26 In Guides + How-Tos/ Travel/ Travel Talk

Why You Should Take Time to Travel with Your Mother – Plus A Few Tips!

I’m very lucky to have a great relationship with both of my parents. Because of this I’ve had the pleasure to travel with my mother and my father not only as a child, but also as an adult, which is a totally different feeling. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel with my parents together, and individually. It’s such an amazing experience and to celebrate American Mother’s Day coming up on Sunday, I wanted to give you my list of reasons that traveling with your mom rocks!

You Get to Know Your Mom as a Friend Too

Mother/Daughter Love in the Aegean

Just like traveling can build relationships with other people, and quickly, it’s the same with your mother. When you get away from husbands, parents and everything else, you can focus on just having conversation between just the two of you. You might be surprised what all comes up when you’re in transit from one destination to the next!

Your Mom Knows How to Keep You Calm

Taking in the Moving Lion of Lucerne

I don’t know about you, but I can be a nervous flyer and no one knows better how to reign those nerves in than your mom! In fact, just a few months ago on our flight back from Iceland, we had a really rough flight. I was freaking out and my mom knew just what to do to calm me down, and when she realized that it was beyond that as well, she ordered me a gin + tonic… Like I said, she knows me.

Watching Your Mom Experience Something New is Just Amazing

Taking a step back to watch my mom take in the NYC skyline for the first time

My mom is pretty well-traveled, especially in the US, but taking her to see new things, instead of the other way around, is just absolutely pretty damn cool. I have had a couple of moments, especially on this last trip to Iceland, that I got either choked up or just felt immensely proud of my mom. We hiked to a glacier and seeing how amazed she was touching the glacier, and me being proud of her for hiking there after spontaneously making this stop is just a moment I will never forget. My heart was just so full on this trip.

It’s Something that Just the Two of You Get to Share

One of the many selfie attempts on chapel bridge, and cracking up in the process

Being able to reminisce and share stories and photos when you return (and many years to follow) is really special. It’s something that only the two of you were there to experience. Only two of you know all of what happened. You share all the big events with your friends and family when you get home, but only the two of you will look back and remember the silly stuff that made you laugh. Like when your mom took an entire video completely upside down or you were so turned around it took you three times to find the road to Reykjavik from the parking lot of your car rental place. Or that time that you shamelessly took 50 selfies trying to get the right shot until a local takes pity on you. It’s just something special, just for you two.

It Can Mend Those Trying Times

We did triple duty on this trip. That’s my grandma, mom and me in the Colosseum

My mom and I have always, always, always been insanely close. BFFs. Confidants. (Think Gilmore Girls Close.) However, we had a year there in my teenage days, that we hardly spoke. One of the things (other than just growing up on my end) that really helped mend that time in our lives was a trip to Italy. We had had this summer trip planned and having all that aforementioned transit time to fill with good, open, real conversations and having awesome days of exploration was a big part of what mended our relationship so quickly. It’s been back to BFFs ever since.

✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎

Tips for Traveling with Your Mother

Now that you’re convinced to take off on an ultimate road trip, girls weekend or international holiday with your mom, the next step is planning and taking off. While traveling with anyone has some similarities, I think there are some tips that I can think of that apply specifically to your mom.

Find Common Interests

 

Checking out loads of archaeological sites in Greece

My mom and I have many similar interests, but like every good relationship, we do also have different interests. My mom could relax on the beach all day, and I could go outside and hike 12 miles in a morning, but neither of us wants to do the other one’s. So, instead we find different common interests. Both of us love history and archaeology. We both love the outdoors, but my mom is more interested in a shorter hike. We love trying new food, but neither of us are up for trying anything crazy. Making sure to plan a trip that’s full of activities like these is where it’s at.

Make Sure Your Mom is Comfortable

In front of the beautiful Nymphenburg Palace in Munich

For a while, my mom was more comfortable with taking a tour. She didn’t have to plan much at all, you’re delivered directly to doorsteps and you just have to show up at the right time. I was just excited to get anywhere I could. We have taken four different European tours and had a great time. This was what she was most comfortable with, but I did see her getting more and more adventurous and active in planning our free time each time we traveled to Europe.

But Accommodate Expanding Her Boundaries When She’s Ready

 

Stepping out of her past-tour-bubble by taking on Iceland

Eventually my mom started listing more things about tours that she didn’t like more than the things she did like, so we came up with a plan to go to Iceland just the two of us. I did basically all of the planning and booking, so it felt more like the tour for her in that aspect, but also had so much more flexibility to change our minds on what to do once we were there and to switch plans based upon weather and how tired we were.

