When Brian and I were thinking about a last-minute family vacation, we priced out some closer-to-home options which included an all-inclusive to Mexico. With “domestic” pricing for hotels and airfare at record-breaking highs this year, and European pricing at record-breaking lows, a week in Paris wound up being only slightly more expensive for us than a trip to Cancun. With that, three weeks later we landed at Charles de Gaulle and were finally able to lay eyes on one of our favorite cities in the world to see just how things were going in the wake of COVID-19. It wound up being one of the happiest and most memorable travel experiences of my life.
For this trip, we decided to use one of our favorite family travel suppliers to help facilitate guides for our land program. Family Twist operates in several European destinations with its company headquarters being based in Paris. In the COVID environment, I highly recommend utilizing a destination management company as an extra layer of protection in the event of a worst-case scenario. Most companies we partner with provide a 24/7 ground contact who is always on-call for our clients. Often, there is a specific ambassador who is assigned to each guest to assist with troubleshooting anything from spur-of-the-moment restaurant reservations when you find yourself in a nice neighborhood after a walking tour, to sourcing COVID testing, and everything else in between.
Although I am not normally one to gravitate to packed itineraries for my personal trips, keeping young kids as busy as possible with guides who are hand-picked for their ability to work with children is essential to a successful non-beach vacation. Family travel is all about compromise because you must figure out ways to keep the trip worthwhile and engaging for everyone involved, including little ones. It requires a different mindset, a higher budget, and very good planning. Because there are more variables and more corners to think around, I followed my own advice and enlisted Family Twist for their octagonal thinking skills.
We started off with my go-to luxury mom must-have: The VIP airport Meet and Greet. If you haven’t read my blog about that, please do so now! This service gets my vote for the all-time favorite trip add-on. Especially given the COVID environment when so much documentation is required at Customs & Immigration, you want an airport official to flash his/her badge and say that you’re an airport VIP. After a breezy 15–20-minute tops debarkation and customs process in de Gaulle, we were off to the Relais Christine in our luxury van that was already equipped with car seats for the boys. This is one of the many benefits of springing for private transfers….no wagging around of car seats all over the city and back and forth across the Atlantic.
All of our experiences were perfectly tailored to our boys’ age group with some of the best guides I’ve personally ever worked with. Their ability to talk high-level art history with me and Brian one moment, then pivot to a Louvre Treasure Hunt with the kids in the same breath takes a certain type of brainpower and passion for the subject matter that can only be measured by their Sorbonne degrees.
One of the highlights of our trip was most certainly the private cruise down the Seine. That morning, we met our captains at the Pont des Arts, a leisurely walk riverside from the hotel, to hop on a vintage wooden Venetian boat. The cruise was exceptional. Our boat was stocked with chilled champagne on ice, snacks, and juices and fizzy drinks for the kids. Formidable! I smiled more in that one hour than I had in 16 months. This is a great way to up your Seine riverboat game and one that I highly recommend.
A pastry-making class, a grand cru chocolate shop tour with tastings, and a day trip to Giverny rounded out some of our other favorites, but the true victory was The Louvre. Did you know that it is in fact possible for a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old to be entertained at an art museum? I’m sorry DIY trip planning parents, you just can’t do it here. I’m a professional travel planner, and I know when to pass the reins and pay for guides whose #1 specialty is the family experience.
The museum excursion was limited to 2 hours, entry doors to exit. The finite time frame is key. Family Twist has proprietary Treasure Hunts with activity and museum adventure booklets suited for children as young as 4, all the way up to teen-aged children. Each one is different based on your kids’ interests and ages. This is not your standard museum kids’ fun pack fare either. It is so well-done and includes a literal take-home treasure “from the Mona Lisa” that you can only find by following the clues “she” leaves you. Katia, our guide, must have shooed off half a dozen creepers who were following us and listening. One even asked if they could buy the book and treasure hunt, to which she offered a very lovely, typically Parisian, curt reply of “No, we are a specialty travel company and we do NOT work with the general public.” Priceless. The look she gave him was even more withering.
My suggestion to parents who are wanting to take their family overseas is generally the same. Pay extra for the details. Things like private transfers, private guides, an airport meet & greet, good hotels or villa rentals with chef service, cleaning, and personal shopping services, can take your vacation with children from good to great. If the trip feels too expensive by adding these, I say shelve the trip until you can do it well for your children. The alternative is to be prepared with eyes wide open for inconveniences that can add up over the course of your visit and quickly flip your trip from vacation to work in a heartbeat. You don’t necessarily need to have all of the above and you can pick and choose your priorities based on some of my advice.
Hand-picked private guides not only work with children and know how to keep them interested but also have the added benefit of giving you fast-track access so that you don’t have to wait in interminable lines to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower or inside The Louvre, for instance. Lines are not fun with children, and neither is hearing about how bored they are the minute you get inside. If a line is long enough, they’re already tired before even getting started, which is unfair to them and their experience and their enjoyment of the trip.
Opting for private transportation ensures that you have car seats, good AC, as well as drinks and snacks at the ready after a long day of walking in the hot sun. It’s a practical choice these days given COVID. We really wanted to limit exposure to the children and a roomy private van that’s been sanitized is much safer than a random Uber or Cab. It’s tight quarters in a vehicle, on a subway, or in a bus or train! I also thoroughly enjoyed my break from problem-solving the dreaded “I’m hungry! I’m thirsty!” all the way back to the hotel after our tours. Private transfers are also VERY convenient. We all know that with children when it’s time to go, it’s time to go! Your ride is ready and waiting for you without the added stress of communicating with the cabbie or ordering up a car on a rideshare app. Uber exists, but drivers aren’t as prevalent and traffic is bad in big cities. The one time we used Uber, it took our driver 30 mins to reach us, and he was the closest. Why? Traffic. Yes, private transfers are a luxury, but it is a small detail that adds big value. And boy I sure did miss our driver that day we opted out of the service. Did I mention that it also started to rain while we were waiting for our Uber outside the Jardin d’Acclimatation? That was fun.
Busy itineraries with many excursions that are in bite-sized time frame morsels keep little attention spans engaged and excited for the next stop-not to mention completely worn out by dinner time, allowing you the opportunity to enjoy some peace and quiet. You do find a different rhythm. Both of our boys took late naps every day, usually from around 3:30-5:30, even Landon, who outgrew naps two years ago. It was a perfect moment for me and Brian to decompress and debrief together over a cocktail before dinner, which we don’t normally have the luxury of doing at home.
As for Paris itself, I fell in love with her all over again. I saw a destination that I have visited so many times I’ve lost count at this point. But this time I saw it through the eyes of my children. I saw Paris as a mother, a travel advisor, a grateful traveler happy to be reunited with an old friend. Our experience was nothing short of magical. The city was happy and vibrant, ready to live and breathe again. I’m not ashamed to admit that I cried on our Seine cruise. I cried when I saw the broken hull of Notre Dame. I cried when we met up with friends from Nice. I cried when I left. And I smile when I remember it.
