Lonely Planet Travel With Children (Lonely Planet Travel With Children)

Cathy Lanigan

1 written in a lunch hour!
I'm afraid thats the impression I got, and I felt a bit duped, especially as it seemed an exciting concept. Someone (a journalist?) had some ideas, had some spare time, knew a few people who had been abroad with their children, and did some cutting and pasting!

Much of the content is obvious, like bring some nappies when travelling with a baby (really!),the travel stories are strangely pedestrian ... even in the most exotic locations the stories and the people barely come to life it is so passionless, and single parents are given just a couple of pages.

On the one hand it is not particularly insightful or inspirational, and on the other hand it doesn't really take account of real problems that may arise e.g. a young toddler's illness abroad (my recent experience).

Some of the obvious things it says are, I have to say, truly breathtaking.

but its not so bad, if you can read through all the "filler" you might find a few interesting bits, you could borrow it from the library, but please don't shell out good money for such an unserious book.

one final constant annoyance is the author's constant referral to children (and babies presumably) as "kids". Why journalists do this I don't know. I think something dismissive about the term, and it says alot about the level at which the book is pitched.

2 Disappointing
Having used travel guides by the publisher in the past, I had high expectations. Unfortunately, the sections regarding travel advice and tips only encompassed pp. 1-63 and most of the tips were most basic common-sense advice. More egregiously, I would caution against the new age health tips on pp. 55-57 for children (without identifying the appropriate ages) and which seem dangerous in any event. It was this section which prompted me to toss down the book. The remainder, pp. 65-262, consists of extremely general "to do"s in various parts of the world, For example, some countries/regions were covered and others not, with little rhyme or reason. The information provided was too general to be useful and too much of a rush to cover different regions to really provide any comprehensive suggestions or guidance. Having bought the book on the strengh of the Lonely Planet reputation, I was very disappointed.

3 One of the Best
I really appreciated this title, as one of the best on travelling with younger children. Advice, first-hand narratives, child gear availability(highchairs, carseats) and breastfeeding acceptability info is given on many countries as broken down by region, both typical - European countries - to non-typical, such as Nepal. Much of the advice is provided by experts in that region (i.e. a family who lived in the mideast provides Mideast information).

While it's probably not the best for parents of older children (try Cynthia Harriman's Take your Kids to Europe), it's incredibly inspirational to those with children 4 and under, even those with multiple children 4 and under (one contributor has such a situation!). It's also *much* better than the previous edition by the same title, which you may still find floating around in used bookstores.

I only wish they had done some sort of "best of" list - i.e. best countries for parents of toddlers, best for parents of babies, best for older-younger kids, etc.

4 An inspiration
As a mother of two, I found this book both inspiring and encouraging. There's loads of information on countries I've always thought of visitng but thought it would be too hard with kids and tonnes of reader's tips and stories that really give you the feeling it can be done. There's a great story about a French family who threw it all in to travel around the world and give their kids a real education through travel. Inspiring stuff for Mums!

5 I'm quite fond of this book...
(...)

I'm quite fond of this book; in particular, I have found myself with an "Ah Hah!" level reaction on most pages, as a tip or bit of travel advice finds a home. If you are traveling with kids, this book will help.

The book is divided roughly into two sections:

The first is general travel advice for parents with kids, broken down into chapters like "planning" (sub-headings include "Costs and "What to do about School"), "On the Road" ("Toilets", "Laundry" and "Single-Parent Families") and "Health" ("If Your Child Falls Ill" and "After You Get Back").

The second half of the book is destination-specific advice for traveling with your kids, ranging from the popular (London, Paris, Rome) to the obscure (Bhutan, Bangladesh and Kashmir).

Let's tackle the first half, general advice, first.

The travel advice here is general in the sense it applies to anywhere in the world you'd like to take your children. Most tips are sorted out as applying to babies ("portable and easy to entertain [but] require a lot of equipment"), toddlers, older children and teenagers ("how many 'temple days' in exchange for how many beach days").

The regular, important things are covered, such as passports and visas. You also get some been-there, parented-there, done-that advice, such as a suggestion to bring along baby's pillow case or cotton sheet, for comfort in a strange bed. There is also some very nice cultural advice, such as thoughts on how to react to your children's discovery that not everyone speaks English, or that their fourth grade English is better than the Brazilian (adult) bus driver's.

Advice is offered on strolling the neighborhood near where you stay, locating the post office and the dry cleaners, to make a new place seem more like somewhere you now know. Parents are advised to watch their own interactions ("Damn buses in this dump are always late!"), so as not to leave the wrong impression on the kids. Why spend the time and money to travel if you only end up wishing you were home? Our kids watch us closely for clues on how to think and act, even more so in an unfamiliar place, and we can negate the benefits of travel with a misplaced remark, perhaps unaware that despite the treasures of Rome around your family, the kids still see you as the most influential statue within view.

Of particular value are other parents' comments, short one liners scattered throughout the text. Also enjoyable are longer, page-length essays, by parents called "travelers' tales." These document travel successes and failures by other Moms and Dads, in hope that you'll learn from both.

Finally, you get a section on health that covers the Big Three kids' health issues on the go: earaches on the plane, diarrhea everywhere else and cleanliness and safety to fight off Number 2. Most of the advice here will not surprise parents who have successfully raised one child and are now traveling with two or more, but first-time parents will want to slow down and read carefully. There's a short section on "alternative health", stuff like lavender oil for bug bites that you will either find fascinating or weird depending on your mental latitudes.

Turning to the second half of the book, you'll find one or two page parental postcards for a gazillion cities and countries worldwide (think you don't know some of the cities when CNN does the international weather? Try this book.). For most locations you get a thumbnail description of why you'd want to go there, a section on "wild things" that is mostly about zoos, a couple of suggestions under the header "interesting and educational", crucial info on the prevailing attitudes there toward children in general, and a hint at the local view of nursing in public. Many sections also include a couple of age-specific books or movies to look over before traveling to get the kids ready.

For example, for Brussels, you learn of cool iguanodon skeletons on display at the Science Museum, plus a museum full of surrealist paintings school age kids would find, well, perhaps surreal. You're also directed to the famous statue of the little boy going pee-pee in the same sentence that a noted comic and cartoon museum is mentioned.

For Cairo you learn about a huge water park to visit, while for Tunisia it is a camel safari into the desert to see where some of the movie "Stars Wars" was filmed.

It is not a criticism to state that a page or two in this book about an entire city (or country) is not enough-the purpose here is to flag interesting things to do with your kids that might be mentioned in other, "proper" guidebooks, but which you might not immediately connect to. In other words, the book assumes you'll find your way to the Pyramids while in Egypt, but might miss the excellent water park that will offer the children a chance to break the heat and you perhaps to exchange nervous smiles with local parents as your sons go off the highest diving board together screaming "Watch me Mom!" in various languages. That's the real point of family travel, creating those memories and allowing you all to see a new place in a familiar way.

I recommend this book for anyone traveling abroad with their kids. (...) let this book help and inspire you and your children to wring all that's to be wrung out of a trip abroad. There's magic out there if you know how to grab it.

(...)

6 DISAPPOINTING CHAFF
I had high hopes. But this book does not deliver. First, it's a kind-of guide for parents traveling with VERY young children. Second, it offers only the most basic common-sense advice: "Don't drink the tap water in India" kind of thing. There is a book to be written on this subject but this is not it.