Recently updated on October 13th, 2023 at 01:03 pm
Traveling with kids can be challenging, even in the best of circumstances.
Parents searching for the best family travel vacations should park their preconceptions about bus travel and get on board with what coach holidays have to offer.
The biggest benefit? Your kids will love it!
From making new friends to making more quality time with mom and dad, here are nine reasons your kids will love family travel via coach.
1. More playtime, less drive time
By far the best part of traveling with kids by coach is that children get more playtime with their parents. There’s only so much a mum or dad riding shotgun can engage the backseat brigade; the driver can hardly do more than make a funny face in the rearview mirror every few miles. Family travel by coach means more playtime and less drivetime for the whole family, letting you play, nap, and experience the road trip side by side with your literal foot off the gas.
Read next: Our favorite tips for keeping kids entertained on road trips.
2. A more predictable schedule
The dreadful itinerary. It looks great on paper; every ‘i’ dotted and ‘t’ crossed, the letters forming a well-manicured schedule that hits the top sites, includes the best activities, and even has room for a pre-bedtime ice cream.
Then by 11AM, the whole plan is out the window as the clean page is now full of crossed-out attractions and timetables shrink to impossible levels.
Rigid schedules sharpen frustration and even the most lenient of itineraries can go off the rails in an instant. Be it a toddler or a teen, their temperament is also on a tight schedule which is why coach travel can be a huge benefit. The schedules are put in place by professionals who know what is and isn’t logistically possible. And in the event that the best laid plans go awry, there’s a backup plan in place.
Keep a tight yet more than tolerable schedule on Trafalgar’s Best of Britain tour. Spend 14 days with your clan exploring England, Scotland, and Wales, and maybe even run into a distant cousin or two.
3. Big seats, even bigger windows
Three kids, two window seats, one unhappy rider in the middle.
If there’s one saving grace of family travel by coach, it’s that you can almost guarantee that every one of your children will get a window seat. Larger seats with larger windows, too.
It may seem like a small change, and depending on your personal car it may indeed be a matter of inches, but it makes a big difference. A larger seat means more comfort, whether that’s them sitting, sleeping, or even standing. Larger windows also provide the perfect distraction from the drive. They can see the stars at night, see cities come alive in the daytime, and watch an invisible person race the bus across the rolling landscape.
Check out: The 9 best cities in the US for family-friendly outdoor fun.
4. They might make new friends
Your “don’t talk to strangers” rule need not be broken when traveling with kids on a coach. One great aspect of family coach travel is that you get to know many of your groupmates throughout the journey. Family-focused trips are even more social for both parents and little ones. Your standard family road trip might happen upon a playmate at a swimming pool or an attraction, but they’ll be gone once the visit ends. With coach travel, kids can spend days or even weeks giddily playing with their new friends who were strangers only days before.
Experience one of Europe’s best countries for sightseeing on our Best of Italy tour. Eat your way across Italy for 13 days, and don’t worry, Italian eateries will gladly serve your picky eater plates of buttered noodles.
5. Itineraries to inspire the imagination
Traveling by coach often includes a day spent at a major landmark, such as touring the city of Belfast, then visiting a place near and dear to kids’ hearts, like Giant’s Causeway, a shooting location in the Harry Potter films.
Read next: 8 reasons why families will love holidays with a cruise element
6. Tour guides are prepared for family-friendly travel
It’s not just the itinerary that is designed with a kid focus: family travel by coach can be tailored to your clan from start to finish, including tour guides. Think a bland audio tape in a dusty museum is going to keep your kids entertained? You know them better than that.
Lively, educated guides make the difference between your moody teen staying glued to their phone and admitting (privately, in a mumbled breath of course) that this family vacation is actually fun. Some on-site guides double-down by getting into character as a historical figure. Sure, the little ones may find it silly while the tweens find it cringe, but your tour guides throughout family coach tours will get and keep your kids’ attention.
And if that feat can be accomplished, just imagine what else is possible. You might be able to get a family photo with everyone smiling this year.
Get an iconic photo of you and your family in front of the Eiffel Tower during Trafalgar’s Best of France tour. Take 13 days to embrace French culture from Paris and Bordeaux to Lyon and the Loire Valley.
7. More money for souvenirs, snacks, and surprises
Family travel is expensive and traveling with kids is even more expensive when they’re old enough to walk but not old enough to get a job.
Did you budget money for must-have souvenirs (that may or may not end up buried in their bedroom closet)? Did you calculate how many snack purchases are necessary for the bottomless pit that is your five-year-old (the one who wasn’t hungry for the chicken tenders you bought for lunch but is suddenly famished when you pass the churro stand)?
And did you keep a little extra in the cookie jar to splurge on that surprise they’ll never forget?
Of the many money saving family travel hacks, traveling by coach is a dark horse candidate for the best. Too often, parents assume that they can complete an epic week-long itinerary at a far lower cost than what an organized coach tour charges.
Check rental car prices, add in fuel costs, and compare these costs…before adding in any parking charges and tolls. Not to mention the time spent and comfort sacrificed.
Traveling with kids by coach is a lot cheaper than you think, especially when you consider how many a la carte purchases you don’t have to make at each site. Those miscellaneous purchases add up in your pocket, letting you put that money into whatever else the kids need, be it a pony ride in a national park, a personalized souvenir from an ic, or a turkey leg the size of their head at a medieval castle.
Read next: 7 personality types you’ll find on every multigenerational family getaway
8. Little legs get a break
Pop quiz: do you know the ideal parking lot that’ll get you closest to the world’s best attractions?
No?
Your driver does, and if they can’t park closeby, they’ll drop you off right at the entrance.
This may seem like a small perk, but think about just how much happier kids of all ages will be when they have to walk less.
Remember, many centuries old attractions don’t have elevators and the most amazing landscapes in the great outdoors don’t have a sunshade. Having your kids trudge through the sun or across a parking structure just to get to the actual attraction will wear their patience thin.
So just let them hop off of the air conditioned coach and into vacation, instead.
Help your kids break in their new hiking boots on Trafalgar’s Scenic Parks Explorer tour. Spend 15 days wandering US National Parks from Mount Rushmore to Yellowstone on the quintessential American family vacation.