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Team Ryan Adventures love to travel. One thing we have found that makes our trips better is taking advantage of parks. Here are the top 5 reasons having parks on your itinerary will make your family travels better.
1. It gets the energy out! Let’s be serious traveling with children is FANTASTIC! We love it for a lot of reasons. One of those reasons is travel offers our family time to really zone in on one another and focus on each other more than we might normally. Sometimes though…..this Mama needs a minute and a coffee and my girls need some space to run wild and be loud. Parents, take it from someone who lived in a small space for many months with my children in very close proximity to a lot of people on business travel (AKA Hotel), you want to find a park. Doing so will allow your children to get energy out. From our years of travel we have found playing at a park is key for our children to travel better, sleep better and be less cranky in general. Selfishly I also like to do this so they nap or can sit with a book or iPad later while my husband & I have a happy hour drink at a cool family friendly spot.
2. You get a local feel for the city you are visiting. Kids universal language is play! When kids play at a park they learn languages that kids speak in that country. When we are at parks we often meet families from the city we are visiting. This allows us to learn the go to places for locals in that particular city. Being around local families at the park also allows us to talk about the country/city and culture of a place in more detail with our children later on down the road.
3. Being outside and playing allows our children stay healthy on trips (and while at home)! Bottom line Vitamin D is good for you and we often don’t get enough! Fresh air is amazing for our general health! Both Vitamin D and Fresh Air help kick jet lag to the curb too which is HUGE! Playing at parks allows children to run, jump, climb and use tons of Gross motor skills. I personally like to believe playing at parks is also helping build my children’s immune systems by exposing them to things they would not be exposed to otherwise.
4. Parks allow children to feel like travel is not all “work”. Often travel includes, catching flights, driving long hours, sitting at dinners, going to museums, taking tours, etc. This can be fun, but let’s be honest it can be a lot of work for the little ones. Sitting still and being quiet is hard for children. Allowing them to climb on play structures, dig in sandboxes and jump in splash pads allows them time to just play and relax. We often try to find hotels very close to parks so we can just hop over first thing in the AM or when we are heading back home for a the day.
5. Parks are FREE! TeamRyanAdventures are big fans of all things affordable. Yes, some parks have added features that can cost money, but for the most part parks are FREE of charge. If they are not FREE they can be a somewhat affordable option for a few hours in comparison to other tourist attractions. In Paris my girls and I love to spend the day at the Jardin de Luxembourg and Jardin des Tuileries. In NYC we can spend an entire day in Central Park. These parks all offer both options which I find fabulous. One day you can ride the carousel or hit the zoo and the next have a low key picnic and play a game of tag.
We hope this post helps you on your next adventure! Have you been to any great parks while traveling? Do you have a great park in your city? Share it with us! We would love to hear from you and don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear more from TeamRyanAdventures.
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