How to Travel with Teenagers in Peace and Tranquility

Travel with teenagers is challenging, but with a little bit of compromise and a lot of love, the whole family will experience the time of their life. There is a way to find peace and tranquility traveling with teenagers, and I have a few tips to accomplish this coming your way.

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Here you go, practical tips to help you travel with teenagers in peace and tranquility.

You will need to arm yourself with the proper tools to accomplish this task.

Patience, flexibility, and balance are your best friends when traveling with teenagers.

Teenagers are bored, tired, and cranky. They can wreck a vacation with their eye-rolling, lip-curling, brooding attitude. Best to prepare for them.

I have a few tips when traveling with teenagers to help them turn that family vacation frown upside down.

I had to say it!

Kids! I still call them kids because they are, no matter what they say. They are smart, curious, uber alert, aware, fearless, and adventurous. They need to be in control, and they perpetually compete with their sibling (and sometimes their momma). Use these qualities to your advantage when planning and executing your travel plans.

1) Let Them Drive.

No, I don’t mean drive the car, boat, or even the golf cart. I mean, let them have some control over where you decide to go on your vacation. AND what is on your daily itinerary. Teenagers love to have a sense of control over things, as you know. Give it to them. Ask for their input.

It is ok if they want to go to the movies or bowling. Balance that out with something you want to include on your itinerary.

Make the trip around something that you all can enjoy.

Kathy from Our USA Adventures

My kids are 12 and 14 years old. I interviewed them for this post. My question was, “what do you love to do when we go on vacation?” Here are their answers. And this is what we will do.

Of course, I will add my five, too. It is all a compromise on both sides.

Gotta love a 14-year-old girl.

Deze from By Deze had this idea for the kids when planning a vacation. She suggested assigning each of them a day (or half-day) to research and plan what you will all do and eat. This assignment will help get everyone engaged and ready to form some cool memories.

2) Let Them Pack.

This task is a big one for us, including my husband. Train them to pack for themselves. Give them a list and the responsibility to do it themselves. My kids are excellent packers, and my husband is getting there.

3) Sleep is a key ingredient for peaceful travel with teenagers.

There is nothing worse than a sleepy, grizzly teenager. Well, maybe a hangry one! Let them sleep in. Try not to schedule activities super early in the morning. That is unless it is impossible to avoid.

We travel to Puerto Rico frequently as my in-laws live in San Juan. On our last visit, we planned a trip down the Tanamá River. Cave tubing had been on my bucket list for years. We had to be on-site by 8:00 AM, and the drive was a little over an hour. Ugh! I had to get them out of bed so early. But, what a fantastic adventure we had that day. It has been one of our favorite memories in Puerto Rico, and there are many.

To experience something beautiful, you sometimes have to sacrifice teenage sleep, and set that alarm.

4) Let Them Communicate with Friends.

Teenagers are social creatures. They love to spend time with friends way more than family at this point in their lives. It is sad but true. Let them be in contact with their friends. Let them have social media, send snaps, make TikToks, post Instagram stories, and facetime their friends. Of course, maintain boundaries, but let them play.

5) Let Them Eat.

We have a family full of food allergies; nuts, shellfish, apples, pears, cherries. For this reason, when they want to eat, I let them eat. If they want ice cream, they can have ice cream. And if they wish to eat popcorn at the movie theatre, they get it. My kids are both very cautious and careful with food, especially while traveling. I release the boundaries some to make up for these fears.

Make sure they have snacks with them, in case meals are running late. Remember that hangry teen you want to avoid at all costs?

6) Mix It Up.

Give them a wide variety of choices. Spend a day hiking, and the next day hang out at the resort and swim, play ping pong, and arcade games. Schedule one day with a few activities and don’t schedule anything the next day.

7) Another key ingredient in peaceful travel with teenagers is to let them chill.

Give them plenty of free time and let them relax.

I cannot relax, I want to see stuff, so I have learned to do things by myself. If this is you, get up earlier than they do and sneak off for a long walk on the beach, or a mimosa by the pool. Grab an uber downtown to check out the coffee shops, and people watch. They can meet up later. If there is an attraction no one else wants to see, make your way there early, before they wake up.

8) And Give Them Space and Privacy.

If finances permit, get the teens a separate room. Or book a suite, so there is space between the living room and bedroom. Give them the space they need, plus some privacy.

9) Be Flexible.

Go with it or let it go.

I am not sure which phrase is better. Let’s face it. Things are never going to go entirely as planned. Let it go. Don’t fret because you miss something. Plan a “soft” itinerary and hope for the best.

10) Traveling with a cranky teenager is painful so don’t overbook your family vacation.

Overbooking your itinerary will only cause you anxiety because it won’t ever work with teens. They can only take so much, and then they fall into themselves, hoodie over their heads, and get lost in their devices. Don’t let it get to this point. Plan gently, with time to breath and relax. If you go from here to there to here, it will only be painful for all involved.

11) Back Off On The House Rules, You Are on Vacation.

I have already touched on this with a few of the above recommendations. Let them have treats, let them have communication with friends, and let them sleep in.

