The Ultimate Cheat Code to Traveling with Young Kids? Get the Timing Right

The most restorative trip my husband and I have taken with our two-year-old was to the Baltic Sea in Poland, in early March. We didn’t see a shred of sunlight the entire time and the sea was way too cold for swimming. But we had deliberately traveled as off-season as we could, hoping our three-night jaunt in toddler-friendly driving distance from our home in Berlin would let us enjoy a new place, get out of our routine, swim indoors, and do it all on the cheap—with as few other vacationers around as possible.

The bet on timing paid off. The Wave Międzyzdroje’s restaurant was quiet, we had the indoor pools and sauna to ourselves every morning, the beach was an empty expanse ideal for a sand-flinging 18-month-old, and I was able to book a last-minute massage around our son’s nap time because there were tons of free appointments. It was so easy and pleasant that we plan to do the same trip again this winter.

Off-season travel’s most obvious appeal is that it’s cheaper, but for families—particularly those with younger children—vacationing against the tide has more nuanced advantages. For us, staying in a plush resort we wouldn’t necessarily splash out for in the high season was nice, but what really made it worthwhile was how at ease we felt when our toddler made a racket in the pool or toured around the hotel restaurant. He didn’t disturb anyone, because there simply wasn’t anyone there to bother.

Beyond not worrying about other travelers’ experiences, the lack of crowds during the off-season also gives parents headed to more landmark-heavy destinations child-friendly flexibility. After spotting a flight deal, Jordi Lippe-McGraw, a writer and the founder of travel diaper bag company Pak Rêve, visited Paris with her family last January, a four-day trip motivated by a school holiday and her five-year-old son’s desire to see the Eiffel Tower. They also took the funicular at Montmartre and a boat tour down the Seine, and caught an evening light show at the Dôme des Invalides. Working around their son’s jet lag, “a lot of these places we booked were very last minute,” she says. “It took the stress away of trying to plan a trip to Paris with a kid in prime time.”

For other families looking to travel with small children in the off season, Lippe-McGraw merely cautions them to be mindful about potential closures. While she was in Paris, the city was likewise taking advantage of the time of year by closing the top level of the Eiffel Tower to the public for renovations ahead of the Olympics (her son may be young, but he hasn’t forgotten they didn’t make it all the way to the top). “It takes a little bit of research to make sure you’re not missing out on key things, if there are key things you want to see,” she says. But the advantages are still worth it: “You can also be a little more flexible, a little more go with the flow.”

Similarly, for every family member to be well-fed on an off-season trip with young children, it’s best to consider in advance what and how you’d like to eat. For us, “vacation” meant not having to choose a restaurant for every meal and then try to convince a toddler to sit through it. I also didn’t want to grocery shop or cook. The glowing reviews for the Wave Międzyzdroje’s breakfast and dinner buffet were thus one of the prime appeals for our trip. In Paris, Lippe-McGraw and her husband “had a list of restaurants we wanted to do and were just able to check them out,” she says. Visiting in January meant they could walk in at prime time at popular spots like Café de Flore based on when everyone got hungry, not when they had a reservation.

Elsewhere, of course, restaurants may be closed entirely, cautions ex-nomadic travel blogger Erin Holmes, whose children are now teenagers, but who traveled with them from ages two and three to seven and eight. “We visited Greece in April and a lot of restaurants were not even open,” she says. “You have to be ready to eat at lesser-known places where the locals are eating—which is fine for us—or get a villa and be ready to do some cooking.” Depending where you’re landing, dining out during the quiet season might also be a bit cheaper. Holmes, whose partner is Turkish, runs annual trips to Turkey for her readers. She recalls having one of the best breakfasts she’s ever had at a palace, off-season. “Someone asked if they could see the pricing for on-season, a month later, and it had more than doubled,” she says.

For the adults to enjoy the trip as much as the kids, going somewhere new or taking advantage of prior experience is a matter of preference and planning. Lippe-McGraw and her husband had a good time in Paris in January partly because they already know the city well. “We weren’t stressed about seeing the things we wanted to see,” she says. “And doing it on an off time meant we didn’t think, we’re spending thousands and thousands of dollars to come to Paris as a family for the first time and we can’t get anything we want.”

For my husband and me, it was fine that our chilly visit to seaside Międzyzdroje was our first, because we were there for beach walks, sightseeing in nearby small seaside towns, and family pool time indoors, and none of that was contingent on warm, sunny weather. Whether it’s a first trip or repeat visit, though, go with a flexible mindset. Holmes and her family just returned from a two-week trip to Vietnam during the rainy season. Not only did they not mind the rain because it was still warm every day, “if you’re going on a trip to sit by the pool and beach, the rain’s really not an issue, because you’re wet in the pool half the time anyway,” she says.

Finally, if you’re seeking a quiet time at your destination, make sure it really will be. Based on other visitors’ reviews of unexpectedly overcrowded winter weekends (and their disappointment at shrieking children in the pool—just the people we were trying not to be), we timed our stay at the Polish resort to be mid-week, shortly before Easter. We figured that fewer people would be traveling so close to—but not during—the holiday, which turned out to be correct.

What matters most, though, is not worrying about what you might miss out on by embracing the off-season. “At every age, there’s something special about it,” says Holmes. “I think people overthink it. Go, and you’ll find there are experiences to be had. They might not be the ones that you’ve read about it, but you’ll have them.”

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