Travel app for kids – what are your experiences travelling with kids?

[sarah_kp]

Travelling with kids – what are your experiences?

I’m working on an app with the purpose of creating better travel experiences for kids (and ultimately the entire family). If you’ve been travelling with kids (age 7-12 years), I would love to hear about your experiences.

As much as cultural travel experiences and city breaks can be eye-opening, exciting and enriching experiences for the young ones in the family, just as overwhelming they can be. There are many new impressions and situations to take in and the kids find themselves outside of their comfort zones. Not only can this cause sad faces and a few tears while away but also unnecessary friction, resistance, and setbacks.

As grownups we know how to cope with new surroundings. We research, navigate cultural differences and languages, and have a toolbox of strategies and knowledge that we can apply to unfamiliar scenarios. However, for a child, none of this is necessarily an available option. With fewer reference points and less life experience, everything is new.

I’m a firm believer that these negative experiences can be mitigated to some extent by preparing and engaging the kids to make them more familiar and comfortable with the destination ahead of the holiday. But let’s be realistic, with busy schedules finding time as a family to coordinate, talk and plan doesn’t always happen…

So what if we instead hand the steering wheel to the kids to involve them and allow them to explore the destination in an interactive app on their own to make them feel more safe, confident and curious about the place they are going?

I’m in the early stages of the project and would love to get a better understanding of what your experiences are taking your kids on cultural holidays and/or city breaks.

The survey consists of two open-ended questions – feel free to share as much or as little as you wish. Your help and time is tremendously appreciated.

Go to the survey.

Please let me know if this is not appropriate for the forum and I’ll remove the post.

[can]

I was willing to participate, clicked the link but the questions were too broad and open ended.
Look at the first question:
“- How do you as a family prepare for a holiday?
– Do you involve/engage your kids in the travel planning process? (E.g. where to go, what to do/see?)
– And in which way? (E.g. do they read guidebooks/books or watch programs/videos about the destination, do you talk to them, do you put them in charge of anything?)
– Based on previous holiday experiences, have you modified the tactics in if/how you prepare/engage/involve the kids prior to going away?”

I mean it’d take me ages to answer that in a meaningful way.

So at the end, sorry, cannot be bothered.

[Mirp]

can I agree — I clicked saw the questions and closed the form. Not well designed.

[JDB]

Also, I think the whole concept is wrong as it starts from the negative premise that children will be / are likely to be uncomfortable about travelling.

[The Savage Squirrel]

“So what if we instead hand the steering wheel to the kids to involve them and allow them to explore the destination in an interactive app on their own to make them feel more safe, confident and curious about the place they are going?”

My kids sometimes ask to explore places we’re going to visit in future on Google Streetview, and look at where they’ll be staying on hotel websites etc.

First question for any app – what do you offer beyond what everyone already has easy access to and is already familiar with? Especially as you, by definition, would be incredibly generalist if you are dealing with travel in general and are not location-specific?