Traveling to Europe with kiddos can seem daunting, but I promise it’s not as bad as it seems. Keep reading for some quick tips that can help when your travel involves long flight times across multiple time zones. (Below is based on NYC -> Barcelona with our 4-month-old son.)

1. Take the red eye flight. Your ability to sleep on the plane will suffer—you’ll get two hours of wine-fueled shut eye and a crick in your neck—but odds are, your kid will sleep through the majority of the flight and therefore, everyone on the plane will hate you much less. (Note: nursing, bottles or pacifiers to help ease ear pressure issues in babies WORKS.
2. Eat and drink. Pound water before you get on the flight, so that you’re hydrated from the start. Yeah I know—that’s not an earth shattering suggestion, but it’s not typically a top priority when you’re traveling with your family. Also, eat whatever meal they give you on the plane—or at the very least, come prepared with your own meal/snacks. The last thing you want is to arrive at your destination with an entire family of hangry, sleep-deprived monsters.
3. Pack kid friendly snacks—a ton of snacks. Puffs, fruit, smoothie, pretzels, etc. Whatever they’ll eat! You can literally never pack too many snacks.
4. Download shows/movies. During a flight is not the time to sit on your “I limit my kids’ screen time” high horse. Let the kids watch something, which will make it less stressful for all!
5. Bonus tip/story: Watch where you park and try to understand signs before leaving your car! We got a parking ticket when we made a pit stop in Zaragoza (pronounced Tharagotha, which my wife found slightly irritating…so naturally I pronounced it that way at least a thousand times on the trip) when we stopped for a quick bite! We never paid it until Enterprise charged our card for it. I’m pretty sure I’m on Spain’s top 10 most wanted list.

Any tips I missed? Or funny stories? Drop them in the comments.