82. Best Airlines, Gear & Destinations for Globetrotting with Young Kids from Kristin Addis

Welcome to Point Me to First Class, the only show for employed professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners who are looking to optimize their higher-than-average expenses to travel the world. I'm your host, Devon Gimbel, and I believe that your expenses are your greatest untapped asset if you know how to leverage them. Ready to dive into the world of credit card points and miles so you can travel more, travel better, and travel often? Let's get started.

Devon: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Point Me to First Class podcast. Today, I am thrilled to be joined by an incredible guest, Kristin Addis, who has not only a wealth of knowledge about award travel, as you will hear, but also has extensive expertise in solo travel for women and, more recently, family travel.

Kristin has been to 65 countries and has been traveling and creating content since 2012. She is the creator of BeMyTravelMuse.com, one of the world's most-read women's travel blogs, and, more recently, ParenthoodAdventures.com, a resource for parents who want to keep traveling the world with their kids.

She has a well-traveled toddler who took his first international flight at five months old and now has collected 16 passport stamps. I also saw on your ParenthoodAdventures.com website that you have a goal to take him to 25 countries before he turns five. So, it sounds like you are well on your way. 

I have been a fan of Kristin's for over 10 years and a loyal follower of her BeMyTravelMuse.com blog where she is a trusted source of information and inspiration for solo female travelers, providing destination guides, trip reports, and reviews of travel products. 

But it wasn't until she started her newest venture, ParenthoodAdventures.com, where she documents traveling with her partner and their young son that I learned that she's also very skilled at award travel, including booking many international business and first-class flights using points, several of which have included her young son. 

Today, we're going to dive into the nitty-gritty of traveling with young kids from Kristin's tips on family-friendly international destinations, the products you can't leave home without, and which airlines have the best business class for traveling with kids on points. Kristin, welcome to the podcast, and thank you so much for joining me today. I am so looking forward to hearing all of your tips to make traveling with kids a great experience for everyone.

Kristin: Thanks, Devon. I love this topic. So I'm excited to be here. 

Devon: Amazing. So let's just start back at the beginning. Can you walk us through and tell us a little more about what inspired you to start traveling back in 2012? 

Kristin: Yeah, so I started working at a mergers and acquisitions firm when I was 22. So basically I worked in finance. I was the only non-administrative woman actually in that office at the time. But it was a great job for a 22-year-old, but I think for me, I was just like what is this life living in a cubicle? After four years, I couldn't really do it anymore and decided to quit that job.

I'm oversimplifying. There was a lot of like oh my gosh, should I do this? I don't know before finally just quitting and buying a one-way ticket to Bangkok. So that's when I started my travel blog. This was in September of 2012, and I've been basically doing this ever since. So I just went all in from day one. 

Devon: Yeah, and I can remember following you since 2012. 

Kristin: Really?

Devon: I actually finished all of my medical training. Yeah, so I finished my fellowship in July of 2012, moved from Boston to where I now am in the Chicago area, and I can distinctly remember, especially those first couple of years that I was practicing where I was in a very high-volume practice. I would get into work pretty early in the morning, and I would work nonstop for maybe four or five hours, and then I would feel like okay, I need a little bit of a break. 

So usually that would be the time that I would go to my computer, start flipping through a couple of different blogs, different websites that I was interested in, and I actually didn't know anything about points or miles in 2012. But what I did know was that I absolutely loved travel. 

I had spent about two years in between undergrad and medical school traveling in different parts of the world. I also lived in Southeast Asia for about six months. I spent some time in South America for a few months. Solo female travel was something I think back in 2012, there was not a lot of information about online. It didn't seem like there were that many women who were writing extensively about their experiences traveling solo, especially traveling extensively around the world. 

I think you are really one of the vanguards of that, that I can remember. So I would spend my breaks, and I would read about where you were traveling around. I would get ideas. I would be sitting in my little office. It wasn't a cubicle, but it was an office with a window view of a freeway overpass in suburban Chicago. I would sit there on my breaks and read about where you were traveling and what you recommended and just what it was like being a young woman traveling extensively on your own and just coming up with so many ideas about all of the places that I wanted to go.

