3 Essential Hotel Amenities For Family Travel

I love to travel, and love travelling even more with my family.  While many might argue that a hotel is a hotel, when travelling with your family there are some essential features you should look for.  While my list might not be in order from most important to least important.  These are things we cannot live without when travelling with our boys:

1.     Cribs/pack n’ plays available

2.     Breakfast onsite

3.     A microwave/fridge

Cribs/pack n’ plays

If you are travelling a long distance, or have little room in your vehicle you might not have room to pack a portable crib.  Or, if in our case with twins, there isn’t anyway you can fit two into your car along with your other travel items.  Check the hotel’s website and see what family-friendly amenities they claim to offer.  Then call the hotel directly and ask.  Some hotels list cribs and only have one on-site that is not available to be reserved.  I can tell you that you want to ensure that they have one available and that it will be set up and ready to go in your room when you arrive.

Breakfast onsite

If your child is 2 or 12 breakfast onsite is essential for a successful travel experience. Children wake up hungry and finding a restaurant or donut shop to get breakfast at can be a trying experience.  Find a hotel that has breakfast onsite.  A number of budget hotels offer a continental style breakfast included in your price, and most other hotels have a restaurant on site where you can purchase breakfast.  We find this creates happier mornings because our boys can be fed right away, and my husband and I can have access to coffee first thing.  Once we have all had something to eat, we are ready to enjoy our vacation

Microwave/fridge

These two items are must haves for our family in a hotel room.  When our boys were young the microwave helped us warm bottles quickly, and now as they are older it is handy to pop some popcorn for a healthy snack, make oatmeal or reheat leftovers from a restaurant.  A fridge is great to keep healthy drinks available, snacks and any leftovers/take out that wasn’t consumed.  Very few hotels have milk available for purchase, so instead of buying it and placing it in an ice bucket to cool, a fridge provides you with a safe storage option.  It also makes transferring the healthy snacks from our car’s cooler bag into the fridge overnight easy.  While most budget hotels have both of these in your room, call ahead for more upscale hotels and see if they are able to provide one in your room.  Many have both available for a small cost. 

Kerrie blogs at Family Food and Travel.  She is a mom of twin boys (born March 2010) who she often refers to as the ‘twinado’.  Kerrie loves, writing, travel, photography, and fabulous food.  Prior to kids, Kerrie was an avid reader and scrapbooker and hopes to one day return to those activities.  Kerrie once considered herself successful, that was until she attempted toilet training twins.