If you have 3+ kids (or are one of 3+ yourself)

[mpc]

How does having 3 or more kids affect traveling and vacations?

Obviously you would probably need a bigger car to drive somewhere and/or have to pay for more plane tickets. But what about hotel rooms? Is it hard to get places to stay that are big enough for everyone? What about a vacation like a cruise? You can't really just squeeze a 3rd kid into your cabin. And you're probably not putting your young kids in a cabin by themselves, so does that just mean mom stays in one room with some kids and dad stays in the other room with the rest?

I know I only have 1 kid right now, but I've been thinking a lot lately about family size. Help me picture what vacationing with a large family would look like.

[Deleted]

My three are too young to have traveled yet but i envision that as they get older the Girls will share a bed and we will get a cot for J. Or we will stay someplace with joining rooms, or a living room with pullout sofa type place.

Growing up we went to Disney every other year or so but always rented a house. We did for a lot of vacations actually so that we could all spread out.

We are planning to rent a house on cape cod next year and rent a house when we do disney next year also.

[WillabyWallabyWu]

I'm the middle child of three. We always slept in one room on vacation. My sister and I shared a bed, my parents shared a bed, and my brother got a roll away or an air mattress on the floor. We never went on a cruise, so I can't speak to how to handle that.

I do know I always felt bad for my brother because he usually ended up riding by himself on roller coaster seats. My sister and I usually rode with a parent, and since he was the oldest he rode by himself. Because of that I've always said that I would have an even number of kids. We'll see if that holds true, though.

[soozy87]

I grew up with 4 brothers, with a 10 year spread between the oldest and the youngest. We went on lots of vacations. We did a lot of camping (tent) but stayed in hotels as well occasionally. When in a hotel we would normally get only one room and the kids would sleep on the floor on an air mattress or a couch. When we did get 2 hotel rooms we asked for ajoining rooms and just split up that way - 4 beds for 7 people = 2 people per bed and the only daughter (me) gets her own bed.

We never went on a family cruise so I can't answer that one.

We had a van that would seat 7 and we drove to all of our destinations except for one. Our one family plane trip was one of our bigger vacations and when we were all older, so yeah, more expensive. Those family vacation drives when we were all crammed into a minivan with all of our camping stuff and everything were awesome and full of so many great memories for my brothers and I!

[Willis Jackson]

I'm the youngest of 4.

I seem to remember my parents + the 2 younger kids in one hotel room and the 2 older kids in another room. There's an eleven year spread so by the time I would have memories, my oldest brother was in his late teens. I'm not sure what they did when I was a baby and he was younger, but I think one parent in each room is a good idea.

We never went on a cruise.

[Deleted]

We had 4 kids in my family. We never went anywhere other than to visit family. Back then, all of us could travel in the Caprice (car seats were not a thing in the early 80's). I'm guessing an RV would start looking like a good idea around kid #4 or 5.

Two kids really is what the world is set up for.

[dragonfly08]

DH is one of three. Other than frequent trips to Greece, where my ILs were born and where they stayed with family on the farm where MIL was born and pretty much slept wherever there was room, his family didn't travel much.

My sister has three. When the youngest was an infant/toddler, they were able to do a room with two beds and a PNP or the like. Now that he's too old for that and counts toward occupancy rates, it's either a room for 5 (which is hard to come by in most hotels) or, more often, connecting rooms/a family suite. They're Disney Vacation Club members and purposely bought enough points to book two bedroom villas for just this reason. They can get by with a one bedroom with a kid or two on a pull out couch but it's really tight (which is made more difficult by the fact that their oldest is now a teenage girl who wants/needs a bit more privacy from her brothers!).

[Velar Fricative]

Four kids in my family - we almost never went on vacation and when we did travel, it was to visit family overseas (and we rarely all went together). We did not have a lot of money though so that was probably the biggest factor as opposed to number of kids.

DH has five kids in his family and they went on lots of vacations together, including many times to DW. They would drive down in their bigass van (that they still own) from NY. They pretty much always drove to any vacation destination. And I think they would often book two hotel rooms.

[linz]

I'm youngest of 3 kids. We had a van growing up and always drove to family vacations. For hotels we only got 1 room with 2 beds. It was either me and my brothers sharing a bed or my brothers share with my dad and I share with mom. If my brothers and I shared a bed we usually slept the opposite direction (lay with our head on a side rather then top of bed).

We did do a cruise once and yes they had 2 rooms. Girls in one and boys in the other. But we also had an aunt and uncle that went with.