So I have, like I said, followed you for over 10 years now. I think you've done such amazing work in that area. Anybody who's interested in learning more about traveling, especially solo female travel, you have to go and check out Kristin's blog. We'll link all of that information up in the show notes. 

But I'm really curious to hear from you, given the fact that you've traveled all over the world, from 2012 up until the point when, more recently, you started a family. I'm curious to hear once you had your son and you started traveling with him when he was just a few months old, what surprised you the most about the transition from traveling solo or with your partner to traveling with a baby? 

Kristin: Those are very different ways of traveling. I think the beauty of traveling solo is that you can be as serendipitous as you want, generally. So I loved that freedom. When I first started, that was what I was craving. It was what I needed. then after a while, I just started to feel like something was missing, and that was my reason for starting a family. I was just ready for that point in my life.

So the biggest difference is that it's no longer all about you, right? It's all about your kid. That's just life after you become a parent, right? So that translates to the traveling. I had to learn that I couldn't just overschedule anymore. Sometimes we would go somewhere, and we would spend all day out photographing and doing things, and then we'd come back to the hotel just to crash and then rinse, repeat the next day. 

I did not care about where I was staying. I didn't care how basic it was, because I wasn't going to be spending any time there, right? Now that I have a toddler, oh my gosh, it's completely different. The hotel really matters. We're going to be spending a lot of time there. We better really like it. The comfort really matters. Like, how are we going to get there? Is it going to be, hopefully. We tried to do business class for every single long-haul flight we possibly could when he was still a lap infant, and we still want to be able to do that. 

Now it's just about like, okay, we don't need to have all these plans. We just want to go with the goal of spending time together and enjoying each other because otherwise, my partner and I both work. We have opposite schedules. So this is our family time when we're traveling. So it's just about keeping that sacred now and not worrying so much about checking things off of a list. Like, did we see this? Did we see that? Maybe we didn't see something I wanted to see, but that's not the point anymore. 

Devon: Yeah, I can relate to that so much. My kids are a little bit older than your son is. I have an almost nine-year-old and an almost six-year-old, and I feel like I'm still constantly learning this lesson. This has been the year of my over-ambitious travel planning for my family. 

We have now, we meaning I because I do most of the travel planning for our family. I have now booked and canceled, I think, three trips because I have been so ambitious about what I would love to do, the type of travel that, especially my husband and I would love to get back to doing where we go somewhere and we can wander around a town all day long and we can explore cafes and restaurants and museums. Again I knew better than to try to do that, at least with my kids when they were very, very young. 

But I think this was the year that I really started delusionally believing that my kids would be more than ready for that type of travel. I have just been shown over and over and over again that right now at least, like, my kids just aren't yet. So we are still, especially me, trying to remember that what a trip looks like for me alone or for me and my husband alone, at least right now, is not the same trip when we want to bring our kids along if we want most of us to be relatively happy most of the time. 

But I think that that's a lesson that I am personally constantly learning. So just kind of that reminder about what you're looking for in travel and what it means can look a little bit different, and that's not necessarily a terrible thing. 

I do remember, though, when I had my son, he's the older of my two. I remember people who knew me at the time and knew about how much I had traveled prior to having kids and especially the type of travel I did, which was long, slow travel. I really loved living in Southeast Asia. I lived in an area of South America that was only accessible by plane or by boat. You couldn't even get to by car. It's not the type of travel that I think people associate with bringing an infant along to. 

A lot of people offer me a lot of ideas about what having children would mean for me and my travel. I'm curious, what do you think are some common misconceptions about traveling with an infant or a toddler that you've heard as well? 

