Flying with kids to Australia
Taking children overseas to Australia and New Zealand
Yep, we flew with our kids over the Pacific. No we aren’t crazy. Flying with kids to Australia can be an adventure or it can be a nightmare. Let’s get ready so you can make amazing family memories!
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1. Are you the only parents flying with kids to Australia?
So many travel adventures to share. Where to start? How about the time we took our kids (ages 8 and 5 at the time) across the Pacific ocean! Taking children overseas to Australia and New Zealand may intimidate you, but trust me, you can do it!
Now I know there are a ton of people who think that is no big deal and travel more frequently than we do, but we had only crossed the Pacific for the first time ourselves when we were in our early thirties.
Also, NO ONE we knew had traveled so far with their kids stirred lots of commentary from friends and family. I know they think we were crazy for flying with kids to Australia. Oh well! Life’s short, Travel Well!
2. Where to we go and why?
For a first adventure with the kids, pick a country that speaks the same native language. For us that is, English!
As an American when you brainstorm dream places to travel that speak your language Australia of course will pop in mind. It was a childhood dream to go to Australia, one frankly I thought would never be realized.
Choosing an English speaking country is honestly a worried mom one. My kids were both old enough to speak, read signs, and recognize people of authority, etc.
I thought this was a good preventative step “just in case.” You know, in case my worst fears were realized. Separation in a crowd, kidnapping, I know all moms could go on and on about their worst fears.
I thought if we are in a country where at least they know the language they have an advantage. They could read signs, find a police officer, give them their parents names, etc.
As Ryan and I started making plans and picking destinations we wanted to make sure to hit, somehow the comment came up that if we are all the way over there we should side track and hit New Zealand. I’m not even sure who/when that comment was made, but teaser, it was a decision that has forever changed our lives.
3. Who’s with us as we are flying with kids to Australia?
Now that we have a game plan of exploring two giant countries over almost three weeks who was going? I love my husband for many reasons, but one of his most endearing qualities is wanting everyone to share in the same things he is excited about.
I think he invited a dozen people to join us on this first grand adventure. Most people looked at us again like we were crazy, but his parents jumped at the chance.
Like so many people, my in-laws had never traveled so far away from home and not being adventurous people they knew they would not go on their own.
They took comfort in the fact that Ryan and I had been overseas before and felt brave enough to be flying with kids to Australia. We were thrilled that they decided to join!
Even better we now had four adults to two kids. Quite a nice ratio to work with as adventures presented themselves along the way. (More to come on that!). Also we knew this would be a memory both our kids and their grandparents would treasure for a lifetime. Something they would have a common bond over and they would not forget.
4. Pit stops, highly recommended
We are off! Six people on an adventure of a lifetime, hopefully one of many (spoiler it was!)
Traveling over the Pacific presents many challenges beginning with logistically what flights to take! We live in Kansas City, the middle of the country and unfortunately not a hub for any major airline.
If you are a traveler like me I can guarantee you have spent hours upon hours searching for flights online. Ideally we didn’t want to make a connection between KC and wherever our departure point from the US would be.
Honestly looking back I don’t even think we considered “partner airlines” or booking all our travel on one ticket. Oh, I’ve learned so many lessons over the years….and continue to learn them.
We decided to travel Southwest Airlines to LAX and then Qantas for the rest of our trip. Due to flight times this left us with one night in LA and we decided to make the most of it before flying with kids to Australia.
We took a taxi to Marina Del Rey which is super close to LAX and where we had booked a hotel. The area was beautiful and when traveling with kids it was a great break on our first day of travel.
We also gave the kids their first adventure on Venice beach. Yikes! Yes, we have done a long layover in LA since and much prefer Manhattan Beach to Venice, but c’est la vie! I promised we are not perfect travelers and we relish in all the adventures that come our way.
After dodging medical marijuana dispensaries the kids got to dip their feet into the Pacific Ocean for the first time. We talked about how the next day we would be on the other side of the ocean. How cool is that! We also enjoyed checking out the skate boarding park. All in all a great long layover.
5. Adventures in flying with kids to Australia
Now for the big plane…..pictures never do justice to plane sizes. As a terrified flyer (more on that later) every time I see one of these big birds I am amazed they ever get off the ground.
The Boy (our son) is a huge airplane fan and we think was more excited about flying an A380 than the trip! We have learned to embrace his love of all things aerospace and honestly make the airport and plane a part of our journey and not just something to endure, even when flying with kids to Australia.
6. The Ugly side of flying with kids
As promised I am comfortable sharing the good, bad and ugly of our travel adventures. At this point we had already had some ugly, but had not yet learned a valuable lesson…..About 8 hours into the 15 hour flight (yes when everyone should be asleep, especially when flying with kids to Australia) The Girl, our daughter, said she wasn’t feeling well. Before we could do anything she had thrown up….everywhere. Ugh!
Now please learn from our experience. PACK AN EXTRA OUTFIT IN YOUR CARRY ON!!!! I’ll share more packing tips later, but our family of four had planned to carry on the whole trip. My in-laws decided to check and at the last minute we thought, what the heck, we’ll check our bags too.
