Jetset, go! Kids these days are the most well-travelled generation yet. Affordable holidays and family-friendly facilities abroad mean that more and more parents are whisking their little ones away to distant shores. To explore this further, we conducted a survey of 1,000 British parents to compare their childhood travel experiences with the experiences of their children – the results are fascinating.
The Results
- 33% of parents surveyed had not experienced their first holiday abroad until they were 5 whereas now, just one in 20 children have not left UK shores by the time they’re at primary school age
- 95% of children under the age of five have holidayed abroad with 31% of today’s under-fives having visited at least four European countries
- More than nine in ten kids travel by plane once a year with more than a third (36%) enjoying two holidays a year
- 77% of these kids have been abroad by the age of two and 49% before they were even one year old
What about location? Of all those surveyed, kids from the capital are the most well-travelled, with almost half visiting three or more countries by the age of five and 13% visiting five or more. In contrast, kids from the West Midlands are least travelled, with 10% having never been abroad by the age of five.
But what is the best age to travel? Do you take to the skies with young babies, wait till they talk or hang on till they’re full walking and talking mini-mes? From our 1,000 parents asked, 16% believed that the easiest age to take their children on holiday was six months to one year whilst just over one in ten thought it was easier travelling with a child between one and two years old.
Maybe it’s the hope that starting their travelling days early will help in later years. Maybe it’s that holidays are more accessible now or maybe it’s the freedom of not being tied to school holidays that makes parents more willing to travel with children. Whatever it is, we see that this generation are indeed jet-setting kids, taking the world in their stride.