Kristin: I mean, some people really didn't change much. They're still traveling slow, long term. I have a friend who had a baby about a month after I did and they are still doing this like slow, long travel where they have a very loose home base, but they're just always on the go. They're making it work. So it's not impossible to do that. It's going to be a different kind of challenge. It'll be less laid back, but it's totally possible. 

In terms of what people said to me, I think that they knew that I wasn't going to stop traveling. So I think there's this common misconception that, oh my gosh, life is over, your adventures are over after you have kids. It's just different. It doesn't have to be this like a horrible thing. Like, oh no, my kid's having a meltdown at the airport. Well, he has meltdowns at home too. So we're just doing it at the airport today. It's okay. 

Devon: I think that is such a great perspective. I know that your son has already been to 16 countries. I'm curious. Which ones have been the most memorable of those? 

Kristin: Everything was memorable in its own way, but I do definitely have some favorites. The first big international trip we took him to was Japan, and the way that they just fawned over him and the way that people would just like play peekaboo with him on the train, or they just were just in love with this little baby. They would do just like barely a glance at me and then they would realize that I had a baby in a carrier on my chest. Then all of a sudden they lit up. That's kind of been our experience, especially traveling in Asia with this little blonde haired kid. 

Absolutely adore him in Bali. They would take him and hold him while we were eating dinner. That was super nice. Thailand as well. They will just pick up your baby if you let them, which we're like pick up my baby people. We're like go ahead and do that. 

Portugal was really special because they are just such a baby loving culture. They have an actual law. It is a law that you skip every line if you have a kid under two. Yes, we took advantage of that for sure. Every airport line, every car rental line, every hotel line, we would be like hi, we have a baby. Go ahead and cut. I think everyone should do that with kids. 

It was also really special and memorable bringing him to Namibia, which is where my partner and I met. It's a rugged trip. I don't know if it's for everyone with a toddler, but it was really cool taking him on safari as a baby and just seeing him squeal about the giraffes.

Devon: Are there any countries that y'all took him to that in hindsight were more challenging than you expected or that you would not recommend, especially for maybe first time travelers with an infant or young child? 

Kristin: I guess I'll bring it back to Namibia for that one. There were times when we were driving on those horrible roads and I was just like is this a good idea with a baby? Some countries like Portugal and most of Europe really, Indonesia as well, they have these special family lines to help you through and get through faster. Not the case in anywhere I've been in Africa. Not the case in the U.S. either. So it's too bad. 

That doesn't mean it's not family friendly. People there were still very sweet with our son and also offered to take him out to restaurants if we wanted. So I just think culturally, there's a little bit less of a concern about if the baby's having a meltdown because you're waiting for two hours in line. 

Devon: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. One of the things that I distinctly remember from when we first started traveling with our now eight-year-old son when he was a baby was just how overwhelmed I was at the sheer amount of stuff that it seemed like we needed to bring with us anytime that we traveled anywhere with him. 

Especially for parents traveling with a young child for the first time, I think it can be really hard to know what you actually need and what items aren't actually that necessary. So what have you found are your must-have items when traveling with an infant or a toddler? 

Kristin: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Overpacking is really easy to do. The first time you ever travel with a little guy, you're just going to have no idea. I remember how much work it was, how much mental gymnastics it took to take that first trip with him. Now it's all second nature and it's pretty simple. But it was a lot of planning and figuring things out the first time, which is why I was like, I'm just going to make a whole new blog out of this. 

So I think the absolute necessities are going to change depending on where you're going and how old your child is and what your child is going to be comfortable with. So for us, for a while, we needed to travel with his travel crib. We have the Guava Lotus, and he actually would take his naps in there at home. So he was very used to this bed. He slept great in it. So for a period of about a year, we needed to bring that. Then he got over it. Now we can use hotel cribs again. So unfortunately, there is some trial and error here. 

I think a stroller that can fit in the overhead bin of an airplane, even if it's just for the airport, is great. Especially if you're traveling alone, you want one that will actually fit down the aircraft aisle so that you can wheel them all the way to your seat and then put them in the seat, get it in the overhead bin. I don't like waiting for a gate-checked stroller, personally. It could be the difference between you making your next flight or not if there's a delay.

