Travel Writing

“I hope that someday they understand the amount of effort you put into these trips, you know, making all of this work seamlessly.”

My husband was unloading the groceries I'd pre-ordered to our vacation rental. Sam’s favorite Blackberry jam. Sour Cream Pringles, Theo's essential beach snack. Even a package of embroidery floss to keep up with Penny’s latest hobby.

“They will, probably,” I said. “When it's time for them to do it themselves.”

Packing lists, grocery lists, a search history full of "best playground near...", hours of analog entertainment tucked into tote bags, and movies downloaded onto three fully charged devices… just in case. So much energy goes into managing transitions, making sure somewhere new still has the essentials of home.

And if none of it had been there, they still would have discovered that a clam will dig itself back into the sand if you place it on the wet shoreline, step your shadow out of the way, and wait. They still would have squealed at cold water over sandy feet and begged to rinse off with the hose just five minutes longer. Children have a remarkable ability to make memories out of moments we couldn’t have planned for.

That's why I think travel writing with kids has less to do with capturing picture perfect photos than with paying attention to how your family inhabited a place, the tiny details that belonged only to you.

Here are five fresh ways to preserve your trip that help to ensure you enjoy the moment, too:

Before & After. Take photos that bookend an experience. The backseat at the beginning of the drive and the backseat on the way home. The child holding an ice cream cone before the first lick and the same child ten minutes later, sticky from chin to elbows. The preschooler perched confidently on the carefully selected carousel horse and that very same little body, utterly surrendered to sleep an hour later in the stroller. Stories often reveal themselves in the contrast.

Flotsam Flatlay. Before you unpack, gather the small things that usually head straight for the trash. The empty Goldfish bag. The Happy Meal toy that bought you ten extra peaceful minutes. Aquarium tickets. A restaurant menu covered in tic-tac-toe games. Beach pebbles. The bottle of sunscreen. The cast-off hair barrette. Spread everything across the counter and take one photograph before you sort and discard. These small items are a little time capsule of traveling with these particular, precious children. Today, it’s just cluttering the bottom of your bag, but someday it might make you smile.

Notebook of Noticings. Keep a tiny notebook in your purse or the car's center console and write down what your children noticed, their questions and unexpected observations, snippets of sibling conversation that made everyone laugh. These words could become effortless photo captions later, but more importantly, they remind you what the world looked like through their eyes.

Hand Over the Notebook. If ever there’s a time to surrender the page, it’s now. Invite your kids to draw their favorite part of the day, sketch the strange bird they spotted, make a family comic strip, or fill the margins with vacation doodles. Their version of the trip will almost certainly surprise you. The details they choose, the people they include, the jokes they remember—it's a reminder that while you were busy making the trip happen, they were busy living the story of their childhood. 

Write One Small Scene. Forget trying to summarize an entire vacation. Choose one moment and linger there. The sunscreen-sticky hug after swimming lessons at the lake. The toddler asleep on your chest while everyone else searched tide pools. The five quiet minutes on the rental porch before anyone else woke up. Trust that one faithfully remembered scene can carry an entire trip inside it. The goal isn't to record everything. It's to preserve enough that years from now you'll remember how it felt to be there together.