobby, which was filled with the attention-grabbing photo composites of Portland icons created by Beth Kerschen. Oh, and the lobby had coffee and tea, too. #caffeine!

Plan your next writer’s retreat staycation

Jenni and I vowed to do another writer’s retreat staycation—or daycation, or destination—soon. I was blown away by how much more productive I was writing blog posts when I wasn’t doing anything else. (I know, shocking!)

We don’t have another writer’s retreat on the books yet (because life), but this one won’t be our last. Whether we book our writer’s retreat spot again through Hotels By Day, or rent a house together on the beach, or simply take over a local cafe, we’ll be rocking the writer’s retreat staycation before long. If you want your choice made easy, though, book through Hotels By Day because a day-long hotel stay is a savvy way to plan a writer’s retreat.

Want to join me? Reach out via my contact page. Whenever you’re in Portland I’d love to connect with fellow travel bloggers or travel-loving parents!

The post 7 steps to write a library of posts in a day—with a writer’s retreat staycation appeared first on To & Fro Fam.