Otherwise, I would always bring ample snacks. You don't know what you're going to find. We have some allergies as well to contend with. So we bring ample food, but diapers, things like that, you can buy those abroad. I've yet to go to a country where I could not find diapers or baby food. So that's not something that you need to go crazy with.

If you're formula feeding, you may actually find that formula is cheaper abroad than it is at home. So maybe you want to switch it up. Maybe you don't, but that's something to know. Or especially if you're someone who's ordering formula from Europe, if you go to the source oh my gosh, leave room in your suitcase to come back with formula because it will cost so much less. 

But otherwise, those are really the things to think about. Then you maybe need a car seat. Maybe you don't. Maybe you're taking public transport and you don't need the car seat, leave it at home. So I think it can be highly variable depending on where you're going and your child.

Devon: Of all of the travel strollers that you have tried and tested, do you have any favorite ones, especially ones that meet that requirement of being able to fit down those very sometimes narrow aisles on an airplane that you can bring all the way on the airplane with you? 

Kristin: I've tested six because I felt that this was my mission. So I would buy them secondhand, like try them out and then sell them again so that I could like come up with a favorite. I like the Jules air because the one handed fold, it's just so key, and it has a huge canopy, which is really nice. But no stroller is perfect. The storage is really not great on it. 

The Bugaboo butterfly is pretty good. I also like the Ergo Baby Metro because that one is pretty narrow, and it can definitely fit down the aisle. So if I'm traveling alone, I use that one. People love the Babyzen YOYO. I've got to say, I don't get it. I don't really like that stroller. 

Devon: All right. I know that you have written extensively some of these product comparisons on your website. So for people who are interested in learning more about, again, comparisons of specific strollers or specific baby carriers or other products, we'll make sure that we link up in the show notes where they can find all that information on your website. 

Let's talk a little bit about one of my favorite things to think about, which is booking award flights and how we can use points and miles to book, especially long haul international flights, ideally in business class for those of us who enjoy that. What tips do you have for folks booking international premium cabin award flights with kids, especially in that initial zero to two year old range? 

Kristin: I think you have to think about well, how far are we going and what's the best value here? So we have flown on, I think 10 or 12 different airlines in business class with my son. Some of our favorites are Singapore airlines because I feel that their redemption is pretty good. We love Emirates. Obviously, they have pretty high taxes and fees, but Emirates first class really is something. 

SAS was actually a really pleasant surprise. We had a great experience on there. I think that one of the biggest things to consider is that whatever that flight would cost in the cash value, if you're going to fly with a lap infant, you're paying 10% of that for them to fly on your lap. So if you are flying Emirates first class, you might be paying 1,300 bucks for your baby to sit on your lap just to know. 

Devon: Of all of those different airlines that you have flown with your son internationally, which ones, just from a comfort perspective, do you think worked the best both for you and having him with you in that space? 

Kristin: Singapore is my favorite because those seats are really like pretty wide. Not only that, but the service is legendary for a reason. They are great. I have to also shout out Emirates because I think they might be the most baby friendly airline there is. They have diapers. They have a whole diaper and changing kit that they give you. They have a whole feeding kit that they give you for your toddler if they're going to be eating solids. They actually have formula on board if needed. Like they're really prepared for families. 

My son was drinking plant milk at the time. So they had almond milk for us. I just feel like when it comes to making sure that people are comfortable. These are also great airlines because they actually reserve the bassinet seats for those traveling with lap infants, and they don't release them to all the other bookers until the last 24 or 48 hours. That's not really true with a lot of other airlines. 

So if you're flying United, for example, you're probably not going to get that bulkhead seat because it's always what people want because there's a little bit more leg room. So we've never been able to score that seat on United, but every time we fly with Emirates or Singapore, that seat's reserved for us. 

