Originally Posted by
benyl
Just re-read you OP. Here are my suggestions. The funny thing is that we don't always follow them. haha.
1. Take the first day to settle into your new digs. Don't plan anything on your first day. Kids will be jet lagged, even if there is no time change. We make this mistake all the time and plan Disney or something else and we always regret it. Just chill in and around the hotel, get supplies like diapers that you didn't bring. Enjoy meals. When we do manage to do it, it makes the trips so much better.
2. Plan your activities around naps and don't be afraid to do shit alone. If going to an amusement park, take advantage of parent swap.
3. Make sure you stick to the feeding schedule. We fuck this up all the time. We get busy trying to get somewhere, kids get hungry and leads to hangry.
4. Plan for settle down time at the end of the day and always have something that you can catch up with when the kids go to sleep.
5. If possible, stay on home time. This does wonders when you come back. When we do to Orlando, we get up late and stay up late. Hawaii, we are up at 4am, and sleep at 6pm. haha. Shit starts early there anyway.
Our kids have travelled more in the first 4 years of their lives than I did in the first 20 of mine.
When my son was 5, we hiked Diamond head while I had his 1 year old sister in the carry all. You can do what ever you want with kids, but you just need to follow some rules. The rules just makes things easier.
I am not saying my rules are the right ones, but they work for our kids. You will figure it out.