Traveling with toddlers

01. Make your list of to-dos in advance, organized by area and type of activity...but also keep your days flexible. If I was traveling just with my husband, I'd love the idea of waking up leisurely and seeing where the day took us. Or I'd jam-pack a ton of activities into each day. But with a toddler's limited attention span, boundless energy, and need for naps, being somewhere in the middle of those two, agenda-wise, tends to work best for us. Also, it's super helpful to have your list organized by area so that you're not wasting too much time getting from one part of a city to another and can really enjoy and maximize one or two areas at a time. For example, my amazing assistant, Casey, had the brilliant idea to compile your suggestions for Paris and organize them into a spreadsheet by district and type of activity. Then she put them in a mini binder that I carried around for the whole trip (and now our whole staff has a version for their next trip to Paris). It was insanely helpful. We also used Yelp a lot while on the go a lot which can be great when you find yourself in an area that you might not have on your list.

02. Stay in an area where there's lots to do within walking distance. This may seem obvious, but we learned the hard way in Paris, when we stayed in a district that was up-and-coming but didn't have a ton to do within the immediate vicinity. We ended up taking trips out of the area everyday that took just a tad too long and gave us too little time to enjoy our destination before rushing back for Ruby's nap. We wish we'd we stayed in a slightly busier neighborhood (even if a tad more touristy) because it would have been more central and easier to get to other areas of the city.