Travelling with Kids In Canada: Tips to Prepare
By Krista DeKuyper | March 6, 2025 |
Are you a Canadian planning to travel with kids this March break? Travelling as a family is an opportunity to make special memories all across the world. Moreover, travelling with your kids enables them to have one-of-a-kind experiences and learn about other places and cultures. However, travelling with your loved ones, especially children, comes with tremendous stress and anxiety of the unknown. What happens if things go wrong, such as missing a flight or an unexpected health emergency? Additionally, how can you ensure your young kids stay entertained throughout the trip?
In this article, we seek to help you confront the guesswork of travelling with kids and family, ensuring a positive and memorable travel experience.
Common Concerns When Travelling with Kids
Our clients often have specific concerns about travelling with kids. It’s true that travelling with kids comes with special considerations, such as:
- Jet lag, which younger children tend to have a harder time adjusting to. Travelling kids have their sleeping routines disrupted, causing a cranky mood and sleepiness during the trip.
- Keeping children entertained during travel, which is difficult for trips that involve long flights and frequent travel time.
- Food. Depending on where you travel, kid-friendly meals can be few and far between. This is a significant concern for parents of picky eaters.
- Getting separated from children during travel. Younger children are known to wander, giving many parents anxiety about being separated from their kid while in an unfamiliar area. Additionally, the overwhelming hustle and bustle of travelling can cause parents to get distracted and lose track of their children (we don’t want a story like Home Alone 2 to play out!).
- Travelers’ diarrhea. Some foreign countries have different food standards than Canada, making Canadian travellers more prone to stomach infections. When experiencing diarrhea symptoms, children become dehydrated more rapidly than adults.
- Food-borne and water-borne diseases, which are common in countries like India and Mexico. Children’s immune systems are not as strong as an adult’s, making them especially vulnerable.
- Altitude sickness, which occurs during high altitude travel. Children become affected more quickly and severely than adults. For this reason, parents are advised to not let their children travel to altitudes 8,200 feet above sea level.
Why You Need Travel Insurance While Travelling with Kids
Although we recommend a travel insurance policy for any kind of vacation, travel insurance is especially vital for those travelling with kids. Think of children as an unknown variable introduced into your travel plans. The younger they are, the more caution a parent should have.
You can’t guarantee what your child’s behaviour will be like during travel, whether they’ll exercise the same level of caution as you or behave recklessly. Children are less aware of the natural dangers of travel, which may cause them to unknowingly endanger themselves by approaching strangers, consuming questionable food and drink, and much more.
Furthermore, children are more susceptible than adults to experiencing sickness due to travel. Their immune systems are not nearly as strong as their parents. With this in mind, you can’t guarantee your children won’t be introduced to air-borne, food-borne, or water-borne illnesses during travel.
Travel insurance takes the guesswork out of travelling with kids. As a visitor to a new country, your provincial health plan doesn’t typically apply. You will be required to pay out-of-pocket for any medical expenses incurred, but travel insurance covers these unexpected costs. No matter what occurs during your trip, whether it be illness, injury, or simply missing your flight — travel insurance is designed to protect you in any instance. With travel insurance, you’ll receive top-quality medical care no matter where you are in the world. This safety net takes the anxiety out of your travel, allowing you to enjoy your trip without unnecessary stress.
What Travel Insurance Covers
Depending on your plan, travel insurance can cover:
- Emergency out-of-country medical expenses.
- Trip cancellation or interruption — your plan may limit coverage based on the reason for cancellation, but Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) is an option.
- Lost, stolen, or damaged baggage.
- Lost or stolen passports/travel documents.
- Travel delays. For example, your flight being delayed or missing a connecting flight.
- Medical evacuation.
- Flight accidents.
- Rental cars.
- Pre-existing medical conditions.
- Non-refundable expenses in the event of a cancellation or delay.
Compare Travel Insurance Quotes Online with HealthQuotes
Comparing travel insurance quotes is made easy with HealthQuotes’ one-of-a-kind online instant quoting tool: Quick Quotes! All you need to do is complete a questionnaire that assesses your travel insurance needs. Once completed, our tool will present you with the travel plan options that meet your requirements. No sales pressure, just a chance to evaluate your travel insurance options on your own before committing to a plan.
Or speak to a Health Quotes broker today.
Tips for a Smooth Trip When Travelling with Kids
We all hope for a smooth trip when travelling with kids, but it’s not easy, especially if you’re not prepared. Below are some valuable tips for travelling with kids which help prevent things like meltdowns, boredom, endangerment, and other unexpected issues affecting your travel.
- Take your child to the doctor’s shortly before your trip. Your doctor will determine whether your child is healthy and ready to travel. Finding out your kid is unwell during the trip leads to cancellations, interruptions, and an overall unpleasant travel experience.
- Verify that your child is up-to-date with any necessary vaccinations. In some cases, you’ll be required to get a specific vaccine before travelling to certain destinations. This protects you and your child from location-specific illnesses and infections.
- If jet lag is an issue, prepare your child by adjusting their sleep routines ahead of time.
- Choosing a kid-friendly destination can make preparation significantly easier. The United States is an easy spot for a child’s first-time travelling as it is not too different from Canada.
- Pack smart by having items like snacks, drinks, toys, stuffed animals, colouring books, and electronics on hand at all times. Items like these are crucial during trips with long travel time, keeping your child entertained. Packing additional clothing is also helpful in case your child has an accident or needs an extra layer of clothing when it’s cold.
- Involve your children in travel planning, this will make them feel included in the process and more interested in following an itinerary. Don’t forget that this is a vacation for them too!
- Be mindful about meal-times and schedule them ahead of time in your itinerary. By doing this, you prevent hunger-induced crankiness that disrupts your travel plans.
- Carry first-aid essentials with you at all times to deal with minor injuries or illnesses that don’t require a doctor or hospital visit.
- Before travelling, research the area first. Research things like local food preparation standards, tourist areas with unaffected food and drink, or local insects and rodents. Become well-versed in any potential health hazards that exist in the area and how to avoid them.
