Five Trips to Take Before You Have Kids

Thinking about having kids in the next few years? There are a lot of things to put on your checklist before then, and a big trip should be one of them. It's not that you can't go to these places with kids, it's just that you might enjoy them more without little people to care for. Take the following trips before you have small kids, or else you'll have to wait until they are old enough to appreciate them with you.

Backpack on a Shoestring in South East Asia

Super budget travel, the kind where you sleep in 10-bed dorm rooms, take overnight buses, and eat $1 pad thai, has a certain romanticism to it. It can be crazy and fun to drink cheap beer, dance all night, and to stretch every dollar as far as it will take you. Kids however, require a certain baseline of comfort or else they, and everyone else around you, are going to be very vocally unhappy. If you really want to trade comfort for savings, do it when you can suffer solo.

Eat Your Way Through China

Travel in China isn't easy, but those who are willing to stick their neck out will be rewarded with the chance to explore one of the world's oldest societies. Traveling independently through China means battling with a steep language barrier on a daily basis, dealing with extreme cultural differences, and eating some of the most delicious food known to man.

This is no place to add in a battle with a picky eating child. You'll be tucking into mysterious dishes with unknown ingredients, spices that set your mouth aflame and street food that's simply worth the risk of (almost inevitable) food poisoning. It's not for the faint of heart or stomach.

Dance All Night in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is simply a late night kind of city. Dinner usually doesn't get going until ten or eleven and clubs are just opening their doors around one. You'll often see young people stumbling out into the daylight after an evening of dancing and partying, just to turn around and get ready for work.

While children in Argentina seem to simply adjust to this, most kids not used to the late hours would be falling asleep in their dinner plates. If you're going to party all night, do it before you have kids because you're certainly not going to have the energy afterwards.

The Solo Trip Of Your Dreams

Some trips just have to be done alone to be truly appreciated. For you it might be walking the Camino de Santiago, or spending a week in Paris alone with your writing. These lengthy, sometimes expensive, pockets of alone time can be much harder to negotiate once childcare becomes an issue. Solitude, true solitude, is a luxury not fully appreciated until you have someone who wants to follow you into the bathroom.

Relax in Luxury in Fiji

Fiji is the perfect island paradise of your dreams. Picture golden sand, lush palm trees and crystal clear water. It's a great place to spend a LOT of money on a luxury resort vacation. While you could do this with kids, if it's real relaxation you're after, go as grown-ups. You can hang out by the pool, pamper yourself with massages or take an afternoon scuba trip without having to worry what trouble the little ones are getting into.

What other trips would you add to this list?

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