Devon: You mentioned some of the amazing things available to you on Emirates and Singapore, especially pertaining to your son when you have flown with him. What have been any of your other favorite airlines to fly specifically when you do have an infant or a young child? Can you give any other examples of anything that another airline has done that really created a positive experience for you as a parent traveling with young kids that other people can then keep in mind when they're trying to plan their own travel? 

Kristin: Qatar is also excellent.  They give you a whole like kit for your kid to play with, and they've got a lot of different age appropriate toys for you. We flew economy with them for over 24 hours in the air with a layover from Cape Town to San Francisco. It might be one of the longest journeys in the world, and it was somehow not that painful. We were in economy as well. So it was somehow not that horrible. 

I just think that a lot of it had to do with how attentive they were, how kind they were. A lot of it's going to come down to the particular staff you have on your airlines, but they just loved him. So it made it a nicer experience for us just to know that they were always available if we needed a bottle cleaned with hot water. If we needed anything, they were there.

Devon: Yeah. I think that one of the things that I have not yet really experienced because I have not taken my kids on long haul flights yet. They've been on flights up to about nine hours, which is pretty long, but we haven't taken them really, really far internationally is that I think one of my things is that I wouldn't know like what can I ask for in terms of what kind of help could I ask for, if any, or assistance, if any, while I'm traveling with kids.

Have you ever had a situation where you've needed a little bit of extra assistance on an airplane and one of the flight attendants wasn't able to give it or what do you think parents can reasonably expect to ask for help with if they are traveling with young children? 

Kristin: We've never had a problem asking for them to put hot water into a bottle. They've always been willing to do that on every airline that we've flown because you're probably, well. So we've taken him on quite a few cross world trips. He's been to Asia three times. He's been to Africa. He's been to Europe quite a few times. So being able to get your bottle cleaned is important. 

I've never had a problem asking for them to give me bottled water to take into the bathroom so that I could wash his, well, I was pumping at first so that I could wash my pumps with bottled water, so that I could wash his bottles with bottled water because quite often it's non-potable water that's in the airline bathrooms. Right? So that's never been a problem. 

The only thing that sometimes they can't do is give you milk for their bottle. So it just depends on how much they have. I feel like some airlines just want to make sure that their clients are completely well taken care of. So it's never been a problem on Emirates or Singapore. But on United, they were like yes, let me check how much we have, but they were still able to give us milk, but they only had cow milk. So just little things like that. 

I wouldn't expect them to be able to temperature regulate anything for you. They can't legally hold your baby for you. So those are just things where you're going to have to kind of figure that out on your own. But I would say all of the standard things you can expect. What's also really nice about flying business class is that you can get snacks and food whenever you want, not a whole meal, but you can get at least snacks anytime you want.

Devon: Now I know for me, even on the shorter flights I've taken with my kids, snacks definitely play an integral role in keeping my children entertained and giving them something to do while we pass the time on a flight. You've taken, as you mentioned, much longer flights with your small child. What are some of your best strategies for keeping him entertained and comfortable, especially on those really long haul journeys? 

Kristin: Re-stickable sticker books. I just cannot sing their praises enough. From when they're about a year plus, even to now he's over two. He loves those. He'll play with them forever. We don't hand him a phone or do screen time. So we've done this all without doing that. We do put cartoons though on the screen of the backseat. He won't wear headphones. So they're kind of on without him being able to listen to sound, but he will kind of like sometimes watch that a little bit. He's not super engaged with it, but it's something. I found Angry Birds on a flight home from Hong Kong once. So we've played Angry Birds.

But I would say finger foods that take a while to eat blueberries, Cheerios, cut grapes, things like that, and try to just keep nap times and bedtimes going. I've had success doing overnight flights that happened during his bedtime, but you could always get the one-off flight where they're like nope, not sleeping today. 

So I think you just got to be prepared for anything to happen and to not worry about it and to not be stressed out. Babies cry, and they're part of society, and that's really okay. We've never had him cry for an entire flight. I don't think that's a thing. So just don't worry too much about it. 