Don’t Let Her Pay For Everything

I treated my mom to a complete spa day in the Blue Lagoon of Iceland

Mom’s often have that mom factor where they want to pay for your meals or your coffee or all the gas. However, it’s important to let your mom be pampered too! Plus, being an adult now, although I greatly appreciate her generosity, her raising days are done and I’m able to take care of my own part. On this recent trip to Iceland, my mom and I split a lot of meals and took turns paying, and I paid for a lot of our entrance fees places.

Don’t Forget to Make it Happen More Than Once

 

Heidelberg 2014 // Greece 2011 

Life is busy. It catches up with us and before you know it, it has been two years since your last mother/daughter trip! We let almost three years pass between Iceland and our Germany/Austria/Switzerland/Liechtenstein trip. Be sure to make time for these moments with your mother. I can guarantee that you won’t ever regret it.

✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎

Tips for Traveling with Your Daughter from My Mother

This is the final shot thanks to the Lucerne-local for helping us out… Much better than the selfie

That’s right, I brought my mom in on this post so you could see both sides of it!

Bring Lots of Money

Even though she doesn’t ask for it, moms just tend to want to pay. [Paige here: what did I tell you?! It’s just her innate nature to be extremely generous.]

Be Open Minded

Paige planned our last trip, so I needed to be prepared to do the things she planned. Also let your adventurous side out. Be spontaneous.

Just Have Fun

Prepare for the area you’re going to, but just let things happen. Being spontaneous is great. I mean, we followed a blue glow to find a glacier! You don’t have to stick to an itinerary. That’s why we didn’t take a tour.

Be Prepared to Hand Over the Reigns

I’ve been used to taking control in a lot of aspects of parenting, but letting Paige plan, drive in a foreign country, etc. was a big step in handing over the reigns.

✈︎ ✈︎ ✈︎

Do you travel with your mother? What is your favorite travel memory with your mom? What tips would you add?

Did You Enjoy This Post? PIN IT So Others Can Too!

 

You Might Also Like

26 Comments

  • Reply
    thetravelpockets
    May 11, 2017 at 10:11 pm

    I am so jealous of the amazing travel experiences you have with your mother. I am not able to travel with my mother, but when I am spending the day with her I think some of the same tips apply. For example the tip on not letting her pay for everything. I always try to pay for things and sometimes I have to be sneaky in order to pay for things before she does 🙂

    • Reply
      Paige Wunder
      May 14, 2017 at 9:52 am

      You’re right, they do apply in everyday life as well. You do have to be sneaky! Even if you’re just going to pay for your own stuff, I have to fight her for it! Ha!

  • Reply
    Kavey at Kavey Eats
    May 12, 2017 at 4:22 am

    What a lovely post about travelling with mums! My parents are very well travelled, in fact they were the ones who set me on the path as we travelled as much as they could within leave from their jobs / our schools throughout my childhood. I have done occasional shorter trips with my mum, within the UK, and then my husband and I also did some trips with both my parents as well.

    • Reply
      Paige Wunder
      May 14, 2017 at 9:54 am

      It’s such a blessing to get to travel with them as an adult, isn’t it? I have been so fortunate to travel with my dad solo and the both of them. I just love it! My parents, like yours, set me on my path. If they had vacation time, we were going somewhere. Thanks for sharing your experience as well!

  • Reply
    Danielle Lawson
    May 12, 2017 at 5:10 am

    So lovely to see the bond that you and your mum have developed. It’s great to read that you were able to split payment and also get your mum out of her comfort zone by skipping the tours. I’m with your mum on the hiking though, I just cant do long ones haha!

    • Reply
      Paige Wunder
      May 14, 2017 at 9:56 am

      It was definitely a BFF situation from birth basically. 😉 I was really excited to get her away from the tours too. She really got to see how the doors open up to different experiences and how I travel. Haha! I think most people are with you and my mom. You’ve got to want to do it to hike like that.

  • Reply
    Aubrie
    May 14, 2017 at 1:53 am

    Wow I loved this post! Especially in time for Mother’s Day! I have only had one chance to travel with my mom and I definitely would love to be able to do it more! It was fun to see all of the experiences that you had!

    • Reply
      Paige Wunder
      May 14, 2017 at 9:56 am

      Thanks, Aubrie! Where did you and your mom travel to?

  • Reply
    Cat
    May 14, 2017 at 11:35 pm

    Thanks for this post to remind us to take time to travel with mom! I love traveling with mine just so that we can experience something new and fun together once in a while. Sometimes I might have been too adventurous so I need to remember to be mindful to keep her comfortable 🙂

    • Reply
      Paige Wunder
      June 14, 2017 at 7:54 pm

      Where’s your favorite destination you’ve visited with your mother? I have probably tried to push my mom a time or two or haven’t been understanding enough, but she’s the best and I love traveling with her.

