Travel Regrets, Part 2

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Last week, Leana wrote about some of her travel regrets. Here are mine:

Not Going to Europe Again Before Having Kids

This is my biggest travel regret! My husband and I went to France on our honeymoon. Before having kids, we talked about going to Greece, the Netherlands and London. However, there were a few terrorist attacks at the time and some family members convinced us not to go.

We thought for sure we would return to Paris for our 10 year anniversary. That was always the plan. Family members assured us they would watch our future kids.

But then life happens, and nothing goes as planned. After we had kids, nobody would agree to watch them. We traveled to Russia to adopt, but that was the extent of our European travel.

If I could do it over again, I would have traveled at least one more time to Europe before having kids. After all, we had two incomes at the time and it would have been doable.

Holding Back in Russia

My husband and I traveled to Russia four times in total to adopt our two boys. While we were there, we were very careful. We stayed in a Canadian hotel with a lot of English-speaking tourists, and we didn’t venture out in the city much unless we were with our guide and translator.

Looking back, I wish we would have been more brave and adventurous during those trips. Sometimes, we had an entire free weekend where we could have seen so much. But did we? No, we played it safe. Coulda, shoulda woulda.

Driving to Colorado

I know some families travel across the country by car with small kids all the time with minimal issues. We are not that family. We don’t do road trips well.

When my daughter was a few months old, we bought our first minivan. I was so excited, and we decided to drive to Colorado to visit my family.

Never. Again.

Too far, too long, we all went crazy. We haven’t driven back since that time. Flights are usually so cheap between Denver and Dallas that I don’t even consider it.

Not Splurging on More Vacations that Include Childcare

When my kids were younger (and up until fairly recently if I’m being honest), we struggled to get a break. We have no family in town, and finding a babysitter for 3 kids was difficult and expensive.

Going on our first Disney cruise was a real treat. My husband and I actually got a few quiet dinners to ourselves, which was so rare. And our kids were having a blast at the same time!

After that first taste of actual relaxation, I started researching other places that have childcare available for future vacations. I found the Franklyn D Resort in Jamaica has a nanny for every family. The reviews are good. I really wanted to book it!

But, I thought it was too much money, so we never went. In those early days after I quit my corporate job, it was really hard to predict how our finances would grow. We were pretty conservative with our money due to uncertainty. In hindsight, I wish we would have just splurged and gone to that resort in Jamaica.

Do you have any travel regrets?

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