[sh10]

I was the oldest of three. Up until I was about 12, we would cram all three of us girls into one bed, my parents in the other. We tried to get one rollaway bed as we got older. We did a few cruises with all five of us in one room, one with two a joining rooms, and another where I stayed in the room with our family friend who was traveling alone (I was 18 and about to graduate HS). It was fine, a little crammed at times, but we made do. When we were little, it was fun for all of us to sleep in one bed.

[Marmee]

I have 4 kids... We rarely stay in a regular room though we can squeeze 3 to a bed having the baby with us or getting a crib or p-n-p from the hotel. We go on at least 2-3 vacations a year, fly if it's more than a day drive & have an SUV. We plan on buying another even bigger SUV like a Navigator or Yukon that will sit 8 instead of 7 like we have. Most hotels have suites (some just a pull out couch in the other room), even mid-range chains or the have adjacent rooms with doors between 2 typical rooms. I won't lie, we pay more because we buy suites most everywhere. We usually rent houses or condos or cabins in we'll be somewhere more than a few days. We also are thinking if buying a camper (pop up because it sleeps more than 4 yet isn't huge to maneuver & store). It's not really a huge deal however it is costlier, no doubt. We paid $3K just to fly to NC for example.

I grew up with 5 kids in a 12 yr spread. We didn't travel a ton with all 7 of us. We had a vacation home & spent time there or camping. I only flew 1 trip prior to college. Granted I'm almost 40 & from a small town, I was more well traveled than most people because is flown at all & traversed the country many times in a car. We had a van (VW bus for most if my childhood) & camped. We also had a pop up camper that slept 7. My parents had a way tighter budget than we do...a lot tighter but I saw almost all the country and then most of Europe in college. It was great.

[ilikedonuts]

We rented condos or got suites if there wasn't a condo to rent. I am one of 5, but 2 rarely came on vacation with us because they were a decent amount older.

[ringstrue]

Simple. You cram 3 kids in the back of a station wagon. Then you stay at Super 8s and make the kids sleep 3 across. Or you get the crappy cot the hotel provides and screw up someone's back for the whole next day. This way you can traumatize 3 people to never wanna do roadtrips ever again in their lives.


That's the only way I know how, lol

[ilikedonuts]

I want to add this is a big reason why we could be done with 2 (and a big reason DH wants to be done with our 2). Costs for everything go up for a family of 5.

[cinco]

Dd2 is still in a PNP on vacations and I don't include her when booking rooms. We don't exactly hide it either though. No one at the front desk of a hotel has mentioned it. For Disney we have 2 rooms, but my parents are going too. Most of our vacations are visiting family/friends.

[Deleted]

Well my parents only ever vacationed in one of three places but that didn't have much to do with their number of kids, they just liked those places. My youngest sister is 15 years younger than my older sister so there were few vacations with all four of us. We drove mostly but shared a room or rented a house.

[Jem]

I'm one of four and all vacations were road trips - in our enormous conversion van. Vacations were always on the East Coast, usually camping-type things or random places. When we were all younger (there is a 7 year spread between oldest and youngest) we had to walk into hotels separately, one parent with 2 kids and the other parent with 2 kids, so we could sneak into the room since there were too many of us. Once we got older we would occasionally get adjoining rooms. Now that I'm thinking about it more, vacations were often staying at a hotel and swimming in the pool. I love my brothers and I had a great childhood, but I knew I would not want to have that many kids - too hard and too expensive!

[pinkdutchtulips]

I'm the oldest of FOUR ! we did a big WDW Resort trip when I waqs 11 going on 12. we drove 2 1/2 days from Phila to Orlando making camping stops in NC, GA and FL. We actually camped at the resort too bc given our family size, we'd need TWO rooms ! the cost of the trip would have doubled/tripled if we had flown/hoteled it there. we stayed on the resort and didn't miss anything.

most vacations as a family consisted of driving and camping. sure we went to Boston but we also drove the 6 hrs up there from Phil and camped about 45-60 mins due west of Boston (Miles Standish State Park I think ?!?).

[whitepicketfence]

My 3 are still young at this point and we've only travelled with 2 kids so far. We do plan on going to WDW next fall with all 3 but DD3 will still be young enough to sleep in a PNP and won't yet count toward occupancy rates. All this to say, I have no advice yet to offer, lol. We plan to do a lot of camping trips with the kids when they're older and we'd also like to eventually buy a vacation home if we're able to.

[julygal]

I have 3 kids and it can be a little more difficult at times finding reasonably priced hotels that allow 5 to a room. We have gotten manager over-rides, but one put a note in our file that we agreed to pay the fine if the fire marshall visited and found 5 in the room. I think at times we end up paying more, as we try to stay in suites or at least hotels that have 2 queen beds instead of doubles, and I'm willing to pay a little more for that comfort especially on a longer trip.