Devon: Then once you're actually in transit on some of these long haul journeys, you mentioned like getting from Cape Town all the way back up to San Francisco, how do you handle airport logistics with your kid? Especially things like security checks or managing layovers, especially long layovers in between some of these international flights? What have been some things that have worked really well for you? 

Kristin: So you do need to budget extra time for security because you're probably going to have liquids over the limit with you, which you're allowed to have, but they do have to perform extra checks on those. So we've never gotten through without having to do that in the U.S. Abroad, they care a little bit less. Sometimes they don't even do a check at all. We're like hey, this is for the baby. They're like cool, but do leave extra time. Leave extra time so that you can change diapers. 

We always look for a family restroom if we possibly can find one. I mean, we found them all over the world. So those are really nice because then you can all go into the bathroom together, take care of everyone's needs at once. So yeah, look for one of those. 

There are often play areas in airports. We take advantage of the lounges. This is another reason why being able to fly business on points is so nice. A lot of these lounges have kids play areas. So we've lucked out with that. You could certainly do some research ahead of time and plan ahead and see if there are some kids play areas or art installations or just things that you can take your kid to look at. 

My son really likes looking out the window because he's super into trucks and airplanes. So he's pretty entertained just looking out the window. He's at the age where he wants to push his stroller and the suitcase around the terminal. So we just try, I can't really fight him on it. So we just try to find an area where people aren't and let him push it around. 

Devon: Yeah, we've done the same thing. Sort of like what you mentioned earlier in the podcast, I think this will obviously change as kids get older, their interests change, and kind of the tactics that we used when our kids were much smaller looked a little bit different than when they started becoming much more mobile on their own. Then also once they started hitting more that five to six-year-old range.

Now, thank goodness, my almost nine-year-old he can read. So he's actually really happy sitting somewhere reading, which is just the most amazing and beautiful thing. 

Kristin: Oh, fantastic. 

Devon: It's like something that I wished for essentially a decade when I was traveling with him as an infant. Yeah, I found it much more challenging just in terms of what entertains a really small child versus when they have a little bit of a longer attention span. So that's definitely been an evolution for my kids, but I love hearing about what other people like to do, especially on long layovers because I feel like we can never have too many ideas about what's available for us just in case the thing that worked last time doesn't work this time, and you've got to try something new with your kids. 

We've talked a little bit about airlines and using points to book flights with our kids, but I'm curious when you're travel planning, what role do points play in terms of booking hotels or accommodations? What do you think parents should look for when booking accommodations to ensure a really great stay with young children? 

Kristin: I think that when it comes to transferring credit card points to hotels, usually that's not a great use of your points, not a good value. If you think about how a room at let's say a Conrad Hilton, higher end, if you can get a really good bargain on that, maybe it's 120 to 140,000 points for a room that's maybe $1,500 a night. You could instead use that a hundred thousand points, transfer it to Singapore airlines, and fly from San Francisco to Singapore for 17 hours in business class. That's probably minimum of $5,000 ticket for that same value. 

So I don't love the transfers from say an Amex or a Chase to hotels, usually. Unless we're talking about Hyatt, in which case I would consider that because that's a way better value and Hyatt can have some really nice redemptions. 

But the other thing you can do is get a hotel branded credit card, get the welcome bonus, and earn on there. So it does make sense, I think, to be loyal to a few of them or maybe one or two of them and try to get all of your points with like a Marriott or a Hyatt because with Hyatt, you got Alila. You have Park Hyatt. You have Andaz. With say Marriott, then you have the Ritz Carlton. You've got a lot of other brands in there. 

So as a mom of a young child, my style of traveling has changed so radically. You referenced the beginning of my travels. I slept in nothing but shared dorm rooms for almost two years in Southeast Asia. I started hitchhiking to get around China because I was just out of money. So I did everything on a shoestring for such a long time. I had a blast. It was dirty. It was sweaty. It was awesome. 

