5 Tips for Safe Family Travel

All travelers need to think about safety—that’s just common sense. When you’re traveling with children, however, it’s particularly important for you to plan ahead. I certainly don’t want to make you uneasy about taking your kids on vacation—just the opposite.

If you have safety plans in place you’ll be able to relax and enjoy your vacation. So here are 5 tips for basic safety I believe everyone should have in place.

1.   Have a designated meeting place outside your hotel. If you’re separated for any reason—you might be in the restaurant having dinner while the kids are in your room—and there’s a fire drill or some other emergency that causes guests to be evacuated, having a spot to meet that’s close enough for the children to get to safely will avoid a great deal of potential confusion and unnecessary panic.

2.   Be sure each one of the children has a cell phone (even if they don’t have one at home) and make sure that it’s charged at all times.

3.   Program the phone number of the hotel (or the home number of the people you’re staying with) as well as your own cell phone number into each of their phones—and program their numbers into yours—so that you know you’ll be able to reach one another at all times.

4.   Be sure each child some kind of personal identification card that includes your local address and that they carry it with them at all times.

5.   Be sure each child always has enough local currency in his or her pocket to take a taxi back to your hotel. Even if they’re going to be with you, you never know when you might be accidentally separated.