12) Do Something Active Every Day While Traveling with Your Teenager.

• Take a walk on the beach.
• Swim in the pool.
• Go on a hike.
• Go Horseback riding.
• Find an adventure park and go ziplining, tubing, kayaking, or ATV riding.

13) Teach Them How to Read an Old Fashioned Map.

A lost language because of GPS. Sometimes the GPS doesn’t work, and you need the skill of reading a map. Plus, looking at a place on a map helps orient you to your surroundings, how close you are to the ocean, or how far you are from the mountains.

14) Always Have a Change of Clothes.

Experience with motion sickness has taught us that we need to prepare with a change of clothes. Most of the time, we don’t need it. But, it is sure nice to have when something unfortunate happens.

15) Bring a Jacket.

Even when traveling to the Caribbean, we bring a jacket, impermeable in case of rain. However, the kids have their hoodies. Teens love hiding in a hoodie.

16) Equip Them All With Headphones.

Everyone is listening to something different. Do the family a favor and make sure they all have their headphones. Preferably noise-canceling headphones (AKA family canceling headphones, per my teen).

17) Take Pictures While Traveling with Your Teenager.

Yes, they will hate this and will beg you to stop. But, will thank you later in life when they look through old pictures and reminisce of the best travel days of their lives.

18) Keep It Simple.

Don’t complicate any of it. That is stressful. Keep an open mind and a soft schedule. And don’t complicate your day.

19) Be Safe.

• Keep in constant communication when they are not with you.
• Remind them to hydrate and wear sunscreen.
• Remind them how to be safe on the streets (keep backpack zipped, don’t flash your cash, and be alert at all times).
• Use hand sanitizer.

20) Show Them Your Love of Travel.

Be excited. Show your teens why you love to experience different cultures. Share your experiences with family travel when you were their age. Share what you loved the most.

Here are my favorite travel with teenager tips from friends and fellow bloggers.

Thank you all for taking the time to share your thoughts.

Sasha from Everyday She’s Sparkling ~ On our last big family trip, with four kids and two adults, I started a checklist for each person using a dry erase marker on our stainless steel fridge. As everyone packed (and I remembered new things to add), we added and checked off items on the list. This exercise was great because having different ages meant different needs. I was so less panicked knowing what we needed, and that it all got packed.

Kailey from Beauty Brains Blush ~ Check the weather a couple of days before you go, and plan to clothe accordingly. For family trips, see if you can share some items for the vacation period – my mom and I would share shampoo and conditioner, for example. We would only bring one between the two of us to save room in the luggage. Have a backpack of activities for kids when driving long distances. Coloring books, puzzle books, crayons/pencils, mini-games they can play with each other.

Deze from By Deze ~ In terms of packing, I recommend everyone put out a bag/suitcase a week before the trip and start tossing things they want to bring throughout the week (outfits they like, things they remember, etc.). That way, you can avoid the day before stress, which I hate, and there’s a higher likelihood of remembering everything you need.

If you have smaller kids, a multi-bag stacker would be useful for toting their stuff while still keeping one hand free for multitasking. Deze has the best post full of useful travel tools. Read it HERE. Thank you, Deze. I want all of them.

Trina from Redneck Rhapsody ~ Make sure you all have back up copies of all vital information. Place the information into their backpack, your purse, plus take a picture and store it in notes. While traveling outside the US, you never want to be without a passport back up. Ziploc bags in three sizes are great for ALL kinds of things.

Bonus tip from Trina ~ Make sure you place a layer of Saran Wrap on top of every liquid and twist the top back on; solves all kinds of leak issues.

Rachael from Tea With Mum had the following tips. Thank you, Rachael.

For packing: Ziploc bags corral so many things – hair ties, pencils, card games, anything that may leak, vitamins, jewelry, coins and travel cards for multiple destinations (we have them sitting in a drawer, sorted by location or currency, so we grab and go). Ziploc bags can be used for travel sickness and rubbish bags, too.

For planning: Get your kids involved in deciding what to do. Older kids can read a couple of websites and tell you the top three things they would like to see. With the younger kids, give them a list of options, go through the list with them, and let them pick. And even younger kids, you can work out an itinerary, but let them choose the order, or which museum you visit.

For documenting: Purchase a travel journal. The younger ones will need more prompts, but a blank journal allows for creativity. Alternatively, get them to write postcards home to themselves. If you can, let your kids take photos! You might be surprised at some of the shots they get, and you will have a different perspective. They will engage more with what they are seeing.

Kathy from Our USA Adventures ~ When I was traveling with my teenagers, I always made sure that at least part of the trip involved something that they wanted to do and see. Also, a good tip is to look into family travel group trips, so they will have the opportunity to make friends, and socialize with people their same age when on the trip, but also spend quality family time together. For example, a family white water rafting trip. We did this, and my kids, which are much older now, still talk about it at least several times a year.

If you love these tips for traveling with teens, please share with your family and friends.

AND if you have any tips to add, drop me a line in the comments below!

I am off to plan our next getaway, as usual.