What Is the Best Age for Family Travel? My Honest Ratings

As a mom of three — twins plus our son Enzo — I've now traveled with kids at basically every age, from tiny newborns to full-blown independent little travelers. And I have opinions. So I did what any millennial mom would do: I turned it into a rating system and asked the internet to fight me on it.

Here's my honest, experience-earned breakdown of how fun family travel actually is at each age. Spoiler: there's one brutal stretch in the middle, and it's not the one people warn you about.

I'm going to say the thing nobody believes until they live it: our babies were among the easiest travel companions in our experience. They sleep on the plane. They sleep on the beach — I have the Cabo photos to prove it. They don't have opinions about restaurants, they don't need entertaining, and they fit in a carrier while you stride across Westminster Bridge feeling like that put-together mom in the movies.

The baby is awake now — alert, curious, starting to crawl and explore everything within reach. Travel is still very doable, but you're entering the era of logistics: naps need planning, sleep routines get wobbly in new places, and you'll develop strong opinions about hotel cribs. Solid, just no longer effortless.

And here it is. The hardest travel stage for our family. Things take a dramatic turn for the worst at this age 😂 — they are sooo hard to handle on planes because they've just started walking and they want to PRACTICE. Every aisle is a runway. Every tray table is a drum. Our twins at this age turned a simple boat ride into a maritime incident.

If you must travel in this window (we did — twice, because apparently we like chaos), lower your expectations to the floor and then dig a little deeper. It ends. I promise it ends.

Something shifts. They're still toddlers, but they're sturdier, more predictable, and starting to actually enjoy things. We did an international trip with the twins and Enzo in this window and I went in nervous and came home confident. The clouds part. You can see the horizon again.

This is when it gets fun. They're forming real interests — a favorite animal, a beloved train, strong feelings about which playground is superior. Travel stops being something you survive and starts being something you share. They'll still melt down because the banana broke, but they'll also gasp at their first castle, and that gasp will live in your heart forever.

Language is exploding, they're trying new foods (sometimes!), and they ask the kind of questions that make you see familiar places with new eyes. This is prime "they'll actually remember some of this" territory. Soak it in.

Longer attention spans. Real stamina. They can walk through a museum without being carried, ride the London Eye pressed to the glass, and — the true milestone — handle more of the journey themselves. Family travel at this age isn't just manageable, it's genuinely one of the great joys of parenthood. All those brutal 12–18-month flights? They were tuition. This is the degree.

The Takeaway

If you're in the trenches of toddler travel right now, hear me: it gets better, and then it gets great. Don't skip the trips — just pack your patience for the 12–18-month stretch and know that every chaotic flight is building toward the era where your kids become your favorite travel companions.

Agree? Violently disagree? Come tell me your ratings on Instagram @santucci.family — I love a good debate. ✈️