But now I'm just like that girl would just wonder who the heck I became because now I'm like the five-star resort where we don't even have to leave in order to have a good time. Yeah. I'd like to do that. I think everyone's style is really different. Some people are going to really want that kids club. They're going to want the all-inclusive. They just want it to be simple. 

For me, I care a lot more about the uniqueness of the hotel. If there's something interesting there, if there's something that I'm really going to like. Does the room have its own pool? We love that. We love that for a nap time. He takes his nap. We hang out in the pool in our private bungalow so that we're right there when he wakes up. 

We care more about does the hotel have something really interesting? Like we stayed at the Anantara Golden Triangle in Thailand. They've got elephants on site. Perfect. We don't have to leave the hotel to have a good time. This is what we start looking into now. So I love getting points so that I can stay places like that where we have a really nice experience ideally for free. 

Devon: I could not agree with you more. I traveled exactly the same way. I didn't even know that you could use points or care about using points for hotels literally until 2021. I mean, I'd already been traveling for so long because it was just not a thing that was important to me when I was traveling solo. It became incredibly important to me after we started traveling with our kids. 

Because I distinctly remember when my son was five months old, my husband and I decided we're going to continue traveling. We're going to take him on a trip with us with all the stuff, right? All the bottles and, yes, the crib, the pack and play, all of the things.

We took him to Mexico. I had just booked us a standard room because for me, booking a hotel was just what's the most economical thing we can find where we want to go. No problem. Spending a week with an infant who obviously is waking up multiple times a night to feed all in one little room where no longer were my husband and I like taking turns feeding him. But basically everyone is up all night long, every night, every nap time. 

We did the thing where you close all of the shades in the room to make it dark for nap time and nighttime because we just didn't know. We had no experience traveling with an infant. Single worst accommodation experience of my entire life where I just realized, for me, personally, if I'm going to travel, especially with a very young child, it cannot look like this in perpetuity. Like I will probably lose my mind. 

That was enormous incentive for me to start understanding much more the world of using points for hotel stays. I agree. I found tremendous value specifically out of the Hyatt program. A lot of times when we travel with now our two kids, when we can book ourselves using points into a standard level suite.

Some properties have what you mentioned, sort of that private plunge pool. Which I think if you have young kids, there is nothing that will keep them more happy, more entertained for a longer period of time than having a really small little plunge pool attached to your own room that they can just play in all day long. That has become one of my number one amenities to look for when I travel with my kids.

Kristin: Same.

Devon: Like, it's just so amazing to have. For anyone who's really curious, one resort that I think is incredible for that is an Andaz. Like you mentioned is one of the brands in Hyatt. The Andaz Mayakoba, which is in the Cancun area of Mexico, they have a huge number of standard suites at that property. A lot of their standard suites have an attached private plunge pool. So for those of you looking to get great value from your points, check out that property. My kids absolutely love it. 

Kristin, before we wrap up today, there's just one other thing that I wanted to touch on with you. That has been the impact, not only on you of all of these amazing travels with your son, but also the impact on your son. Because one reason that I hear a lot of people give for not including young kids, especially infants and very young kids in travel is that they're not going to remember it anyway. 

So knowing that you have traveled extensively with your very, very young son, I'm really interested to hear, what do you think has been the impact on him of being included in all of those travels with you? 

Kristin: Yeah, I would actually say that's the most common thing we hear. It just gets the biggest eye roll from me because I'm like do you remember a trip that you took 10 years ago when you were probably a teen or even an adult? Do you really remember it that well? Because sometimes I'm looking back through my albums, and I'm like oh yeah, we did that. I only was on that trip in 2012, for example, when I was 26. So it's kind of ridiculous to say they won't remember. Therefore it's a complete waste of time for you to go. Like, what about you? Don't you want to go? 

But to answer your question, I actually posted a reel about this a couple of days ago because I just had to address it. Not only has he learned that people from many cultures the world over are kind and mostly good, which I think is such an important thing to learn about the world. He's become a lot braver. He used to be the kind of kid who would kind of scowl at people that he didn't know. 

