Tips for Traveling with Your Mom

by Shannon Gonzales

Bystander Mag: Tips for Traveling with Your Mom

With Mother’s Day just in our rearview mirror, I’ve been reflecting on how lucky I am to have my mom around. If you’re a fellow travel enthusiast whose parents are still around, I highly recommend taking a trip with your parents. Over the course of the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to travel with my mom three times: a weekend road trip upstate, a mission trip to Kenya, and a vacation to Italy. These were obviously all very different experiences, but the common factors were my mom and the priceless memories we were able to create together.

Traveling with your mom is different from traveling with friends, business travel, solo trips, or any other kinds of travel you may have experienced. That said, there are some things to keep in mind when traveling with Mom:

1) Remember that your mom is older than you are, and may not have the same amount of energy she once did when she was raising you. Don’t try to pack your days full when planning out your itinerary, maybe skip the stopover adventure if it would be more stressful or exhausting than it’s worth(see last month’s story on the long layover in Paris my mom and I experienced), or plan for less walking and arrange for other transportation (hop-on-hop-off bus tours are great!). My mom and I booked several day trips through Viator for our Italy vacation, and some of these provided hotel-pickup options—it made transportation a breeze!

Also spend some time thinking about the length of your trip—you don’t want to burn Mom out on a two-week, nonstop excursion through southeast Asia if she isn’t up for it. Consider 10 days, one week, maybe even a long weekend instead. The length of the trip isn’t everything—you’ll make great memories and cherish the time you have together regardless.

2) Consider your personalities: are you both extroverts? Great! Share that Airbnb room, talk all night after the day’s adventures, make the most of your time together! Is one of you an extrovert, and one an introvert? Maybe getting two rooms would be the better option so the introvert can recharge. Or, at least making sure you’re both on the same page so no one gets snappy (we don’t want a flashback to those teenage years, now, do we?).

3) Reflect on each of your personal preferences when it comes to travel. Does your mom prefer to relax more during vacation, or is she all for keeping busy with different activities and sight seeing? Is she a foodie? Wine connoisseur? Does she prefer to see the well-known touristy sights, or is she open to spending her time among the locals? Captain Obvious here: try to find things you both like to do, and put those things on your itinerary. (A tip just from my experience: a rest day in the middle and/or at the end of your trip is sometimes necessary. Plan to spend a day sipping piña coladas on the beach or book a day at a public bath or hot spring—I have yet to meet a mom who wouldn’t say yes to one of these things!)

4) Ask yourself: is my mom an experienced traveler? If she has traveled quite a bit already, then great. If the answer is no, prepare to teach her! (She taught you how to use a toilet—this is the least you can do.) Remind her when to have her passport out at the airport and to keep her purse closed and in front of her at subway stations, among other things. Not only will it help your trip go smoother, it will make for a better experience for Mom.

5) Laugh! Like any trip, some things won’t always go as planned (cough, Paris, cough), and that’s okay! It’s all part of the experience.

6) Make memories. You will remember this trip forever. In the midst of the busyness of traveling, don’t forget that you are creating priceless moments with your mom—enjoy every minute of it.

*Bonus tip, especially for all of the twenty- and thirty-something women reading this: there’s nothing like spending one-on-one time together for several days at a time to make you realize that, holy cats, I am my mother! And that’s not a bad thing. Be grateful for the wonderful qualities she passed on to you, and enjoy the inside jokes you two have in reference to ridiculous moments from your childhood—these are the best in-flight conversations you’ll share.