  • Reply
    Sandy N Vyjay
    May 16, 2017 at 12:09 am

    Wow! I just loved reading this post. It brought back memories of my travels with my Mom. She was a very interesting person who would enjoy each and every bit of the things we saw or did. She loved history, culture and art. So it was always a treat to go with her on such trips where she would discuss in detail about all the things we saw. It is entirely a different feeling to travel with parents.

    • Reply
      Paige Wunder
      June 14, 2017 at 7:55 pm

      Thank you so much. It sounds like you have some really amazing memories of traveling with your mom and I’m glad that you’ve experienced it. Thanks for sharing!

  • Reply
    AuthenticTravels
    May 16, 2017 at 1:16 am

    Very interesting idea. I’ve never thought of writing something like this. Congratulations for the idea. Honestly, we traveled as a family when I was a little girl, but just around Europe. However, now that my parents are retired they’ve bought a house in the mountains and they ‘seem’ happy there. I would have to put too much pressure on them to go somewhere else, I guess.

    • Reply
      Paige Wunder
      June 14, 2017 at 7:57 pm

      You might enjoy traveling around the mountains with them though! We all did lots of family road trips as well. They’re very special too.

  • Reply
    Stella the Travelerette
    May 16, 2017 at 7:05 pm

    I have to admit reading this made me cry. My mom passed away the year after I graduated from college and I regret not traveling with her more. But the last time we traveled together was when I was in high school and we went to Amsterdam. I completely agree that it created a special memory for just the two of us.

    • Reply
      Paige Wunder
      June 14, 2017 at 7:59 pm

      Awe. I’m so sorry to hear about your loss, Stella. I am so happy that you have that special memory. I hope you don’t dwell on that negativity too much. You can’t go back and change that, instead, you should be so happy that you have that trip to remember; many people don’t even have that. Thank you for your thoughtful comment.

  • Reply
    elphie1
    May 16, 2017 at 8:11 pm

    I absolutely love this! I’m traveling with my mom on a press trip coming up in June on her first trip with me after becoming a travel blogger!

    • Reply
      Paige Wunder
      June 14, 2017 at 8:00 pm

      That’s so exciting! That will be so much fun! Enjoy!

  • Reply
    Reshma Narasing
    May 18, 2017 at 9:05 am

    You are so lucky and fortunate for having the chance to travel with your mom! I lost mine a few years ago and I wish I could travel with her. It’s an amazing experience to travel with them as adults. Go for more trips!

    • Reply
      Paige Wunder
      June 14, 2017 at 8:02 pm

      I am very lucky, and I’m happy that we’ve made a priority to do this together. I’m very sorry to hear about your loss.

  • Reply
    City Cookie
    May 21, 2017 at 3:55 am

    Aw, this is so sweet! I’m going to Paris for a weekend with my mum in a few weeks and I am so excited! Last year we went to Japan together for two weeks and that was my favourite trip ever! She planned all the hotels and I planned basically everything else. Doing these things together is so important to me now that we live in different countries.

    • Reply
      Paige Wunder
      June 14, 2017 at 8:03 pm

      That sounds like so much fun! I’m glad that you guys enjoyed Japan and I’m sure that Paris will be an amazing trip together!

  • Reply
    Hedgers Abroad
    May 22, 2017 at 8:51 am

    You are so fortunate to be able to travel with your mother. You have clearly made a ton of amazing travel memories together to some pretty amazing places! I so wish that was an option for me, but my mom is too sick. I definitely miss traveling as a family when I was younger. Sometimes you take those moments for granted when you should be fully aware of how precious they are.

    • Reply
      Paige Wunder
      June 15, 2017 at 7:19 pm

      I am very fortunate! We have shared a lot of great adventures together. I’m so sorry to hear that your mom is sick. I think when you’re a kid you definitely take that for granted because you just don’t understand. That’s everyone though. Just remember the amazing memories that you have with your family.

  • Reply
    abcdefghizzy
    May 23, 2017 at 12:47 am

    I said it to you once, but I legit don’t think this post could’ve been done better. Wonderful wonderful tips. This statement “Watching Your Mom Experience Something New is Just Amazing” got me a bit teary eyed. I live for those moments, my heart feels so full when I see my mom enjoy new sights. I guess that’s why I really do cherish having been able to travel with my mom. And so true about creating a good balance between get treated and treating her as well! I am sometimes so shocked by a parent’s generosity! Accommodate expanding her horizons is something really important to remember as well.

    • Reply
      Paige Wunder
      June 15, 2017 at 7:21 pm

      Thank you so much Izzy. I think those moments are my absolute favorite. I always get teary-eyed when I watch those moments happen and just feel so naturally high afterward. Like I want to show her the whole world! Thanks for reading and giving such sweet and thoughtful feedback. It means a lot coming from you! Xx

    Join the Conversation!

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.