Today, we’re gonna talk about international travel with kids and strategies to calm fears about safety.
Watch the YouTube video here >>> https://youtu.be/NUCSDQqW4qM
We recently went on an international trip with all three of our girls. We were outnumbered. We really value travel: experiencing different cultures and seeing how big the world is compared to just the space and culture that we live in. We have it in our budget so we contribute a little each month to our fund so we are able.
We started to notice that even though we had saved up $, we were apprehensive to be outnumbered in a different country but we sucked it up and went for it. Many people said we were brave and weren’t willing to try it. We are so glad we did.
We thought we’d share some of the different things we learned while traveling overseas with children. We wouldn’t say we are experts on this. We’re just sharing what we think we’ve learned so far, so we would love to hear tips and tricks that you can share for when we venture out again.
So today’s topic, keeping things safe while traveling.
I remember watching a movie about people on vacation and there was a tsunami that separated them. It got me thinking that if I couldn’t talk and my ID wasn’t near me, how would people know who I am? I bought this durable personalized bracelet from makemethis.com and I wear it always, even when I’m not traveling. I had one when I was a kid and this is close to the same kind. I got one for each of my kids too. I’m often asked if they are medical ID bracelets and when I say, “No, they are to prevent Jane Doedom,” that seems weird to people. Jane Doe is the name often used for an unidentified woman. Anyway our bracelets say our name, date of birth, emergency contact number, and mine says “USA Citizen.” It’s 4 lines of personalized info.
During our trip we realized that phone numbers on the girls’ bracelets were our U.S. cell numbers that can’t reach us while we are overseas, unless you get a special plan with international connection (which, please teach us if you know an affordable way with your provider). Because of this we just used an ink pen to write our international phone number on each girl’s arm. It wears off, so you’ll need to refresh it every couple days.
Boy are we glad we remembered our first aid kit … even if we did forget to check the expiration dates on things. That was a rude awakening ripping open a disinfectant wipe to clean a scraped knee and finding that it was completely dried out. A shin-scrape on an escalator, 4-5 double-knee scrapes, fingers slammed in a door, a cut eyelid from a fall out of bed, and some bug bites. So one of our first trips to the pharmacy was to buy more disinfectant wipes, antibiotic cream, and bandages, so it worked awesome. Compact and portable and oh-so-necessary.
And then … what’d we do with our wallets and money? We have these handy money belts that go under our shirts. We carry passports, money, credit/ATM cards, and everything in them. We keep our passports in ZipLoc bags because, if you’re like us, you’ll get a tad bit sweaty and don’t want to ruin your travel docs. We put each of our credit/ATM cards in one of these security sleeves so no one can walk by us with a card reader and steal our info. And the last bit we do … and this is humorous and most likely overkill … is we carry a fake wallet, so if someone asks for our money, we can take that out, throw it a ways away, and hightail it out of there while they go after the wallet. And inside it are a bunch of fake credit cards, some old money from other countries that isn’t worth trying to convert into dollars, and a little note that says it’s not nice to steal. Ha!
Then there’s being safe with your information while using wifi networks around the city you’re traveling in. You might want to check bank amounts or credit card limits, and you want to do it as safely as possible. The safest places are likely at the public government buildings like The National Gallery and maybe any big chain hotel. But if you’re trying to log in at local restaurants or pubs,
- be wary of phishing networks that have it open for you to log in then will steal your info,
- ask the establishment what their wifi is, then
- probably only do internet searches and things that don’t require passwords.
These are the big things we considered and planned for. We’d love to hear what you know.
>>>>> Watch International Travel w Kids – Safety version (Episode 68)
>>>>> Watch International Travel w Kids – Communication version (Episode 69)>>>>> Watch Travel w Kids – Packing version (Episode 70)
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