But whenever we were on vacation, we would joke. We were like oh, he's on vacation mode now because he'd suddenly wave to everybody. Didn't matter where in the world we were. When he was on vacation mode, he was waving at everybody. I was like who are you? So you can't tell me that he's not impacted by the traveling. Like he became just this more outgoing person as a result of the traveling. 

He can sit through a restaurant meal. Most of the time, no problem. He can sleep almost anywhere. Some of this is probably personality, but we'll never know how much of it is personality and how much of it was related to the travel. But I do think that having these experiences where patience is required, where sitting and enjoying your food is required without any kind of distractions is really good life skills.

I had to do it. We had to do it when we were kids. We had to sit at a restaurant. We couldn't bring a TV with us. I fantasized about it, to be honest with you, when I was that age, but I couldn't bring a portable TV with me. It's crazy how that exists now, but I'm just like nope. You’ve got to learn how to function in this world without that for now. 

Devon: Yeah. I think those are such great points to make that these are invaluable life skills for our kids to learn. There's no real reason that we should expect them to wait until they're young adults to be able to have those experiences. That they benefit from them. I think creates more generous, more understanding human beings, which just creates better relationships in the world in general. 

So yes, while I have been a little bit more nervous about doing super long haul travel with my children, I do very much believe that travel is fantastic for even the youngest of kids. I think it's amazing for parents and adults as well. Kristin, before we wrap up today, do you have just any last tips or advice for people about traveling with young kids that we haven't touched on yet? 

Kristin: I feel like we could talk about this for days and days and days. I have a bunch of tips on my blog about like how to deal with jet lag, which snacks are good to bring, which products that we tested that we really liked. So I think that there's a ton to touch on with that. That's why I just started a whole new like blog and brand out of it. 

But I would say that if you want to do it, I feel like the younger your kids are, if you have a baby and you're waiting until they're two or three, don't do that. They're easier to travel with as a baby, in my opinion, when they're more portable, and they'll just nap anywhere. So don't hold back just because they won't remember or because they're too young for it to be worth it. I think that this whole conversation today has proven that it can be great and it's different, but it's still worth doing. 

Devon: A hundred percent. Now, like you said, there are so many other places we could take this conversation. I would love to have you back for more conversations about traveling with kids at a future time, but for people who are interested to learn more about you, what you do, and who also want to follow along on your family and your solo travel adventures, where can people find you? 

Kristin: I just started actually a new Instagram for parenthood adventures. It's parenthood.adventures, and it's doing amazing. We just crossed 40,000 followers. I think I started this two months ago. So I'm super excited about that. That's where I share most of my family travel tips. I also have started a travel planning business where I help people book into these amazing hotels. I'm drawing from my own personal experience, traveling so many places with my son.

So if you have points and you need to figure out where to put them, I can work with you one-on-one to help you plan an amazing vacation with those. That's one of the services that I offer. 

Then for solo travel, I am at Be My Travel Muse on Instagram. Then both of these are blogs as well where you can get all of the details and info and itineraries. So that's BeMyTravelMuse.com and ParenthoodAdventures.com. 

Devon: Incredible. We of course will link up all of those links in the show notes and the episode description. Kristin, thank you so much for joining me today, but honestly, more than that, thank you for being someone who I have followed and learned from for over 10 years. I think you're such an inspiration to so many women who are looking to travel either solo or now with their young families. I just want to let you know I appreciate you so much. You've had such a huge impact on my travel experience, and I'm so appreciative of your time with me today. Thank you for joining me. 

Kristin: Yeah. Absolute honor. Thank you so much. 

Devon: All right, everybody have a fantastic week, and I will see you again same time, same place next week. Back on the podcast. 

Thank you for joining me for this week's episode of Point Me to First Class. If you want more tips on turning your expenses into travel, visit pointmetofirstclass.com to learn more. See you next week.