7 Insanely Helpful Tips for Traveling to Italy with Kids
Let’s take a trip to Italy! Traveling to Italy with kids can be an unforgettable adventure filled with amazing food, cultural experiences, and a new level of family bonding. In this blog post, I will share my best tips to make traveling to Italy with kids as easy and stress-free as possible.
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1. Plan your Itinerary
Plan your itinerary well in advance. Once you have your trip dates set, write down a scheduled day-to-day itinerary. Each day of your trip should have highlights of the day’s events. This way any time your kids ask, “What are we doing today?”, you have the answer.
I also want to share with you my most valued resource when planning my month-long Italian vacation. Kacie Rose Burns, aka “that American girl in Italy,” known for her Italian culture shock TikToks, was instrumental in giving me travel confidence and helping me finalize my itinerary. If you need one-on-one guidance for a big family trip to Italy, I highly recommend a consultation with Kacie! She’s the greatest!!
2. Choose Fun, Kid-Friendly Experiences
- Some of our favorite activities included a pasta-making class, a pizza-making class, and food tours that ended with gelato. Can you tell that my kids are happiest when they’re eating?
- When visiting coastal areas of Italy with kids, plan beach and boat excursions. The Amalfi coast offers many boat tours that range from price-friendly group experiences to super luxurious ($$) private trips. Then you can also find free beach locations to visit as well.
- In both Milan and Florence there are interactive Leonardo di Vinci museums which are great for kids. The Galileo Museum in Florence is also a good place for families with children to book one of the guided visits or educational workshops, which can be tailored to any age.
- When in doubt bring them to the park. Sometimes just getting outdoors does everyone a lot of good. Pull up Google Maps and look for the biggest green area near you. Usually, that will be a park. Some larger parks may offer amusement rides or bike rentals. The best thing about this idea is you don’t have to plan it in advance. So, this can be a spur-of-the-moment adventure. Our favorite park was Villa Borghese Park in Rome!
- To see the exact activities on our family-friendly Italy itinerary, check out my previous blog post. Ultimate Italy Travel Guide: The Best 4-Week Italy Itinerary.
3. Pack light
Traveling to Italy with kids means extra luggage! To make this trip more enjoyable, take my advice, and pack as light as possible. For example, we are a family of four. On our 4-week Italy trip, we had 3 rolling carry-on bags, and each person had 1 personal item.
Our two kids (8 & 10yo) were packed in 1 carry-on and they each held onto their backpacks. This way my husband trekked along with 2 carry-on rollers, I had 1 carry-on roller, and everyone was responsible for their own personal item. So, this made arrival and departure with airport and train stations a breeze.
If you think it’s impossible to travel that light, just remember that Italy has all the comforts of home available to you. Therefore, if you realize you just can’t live without 5 more pairs of pants, then go shopping. But you’d be amazed at what you can live without when you don’t have to carry it around with you.
Packing for Italy with kids
Make sure each family member has a single change of clothes in their personal item bag. If a spill/accident occurs on a travel day, then it’s much easier to get into your backpack than a packed suitcase.
So, the kids’ backpacks should contain a Ziplock bag with a set of clothes and their entertainment. All kids are entertained differently, but mine had an iPad with a charger, headphones, and a sketchbook with a couple of pencils, pens, and colors. Try to keep it simple.
This picture shows the awesome backpacks that my girls carried around all over Italy. These are made by the Bucket List Family.
They had room for their essentials, and top straps to hold a blanket. Instead of a traditional blanket we used a Sand Cloud beach towel (that we used for our beach days) which doubled as a blanket. You want to be strategic with packing. Make sure everything you bring has purpose!
4. Choose Family-friendly accommodations
The easiest way to pack light is to stay at a hotel or Airbnb that offers laundry services. Most of our stays in Italy were in an Airbnb that had a washing machine in the unit. We also chose places that had separate sleeping areas and a kitchen.
In many cases, our family of 4 stayed in either a 1 or 2-bedroom apartment. I found that many hotel rooms are better suited for couples. In fact, most hotel rooms had a max 2-person limit. So, we would have had to pay for 2 rooms or a very expensive suite. Apartment living through Airbnb is the most comfortable and cost-efficient way to travel through Italy with kids.
5. Book all travel in advance
Most people buy their roundtrip plane tickets and think their travel plans are set. But traveling to Italy with kids involves planes, trains, and automobiles. This is where your day-to-day itinerary will help you. Review your travel days and figure out the best way to get to your next destination.
Getting from city to city in Italy is very easy with the high-speed train system. Purchasing your train tickets in advance will save you money, time, and a lot of stress. I recommend the Trainline app. They show all available trains, times, and prices. Once you buy your train tickets, they are easily found in one app. You can even save your tickets to your Apple wallet.
Also, if you plan on visiting the Tuscan countryside, reserve your rental car in advance as well. This is especially important if you prefer an automatic car since these are less plentiful in the European rental car market.
6. Travel Safety in Italy with Kids
Invest in a couple of Apple AirTags to put in your personal item bags in case they are lost or stolen. This will also allow you to track your kid if they wonder off. I recommend putting a piece of paper with your names and phone numbers in your kids’ bags in case they get separated from the family.
I made sure our kids knew our cell phone numbers by heart, but if they were to forget they knew where to find it in their bag. Teach kids to look for police officers or employees of a nearby store and call if lost. Always prepare for the worst scenario.
7. Plan for Emergencies
I always like to prepare in advance for problems that could potentially derail our trip. Ask yourself, “What issues may arise during our trip?”. When you are traveling through Italy with kids you must take extra precautions and plan for mishaps and unwanted problems. Having a plan in place will not only take the stress out of the trip but will keep your family happy and safe.
What if I lose my wallet/passport?
- Always make paper copies of your driver’s licenses, passports, and hotel/rental information. Put these copies in your carry-on bags. Also, make sure your Apple wallet on your phone has active credit cards ready to go.
What if we get sick or injured?
- Check with your medical insurance before you leave to see if you are covered abroad. If unsure, international medical insurance is available at very reasonable prices. We used GeoBlue and it was easy to set up. It was about $200 to cover our family of 4 for our 1-month trip abroad. Luckily, we didn’t need it, but it gave me peace of mind for our trip. It even covered virtual (telehealth) 24/7 and came with an easy-to-use app that helped me locate doctors and hospitals. Multiple companies offer this type of insurance, so shop around.
What if I need to cancel my trip?
- Look into trip insurance and/or refund policies. When purchasing airline tickets, I always compare prices of refundable tickets vs tickets covered by trip insurance. I try to go with the best value for my money. Always review your credit card benefits, since many times they may include extensive trip cancellation/interruption coverage.
When booking tours and experiences, I always check out the cancellation/refund policy. Lean towards bookings that allow you to cancel up to 24 hours before the activity. So, if during your trip you decide you need a relaxing day off from tours/events or aren’t feeling well you can easily free up some downtime without wasting your money.
We try to do the same with our Airbnb and hotel rentals. Look for places that allow cancellations or changes for at least up to the week before arrival day. When traveling with kids, it’s best to lean towards flexibility and allow for changing travel plans.
Traveling to Italy with kids is an enriching experience that offers endless opportunities for family bonding and adventure. My final tips to you are to embrace the journey, stay flexible, encourage cultural immersion, and savor the little moments. By following these tips, I hope you can create unforgettable family memories and make the Italian vacation of your dreams. Buon viaggio!!