I like to think that is why I wasn’t a super prepared mom, but in reality I probably wouldn’t have thought about it. Heck I once took The Girl on a trip when she was one month old and packed all diapers in the checked bag…..NONE in my carry on. Mother of the year there! I had to borrow diapers from another mom with a much older baby so my little miss was swimming in size 5 diapers, with a significantly delayed flight. Yada, yada, yada. Travel brings adventures!
The flight attendants were as accommodating as they could be. We were all trying to be super quiet so the rest of the plane could remain sleeping, but unfortunately there were no empty seats on the plane. If that was the case the flight attendants could have swapped out the seat cushion with another one. I’m telling you it was EVERYWHERE!
That being the case they provided trash bags and we covered the seats, stripped her down to her underwear and wrapped up everything that had been “affected” in the incident. Not wanting to leave our daughter in just her undies (she was 5, not 2) for the rest of the trip and not having extra clothes we got creative.
Thankfully my husband was wearing a pullover and had a t-shirt on underneath. The Girl put on the pullover and we rolled the sleeves. It looked like she was wearing a dress, but hey, we were covered. I’m sure we were quite a site strolling through customs with a girl in a man’s sweatshirt and my husband in a white undershirt. Life’s Short, travel well! Ha!
Why did we decide flying with kids to Australia was a good idea??
We’ve learned a few things about international flying since then. Check out this post for my tips on how to thrive when flying overseas!
7. Welcome to Australia!
One thing we underestimated when booking this trip was our kids ability to keep up.
Now we weren’t running marathons, but keep in mind your kid’s leg length when packing. Our kids were well out of stroller age, but on day one of navigating the Sydney metro area, mainly on foot or metro, our 5 year old daughter hit her limit. Excuse me girl, this is day one! We have three weeks to go.
We had the idea to buy an umbrella stroller. You know the ones, you see them at amusement parks or parades. The ones that collapse and only cost about $20. We spent a few hours searching for one and after striking out at a couple of department stores we ran into we were on a hunt…for Target!
Success was found and I can’t tell you how much that $20 saved us the rest of the trip. Our 5 year old began loving the stroller a bit too much, eventually directing us so we could push her highness around Oceania.
We did take the stroller with us throughout Australia and New Zealand, but as we didn’t need it back in the States we left it at our final destination before returning home.
If you are traveling with a child of questionable age, think about this before you go. You may need to make some accommodations that you wouldn’t normally have to make at home. Roll with it! (Literally!)
As this trip was in 2013 (where did the time go!) I can’t give you a play by play on what we did each day. We spent four nights at the Wyndham Vacations Asia Pacific Sydney. Ryan’s grandpa had a Wyndham membership and more points than he could use. We utilized this whenever it worked for our travels and it certainly helped the wallet. (Thanks grandpa!)
8. Speak up or forever hold your peace….and SING! (Opera House)
Since we were traveling as a group we made a rule that if there was something you wanted to do, speak up! This trip was a once in a lifetime experience and we didn’t want anyone to have regrets.
My father-in-law took the first turn on that and spoke up about wanting to do the tour of the Opera House. Now if he hadn’t been with us I probably would have been happy with taking tons of pictures outside the building and calling it a day. Thanks to Jeff for suggesting the tour. It was well worth it and we recommend!
Side note, our daughter (I swear our son was with us too!) was prepping for an event later that summer around the time of this trip. They were encouraging her to think of things that made her unique.
While we were walking through a hall in the opera house S mimicked singing opera. I think we all did honestly. Now we can all say, “I’ve sung IN the Sydney Opera House!” How’s that for something not everyone can say?!? 🙂 Hey, they don’t need to know it was on a guided tour and not a performance.
9. Koalas….and kids. (Taronga Zoo)
While in Sydney we also took the ferry to the Taronga Zoo. This was our one opportunity to see koalas!!! HUGE…THIS WAS HUGE!!
Now I don’t remember why this was such a big deal, but we did have to get a special ticket with a set admission time. I now know that there is another place in Australia (at least there was) where you could hold a koala. That was not the case due to laws in Sydney.
The whole family was very excited for the opportunity to get up close and personal and we rushed to our set appointment……then traveling with a 5 year old problem hit again. S had to go to the bathroom…NOW!
Ugh, seriously?!?!? Do you know how hard it was to arrange this? You are 5, not 3. I made her hold it. Can you tell? Someone was pi$$ed. (Mom win again!)
10. Once in a lifetime…or not. (Sydney Harbour Bridge)
Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb! My father-in-law had a bad knee (the man has suffered more knee surgeries than any person should ever have to endure!) so he stayed with the kids while Ryan, Carolyn and I climbed to the top of the bridge.
Definitely a highlight of the trip and something we still talk about.
Jeff was so disappointed that he missed out that they actually went back to Sydney in early 2020. Now that his knees have been replaced and are in good shape and he finally got to climb “that darn bridge!”
11. Surf’s up! (Bondi Beach)
Bondi Beach. I’m not sure how/why I knew the name Bondi Beach, but it is synonymous with Sydney in my mind. I knew I wanted to hit the spot, just to say we did.
12. Taking time for your kid’s interest. (Sydney Monorail)
Sydney monorail. Our son, C, loves anything transportation related. We made a point to ride the Sydney monorail before it was set to close later that year. C continues to be in charge of all our metro navigations on every trip.
As close as Jeff got to the bridge in 2013. He has conquered it since!