We haven't taken a cruise, but most cruise lines have rooms that can accommodate 5 when I've researched a few times. You pay more, because cruises tend to quote you a rate per person.

[jena]

I have 4 kids now, but have mostly only traveled with 3 (because SS is in college now and before that DD wasn't born, they are 18 years apart)

We haven't flown with more than 2 kids. We drove to WDW 2 summers ago with 17yo, 5yo, 2.5yo. My MIL met us there and we all 6 stayed ft. wilderness cabins. But finding hotels that allow an occupancy over 4 can be really hard, or really expensive.

Last summer we did take all 4 kids to Gulf Shores. We rented a condo on the beach thru VRBO which was not any more than a hotel room and had 2 bedrooms. We had a king bed for us and the baby. The other bedroom had a full bed for the 2 little kids and a twin for the teen. There was also a pullout couch that we didn't even need.

The only cruise we took as a family we only had 2 kids and even then the teen bunked with grandma. My MIL is a good travel partner!

[lys]

I was one of 4 - we did not have/take/go on vacations when I was growing up. This was before the rigid car seat regulations -managed to squeeze people in (small kid sitting on older child's lap) when we needed to all go somewhere together (rare event).
We were a one car family.

[timorousbeastie]

I'm one of five. Growing up, vacations consisted solely of trips to stay with the grandparents 2 hours away. As for driving, there were 3 options: take the van, take two cars, or throw me and my brother in the hatchback trunk (it was the 80s). Not exactly something I'd recommend now!

[quickstepstar]

We haven't traveled much yet, but when we do, we plan to get suites, or have the 3 girls sleep in a bed, when DD3 starts sleeping in a regular bed and has no interest in hitting her sisters in their sleep...

Our "big" car is a Honda CRV, but we do plan do get a minivan shortly, as 2 boosters+narrow convertible don't really fit into a CRV. Next year we will likely do a driving vacation, however 2 years from now we plan to go to Europe to visit family, and I shudder at the cost of 5 plane tickets! (7.5K....)

[spanikopita]

Yes, we drove everywhere. We never, ever flew as a family. And if we ate out, it was DQ or Taco Bell.

[IrishBelle]

I'm one of 4 and we rarely went on vacation when we were kids

A friend has 4 kids and they are going on a cruise this winter. Royal Caribbean offers family suites with 2 bedrooms but you have to ask for them. The travel agent they used didn't even know about them until the rep from Royal Caribbean mentioned it.

[mrsGreeko]

I have three and am one of three.

Growing up we traveled by car and camped along the way. Cheap and not too many people for the tent!

Now we mostly fly. We use miles almost exclusively to fly. We almost alway have enough miles for one big plane trip for five tickets a year. We do rent a minivan which coats more than a sedan, but not paying for air tickets makes that easier.

We don't usually stay in hotels. We usually rent on vrbo.com and get a condo or house instead. If we do have to stay in a hotel we use points and stay in suites, but the kids are still small enough that all three can sleep in a single queen bed comfortably so in a pinch we do that.

We don't go on cruises so I can't answer that. I don't really have that desire so it's not an issue.

Since having three kids we've had a big vacation every year (third kid is only 2.5). First year with three was a road trip to southern CO. Stayed in a condo. Second year was to San Antonio and Galveston, rented a house in Galveston and hotel in San Antonio, but youngest was still in a crib. This year we went to the outer banks, NC. We rented a 8 bedroom house with family.

We've also went as a family to Phoenix recently and that was first time we've paid for tickets in many years. We stayed in a suite using points. We are going to San Diego next month (paid for about half the airfare) and are staying in a regular hotel and suckin it up since we are using points to stay for free.

You make it work if it is important to you. Travel is very important to me so I figure it out. . We travel more than most of my friends with less kids.

[mrslisa]

Right now we usually drive since it is easier with four carseats. We often go with family and rent a large house. If we get a hotel we either put the kids in one bed and the baby in a PNP or get a two bedroom suite. We are flying to Florida from Arizona in October to go to Disney World and we are staying at a hotel with two rooms and a living room/kitchen. The kids have been really good about traveling and I figure it will only get easier as they get older.

[dcn]

There are four kids in my family, and when we were little we all squeezed into one hotel room, with one or two cots. When the older two were old enough they had their own room and my parents bunked with the younger two,

We didnt travel a ton bc we didnt have a ton of extra money, but we made it work,

[delawarejen]

I'm the oldest of 5. We didn't vacation at all (okay, once we went camping). We owned a motor home though and we used that for family trips to visit relatives out of state.