How to make a family trip less chaotic in Portugal

My family and I travelled to Portugal last summer and every time I’m asked about how hard it was, I kind of chuckle. I had been actively planning this five-year vow renewal/ family trip since our first anniversary, so naturally I was quite prepared for the trip and knew what I wanted to do. (The only thing I couldn’t prepare for was how chaotic the flights were. No amount of toys or entertainment worked.)

We spent five years saving for this family trip, so we spared no expense. When we were figuring out how to save and where to spend, we focused on removing any friction points and maximising our enjoyment on the trip.

Stay at a (reputable) Airbnb

We didn’t want to all share the same room in a hotel and wanted the flexibility of a kitchen and living space, so we opted for an Airbnb. We stayed MyplaceLisbon I in Lisbon and Feelporto Syrah Townhouses in Porto.

We loved both places because of the amount of space we had (we needed to fit a 5ft x 5ft play yard in the living room to contain the kids), how close we were to the city center, and how everyone had their own room. *A caveat: if you have young kids, our Lisbon Airbnb did not have an elevator and the stairs were quite steep, so it took quite a bit of time to load our luggage in and out of the apartment.

*Be sure to cross-check prices across different platforms like booking.com, Airbnb, vrbo etc. Sometimes, there are some pretty great savings from platform to platform.

Find parks nearby that are toddler-friendly

Our favourites were Praça Dom Luís (Lisbon) and Parque Infantil da Quinta do Covelo (Porto). We went to the park every day (we do that at home too! so it was nice to keep the routine). I also made sure to have one special activity for the kids each day. In Lisbon, the main activity was the Oceanário de Lisboa(apparently it’s the biggest aquarium in Europe!) in Porto, it was the Zoo Santo Inácio (not recommended).

Optional: Hire a travel nanny

We used Nanny Portugal and hired a lovely nanny who was with us for the entire nine days we were in Portugal. I understand that hiring a nanny for nine days could be quite expensive and not affordable for everyone (for our trip, we spent about €2000 on a live-in nanny), but hiring one for one-offs for evenings out is definitely an option too! I will be posting a deep-dive into why we decided to hire a travel nanny and how we made our selection in another post.

We travelled to each of our destinations by van (we booked a sprinter through Golden Limosine) so that we could comfortably reach each destination. My son gets carsick very easily, so we had to make at least one stop per trip (side note: the highway rest stops are so family friendly and easy to navigate).

All in all, the trip was a success. If you want some packing tips (I am an over packer), I will also do a follow-up post/ resource on what to bring/ how to prepare for these big trips.

For those of you who have travelled with children, I’d love to know your thoughts and tailor my next few posts to family travels.

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